SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl Leads Sound City Players in Last Show

Dave Grohl and Alain Johannes perform at Citi Presents Sound City Players Live at SXSW on March 14th, 2013 in Austin, Texas.

Dave Grohl made a promise when he took the stage with his Sound City Players last night in Austin for a performance that doubled as their SXSW debut and, he said, their last-ever show. "This is gonna be a long fuckin' night," the singer, guitarist, drummer and now documentarian announced at Stubb's.

True to his word, Grohl led the Sound City Players through a three hour and 20 minute concert comprising nearly 40 songs, featuring Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield and more, backed by a house band made up mostly of Foo Fighters. All the acts have recorded at the beloved Sound City studios in Los Angeles, which was the subject of Grohl's recent documentary by the same name and the inspiration for the accompanying soundtrack album, Sound City – Real to Reel.

SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl's Keynote Speech

Afternoon rumors that Paul McCartney would make an appearance proved unfounded, but it's hard to imagine where they would have slotted him in. The show, presented by Citi, required seven different set lists as guests rotated through and the songs veered from heavy to poppy and back again.

Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Alain Johannes was the first to join the Sound City Players onstage, singing and playing thunderous guitar on a handful of songs, including "Hanging Tree," which he co-wrote for QOTSA, and "Reach Out" by his former band Eleven.

Nicks was next, and she surrounded a somber new song, "You Can't Fix This," with more familiar fare from her own catalog and Fleetwood Mac's, including a version of "Landslide" with Grohl accompanying her on a 12-string acoustic guitar. 

After Nicks finished with "Gold Dust Woman," given added heft by the Foo Fighters, she yielded to Chris Goss from Masters of Reality. Rage Against the Machine (and now Black Sabbath) drummer Brad Wilk laid down a speedy train rhythm that pushed through squalls of guitar on "She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On)," while "Time Slowing Down" was a mid-tempo brooder.

Fear leader Lee Ving joined Grohl and company for a quick tour of old-school hardcore, barking out lyrics in a voice with the gnarled bite of an old-growth thorn tree. "It may be short, but you still get the same number of notes because we play 'em fast," Ving said after the 60-second blast "Gimme Some Action."

Following Ving with Springfield was an incongruous choice, as Grohl acknowledged, but the singer launched into a string of catchy hits, including "I've Done Everything for You" and, of course, "Jessie's Girl," that served as a strong reminder of his pop bona fides.

That's about when things started getting loose. Grohl switched to drums as former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear joined him, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor and Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen for a mini-set that slid quickly into sing-along, pump-your-fist versions of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" (with Taylor Hawkins trading off with Taylor on vocals) and "Surrender." 

Finally, Fogerty came out and shut things down with a quick spin through some Creedence Clearwater Revival songs and his own "Centerfield." Grohl looked positively delighted when Fogerty played the vibrato guitar lick that opens "Born on a Bayou," and the band rolled easily through "Bad Moon Rising" and "Proud Mary" before ending the show with a high-octane version of "Fortunate Son."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl Leads Sound City Players in Last Show

Dave Grohl and Alain Johannes perform at Citi Presents Sound City Players Live at SXSW on March 14th, 2013 in Austin, Texas.

Dave Grohl made a promise when he took the stage with his Sound City Players last night in Austin for a performance that doubled as their SXSW debut and, he said, their last-ever show. "This is gonna be a long fuckin' night," the singer, guitarist, drummer and now documentarian announced at Stubb's.

True to his word, Grohl led the Sound City Players through a three hour and 20 minute concert comprising nearly 40 songs, featuring Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield and more, backed by a house band made up mostly of Foo Fighters. All the acts have recorded at the beloved Sound City studios in Los Angeles, which was the subject of Grohl's recent documentary by the same name and the inspiration for the accompanying soundtrack album, Sound City – Real to Reel.

SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl's Keynote Speech

Afternoon rumors that Paul McCartney would make an appearance proved unfounded, but it's hard to imagine where they would have slotted him in. The show, presented by Citi, required seven different set lists as guests rotated through and the songs veered from heavy to poppy and back again.

Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Alain Johannes was the first to join the Sound City Players onstage, singing and playing thunderous guitar on a handful of songs, including "Hanging Tree," which he co-wrote for QOTSA, and "Reach Out" by his former band Eleven.

Nicks was next, and she surrounded a somber new song, "You Can't Fix This," with more familiar fare from her own catalog and Fleetwood Mac's, including a version of "Landslide" with Grohl accompanying her on a 12-string acoustic guitar. 

After Nicks finished with "Gold Dust Woman," given added heft by the Foo Fighters, she yielded to Chris Goss from Masters of Reality. Rage Against the Machine (and now Black Sabbath) drummer Brad Wilk laid down a speedy train rhythm that pushed through squalls of guitar on "She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On)," while "Time Slowing Down" was a mid-tempo brooder.

Fear leader Lee Ving joined Grohl and company for a quick tour of old-school hardcore, barking out lyrics in a voice with the gnarled bite of an old-growth thorn tree. "It may be short, but you still get the same number of notes because we play 'em fast," Ving said after the 60-second blast "Gimme Some Action."

Following Ving with Springfield was an incongruous choice, as Grohl acknowledged, but the singer launched into a string of catchy hits, including "I've Done Everything for You" and, of course, "Jessie's Girl," that served as a strong reminder of his pop bona fides.

That's about when things started getting loose. Grohl switched to drums as former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear joined him, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor and Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen for a mini-set that slid quickly into sing-along, pump-your-fist versions of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" (with Taylor Hawkins trading off with Taylor on vocals) and "Surrender." 

Finally, Fogerty came out and shut things down with a quick spin through some Creedence Clearwater Revival songs and his own "Centerfield." Grohl looked positively delighted when Fogerty played the vibrato guitar lick that opens "Born on a Bayou," and the band rolled easily through "Bad Moon Rising" and "Proud Mary" before ending the show with a high-octane version of "Fortunate Son."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Dave Grohl, John Fogerty Lead Sound City Players on 'Kimmel'

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Dave Grohl's Sound City Players keep rolling, with the all-star jam session packing Hollywood Boulevard last night as part of a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Grohl and John Fogerty anchored a scorching version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Fortunate Son," trading verses and singing harmony on the chorus while Taylor Hawkins propelled the tune with a loose, rollicking backbeat. It was the latest in a growing string of gigs by the Sound City Players, who will also be performing at SXSW in Austin on March 14th. The group grew out Grohl's recent Sound City documentary, about the famed L.A. recording studio.

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Dave Grohl, John Fogerty Lead Sound City Players on 'Kimmel'

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Dave Grohl's Sound City Players keep rolling, with the all-star jam session packing Hollywood Boulevard last night as part of a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Grohl and John Fogerty anchored a scorching version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Fortunate Son," trading verses and singing harmony on the chorus while Taylor Hawkins propelled the tune with a loose, rollicking backbeat. It was the latest in a growing string of gigs by the Sound City Players, who will also be performing at SXSW in Austin on March 14th. The group grew out Grohl's recent Sound City documentary, about the famed L.A. recording studio.

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Dave Grohl's Sound City Players Book Sole New York Show

Alain Johannes, Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Sound City Players in Park City, Utah.

Dave Grohl's Sound City Players took over Sundance last month with a three-plus hour performance celebrating his directorial debut on the Sound City documentary in style. The show boasted an all-star lineup of musicians featured in the film, with Grohl bringing out friends including Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty and Rick Springfield for the extended set. Now, after performing last night in Los Angeles, Grohl and the Sound City Players have booked a sole New York show set for February 13th at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Q&A: Dave Grohl on His 'Sound City' Doc and Taking Risks in Music

The lineup includes Nicks, Fogerty, Springfield, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, Grohl's Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic, Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear. Tickets will go on sale February 5th at 4 p.m. EST on Ticketmaster.

Sound City, a cinematic love note to the Van Nuys, California, recording studio, is available on the film's website, and its soundtrack, Sound City – Real to Reel, will be released March 12th.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Dave Grohl's Sound City Players Throw Three-Hour Bash in L.A.

