Sound City

★★★

(2012)

Dave Grohl's directorial debut traces the history of the brown carpeted and beer soaked legendary Sound City Studios. A recording space in Van Nuys in Los Angeles known for its crunching drum sounds and analogue Neve 8028 recording desk it has hosted and produced a number of influential records including LPs by Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana and Neil Young. Grohl remembers his time at Sound City and interviews a host of rock and roll legends while he parallels an iconic piece of musical history with a growing number of stabs at the age of digital.

Though not for everyone, certainly a film by a music buff for music buffs, Sound City is a tastefully constructed and edited documentary pushed along carefully and narrated by "the nicest man in rock and roll". The interviews are full of beautiful little tales of woe and wonder and Grohl's passion shines through. It is as sharply sound-tracked as you might imagine, with tracks from The Mac, Metallica, NIN and none other than Rick Springfield being constructed and deconstructed but all of this nice work is nearly upended in the final 20 minutes of Sound City when Grohl's nostalgia seems to get the better of him.

If you know the eventual history of the studio and are a fan of Grohl and his music, you may already know the whereabouts of the legendary desk. But even though Sound City unravels as a film into a supergroup recording project for a record of Grohl's own making with "special guest stars" including Paul McCartney, Josh Homme and Trent Reznor the film is a fair and well written love letter to the spontaneity of tape recording and the preservation of musical history made by a genuine and respectful rocker.