mahituna 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

john32935 Unbeknownst to the music-consuming public, Sound City was a studio in LA's San Fernando Valley where some of the greatest rock music in history was recorded. But as the analog age slipped into the digital age, the uniqueness of the sound provided by Sound City's facilities fell by the wayside until Dave Grohl, with the help of some legendary musical performers, made the effort to restore and preserve the essence of Sound City.This well-made documentary (by novice film director Mr. Grohl) is an ode to those days where music was more the product of people rather than music as a product of digital manipulation. Interviews with rock's luminaries are interspersed throughout and add a personal touch that this documentary could have easily missed and would have been the lesser for.Recommended to fans of rock music everywhere.

paul2001sw-1 It's often interesting to hear artists, of all stripes, talk about the creative processes that go in to their work; and in this documentary, David Grohl (ex of Nivarna) tells the story of a studio where he and a number of other rock musicians recorded some of their most famous work. It's also a story of failure (when new technology finally drives the studio out of business) and partial redemption (when Grohl himself buys the analogue mixing board that was the studio's most famous asset, and uses it to make new music). Personally, I'm not a great fan of most of the artists we hear from here, and as they bemoan the days of laptop production, they fail to make the case that their nostalgia for the old days is anything but exactly that, they're not opposed to technology per se (after all, the board Grohl saves was itself once cutting edge), just conservatively preferring the technology of their youth. Finally, the whole point of Sound City appears to have been that it wasn't a very nice place, no-one hung out there, and while the records got made, there aren't that many real stories. Yet just to hear musicians talk about making an album, in a no nonsense, no hype way, has an interest of its own; by the end, I felt a bit nostalgic for that mixing board myself.

Sophie Landry Last week I discovered the only thing that can make flying coach great: Sound City! This documentary resonates well beyond music which is why I liked it from second one. It's not about Nirvana or the Foo Fighters. It's about craft and significance: why we do what we do and how we do it. I came for the music and left with an analysis of the creative process from analogue to digital infused through songs. Suddenly I wondered why I wasn't a sound engineer. A great movie often makes you think outside of your own walls and Sound City excels at that. It's also Dave Grohl's first film, which is astonishing since it so artfully twines together multiple cinematographic devices from interviews, hand-held camera work, use of warming and cooling filters, reconstructions, multiple narrators, voice-over, thought bubbles, archival footage, etc. All of which could have resulted in a very confused production in less assured hands.Little is known about Dave Grohl despite Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. In Sound City, we again see that he really knows how to surrounds himself with rare talents "who have something to say" to borrow Trent Reznor's words. Evidently, he has the charisma to drive everyone to supplement his original idea: telling the story of the Neve console. In the end though, Sound City documents the many lives of a historic recording studio and a feat of engineering, the Neve Console, through the music that came out of them from 1969 to 2011.Nothing feels forced except perhaps the last 30 minutes when new recordings are made using the Neve console now housed in Dave's Studio 606. The making of Sound City Reel to Real, the film's vaunted soundtrack, could have done with a tighter edit. Trent Reznor explaining his use of technology as an instrument was much more captivating. In mere moments, he reached beyond the surgical precision of ProTools and sterility of Auto-Tune to give modern tools an honest assessment away from the good old days of analogue. What else is in it for us viewers? Musicians and non-musicians alike will find inspiration in the views exchanged on a studio that produced a crisp sound when its shag carpeted walls should have at best delivered a dirty sound. Sound City by all accounts was the studio equivalent of glorious flora growing from a smelly trash can in a way that no one can fully understand.If you love music, technology and storytelling, this film will make for a terrific evening. As a bonus, you too may be reminded why Stevie Nicks sure wasn't going to be "the cleaning lady" for long in 'You Can't Fix This'.