Dave Grohl is an evangelist for the soul of rock & roll, and he's gotten into the habit of making his adolescent rock dreams come true. It happened again last night at the Hollywood Palladium, where he was joined by Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, members of Cheap Trick, Rage Against the Machine, Fear and a small army of heroes and contemporaries in celebration of the late, legendary L.A. recording studio Sound City.

For more than three hours, Grohl and his Foo Fighters ripped through a chunk of rock & roll history, from pop to punk to classic rock, immediately following the premiere of his inspired new documentary, Sound City: Real to Reel, at the old Cinerama Dome blocks away.

"They made a movie about it, but they missed one little part," Fogerty shouted early in his set with the Foos, dressed in jeans and flannel shirt, looking over at Grohl. "What we got in common is we all love that guy right there."

Fogerty rocked through five Creedence Clearwater Revival standards and his 1985 solo hit "Centerfield," the last one played on a baseball bat-shaped guitar. Grohl shouted along to "Born on the Bayou" and traded verses on "Fortunate Son." At the close of "Bad Moon Rising," Grohl looked up with hands in praying position, one more dream fulfilled.

The night's closing set had the Foos led by Nicks, beginning with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," her 1981 hit with Tom Petty. Grohl was her singing partner this time, and Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett plucked dreamy bits of electric guitar.

Video: Dave Grohl's 'Sound City' Doc Gets Trailer          
Nicks arrived in black dress and tinted glasses, blonde hair past her shoulders, banging a tambourine. Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" unfolded amid undulating, spacey waves of sound and feeling. For "Landslide," Grohl backed up Nicks alone on 12-string acoustic, as the crowd sang and lifted up their glowing cell phones. One guy deep in the crowd kept it analog, holding up a single cigarette lighter.

Before beginning the soundtrack's dramatic "You Can't Fix This," Nicks explained that the song was based on a poem inspired by the recent death of her teenage godson at a fraternity party, a somber but moving note in an otherwise celebratory evening. And her set-closing "Gold Dust Woman" was dark and smoldering, rising from a noisy swirl, closing amid fading waves of feedback and a single, crashing beat from Taylor Hawkins. This summer's Fleetwood Mac tour will have something to live up to.

Between sets, a movie screen descended for excerpts and outtakes from the documentary, including a comment from Fogerty at the core of the film: "It's not the gear, it's not the technology. It's the people."

Sound City, proudly analog and tape-based, was where Nirvana recorded its career-making Nevermind. Grohl's comments at last year's Grammys were widely (mis)interpreted as being anti-EDM, when his sermon was really a warning against perfectionism and polish over the human element. It's the same reason punk rock was invented in the indulgent, glossed-up Seventies.

The night's juxtapositions might have seemed perverse to a musical ideologue, but it hung together as a simple celebration of all that once inspired the concert's generations of rockers. No one was more euphoric than Rick Springfield, who repeatedly tossed his guitar high into the air between songs, including his collaboration with the Foos on the movie soundtrack "The Man That Never Was." His "Jessie's Girl" was one of the night's biggest crowd-pleasers, and like other tunes from his pop-rock catalog, it was toughened up in the hands of the Foos.

Another implausible lineup featured Slipknot/Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, with Grohl on drums, ecstatically running through a set heavy with Cheap Trick hits. "I was in Kansas City 12 hours ago," Taylor told the crowd. "There was no fucking way I was missing this."

Cheap Trick's "Hello There" had Taylor wailing, "Are you ready to rock?" beside Nielsen in traditional bowtie and cap. The Slipknot growler sang "Surrender" as if he was always meant to. "From Can to Can't" (from the soundtrack) was built from a Beatles "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"-like guitar pattern. During Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame," Novoselic kicked high into the air, swinging his bass across the stage, an expression of real joy on his bearded face.

Earlier, Grohl first slipped behind the drums with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, pounding through the brain-scorched psychedelia of "Heaven & All," which opens the documentary's soundtrack, and a stormy "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll" (from BRMC's 2001 debut).

