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Report: Dave Grohl to host HBO series about recording studios


Jim Feeley

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Dave Grohl to host TV series about recording studios

The show will air on the HBO network and see the Foo Fighters man visiting studios across North America

 

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has been given his own television show by the HBO network.

Classic Rock writes that the former Nirvana drummer's show will expand on his Sound City film and look at iconic recording studios across North America, including locations in New York, Seattle and Nashville. Sound City told the story of the legendary studio of the same name in Los Angeles. 

 

Rest of the brief story:

http://www.nme.com/news/foo-fighters/77310

 

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Huh. Recording studios are cool, and I thought the Sound City doc was OK. But a whole series.... will require some really good storytelling.

 

On the other hand, pretty good odds of the series sounding great.

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The Plant would make a good episode.

I dig the Classic Track stories on SOS. For example:

CLASSIC TRACKS: The Ronettes 'Be My Baby'

Producer: Phil Spector • Engineer: Larry Levine

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr07/articles/classictracks_0407.htm

And of course (some of) the interviews in TapeOp:

http://tapeop.com/interviews/

And more locally, there's this book by Heather Johnson (of Mix magazine) from a few years ago:

If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour through San Francisco Recording Studios

http://www.amazon.com/These-Halls-Could-Talk-Historical/dp/1598631411/

But without giving it much thought, it seems to me that a general audience might tire of weekly "but the bass player didn't show up"..."the record label kept interfering"..."luckily, we had a LA-2A"..."the vibe was really magic."

I guess I worry the show might end up like this:

But maybe we'll get lucky and it'll end up more like Sound City or Muscle Shoals (a bit hagiographic, but still fun):

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Wow, that is fantastic. There was a terrific book, Temples of Sound, about American recording studios a few years back, with some pretty iconic photos of major studios that are no longer around like GoldStar (home to many classic Phil Spector and Beach Boys hits), Chess Records, and Radio Recorders:

 

51AYA92RFCL._SS500_.jpg

 

Some amazing stories in there. 

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Thanks Marc, I was looking for my copy of this book so I could recommend it as well. Hopefully in the near future the film "The Wrecking Crew" will be released. It has a lot of great footage and stills from the great LA studios in it plus a lot of history of those who made the music.

CrewC

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While I was in high school I recorded in Goldstar studios. That was when I became interested in sound and decided to drop the idea of being a rock star. Later, in the early 70's I worked at Wally Heiders, San Francisco. I worked with Tower of Power, Sly Stone, Jefferson Starship and a whole lot of weird groups. My mentor was an engineer named Jim Gaines.

     When the Record Plant opened in Sausalito the competition killed us. I moved back to Topanga and went to work at Motown.

 

                              J.D.

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Anyone on this side of the pond remember the excellent West Heath Yard starring Edwyn Collins with several great guests? I think it only aired twice (10 x 20-odd minute episodes) around 97-2000 and in the far corners of the night - it was before Collins' almost tragic brain damage (he's thankfully made some recovery). A wonderful and very real mockery of the music biz and studio scene.

 

I also enjoyed Sound City by the way which aired here on BBC4 - I hope the series does turn out good and find an extra home over here soon.

 

Jez Adamson

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