Sound City movie

I bought the Blu-ray due to the rave reviews but haven't had the chance to watch it yet.

 

Watched it at lunch, thanks very much ! God, I loves my Prime membership !!!!!

 

I really enjoyed it. Beyond all the obvious reasons (the history, the cool level of detail that music heads savor, but rarely get straight from the source, etc.), the aspect that just made it such a great watch for me was listening to people in or formerly of the music industry speak about it in a way that shows they really do love music......and are music fans....just like we are. That is not an automatic, not as you think to would be. To some, (and understandably so) it becomes strictly a business and they are beyond jaded.....but some like Grohl and many of those in the film, kept a piece of their love and fandom intact.

 

just saw this on VH1 Classic. i think it's sort of the "Hail! Hail! Rock And Roll" of the '00s/'10s. which is to say, a valuable historical sort of artifact that will seem even more interesting 10-15 years down the line from now.

some thoughts/criticisms:

lots of Grohl. lots.
i was a '90s kid - a teenager when Kurt Cobain died and Grohl started Foo Fighters. so you know, we all go back a ways. i'm glad he's still around, even if i'm not a major Foos fan and can recognize that he's moved in an entirely different direction from Nirvana, or even from the first Foos album. but with this doc, he's really gonna be turning into the Tom Cruise of contemporary music if he doesn't step back just a little bit.

most of the last 40 minutes (even with the McCartney parts) should have been left as bonus features for the DVD/Bluray. as great as it is to see McCartney jamming with the Nirvana guys, the connection between the story of the studio and bringing in Sir Paul to cut a track is pretty nebulous. and going back to my previous point, it seems like Grohl is going "look who i have here in my address book!"

i would love to see a documentary of many other famous recording studios and their impact on popular music. lots of angles to go from:

Abbey Road - duh.

Air Montserrat - so many cornerstones of '80s music to cover here. could also cover the studio's impact on Montserrat, the natural disasters that affected the studio and the people of Montserrat, and George Martin's continued involvement in the wider community there. could form part of a larger narrative on Martin, too.

Le Studio, Morin Heights - one of the first/more notable residential "creative getaway" studios. major player in the Canadian music industry, and a huge part of Rush's recording history (...a little record called Moving Pictures, for starters).

Compass Point, Bahamas - another getaway/island studio for the stars. Back In Black, Remain in Light, etc. Terry Manning. lots to (un)cover.

Musicland Studios, Munich - any studio that was home to records by Donna Summer, Zeppelin, Queen and Giorgio Moroder? man, if those hotel basement walls could talk...sadly, this place seems most forgotten out all of the famous recording studios where classic/groundbreaking acts recorded.

Ardent Studios, Memphis - they basically already made this, it was called Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. still lots of key coverage of the studio's history and approach here.


sorry for the long tangent. but i think Grohl's heart was in the right place, and it makes me want to learn more about all these unique recording studios where lots of classic/culturally important records were made. and that's largely because these places and their approaches to recording are gone, even as much of the music holds up for subsequent generations.

 

as far as grohl, if you wanna see where his heart lies musically go to you tube and watch his south x southwest speech. his love for music is pretty immense, and far reaching. his interview on marc maron's podcast wtf is great as well. especially when he admits what I believe, no such thing as a guilty pleasure. after watching the speech and hearing the interview, you realize he never was grunge. he dug classic rock, punk, many aspects of the genre.

chad

 

oh, i don't doubt any of that. i probably overstated my criticisms, such as they were. i think Grohl, being in his position, has immense potential to do good. he's definitely done a lot to bring the old school punks, metalheads and forgotten classic rock era stuff into the mainstream, and he does it in a sincere "look at the great stuff these guys did" kind of way. it's funny, because Nirvana was (at least implicitly) about shutting so many things out. i'm sure Kurt Cobain is rolling in his proverbial grave/urn at some of the things that Grohl is associated with now. but Cobain, for all his greatness, was probably the most shortsighted of all the dead rock stars...and he's dead, so who cares?

however, Grohl has let himself become the default "go-to" guy in the mainstream pop culture for anything involving rock and roll. it's definitely getting to Bono/Tom Cruise level. this movie, as interesting and informative as it is, doesn't really do much to change that (especially the last 40 minutes).

