Have you seen Sound City? If you like music you should. If you're at all interested in a microcosm of the recording studio life, this is a great look at one of its most memorable venues. The place had character, and was full of them. This wasn't the kind of place The Beatles or The Eagles would record in. This was the kind of place you went for a certain sound, and the aesthetics weren't even an afterthought.
The dingy Van Nuys recording facility that opened in 1969, was home to the Neve 8028 Mixing Console, of which only four were ever made. Rupert Neve is the man credited with the creation of the modern day mixing console, and this studio bought one for the generous sum of $75,175. That, coupled with the simply fortuitous "legendary sound quality" of the drums in Studio A, made this otherwise dirty-diaper of an establishment one of the premiere places to record. As the infamous and all-knowing Rick Rubin once said, "Guitars sound pretty much the same everywhere, but drums change from room to room and the sound at Sound City was among the best." The staff was like family, and the artists were treated the same way. The "anything goes" mentality of the place was akin to the attitudes of many of the great and wild personas in rock music through the ages. Groups like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield, Ratt, R.H.C.P., Rage Against The Machine, and on, all recorded one or multiple albums there.
The story of Sound City, directed and told through the lenses and words of Dave Grohl, is as much a retrospective on the people who ran the studio, and those who recorded in it. The incarnation of Fleetwood Mac that most people have come to know and love, may very well never have happened if it weren't for Sound City. Mick Fleewood happened to be in the studio looking for a guitarist at the same time Nicks and Buckingham were recording their debut album together. The rest is history. Neil Young cut After the Gold Rush there, and Rage Against The Machine finished half their debut album in one night with a group of their friends in the studio watching. Nirvana's behemoth Nevermind was recorded at this facility. Need I really say more? These are the kind of personal stories we get from the bands/artists themselves, which I don't think would have come out as well or genuine, without Grohl at the helm.
To appreciate the full scope and impact Sound City had on the recording artists and groups who dared to enter, you have to watch this movie with a clear and focused attention span. There's a lot in between the words of the interviews, and the notes of the music. A real emotion bleeds through from almost each and every subject. I found that a usually annoying and surface Rick Springfield came off genuinely remorseful that he had ruined a relationship with the owner, Joe Gottfried, whom Rick credited with making his career. When Joe died suddenly, you were privy to a very human side of Rick that I've never seen before. Tom Petty also had a leading roll in the film, and I learned a great deal more about how they wrote, recorded, and felt about what their sound and style should be in the early years. It can be as heartbreaking as it can be funny. I was impressed with Grohl's ability to create a cohesive story that incorporated what seemed like an endless amount of interviews and anecdotes, without ever dragging. For a debut film, the man has a knack for filmmaking.
A real twist came at the back end of the film, when the narrative shifted to a real-life, in the present documentary as opposed to the retrospective of the first hour or so. Essentially Dave Grohl bought the Neve Console from Sound City when it was forced to close down due to financial issues (caused by a move to the digital world of recording). Grohl had the console set up in his own private studio, where he could continue to foster his almost creepy love for the machine. He then proceeded to get a large group of artists together who had at one point all recorded at Studio City (and thus on the Neve Console), to make a brand new album. It came together in what seemed like a very fluid extension of making the documentary itself, with Grohl obviously taking the lead again.
Some of the artists who joined in recording the album with Dave Grohl were Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk (RATM), Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic(Nirvana/Foo Fighters), Lee Ving (Fear), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age/Them Crooked Vultures), Trent Reznor, and even though he never recorded on the Neve before, Sir Paul McCartney (though I wasn't a huge fan of his addition to the album).
The closing track, Mantra, was a Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor, jam session. The piece grows as organically as a twisted vine. It's ethereal and atmospheric, with a cumulative growth from its stripped down beginnings. It's transcendent qualities were duly noted, and the song received very positive reviews. Personally, it was my top choice on the album. There is a clear chemistry between the three of them, and though Josh Homme and Dave Grohl played together previously in Them Crooked Vultures, you can tell that Reznor had the lead on this piece. Aside from the drum part, this has more of his signature on it than anyone else. Theres an unnerving harmony in their styles and voices that made me wish this track was merely one of many to come.
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