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.
Review of Sound City