 

I assume that was Paul playing the long feedback/distortion on that tune, and not Pat Smear. Loved the tone he was creating with that four string guitar and the slide.

 

I just finished watching this. I learned a lot. I especially took away that music doesn't have to be perfect and it should come from your soul.

Besides learning things it was just a great thing to watch and hear about.

 

Seeing that Studer A800 rolling tape made me feel awesome, and sickened me at the same time.

That's the tape machine I used while attending school for audio engineering and I loved it. It is sad that it isn't used anymore even though it makes amazing sounding recordings.

Of course, they are expensive to buy, maintain and repair. New heads for them are crazy $$$.

Just sad that analog recording is gone.

 

they did this week! great doc.

 

Watching this now and it looks quite interesting, a 2-hour doc about the history of Sound City Studio (Tom Petty talking about playing "Refugee" "about a hundred and fifty damn times!" as Im posting this, LOL). If you haven't seen this and get the Palladia channel, this will be on a couple or so more times between now and Thursday. Now, THIS is "must-see TV!

 

I've watched this a few times now. Agreed, quite interesting storylines about how some of the great recordings of the 70's came out of this studio. I am a little griped that a big chunk of the doc focuses on how great the Neve console and the studio acoustics were in developing a signature sound to the recordings, and then in the end Grohl puts out a "soundtrack" with modern day bricked sonics (for the CD anyway, the vinyl release may be better).

 

Fantastic. I enjoyed it although the climax for me is the Sound City segs, not the later stuff following up with Grohl's work using the Neeve. No disrespect to him. It might just be me or my mood when I saw it. Great effort with some rare footage. I didn't connect those records, that's for sure.

 

Saw it a couple weeks ago and was transfixed throughout. Only planned on watching the McCartney bit, but loved the whole thing.

 

If there are any Paul McCartney fans on the forum, they have to watch this rock doc!

 

Who else has seen this doc on Palladia? (Sorry couldn't find a previous thread, if there is one.)

http://buy.soundcitymovie.com/

Something for everybody is this film. A lot of background on recording technology, history of the studio, the staff and the artists who recorded in it.

It goes from Stevie Nicks & Lindsay Buckingham recording their album to meeting Mick Fleetwood, through Tom Petty and a big comeback when Nirvana did Nevermind then its eventual decline and liquidation of the equipment.

Here's a writeup:

http://drownedinsound.com/news/4146...e-grohls-documentary-about-sound-city-studios

Interesting factoid was that Neil Geraldo did the guitar on Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" because the producer didn't like Rick's playing.

 

I caught this on Palladia. What a very interesting and well done documentary! I liked it so much that when it ended i went right on to ebay and bought the blu ray.
Definitely worth adding to the collection....

 

Glad I watched this, finally - here we are over a year from the last post.

A highly enjoyable film! As fate would have it my wife and I chose to watch this the very day I needle-dropped the 45 rpm 2 LP reissue of Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled LP (mastered by Bernie Grundman), recorded at Sound City. That classic album definitely bears the sonic hallmarks of the Sound City drum sound - what I'd describe as "depth and punch with crunch," featured on so many albums from Petty to Nirvana to the Chilis.

The overall impressions I had of the film were of a compelling story that absolutely needed to be told, essential for anyone who loves popular music and sound, and that making the film was a labor of love for Grohl. The story is told with sincerity and some very welcome touches of humor. The latter is key I think in avoiding the overly serious/sanctimonious/reverent kind of feeling that could have resulted - he's respectful of what Sound City accomplished and even somewhat in awe, but he's not afraid to also bring it all back down to earth. I just about spit my beer all over during the scene when Grohl's talking to Rupert Neve and Neve is trying to explain something of the technical aspects of his console, and those little thought subtitles pop up on the screen over some of the reaction shots of Grohl ("I think he knows I was a high school drop out...").

