If this trailer for “Sound City” doesn”t simultaneously make your pulse race and make you tear up a little, then you might want to go ahead and crawl back into bed and contemplate if your heart is three sizes too small.
As previously reported, the Dave Grohl-directed documentary, which will have its grand coming out party at Sundance in January, lovingly details the Van Nuys, Calif”s studios rise-it”s where Nirvana”s “Nevermind” was recorded along with several other classics- as well as its fall when it failed to keep up with the digital times.
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The studio was a bit of a mess, as one participant says, the brown shag carpet on the walls, well, “that”s the kind of thing you”d do to your van.” Sound City was the place “where real men went to make records,” says another.
The new trailer for the documentary gives a great overview of the studio, where Neil Young, Tom Petty, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac and so many more recorded, and questions what happens when a studio fails to keep up with progress? The bigger question Grohl posits is “In this age of technology, where you can manipulate anything, how do we retain that human element?”
Grohl, who will also deliver the keynote speech at SXSW in March, conceived the idea of the documentary after he purchased the Neve recording console, which apparently had a life of its own, from Sound City last year.
There are many reasons to like Grohl, who is one of the most beloved figures in rock, but one of the most endearing is obvious right in the trailer. He is no music snob. Rick Springfield, who recorded at Sound City, gets more air time in the trailer than Neil Young, Trent Reznor, or Stevie Nicks. Plus, a quick list of the other interviewees includes Barry Manilow. It”s probably safe to say it”s the only time that Manilow and Lee Ving have appeared in the same film.
Following its Sundance debut, “Sound City” will come out in February.