Sound City: Real to Reel

"Sound City: Real to Reel" Soundtrack (2013) - Roswell Records 

Hello Friends,

Sound City: Real to Reel isn't so much a soundtrack to the Dave Grohl documentary as much as it is a companion piece.  This is not a compilation of all of the great songs recorded at the legendary Sound City recording studios, but rather a labor of love by Grohl (and a hodgepodge of friends) who got together to create some totally new music in celebration of his film.

Most of the 11 tracks here were recorded by Butch Vig and ALL were recorded in Grohl's private studio on "the" Neve 8028 console from the original Studio City.  

Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) its an incredibly listenable double LP set with every song pretty much being good.  

Side A has Grohl and the Foos jamming with such strange bedfellows as members of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ("Heaven and All"), Masters of Reality, Rage Against the Machine ("Time Slowing Down") and Miss Stevie Nicks ("You Can't Fix This").  At first, we just figured this was going to be a throwaway novelty song, but the Stevie Nicks song is great! It sounds as if it would have been right at home on Fleetwood Mac or Rumors.

Side B begins with "The Man That Never Was" featuring Rick Springfield and the song sounds exactly like a Foo Fighters song if it were sung by Rick Springfield!  Things take a (welcome) punk turn on "Your Wife Is Calling", featuring the vocals and harmonica(!) of Mr. Lee "Fear" Ving.  The side concludes with "From Can to Can't" featuring a passionate Corey Taylor (Slipknot) on vocals and the inimitable Rick Nielsen on lead guitar.

Side C starts out with two songs featuring longtime Grohl collaborators, Josh Homme and Alain Johannes ("Centipede" and "A Trick With No Sleeve").  Speaking of collaborators, Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic, joins Dave and Pat Smear on the Grammy-winning, "Cut Me Some Slack" which features septuagenarian Paul McCartney on vocals and guitar.  Again, the result is far from the cheesiness one might expect; it sounds like a loud and grungey update of Helter Skelter-era Paul.  A fusion of two of the most important Rock & Roll bands of all time, what's not to like?

Side D begins with Grohl going mostly acoustic on the ballad-y "If I Were Me" (again, this would fit right in on a Foo Fighters record!).  And the album closes with the 8 minute climactic, "Mantra", featuring Grohl, Homme & Trent Reznor-- a fitting conclusion to an overall great record.  (Plus, Reznor & Homme harmonizing sounds really good!)

Our fear here was that this was going to sound like a hastily put-together "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" Jam Session, but instead, the artists here (lead by Grohl) really give their all and come up with 11 really enjoyable songs.  There's not a stinker in the bunch and because of Grohl's presence throughout the record has a good flow, a solid sound, from start to finish!

RATING: 4.5 Your Wife Is Calling (Tell Her I'm Not Here) out of 5

Movie Night: Sound City (2013)

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! 

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

Rubber Soul

The Beatles - "Rubber Soul" (1965) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

There's already been tons written and researched on every Beatles album and song out there.  If you really wanted to know, you could probably find out how many times Ringo pee'd during the recording of "You Won't See Me".  Here on "Vinyl in the Valley" we're too drunk and lazy caught up in the music for all that.  We're not trying to re-write history friends, that takes the fun out of it all.  We're happy just to kick back, drop the needle and enjoy a classic album, song-by-song, side-by-side, the way it was meant to be heard!* 
(* sort of...)

Squeezed in between HELP and REVOLVER, this is the folksiest of all Beatles' Records.  Recorded in just four weeks-- under pressure to make the December 1965 holiday market-- RUBBER SOUL sounds like a band who are growing up.  On the distorted photo on the cover their hair is longer and gone are the suits.  (Its also the first Beatles album to not feature the band's name prominently on the sleeve!)  The music and the instruments being used are getting more experimental: there's the use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood", a fuzz bass on "Think For Yourself", harmonium on "The Word"... etc.  The lyrics, too, are getting darker ("Run For Your Life"), more introspective ("In My Life"), paranoid ("Norwegian Wood"), ambiguous ("Its Only Love", "Girl") and existential ("I'm Looking Through You").  Its the sound of band in transition who have recently discovered marijuana and started listening to lots of Bob Dylan.

