8/10/2019 Dave Grohl takes personal journey trough American music in Sonic Highways (Noel Murray).pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dave-grohl-takes-personal-journey-trough-american-music-in-sonic-highways-noel 1/4

Dave Grohl takes a personal journey through American music inDave Grohl takes a personal journey through American music inSonic HighwaysSonic Highways

The HBO series is an often-moving passion project for the Foo Fighters frontman.

By Noel Murray  Oct 15, 2014 • 12:00 AM

Most rock musicians make terrible teachers, because so many of them learned through a process of trial, error, andaccidental inspiration, which makes it harder for them to explain how they wrote a song, or how other bands influenced

them. But then there are the rockers who are lovable, helpful nerds—like Dave Grohl, founder of Foo Fighters and former

drummer of Nirvana. Grohl’s someone who gushes over what he loves, and is more than happy to talk process, believing

that the particulars of how a recording studio works or where a lyric came from are cool things to know.

In 2013, Grohl poured all of that wonkishness into the documentary Sound City, a tribute to where he recorded Nevermind

with Nirvana, and a testament to the idea that when it comes to making music, location matters. Grohl’s new HBO series

Sonic Highways is partly an extension of Sound City, and partly Grohl’s way of forcing himself to make a new Foo Fighters

album in another way. Much like Sound City was anchored by a marathon recording session with Grohl and his famousfriends, each hour-long episode of Sonic Highways documents the recording of a single song. The Foo Fighters arrived in

eight different cities, in eight historically significant studios, with the music for new songs that Grohl would then finish on-

site, inspired by his surroundings. Each episode follows the progress of the song, but more importantly, the series gets into

the histor of each cit ’s music scene, and how it directl and indirectl influenced Grohl.

91 Comments

TV REVIEW

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

8/10/2019 Dave Grohl takes personal journey trough American music in Sonic Highways (Noel Murray).pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dave-grohl-takes-personal-journey-trough-american-music-in-sonic-highways-noel 2/4

 

In the first two episodes of Sonic Highways, an uncomfortable question presents itself, asking whether this show is meant

to be a grand statement on American music or a Grohl autobiography. The broader approach tends to be weaker, put

across with generalities like “Chicago has always been a mecca for music of all sorts,” “You have to know your past in order

to know your future,” and “Cities are changed by the people who go there, but the people are changed, too.” It’s really only

when Sonic Highways gets personal that the series becomes something special.

The disconnect between these two modes is especially bothersome in the first episode, “Chicago.” After a quick run-through of the major musicians who made their home in Chicago—from Gene Krupa to Kanye West to Wilco to, yes,

Chicago—the episode settles into talking about Chess Records, Cheap Trick, and the city’s ’80s punk scene. Grohl has a long

interview with Buddy Guy, who talks about recording for Chess and befriending Muddy Waters, and Grohl tries his best to

tie the DIY spirits of blues and punk together. But the R&B material in “Chicago” comes off as more academic, with none of 

the enthusiasm Grohl shows in the scenes of him hanging out with Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen.

But “Chicago” also shows what Grohl alone can bring to this project. Whether he’s talking with the cousin who introduced

him to punk or he’s visiting irascible producer Steve Albini (who worked with Grohl on Nirvana’s In Utero), there’s a sense

of connection that goes beyond “here are a bunch of Chicago bands you should know.” When Grohl and Albini talk aboutNaked Raygun, they bring with them memories of how the Chicago punk scene grew, one all-ages Cubby Bear show at a

time. When “Chicago” waxes rhapsodic about Wax Trax Records, it has LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to reminisce

about the importance of witheringly snobby record-store clerks in the development of a young person’s musical taste. The

best parts of “Chicago” are a ll like this—all first-hand.

