Hello Friends,
Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!
Tonight we're watching Sound City, a 2013 documentary about the legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California.
Directed by Dave Grohl, the documentary tells the story of the rise and fall (and rise again, sort of) of the seminal rock & roll studio that in its heyday produced some of rock's greatest acts including Fleetwood Mac, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Neil Young, Elton John, The Dead, Nine Inch Nails, Dio, Slayer, Tool and Rick Springfield to name a few!
Grohl spends the first two-thirds of his film on the history of the studio, the artists who performed there, and the legendary music created there. The last third of the film shows Grohl restoring the Studio's one-of-a-kind NEVE 8028 analog mixing console in his private studio (Studio 606) and inviting various musicians who have recorded at the original Studio City over to jam.
These are some of the best scenes in the movie. Its a lot of fun to see Grohl and friends write & record with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor and (especially) Paul McCartney.
In recent years, digital music has really put the screws on more tradtional, analog recording methods. A song recorded and mixed on a lap top using Pro-Tools regularly becomes a top-selling hit. Thunderous drums have been largely replaced by heavily-programmed machines; crisp and delicate vocal tracks have been supplanted by Autotune.
Of course, here on "Vinyl in the Valley", we're always suckers for nostalgia and (generally speaking) we prefer the sound and feel of analog over anything digital. We like our music like we like our women: a little rough around the edges, with charming flaws and full of tiny little mistakes. Give us the crackle and pop of listening to vinyl over the electric hum of a spinning Compact disc (or, worse, the souless silent processing of an mp3).
As Grohl ponders in his film, "How do we get music to sound like people?" Agreed!
We give Sound City two cocktail glasses up!
Grohl spends the first two-thirds of his film on the history of the studio, the artists who performed there, and the legendary music created there. The last third of the film shows Grohl restoring the Studio's one-of-a-kind NEVE 8028 analog mixing console in his private studio (Studio 606) and inviting various musicians who have recorded at the original Studio City over to jam.
These are some of the best scenes in the movie. Its a lot of fun to see Grohl and friends write & record with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor and (especially) Paul McCartney.
In recent years, digital music has really put the screws on more tradtional, analog recording methods. A song recorded and mixed on a lap top using Pro-Tools regularly becomes a top-selling hit. Thunderous drums have been largely replaced by heavily-programmed machines; crisp and delicate vocal tracks have been supplanted by Autotune.
Of course, here on "Vinyl in the Valley", we're always suckers for nostalgia and (generally speaking) we prefer the sound and feel of analog over anything digital. We like our music like we like our women: a little rough around the edges, with charming flaws and full of tiny little mistakes. Give us the crackle and pop of listening to vinyl over the electric hum of a spinning Compact disc (or, worse, the souless silent processing of an mp3).
As Grohl ponders in his film, "How do we get music to sound like people?" Agreed!
We give Sound City two cocktail glasses up!
We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.
(* not really)
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