This is the original American Capitol Records version of the LP we're listening to tonight which varies slightly from the original UK version (and subsequent CD releases).  In case you were curious here's the track listing:

Side One:
I've Just Seen A Face
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You Won't See Me
Think for Yourself (George Harrison)
The Word
Michelle

Side Two:
It's Only Love
Girl
I'm Looking Through You
In My Life
Wait
Run For Your Life

The British release omits "I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love" but includes "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "What Goes On" and George Harrison's awesome "If I Needed Someone."  I think the theory behind this is that they wanted this album to appear more "folksie" for American audiences based on the recent successes of Dylan and bands like The Byrds.  But what do record companies know anyways?  Just ask Tony Meehan of Decca records!

An absolute classic record, RUBBER SOUL provides a nice bridge from the "early" Beatles' sound to the psychedelic stuff that was looming right around the corner.  

RATING: 5 girls who put you down when friends are there out of 5

Sitting in the stand of the sports arena, waiting for the show to begin...

Wings - "Venus & Mars" (1975) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We've got a bit of British Fever with the 2012 Olympics going on in London right now, so we're drinking warm pints and playing darts while listening to a little Wings on the turntable tonight!

Recorded in New Orleans, Venus & Mars is the fourth album by Wings.  Its not as good as its predecessor-- Band on the Run-- but much better than its follow-up-- Wings at the Speed of Sound. 

Setting the mood is the lo-fi opener, "Venus & Mars"; an acoustic, minute-long song about the anticipation in the audience before a rock concert begins.  This blends right into the raucous and aptly-titled "Rock Show" (best lyric: "It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page / It's like a relic from a different age").      

Next up is the pretty-- and criminally underrated-- ballad, "Love in Song" featuring some fantastic McCartney melodies.  This might be the best song on the entire album! 

"You Gave Me the Answer" is an old-timey, show tuney-thing and "Magneto & Titanium Man" is a fun tribute to some of McCartney's favorite Marvel comic characters.  Side One ends with the bluesy, soulful "Letting Go", featuring some very New Orleans-style horns.  

Side Two starts out a little on the proggy-side of things.  There's a reprise of "Venus & Mars", except this time the lyrics are about boarding a starship and going away on a "strange vacation."  Sticking with the prog-inspired theme, next up is "Spirits of Ancient Egypt" with ex-Moody Blue, Denny Laine, on lead vocals. 

Venus & Mars is the first Wings album to feature British guitarist, Jimmy McCulloch.  Not only does he contribute some great bluesy leads, but he writes and sings the drug-addled, "Medicine Jar" (Sample lyric: There's more to life than blues and reds / I know how you feel, now your friends are dead.)  McCulloch sounds like a cross between John Lennon & Ace Frehley;  it sort of makes me wish that he and McCartney collaborated on more tunes together!  (McCulloch would die of a Heroin overdose in '79.)

Paul is back on lead vocals for "Call Me Back Again"-- an incredibly soulful tune that features some of McCartney's strongest vocals since his days as a Beatle.  What a showstopper!   

Oh Darling! If the album had only ended there it would near perfect!  Instead, the over-produced, slick-sounding hit "Listen to What the Man Said" sticks out like a sore thumb.  If I wasn't drunk right now, I'd pick the needle up and skip right over this song!  Enough with the sax solo!

The album ends on a nice, redeeming nostalgic note with "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People".  Venus and Mars are alright tonight, indeed!

RATING: 4.5 glasses of strawberry wine* out of 5

(* yuck!) 

click thru for the first three songs from Wings 1976 concert film, Rockshow...

RAM & Wild Life

Hello friends...

Tonight on Vinyl in the Valley we've got two early Paul McCartney albums on tap.  RAM and Wild Life both came out in 1971.  The former was the only album released as "Paul & Linda McCartney" and features the ex-Beatle McCartney grabbing a goat (er, ram) by horns on the cover.   

"Get baaaaaa-ck!"

Our second LP tonight, Wild Life, is the first-- and oft-overlooked-- Wings album. 

Both LPs are criminally underappreciated masterpieces filled with pretty melodies, quirky lyrics and subtle & not-so subtle jabs at John Lennon.  Both LPs are also much more lo-fi than is usually thought of with Paul McCartney/Wings songs. 

From the cover art to the sound effects to the sounds of the recordings, there's a pretty cool DIY attitude with these that kind of foreshadows a lot of the American Indie rock that will succeed them by 20 years or so.

The biggest "hit" on either of these is "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" from the RAM LP.   However, the title track from Wild Life is the crowning jewel of these two amazing records.   In 1971, I guess the only thing Paul was more passionate about than hating John Lennon was singing about hanging out with animals.

These albums would both pair well with a nice veal shank.

RATING(S):

Both Albums: 4.5 out of 5