Sonic Highways’ second episode, “Washington D.C.,” is better integrated (in every sense of the word). Grohl, who grew up

in suburban Virginia and was an active part of the 1980s D.C. scene, dives directly into the dichotomies of Washington,

exploring the divides between urban and suburban, black and white, and funk and punk. The Foo Fighters’ songwriting

and recording process is almost an afterthought in “D.C.,” which instead proceeds deliberately though a passionate mini-history of go-go clubs, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Inner Ear Studio, and the growing politicization of the various

underground musical movements happening in Washington during the Reagan/Bush years. Again, Grohl approaches all

of this from an affectingly personal place, as someone who remembers when “downtown was a place you went on field

trips”—and again, Sonic Highways has some electrifying archival footage, of Bad Brains’ H.R. and Minor Threat’s Ian

MacKaye screaming and writhing across the stage. “D.C.” also features a lot of sound bites from the gregarious MacKaye,

whose journey from Ted Nugent fan to punk hero mirrors Grohl’s.

(Actually, “Washington D.C.” feels like it should be Sonic Highways’ first episode, but perhaps “Chicago” precedes it so that

Grohl can pay proper homage to Cheap Trick’s Live At Budokan, with a hearty “this next one is the first song on our new

album.”)

As heartfelt as it is, Sonic Highways still comes up short here and there. Grohl includes Ministry in the montage of acts in

“Chicago,” but otherwise leaves out the city’s rich history of industrial and electronic music. “Washington D.C.” focuses on

Dischord Records, but ignores the equally vital indie labels Teen Beat and Simple Machines (the latter of which put out

Grohl’s solo project Pocketwatch). And frankly, as nerdy as Grohl is,Sonic Highways could stand to be nerdier. For example,

when Grohl praises Albini’s “signature sound,” it’d be great if he explained what that sound actually is.

That said, Sonic Highways does dig deeper than a lot of other musician-centric documentaries do. The “Chicago” episode

doesn’t just mention Albini’s unorthodox “no royalties” approach to working as a producer—a stance that cost him a

healthy ongoing payday with In Utero in particular—it delves into exactly what that means for Albini, who says he has to

average $1,000 a day to keep his studio open, and has gone deep into debt several times. Similarly, when Grohl talks with

go-go pioneers Trouble Funk, he leaves in the moment when one of its members asks if maybe Trouble Funk could tour

 

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

8/10/2019 Dave Grohl takes personal journey trough American music in Sonic Highways (Noel Murray).pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dave-grohl-takes-personal-journey-trough-american-music-in-sonic-highways-noel 3/4

All Recent

Feature Jump

Coming Distractions

Savage LoveContests

 RSS

About Us

Contact

Media Kit

 JobsPrivacy Policy

LINKS AND SUCH

  .

That kind of self-awareness from Grohl—knowing that he’s reached a level of success far beyond the people who helped

feed his roots—deepens Sonic Highways in incalculable ways. Without making too big a deal about it, Grohl contrasts

himself with Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who admits in “Chicago” that he doesn’t really know or care much

about the blues, and in “Washington D.C.” confesses that he’s never been part of any kind of indie scene. And Grohl

himself admits that the unusual method of recording this new Foo Fighters album is just a way for a seen-it-all/done-it-all

veteran rock band to introduce some novelty. Sonic Highways subtly acknowledges the differences between the scholarly

and the intuitive, and between the mega-millionaires and the guys still making records in their basements.

Grohl knows he’s fortunate to have played in two of the most popular rock bands of the past 25 years, and to have the

backing of HBO and the well-heeled production company Worldwide Pants Inc. (whose founder, David Letterman, is a big

Foo Fighters fan, hailing them for going out every night and “fighting foo”). But Grohl also knows none of this happened by

chance. Sonic Highways is about Chicago, D.C., Austin, Seattle, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, and Los Angeles; but it’s

also about Grohl, remembering where he came from and what he owes.

Created by: Dave Grohl

Starring: Foo Fighters

 Debuts: Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern on HBO

 Format: Hour-long documentary

Two episodes watched for review

FILED UNDER: TV, Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, Sonic Highways

It’l l take more than one try for Marry Me’s proposal to stick Headed to a new network, American Dad remains TV’s most lovably shocking 

show 

91 Comments

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

8/10/2019 Dave Grohl takes personal journey trough American music in Sonic Highways (Noel Murray).pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dave-grohl-takes-personal-journey-trough-american-music-in-sonic-highways-noel 4/4

 

© Copyright 2014 Onion Inc. All Rights Reserved.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com