Movie Review: Sound City
Director: Dave Grohl
Roswell Films
All Access Review: A
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| Sound City - Dave Grohl 2013 |
The inner sanctum of Sound City never appeared in Better Homes & Gardens. Interiors
with walls covered in brown shag carpeting and beat-up furniture that even a
college fraternity would leave out on the curb would certainly offend the
delicate sensibilities of its readership. From the outside, the place looked
like a dump. Inside, it was even worse. But if you were a musician stepping
into the studio for the first time, those record awards hanging in the hallways
certainly made you overlook the shabby accommodations.
Such was the case for Dave Grohl, who made the trip down to
Los Angeles in the early ‘90s with his Nirvana band mates, Kurt Cobain and
Krist Novaselic, to bring their vision for Nevermind
to life in the same studio where Fleetwood Mac had recorded Rumours. Understandably, Grohl has a soft spot in his
heart for Sound City, and so do the numerous artists who did some of their best
work there. It’s gone now, but not forgotten, having closed as a commercial
studio in May 2011, and Grohl is making sure everybody understands what a
special place it was with his wonderfully nostalgic tribute “Sound City.”
In his directorial debut, Grohl, in his own inimitably casual and yet excitable manner, does the next-to-impossible,
making a dirty, run-down recording studio that had never seen better days seem
magical. And it was. How else do you explain the existence of a room that
produced absolutely perfect drum sound, even though it had none of the characteristics
that drummers want in such a facility? In fact, by all rights, it should have
yielded terrible drum tracks, as the producers, engineers and drummers
interviewed by Grohl are only too happy to tell you. And then there’s that
custom-made Neve 8028 board, the one Grohl saved when Sound City went under for
good. There were only four like it in the world, and the care that went into
building one helped sound men become studio legends – like Butch Vig, who
produced Nevermind.
Even going so far as to interview the maker of that very board,
Grohl – playfully playing dumb while listening to Rupert Neve explain in great
detail how it works – practically creates another character for his movie with
that console, its wires and buttons having played such a huge role in
committing some of the greatest studio performances in rock history to tape. If
only that board could talk. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Metallica, Rage
Against the Machine, Fear, Dio, Barry Manilow, Rick Springfield, Neil Young – all of
them made records at Sound City, and in the right hands, that Neve board did
God’s work. In the end, Grohl rescues it and puts it back to work, as he and
the rest of the Foo Fighters record tracks with a number of artists, including
Paul McCartney and Springfield, who as it so happens, provides the most
poignant moment of the film.
While most the movie is a parade of warm memories and funny
anecdotes – Fear’s Lee Ving providing some of the comic relief, while others
talk glowingly about recording albums the old way – there’s a clearly emotional
Springfield, openly expressing regret over treating Sound City owner Joe
Gottfried, a man who’d dealt with him as if he were his own son, badly after he’d
made it big. Gottfried’s kindness is remembered by many in the movie, as are
the risks he and fellow owner Tom Skeeter took while running the studio and
waiting for that big break that would rescue it from certain ruin.
As much as “Sound City” is a lively and enthusiastic study
of the creative process and a not-too geeky exploration of music’s “digital vs.
analog” debate, it’s also sheds light on the invaluable contributions of those
behind the scenes who gave Sound City its family atmosphere. And that’s the
charm of “Sound City,” an unstructured, freewheeling film that’s more of an Irish
wake than a somber eulogy, where Grohl interviews practically everybody who
ever set foot in Sound City and they all toast its shambolic charms with
unguarded commentary, speaking of it as they would a long-lost friend. And
Grohl’s preternatural skill as a filmmaker – who knew he had it in him? – shines
through, as he collects all the engaging elements of this tale and pieces them
together, somewhat chronologically, in a way that makes sense, even though perhaps
it shouldn’t. Just like the best rock ‘n’ roll.
- –
Peter Lindblad
