When he left Seattle with his band Nirvana in the early 1990s, drummer Dave Grohl was initially excited his group would be recording their first major label album at famous Sound City recording studios in Van Nuys, CA...that is, until he saw the place. Described by many as "a real s***hole," the cluttered, crowded studio--downwind of a brewery!--was considered outdated by 1992, but was about to experience a resurrection after Nirvana's "Nevermind" went to number-one. Now closed for business, Sound City's history is fascinatingly laid-out by director and co-producer Grohl, who charts the studio's early successes beginning in 1973 with help from the artists who were there (Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Rick Springfield). Grohl--who purchased Sound City's revolutionary analog mixing console, the Neve 8028, and moved it into his home studio--proves to have a surprisingly sentimental side for the ramshackle place and its colorful crew, but comes up short on narrative (at one point, engineer Keith Olsen defects and opens his own studio "next door," but we never see the studio and aren't told of its fate). The documentary's third act, with Grohl and his all-star friends recording a hard-rocking tribute album to Sound City using the Neve, is stretched out too far and stalls the nostalgic momentum, but otherwise this is a respectful, thoughtfully-composed and moving musical journal. *** from ****