On the downside, it is all a bit sloppy, jumping around too much, and leaving some pretty big holes in the narrative. For example, regarding the holes: I am definitely NOT one of those vultures who wanted it to be all about the behind the scenes drugs and sex etc, but let's face it this was a hot recording studio in LA in the 1970-2000 era, and for better or worse I'm pretty much certain that was a part of the scene, and probably even played a role (for better or worse) in the type of music and sound that was created. It was something of a surprise to me that the film felt a bit white-washed, with not more than one or two very veiled/quickly passing references to those aspects of the scene. Granted, I don't think this is a HUGE big deal - and perhaps Grohl took this approach on purpose to make the film more accessible to all ages - if so that's a great thought, brilliant even - but the key point is, it does make me wonder about how much the REST of the content of the film reflects what actually went down versus being post-hoc legend-making and possibly even marketing (of Grohl's studio which now features the Sound City Neve console).

And I would also have to agree with the folks who say the last 40 minutes were notably weaker. The problem with trying to catch lightning in a bottle, as someone puts it during the film, is that often you just plain miss. Most of the segments of various artists trying to work up recordings are largely (and not at all surprisingly) un-compelling. I suspect it would have been a lot more effective if edited down to just a few of the choicest bits - the Stevie Nicks/Foos tune in its entirety (which was fabulous - why haven't they done a whole album together?), the (surprisingly) outstanding Rick Springfield/Foos rocker - really smoked - and bits and pieces of the Macca track (though again I agree with people who say his appearance felt out of place in this particular film, and his segment was way too long in proportion). The Reznor piece was particularly weak - noodle city - really didn't need it in there.

But as Grohl sets up at several points in the doc (perhaps pre-empting overly pedantic critics!), art isn't about being perfect, and in some ways the sloppiness and imperfections actually add to the charm of the movie; it feels organic, hand-made, and most of all heart felt. The film conveys the feel of someone who is deeply love with his subject matter and the key players involved, and who has personally invited you into that sphere and won't be satisfied until you, too, are smitten.

Bottom line is that I really, really enjoyed it.

If nothing else, SOUND CITY shows that Grohl has huge potential as a filmmaker. I hope he follows through on that. I'd love to see him take on the stories behind other legendary recording studios, albums or artists, or even completely different (non-musical) topics.

 

I also loved it and am very happy not only that Dave stuck to a world he knew (music) for his first film, but also that he chose to examine the way that capturing the art form has changed over the years. Of course, he has the money for the upkeep on a big analogue recording desk (which I believe is considerable). He's also sincerely sentimental about the way music affects people. We wouldn't all be here otherwise! I bought the Blu Ray, but was disappointed that there wasn't much in the way of unused interviews (at least a couple of hours' worth) to make the most of the Blu Ray's storage capacity. Noting the comments above, I suppose it could have been a really good one hour film, or perhaps broken up into hourly episodes for each decade. However, it is what it is.

 

Huh? I was a Kickstarter supporter and still have not received my DVD!! Did you buy it or were you a Kickstarter supporter?

 

Well, then you need to watch all eight episodes of the just-completed Sonic Highways project on HBO.

 

Well there you go - they read my mind!

Seriously thanks for the heads up - I'm pretty out of touch where TV is concerned and didn't know about this.

 

I bought it secondhand, so I'm afraid I can't shed any light on that.

 

Well, that seems to indicate it exists on dvd. Why are Kickstarter supporters not getting them? Everyone else seems to have seen the film except those of us that supported them.

 

Wow, just watched this. Fantastic!

What the hell happened to the CD, was Rick Rubin involved?

We need a flat transfer of those analog master tapes. What a fantastic opportunity to showcase how great analog can sound in the digital domain. Does anyone have Dave Grohls's contact details?