Sound City: Real to Reel

Overview

Sound City, Dave Grohl's love letter to the golden age of recording studios, plays very differently as an album than it does a documentary. On the screen, Grohl devotes a significant amount of time tracing the history of Sound City Studios, the legendary Los Angeles studio where such rock classics as Fleetwood Mac's Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes, Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion, Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog, Foreigner's Double Vision, and Nirvana's Nevermind were recorded. Sound City closed in 2011, and Grohl not only wound up purchasing the studio's Neve mixing board, he made his film as a tribute to this golden age of rock and, then, decided to make an accompanying album of all-new songs using that board in his own home studio, finalizing his salute to the golden age of analog. Grohl brought in friends and colleagues, including his longtime jam partner Josh Homme, then invited a bunch of Sound City veterans like Springfield, Stevie Nicks, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, and Fear's Lee Ving to cut new songs. He also roped in Paul McCartney to play with Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear -- aka, the surviving members of Nirvana -- a nifty coup that earned the project tons of publicity and resulted in a pretty good little rocker called "Cut Me Some Slack." It's not the only tune here with an immediate hook or melody -- Nicks' "You Can't Fix This" isn't bad, Ving's "Your Wife Is Calling" conjures a bit of Fear, and Rick Springfield's "The Man That Never Was" is rather excellent -- but it's one of only a handful, as the rest of Sound City: Real to Reel sounds exactly like what it is: a bunch of old rockers jamming in a studio. Often, this is quite enjoyable, as they're all excellent musicians playing through a top-notch board, but the songs do have a tendency to drift away from the point, sounding like exceedingly well-executed first drafts. It is telling that the songs that do catch hold all come from survivors of the golden age of classic rock, musicians who can knock out a well-sculpted song without too much effort, and that is as much a testament to the heyday of Sound City as the soundtrack itself. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	03/12/2013
Label:	Columbia / Rca
UPC:	0887654499226
Rank:	63920

Tracks

1. Heaven and All  - Robert Levon Been  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - Peter Hayes  - John Lousteau  - Butch Vig
2. Time Slowing Down  - James Brown  - Tim Commerford  - Chris Goss  - Dave Grohl  - John Lousteau  - Jim Scott  - Brad Wilk
3. You Can't Fix This  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - Taylor Hawkins  - Rami Jaffee  - Chris Lord-Alge  - John Lousteau  - Stevie Nicks  - Butch Vig
4. The Man That Never Was  - Matt Bissonette  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - Taylor Hawkins  - John Lousteau  - Nate Mendel  - Chris Shiflett  - Pat Smear  - Rick Springfield  - Butch Vig
5. Your Wife Is Calling  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - Taylor Hawkins  - Alain Johannes  - John Lousteau  - Pat Smear  - Butch Vig  - Lee Ving
6. From Can to Can¿¿¿t  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - John Lousteau  - Rick Nielsen  - Scott Reeder  - Corey Taylor  - Butch Vig
7. Centipede  - James Brown  - Chris Goss  - Dave Grohl  - Joshua Homme  - Alain Johannes  - John Lousteau  - Butch Vig
8. A Trick with No Sleeve  - James Brown  - Chris Goss  - Dave Grohl  - Joshua Homme  - Alain Johannes  - John Lousteau  - Butch Vig
9. Cut Me Some Slack  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - John Lousteau  - Paul McCartney  - Krist Novoselic  - Pat Smear  - Butch Vig
10. If I Were Me  - James Brown  - Jessy Greene  - Dave Grohl  - Rami Jaffee  - Jim Keltner  - John Lousteau
11. Mantra  - James Brown  - Dave Grohl  - Joshua Homme  - John Lousteau  - Trent Reznor

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Taylor Hawkins   Primary Artist
Joshua Homme   Primary Artist
Peter Hayes   Primary Artist
Stevie Nicks   Primary Artist
Jim Keltner   Primary Artist
Robert Levon Been   Primary Artist
Scott Reeder   Primary Artist
Brad Wilk   Primary Artist
Tim Commerford   Primary Artist
Alain Johannes   Primary Artist
Rick Springfield   Primary Artist
Lee Ving   Primary Artist
Dave Grohl   Primary Artist
Pat Smear   Primary Artist
Krist Novoselic   Primary Artist
Chris Goss   Primary Artist
Corey Taylor   Primary Artist
Paul McCartney   Primary Artist
Trent Reznor   Primary Artist
Rami Jaffee   Primary Artist
Nate Mendel   Primary Artist
Rick Nielsen   Primary Artist
Jessy Greene   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Dave Grohl   Composer
Taylor Hawkins   Composer
Lee Ving   Composer
Stevie Nicks   Composer
Rick Springfield   Composer
James Brown   Engineer,Mixing
Emily Lazar   Mastering
Alain Johannes   Composer
Butch Vig   Producer
Tim Commerford   Composer
Derek Silverman   Engineering Support
Matt Bissonette   Composer
Pat Smear   Composer
Krist Novoselic   Composer
Jim Keltner   Composer
Chris Goss   Composer
Chris Shiflett   Composer
Joe LaPorta   Mastering
Corey Taylor   Composer
Robert Levon Been   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Joshua Homme   Composer
Trent Reznor   Composer
Jim Scott   Engineer
Scott Reeder   Composer
Rami Jaffee   Composer
Chris Lord-Alge   Mixing
Peter Hayes   Composer
Rick Nielsen   Composer
Brad Wilk   Composer
Jessy Greene   Composer
Sami Ansari   Photography
John Lousteau   Engineer