So I mentioned the other day how cool Dave Grohl’s Sound City documentary and now, as
promised, a slightly longer review/whatever you’d like to call it.
First of
all some background, Sound City is or rather was, a studio in Van Nuys,
California that closed in 2011.
Hidden in an industrial area in Van Nuys, California, it was by all
accounts, a bit of a dump – think unpainted walls, dirty couches and general
scruffiness. Yet somehow, the
artists that recorded there and the studio itself are legendary. Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumours there
and a young Nirvana picked Sound City above all other studios to record
Nevermind. So what was the draw
card? According to Grohl and the
rest of the musicians he interviews it was a combination of the sense of family
and the Neve analogue mixing console.
While the documentary does touch on the technical aspects of the Neve
Desk it’s more about the people and the stories / music that was made
there. When the studio closed in
2011 Dave Grohl managed to buy the Neve Desk (which cost more than the owners
house when it was installed) and move it to his own studio. Here he sets out to recreate the Sound
City vibe by inviting a whole bunch of musicians back to record an album in its
memory. He even gets Paul MacCartney
involved in a track including former Nirvana band mates Pat Smear and Krist
Novoselic.
Part of the reason that Sound City closed was the fact that the owners
vehemently opposed the switch to digital recording. Sound City remained an analogue studio until the day they
closed the doors. It made me think
about what is lost in the switch from analogue to digital, not just in music
but in other forms of media too – books, comics and all the rest. For me, part of the pleasure of a new
album, book or comic is holding a physical object in my hand - the smell of a
new book, the feel of paper in my hands or the artwork and lyrics inside the
album sleeve. For the guys who
recorded at Sound City, it was the “human element that made the magic.”
I am not knocking digital media at all. The advantages are obvious and 90% of my music and all most
all my comics are now digital. Digital
formats allow us to access more, faster and easier than ever before and that is
great. I’d just like it a lot more
if there was room in the world for both.
I’d prefer not to watch music stores and book stores close down because
those places, like Sound City, create communities around art forms that we are
all passionate about and for me, no virtual store can ever take that place.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand, Sound City is well worth a watch
especially if you are music fan. Whether
you are like Jason who knows the in's and out's of being a musician in a studio
or like me who just loves the end product, you’ll find something here that
speaks to you. If you do watch it or already have watched it, let me know what you think.
P.S The album that Dave Grohl produced in his studio with the Neve desk
is due out this month sometime and I am really looking forward to giving it a
listen.
