“The internet’s cool for some stuff, but like many things, there’s no book store, there’s no music store, and there’s no Sound City.” — Josh Homme
SOUND CITY (2013 Roswell Films)
Directed by Dave Grohl
Uncle Meat persuaded me to see this movie, and I’m glad that he did. He said it wasn’t optional; that it was a must and that I would love it. So I bought it on Blu-ray, invited him over to co-review it with me, and we viewed it one afternoon after work in 5.1 surround. Needless to say, Sound City was good. So good that we never felt we could do it justice in a review, so I sat on my notes for over a year! Having recently re-watched Sound City (directed by Dave Grohl) with Mrs. LeBrain, now I can finally finish what Meat and I started last year.
Van Nuys, California. Sound City Studios, the legendary place where everybody who is anybody recorded. Nirvana? Check. Fleetwood Mac? Rick Springfield? Tom Petty? Check. Slipknot? Also check. Neil Young recorded much of After the Gold Rush there, after being enamored of the vocal sound that he got on “Birds”. Keith Olsen learned his craft there. It’s not much to look at on the outside: according to producer Butch Vig, it’s “kinda dumpy”. On the inside, there’s booze and cigarettes everywhere. Big room, huge floor. Lots of black magnetic tape.
Grohl narrates, personal anecdotes flow, then he steps out of the movie’s way. Grohl has a nice visual style, a combination of close ups and wide shots with plenty of details to look at. He infuses the movie with plenty of humour, sometimes at his own expense. The film has two phases: the first is a history lesson regarding the studio and the artists who created the hits there. The second consists of Dave purchasing the studio’s Neve board, moving it north to his own studio, and recording a brand new album with the same legendary artists. Pretty cool concept.
The huge Neve console was built like a “brick shithouse” (Keith Olsen), or a “tank” (Neil Young). Its original purchase price: bought for $75,175 in 1969 dollars. A nice house at the time cost around $30,000! The Neve was one of only four. Combined with the room itself at Sound City, the drum sound you can capture is incredible. The studio’s acoustics were not designed; it was a complete fluke. It was originally a box factory that happens to sound magical.
As for that Neve console, it is of course entirely analog. The one at Sound City was unique, considered the best sounding one. Rupert Neve tried to explain the electronics of it to Grohl in one of the movie’s more humourous scenes. The very first song recorded on that board was “Crying in the Night”, by Buckingham Nicks. This led directly to Mick Fleetwood hearing them while at the studio, and hiring not only the studio, but also Buckingham and Nicks! Essentially, the modern Fleetwood Mac formed right there at Sound City. The studio’s success really began with Rumours. Then, everyone wanted to record there. As for Tom Petty? It appears that Tom Petty pretty much spent his entire career at Sound City. In fact one of the coolest scenes was an old behind the scenes video from the 1990’s. Seeing Rick Rubin produce Tom Petty and being brutally honest was very interesting.
Rick Rubin to Tom Petty: “Sounds like you’re aiming a little lower today than you should be.”
Along came the compact disc, and the infancy of digital recording. Digital was the latest trend, and you could do new things with a computer that were harder to do on tape. Sound City suffered during this time, as newer rival studios were on trend. Sound City was dead…but one album helped resuscitate it: Nevermind. Then came Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Slayer, Kyuss. Analog tape and vintage equipment became popular again. Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash recorded Unchained there with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Nine Inch Nails combined the old with the new, by bring in their own computers to record on ProTools along with the Neve.
Unfortunately ProTools was heavy competition, and working with tape was so difficult by comparison, that Sound City finally shut its doors. They just couldn’t pay the bills anymore, even after selling off their excess equipment. Then Dave bought the board. It is amazing to watch it taken apart, boxed up, reassembled and functioning in Seattle. Regarding the sale of the board, Grohl says, “I think they knew that I wasn’t just going to bubble wrap it, and stick it in a warehouse. I was gonna fuckin’ use it. A lot.”
On November 2, 2011, reassembly of the board began at Dave’s Studio 606. Then he invited all the original artists back to record a new album on it, produced by Butch Vig. Regarding Stevie Nicks, in a memorable moment Vig says, “Fuckin’ A, that girl can sing!” More artists arrive. The Foo Fighters plus Rick Springfield create a monstrous sound together, a neat amalgam of their respective genres. Lee Ving (Fear) is hilarious, and performs the fastest count-in of all time. I discovered a new respect for Trent Reznor, a guy who uses the technology to create original sounds, but desires the warmth of tape. It’s incredible to see him collaborate with Homme and Grohl. It’s the sound of humans communicating with instruments. And they wrote a pretty frickin’ cool song together. Then, watching Paul McCartney writing “Cut Me Some Slack” with the surviving members of Nirvana is a moment that I’m glad was frozen in time.
