Various Artists - Sound City: Real To Reel 606 (2013)

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.
The soundtrack received two Grammy Awards: Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Rock Song, with "Cut Me Some Slack".


01.  Robert Levon Been, Dave Grohl, Peter Hayes - Heaven And All   - 5:28 
02.  Chris Goss, Tim Commerford, Dave Grohl, Brad Wilk - Time Slowing Down  - 6:00 
03.  Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee - You Can't Fix This   - 5:59 
04.  Rick Springfield, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear - The Man That Never Was  - 3:26 
05.  Lee Ving, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Alain Johannes, Pat Smear - Your Wife Is Calling  - 3:22 
06.  Corey Taylor, Dave Grohl, Rick Nielsen, Scott Reeder - From Can To Can't - 4:53 
07.  Josh Homme, Chris Goss, Dave Grohl, Alain Johannes - Centipede - 5:11 
08.  Alain Johannes, Josh Homme, Dave Grohl - A Trick With No Sleeve  - 4:58 
09.  Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Pat Smear - Cut Me Some Slack  - 4:40 
10.  Dave Grohl, Jessy Greene, Rami Jaffee, Jim Keltner - If I Were Me - 4:14 
11.  Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor - Mantra  - 7:43

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

Credits
Engineer [Additional Engineering Support From] – Derek Silverman
Engineer [Second Engineer] – John Lousteau, Jim Scott
Management – SAM
Mastered By – Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta
Mixed By – Chris Lord-Alge, James Brown
Mastering - Joe LaPorta, Emily Lazar
Composer - Matt Bissonette, Chris Shiflett
Producer - Butch Vig

Notes
Art Direction, Design – Morning Breath Inc.
Other [Business Management At Vwc Management Inc.] – Lee Johnson
Other [Legal Representation At King, Holmes, Paterno & Berliner, Llp] – Jill Berlinger
Photography By – Sami Ansari
Duration - 55:48
Genre - Alternative Rock, Grunge, Hardrock
© 2013 Roswell Records, RCA March 12