"Dave Grohl rhymes with rock & roll," declared singer-guitarist-producer Chris Goss during his set with the night's ringmaster. Grohl and drummer Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine (and now Black Sabbath) followed him into the overlapping guitar grind of "She Got Me" by Goss's Masters of Reality.

The night began with the Foos backing up Alain Johannes on the soundtrack's "A Trick With No Sleeve," a growling folk tune with an electric guitar shimmer, and Grohl banged his head to the misty-mountain-hop riffs. Johannes is a highly respected L.A. bandleader (Eleven, What Is This? etc.), producer, songwriter and sideman. He's been a member of Queens of the Stone Age and touring guitarist with the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures; last night he led the Foos through QOTSA's "Hangin' Tree," a brooding, driving, shape-shifting song he co-authored with Josh Homme.

Grohl sang harmony and was effussive with praise for the multi-instrumentalist. "I love you, Al," Grohl said to Johannes. "Thank you for playing music with me. You're a fucking genius."

The night turned to first-wave L.A. punk rock with Fear's Lee Ving, opening his set with a blazing harmonica wheeze before growling his signature "One-two-three-four! One-two-three-four!" at hyper-speed. With the Foos (and Johannes on bass), Ving ripped into the soundtrack's taunting "Your Wife is Calling." Soon the band was pounding through Fear's "I Love Livin' in the City," with Hawkins on jackhammer beat.

Foo Fighter guitarist Pat Smear, whose snarling early punk band the Germs came from the same underground L.A. scene, raised a fist as Ving snarled, as only he can, "This is an old-fashioned sing-along."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Dave Grohl's Sound City Players Book Sole New York Show

Alain Johannes, Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Sound City Players in Park City, Utah.

Dave Grohl's Sound City Players took over Sundance last month with a three-plus hour performance celebrating his directorial debut on the Sound City documentary in style. The show boasted an all-star lineup of musicians featured in the film, with Grohl bringing out friends including Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty and Rick Springfield for the extended set. Now, after performing last night in Los Angeles, Grohl and the Sound City Players have booked a sole New York show set for February 13th at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Q&A: Dave Grohl on His 'Sound City' Doc and Taking Risks in Music

The lineup includes Nicks, Fogerty, Springfield, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, Grohl's Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic, Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear. Tickets will go on sale February 5th at 4 p.m. EST on Ticketmaster.

Sound City, a cinematic love note to the Van Nuys, California, recording studio, is available on the film's website, and its soundtrack, Sound City – Real to Reel, will be released March 12th.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Dave Grohl's Sound City Players Throw Three-Hour Bash in L.A.

Dave Grohl is an evangelist for the soul of rock & roll, and he's gotten into the habit of making his adolescent rock dreams come true. It happened again last night at the Hollywood Palladium, where he was joined by Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, members of Cheap Trick, Rage Against the Machine, Fear and a small army of heroes and contemporaries in celebration of the late, legendary L.A. recording studio Sound City.

For more than three hours, Grohl and his Foo Fighters ripped through a chunk of rock & roll history, from pop to punk to classic rock, immediately following the premiere of his inspired new documentary, Sound City: Real to Reel, at the old Cinerama Dome blocks away.

"They made a movie about it, but they missed one little part," Fogerty shouted early in his set with the Foos, dressed in jeans and flannel shirt, looking over at Grohl. "What we got in common is we all love that guy right there."

Fogerty rocked through five Creedence Clearwater Revival standards and his 1985 solo hit "Centerfield," the last one played on a baseball bat-shaped guitar. Grohl shouted along to "Born on the Bayou" and traded verses on "Fortunate Son." At the close of "Bad Moon Rising," Grohl looked up with hands in praying position, one more dream fulfilled.

The night's closing set had the Foos led by Nicks, beginning with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," her 1981 hit with Tom Petty. Grohl was her singing partner this time, and Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett plucked dreamy bits of electric guitar.

Video: Dave Grohl's 'Sound City' Doc Gets Trailer          
Nicks arrived in black dress and tinted glasses, blonde hair past her shoulders, banging a tambourine. Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" unfolded amid undulating, spacey waves of sound and feeling. For "Landslide," Grohl backed up Nicks alone on 12-string acoustic, as the crowd sang and lifted up their glowing cell phones. One guy deep in the crowd kept it analog, holding up a single cigarette lighter.