Grohl: “What can’t it always be this easy?”
McCartney: “It is.”
The blu-ray bonus features include three additional performances: “From Can to Can’t”, “Your Wife is Calling”, “The Slowing Down”. It was these bonus features that inspired Meat and I to add “Your Wife is Calling” (with Lee Ving) to our 2014 Sausagefest lists. Our votes allowed the song to clock in at #64. (The track was my #1.)
Sound City is a complete triumph of a music documentary. It is the kind of music documentary designed for serious fans, not just passers-by. I would welcome another movie directed by Dave Grohl with open arms.
5/5 stars
This movie was pretty awesome. Not just from a filmmaker stand-point, but from a person who loves and appreciates the art of making music genuinely. Not with all of that computer crap! Nice review.
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Thanks man, glad you enjoyed. Have you reviewed this movie yourself?
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I’ll definitely have to check this one out.
One of the main reasons I’d like to get big making music is to be able to record on an old machine like this instead of a computer. It’s so much more time consuming and expensive, but with the time and money I’d definitely do it for the better results.
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I think, as a person who doesn’t make music, it would fun just to watch people WORK on a machine like this, and hear the results.
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Good review Mike. I loved this film too. I’m not a huge Foos fan, but I really really like Dave G.
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I think I’m more excited about Dave’s other projects than Foo Fighters these days. But they have a new record coming so we’ll see.
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Wow, I need to watch this!! Right up my alley! Great post!
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I loved this movie the first time I watched it and fell in love with it again the second time around. As a gear junkie I’m hooked on understanding how music is created and this film is the perfect balance of geeky technical info and music mayhem.
My only criticism was I thought that Rick Springfield’s work on Jesse’s Girl was paid too much homage compared to some of the gigantic milestones captured there but thats just me.
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Yeah that’s probably true Tim. But with a movie like this, the director probably molds the film the way he or she envisions. Perhaps Grohl is just a huge Springfield fan? Regardless I am glad you loved it as much as I did.
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You absolutely do. If you love music then you absolutely do.
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Yep a easy 5/5. I watched this back in Feb…gonna have to watch it again Mikey….tons of history there…too bad someone di not do one yrs ago on Little Moumtain Sound…before the owners sold it……lots of metal history there! Do you remember when Roth was there and he spray painted on the side of the building?
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Yup, and Roth also made a point of booking a shitty hotel with hookers and drug addicts. He wanted to make a “street” album and booked the whole band in a sleezy hotel. He said “You can’t make rock and roll with a $20 room service hamburger in your stomach.”
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This sounds great Mike, I keep seeing it cheap and considering it. I’m sure it’ll pop up on Netflix at some point or on the TV. It does violate my “No Grohl” rule somewhat but then I already broke that with the Ghost EP. :-(
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There you go, the No Grohl rule is void. Unfortunately your No Grohl rule means you missed some killer music by QOTSA.
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The No Grohl rule is now sadly void but, alas, my No Homme rule will ensure I never get to hear QOTSA and their killer music.
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No Homme rule???
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Oh have I not mentioned that one before? You’ll be saying you’ve not been told about my No McCartney rule next!
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I’m am flabbergasted. No McCartney? That doesn’t even make any sense!
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No McCartney! It’s the only way. Obviously his songs appear here and there in my collection but there’s not a note of him singing or playing in the HMO Vault. Yippee!
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“Captain, we’ve encountered a sub-space anomaly. Somebody said “No McCartney” and that does not happen in our own universe.” – Mr. Data
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There must be a few Beatle appearances in my collection somewhere but not much. The only one I can think of right now is George Harrison playing on the Cream song Badge.
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“Head for that temporal rift Mr. Data, engage!”
Whew. Back in my own universe. You still hate McCartney?
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I wouldn’t say hate. I’ve just never got it.
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In fact, he’s directing the new Foo Fighters series regarding their new album “Sonic Highways”.
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Damn! That’s awesome!
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I am Liking this post and nt even reading it because I need to see this movie and I haven’t yet and I don’t wanna know just yet what you thought. I will try to remember to come back here and comment when I finally do see it!
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OK sounds good buddy! Do what you can to see it, you will love it.
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