SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Sadly Over-hyped

recommended

just watch it!

Never thought someone could make recording studio equipment so interesting. Great info for music lovers and will keep you interested. Worth the time, won't be disappointed. David Grohl loves music and seems down to earth and assembles a all star cast for this informative documentary about a studio that suffered the fate of technology advances.It is funny how people hope lightening strikes twice,a group records a monster album at the studio and then musicians are beating down the door to record their music at the location. And believe it or not it works. Some of the largest selling albums recorded at this studio and some members come back to record with David one more time

Dave Grohl directed and wrote this documentary. You know, he is the guy that is always playing at least two songs in the best ever list of songs, one with Nirvana and the other with Foo Fighters. And this is a film about Sound City, the legendary sound studio that gave life to so many great bands and albums, including Nirvana, Rage Against the Machines, Nine Inch Nails, Fleetwood Mac, and so on.What starts like a smelly place that nobody cleans but has great acoustics goes through a series of transformations through various crises, the most important one being the advent of digital technology, which also meant its death. But there are so many good musicians that jammed there, rose to stardom there, that Grohl is trying to recreate the feeling and asks those musicians to join him in remembering it all.I know you will hate me for this, but what I liked even more than the love of music that transpires throughout the entire film is the fact that it all started with the Neve board, a sound board created by a very precise British engineer called Rupert Neve. The guy was probably very creative himself, but people describe him as precise. And British. He enabled through science and engineering scores of musical generations.Anyway, sometimes the film is a bit slow, especially at the beginning, where the history of the studio and of the people there is laid out. But then it all is worth it at the end, where you get to see all these old musicians coming to record with Foo Fighters using the reconditioned Neve board, recording everything on 2 inch tape.Bottom line: they kind of repeat a lot that music is something human and must be done in a group to enhance pleasure and creativity, but it's not too annoying. This is a great movie nonetheless. If you like music, you will love this film. If you don't like music, I still think you are going to love it.

I've never been a huge fan of Nirvana or Foo Fighters (I do like a few things here and there but overall they're not my thing) but as a person I have a lot of respect for Dave Grohl. He seems like a great guy and it's really cool how he's dipping into film with his directorial debut Sound City, a documentary about the studio which is home to Nevermind, Rumours and all kinds of classics. I had no idea about these connections. I love a good Fleetwood Mac origin story, so although it was a few things I knew, it was still interesting. The first half works as a great chronological account of anecdotes, focusing on acts like Fleetwood Mac and Rick Springfield, and the highs and lows of the company. It really showed how Sound City was unique for its Neve soundboard and makes me want to seek them out. The documentary is shown in a very typically MTV way with its graphics and soundtrack but it makes it very entertaining (even if there's a very irritating use of flashing frames back and forth). However, the last half hour is devoted to the recording of the Sound City soundtrack that Grohl collaborates with artists formerly mentioned and as we only get snippets of each track, it feels like it's simply an endorsement to buy the soundtrack and it knocks the doc down a peg. Still a good start to 2013.7/10

Perhaps at times a bit self-indulgent, Dave Grohl's movie, Sound City, should be of interest, as well as entertainment, to those who grew up with music in the seventies/eighties. The viewer witnesses the heart-felt awe Grohl has experienced as a world-wide appreciated musician which points back to what happened when Nirvana's producer Butch Vig decided to use Sound City to record Nirvana's first major label release.The viewer gets to meet the three integral men, the original owner, the financial group bail-out guy whose wisdom (he kept the original owner) and vision (he ordered at the time the most expensive mixing console perhaps extant), and the house producer who enabled the tremendous successes to follow. Like in most of life there was a woman behind the great men, in this case two who "kept the train on the track" and it's nice to see their contributions deemed of tremendous importance.After the studio's first modest success when Neil Young decided to use it for a complete re-recording of vocals on his Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere release things kind of stalled. Enter the Neve mixing console. Knowing that Sound City's room and collection of microphones needed the perfect foil the owners took a chance and spent what in today's dollars would be more than a "half-a-mil" and commissioned Rupert Neve to build a worthy mixing board. The first album recorded on it was "Buckingham Nicks" by the then unknown Lindsey Buckingham and Stevi Nicks. An amazing album, it did absolutely nothing...Except in central Alabama (the duo's last concert was fittingly in Alabama). The song "Frozen Love" was the most requested song for Birmingham Alabama's burgeoning progressive FM station WJLN. It spread to The University of Alabama's student station and created a firestorm of popularity that the artists couldn't quite comprehend and Polydor failed to be able to satisfy. I mention this because I was one of those Birmingham listeners fortunate enough to get a copy. The failure of Buckingham Nicks set up one of the most serendipitous unions, that of the definitive Fleetwood Mac, cementing Sound City's success. This isn't to downplay another strange brick in the house though, that would be Rick Springfield. If there are three artists whose recording at Sound City paved many years of success it would include Rick at the start and, when it seemed the dream was over, Nirvana in the early nineties. Three more diverse platinum artists would be harder to imagine. The phrase "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" comes to mind and strangely The Grateful Dead recorded Terrapin Station there too. The bands gave Sound City clout, but the star was the Studio A room and the Neve board. No matter what technology came and went there simply wasn't a better live drum sound on planet earth and the board just made everything sound so much better the studio had legs long past it's prime. This in spite of it's ever widening lack of comfort and amenities as Sound City remained a hair north of a dump. Finally, the rise of a gazillion home studios and refinement of digital recording (still stinks more than it should) made a 2011 closing eminent. While sad as the end of an era this movie rightfully celebrates the fact Sound City had only a few less than nine lives leaving a joyous recorded legacy.All is not lost, when a door closes another often opens and Dave Grohl turned the knob on this one. Dave, not a filmmaker by his own admission, believes Sound City paved his destiny and the Neve was the biggest reason...Dave is now a filmmaker in addition to his other talents. Grohl bought the board and installed it in his Sound City inspired studio. All in all, this movie is for music fans and musicians, but it has a heart at it's core, as a result "Sound City" is a plain good human-interest story too. If something said here sparks with you, by all means make the effort to see "Sound City". There's some magic in music bringing people together and the film is a very genuine love letter to it.