At some point in their life everyone has heard a song or an album recorded at Sound City Studios. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield, Pat Benatar, and many more have recorded there since it first opened in 1969. Sadly, in 2011 Sound City faced the inevitable in today’s modern rock world. They couldn’t keep up technologically (not that they wanted to) and it hurt them financially. Eventually they were forced to close their doors. Forty some-odd years, hundreds of albums, thousands of rolls of tape and countless stories of practicing, perfecting and creating masterpiece albums were lost to the ages, until Dave Grohl, the Nirvana drummer, Foo Fighters front man, all around nice guy, and rock god, came along.
Grohl heard about Sound City closing and made a documentary chronicling the history of the studio. For Grohl, recording at Sound City with Nirvana was a life altering experience and he makes it well known that if not for that studio he probably wouldn’t be here today.
It’s clear that his heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears and life were put into this movie, from the beautiful shots of the mixing boards, to ancient footage of Fleetwood Mac preparing what would become the album that would make them famous. In terms of a biography for Sound City, it has everything one would want. It has great stories of relationships, music creation, heartbreak and everything else that makes a successful Behind the Music style rock-doc, but it’s more than just backstabbing and inter-band politics and gossip. It’s a documentary about a special building and a group of people who called it home.
Sound City Studios opened in 1969 and floundered around for a few years recording a hit album here and there, most notably Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush until 1974 when Fleetwood Mac recorded their self-titled, breakthrough hit album (released in 1975). After that the floodgates opened up for bands like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, recording Damn the Torpedoes, or Dio’s Holy Diver, Fear’s The Record (one of the few punk albums recorded at Sound City) and Rick Springfield’s biggest hit “Jessie’s Girl.” In the 80s, the CD came out and the music industry started to move towards a digital sound and recording process. Sound City couldn’t afford to keep up and eventually it became a broken down hell hole. In the early 90s though, some of the staff decided to clean the place up and bands started coming back. Rage Against the Machine recorded their self-titled album there, Nirvana recorded Nevermind, Weezer recorded Pinkerton and Sound City finally became a place that people wanted to record at again. By 2011 though, Pro Tools, auto-tune and computers ran the music industry and it was becoming increasingly expensive to record analog/tape and Sound City finally closed its doors.
This is essentially where after twenty years; Dave Grohl comes back into Sound City’s life. He decided he would buy their legendary and famed mixing board, the Neve console, to install in his own garage/home studio. The Neve was bought for around $75,000 in 1969 and its life is entwined with the amazing sound at Sound City. The gearhead story of Sound City is about a building but it’s also just as much about the Neve console and Grohl gives it its own section in the movie, even having a funny interview with the man who created the console.
This is a movie for gearheads, but it’s not solely for them, it’s for fans of music. Grohl himself is a huge fan, it’s very clear in the last thirty minutes or so of the documentary, where we get to see Grohl in his studio recording and having fun making music with some legendary musicians like Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival), Trent Reznor and ultimately a Nirvana reunion of sorts with Paul McCartney in the Kurt Cobain role. Grohl and Krist at one point realize they’re jamming with Paul McCartney and the excitement and energy through the screen.
Grohl does a good job of balancing the stories out with the music. One of the more emotional and heartfelt stories is from Rick Springfield, who may be considered a pop joke but is actually is a serious musician who was involved heavily in Sound City. Interviews with people like Neil Young, show the appreciation that musicians have for a recording studio like Sound City instead of the modern digital, Pro Tools, “hang on I’ll remove that stray woo from the end of the second chorus” world.
Pro Tools hasn’t made better music nor has it made better musicians, it’s made music-making easier for the average person. There are a number of Sound City employees interviewed, including a couple of the original, founding employees. Listening to them talk about how Sound City is home and how they felt like a family, brings it all into perspective. While Sound City is just a building and amazing music was recorded there, there were still people who were involved with the building on a daily basis, long after the bands would leave.
The modern world of music exists within the thing you’re probably reading this on, sure some of you might be reading this on physical paper, but chances are you might come across this review on your computer. You might be listening to the latest Nicki Minaj single on iTunes, or some run- of-the-mill EDM band on Spotify, or relaxing to one of your folks’ favorite Grateful Dead albums that you happened to download via The Pirate Bay. While there’s nothing wrong with it, this documentary shows that computers have taken something out of music, the human element. Not every person is a perfect singer and if they were we never would’ve had Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen and, we’re not getting musicians like that anymore. Grohl’s documentary reminds us that the human element is strong in music and that while there are some that use electronics and computers as a tool (Trent Reznor) instead of a crutch, people have become too reliant upon a computer to fix their voice or fix the slightly out of tune B string on your lead guitarists solo at the two and a half minute mark.
Sound City is well worth the $12.99 from the website, it’s available on iTunes and Amazon to rent digitally (ironically enough) for $6.99 and the physical release along with the soundtrack will be out in March. It’s an amazing documentary and it will inspire you to go create music and/or seek out the music in the documentary. Start at the beginning with Neil Young and then make your way forward, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica and Nirvana, listen to it all after watching the documentary it you’ll hear the music in a completely new way.