Kasey Ferrell

Staff Writer

        Straight out of a roof-raising debut at Sundance 2013 comes Dave Grohl’s exhilarating documentary about what makes life worth living.  Hold up.  I know Grohl’s film is actually a look at Sound City (1969-2011), a studio buried in a corner of Van Nuys, California, as it moves from legend to the analog boneyard.  But, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer is up to something more than a nostalgia trip.  He wants to celebrate the nondigital sweat that goes into making music; the “human element” as he calls it.  Archival footage takes Sound City from its 1970’s glory days, when Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumors, through the 1980’s, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rick Springfield and Santana, and the 1990’s surge that came with the sound of Nirvana’s Nevermind.  --It wasn’t the plush atmosphere that drew the talent.  The walls had shag carpeting on them, what one band member noted as, “Something you’d do to your van.”  As one musician put it, “You could (urinate) in a corner and no one would notice.”  What you would notice, and Grohl makes a point of it, is the sights of musicians working and recording together in a scuzzy room of near-mystical acoustics.  No computers, no digital, no Pro Tools or Auto-Tune.  Just the astounding Neve mixing console.

        Fears of a jerko tech session are unfounded.  Even Grohl, in conversation with Rupert Neve, looks hilariously dazed and confused as Neve rattles on like a a textbook.  A subtitle under Grohl’s head reads, “Jeez.”

    Machines are not the turn on in Sound City.  That’d be the sweaty, messy, argumentative business of music.  Grohl brings in a staggering array of rock royalty to pay tribute, from Stevie Nicks and Trent Reznor to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Fear’s Lee Ving.  He shows how everyone who entered Sound City became a kind of family.

        Grohl purchased the Neve console when Sound City closed, and moved into his own Studio 606; inviting his friends to join him in keeping the spirit of Sound City alive.  This feeling reaches maximum intensity when Grohl’s icon Paul McCartney joins him to write and record.  The soundtrack album, subtitled Real to Reel, includes “Cut Me Some Slack,” performed by McCartney, Grohl and former Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear.  As for accusations that Grohl made the film as a marketing tool for the CD, cut him some slack!  The recording sessions serve to bring the film’s message to vivid life.  Grohl has made an intimate epic about music.  The film’s genius is the way it applies the lessons of Sound City to any job.  “The human element,” says Grohl, “that’s what makes the magic.”  In his directing debut, Grohl shows the instincts of a real filmmaker.  Sound City is a celebration of just how unbelievably awesome it is to make rock music for a living!