Sound City

This movie follows the life of a legendary recording studio called Sound City. Well, it really follows the story of the sound board inside, a one of a kind custom made Neve Console, and that board has life after the studio (spoiler alert: it involves Paul McCartney). Dave Grohl is the man behind the documentary, his band Nirvana, you may have heard of them, recorded Nevermind there, and once he heard the studio was closing, he snatched up that Neve and it now lives in his own studio, 606. Anyway, with a cast that includes Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Rick Rubin, Trent Reznor, and more, so many more, well, don't you just want to watch for yourself?!



They had a one-night showing of the movie in some select theaters last Thursday, and there a few more screenings scheduled, but you can watch it on online for only 12 bucks. Now we just wait for the album release...

You can also hear a couple rad interviews with Grohl on Marc Maron's WTF podcast and The Nerdist podcast. I seriously wish I could get as excited about anything as Grohl seems to be about everything.

McCartney/Grohl/Novoselic/Smear

Last night was the epic (and epicly long) 12/12/12 concert benefiting victims of Hurricane Sandy, which was probably the coolest collection of rock acts and appearances since Live Aid. While the highlight of the concert for me may have been Paul McCartney's closing "Live And Let Die" fire show (I just can't get over how amazing it was live), the most notable act of the night was McCartney fronting what was essentially a Nirvana reunion. It's the first time that Dave Grohl, Kurt Novoselic and Pat Smear have played publicly together in almost 20 years. But instead of playing a Nirvana song, (which lets be honest, woulda been sorta weird, but we all woulda freaked over it anyway) they played a new song called "Cut Me Some Slack." And it rocked.

"Oh yeah."

Sir Paul

“Are you sure you don’t want to take somebody else?”


“Are you really going to pass up an opportunity to see a Beatle!?”

Absolutely not. Especially when you put it that way! My thinking was that someone like a Beatles fanatic, or one of our parents should rightfully go over little ‘ol me, but I quickly realized what a unique opportunity* it is (I mean, what other band has members so distinctive that you would actually call them A fillinbandnamehere?!), and one that my boyfriend wanted to share with me.

The man in question is, of course, Sir Paul McCartney. Last night Tankboy brought me as his +1 to see his “On The Run” tour at Wrigley Field. You might expect a performance from something or someone so legendary to be uber professional and stuffy, but then you have to remember this is the guy who wrote songs like “Helter Skelter” and was part of a very small club who defined rock as we know it. Of course still wildly pro, Sir Paul gave a rather informal performance--interacting with the crowd, making jokes, telling anecdotes (from his seemingly endless catalog) and just plain goofing off and dancing between songs.

Besides being nearly 3 hours of hit after hit after hit after sing-a-long hit, the most memorable moment of the night by far was “Live and Let Die.” I sure would like to have seen the look on my face through this and a couple of other songs! As Tankboy said, there was fire everywhere--puffs of flames and explosions on the stage, fireworks behind the stage (to get an idea of how close we were, I could feel the heat on my face--but at 23 rows back, that gives you an idea of how much fire there actually was!); it was pretty damn cool.

Thanks again to my lovely boyfriend for bringing me! It was such a contrast from the night before, when we were at a friend’s place for a small, intimate outdoor house concert from singer/songwriter Megan Burtt--not to undercut either! Both are incredibly unique experiences, from one end of the spectrum to the other. I get to experience some pretty amazing things, and I feel lucky for every one of them!

*So unique, that over several conversations on the subject of taking kids to see Sir Paul, I concluded that if I had one, and my partner had two tickets, without blinking I’d say, “take the kid.” Having seen a Beatle will be a much rarer and coveted experience as time presses on.