Before beginning the soundtrack's dramatic "You Can't Fix This," Nicks explained that the song was based on a poem inspired by the recent death of her teenage godson at a fraternity party, a somber but moving note in an otherwise celebratory evening. And her set-closing "Gold Dust Woman" was dark and smoldering, rising from a noisy swirl, closing amid fading waves of feedback and a single, crashing beat from Taylor Hawkins. This summer's Fleetwood Mac tour will have something to live up to.

Between sets, a movie screen descended for excerpts and outtakes from the documentary, including a comment from Fogerty at the core of the film: "It's not the gear, it's not the technology. It's the people."

Sound City, proudly analog and tape-based, was where Nirvana recorded its career-making Nevermind. Grohl's comments at last year's Grammys were widely (mis)interpreted as being anti-EDM, when his sermon was really a warning against perfectionism and polish over the human element. It's the same reason punk rock was invented in the indulgent, glossed-up Seventies.

The night's juxtapositions might have seemed perverse to a musical ideologue, but it hung together as a simple celebration of all that once inspired the concert's generations of rockers. No one was more euphoric than Rick Springfield, who repeatedly tossed his guitar high into the air between songs, including his collaboration with the Foos on the movie soundtrack "The Man That Never Was." His "Jessie's Girl" was one of the night's biggest crowd-pleasers, and like other tunes from his pop-rock catalog, it was toughened up in the hands of the Foos.

Another implausible lineup featured Slipknot/Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, with Grohl on drums, ecstatically running through a set heavy with Cheap Trick hits. "I was in Kansas City 12 hours ago," Taylor told the crowd. "There was no fucking way I was missing this."

Cheap Trick's "Hello There" had Taylor wailing, "Are you ready to rock?" beside Nielsen in traditional bowtie and cap. The Slipknot growler sang "Surrender" as if he was always meant to. "From Can to Can't" (from the soundtrack) was built from a Beatles "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"-like guitar pattern. During Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame," Novoselic kicked high into the air, swinging his bass across the stage, an expression of real joy on his bearded face.

Earlier, Grohl first slipped behind the drums with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, pounding through the brain-scorched psychedelia of "Heaven & All," which opens the documentary's soundtrack, and a stormy "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll" (from BRMC's 2001 debut).

"Dave Grohl rhymes with rock & roll," declared singer-guitarist-producer Chris Goss during his set with the night's ringmaster. Grohl and drummer Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine (and now Black Sabbath) followed him into the overlapping guitar grind of "She Got Me" by Goss's Masters of Reality.

The night began with the Foos backing up Alain Johannes on the soundtrack's "A Trick With No Sleeve," a growling folk tune with an electric guitar shimmer, and Grohl banged his head to the misty-mountain-hop riffs. Johannes is a highly respected L.A. bandleader (Eleven, What Is This? etc.), producer, songwriter and sideman. He's been a member of Queens of the Stone Age and touring guitarist with the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures; last night he led the Foos through QOTSA's "Hangin' Tree," a brooding, driving, shape-shifting song he co-authored with Josh Homme.

Grohl sang harmony and was effussive with praise for the multi-instrumentalist. "I love you, Al," Grohl said to Johannes. "Thank you for playing music with me. You're a fucking genius."

The night turned to first-wave L.A. punk rock with Fear's Lee Ving, opening his set with a blazing harmonica wheeze before growling his signature "One-two-three-four! One-two-three-four!" at hyper-speed. With the Foos (and Johannes on bass), Ving ripped into the soundtrack's taunting "Your Wife is Calling." Soon the band was pounding through Fear's "I Love Livin' in the City," with Hawkins on jackhammer beat.

Foo Fighter guitarist Pat Smear, whose snarling early punk band the Germs came from the same underground L.A. scene, raised a fist as Ving snarled, as only he can, "This is an old-fashioned sing-along."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Q&A: Dave Grohl on His 'Sound City' Doc and Taking Risks in Music

Dave Grohl attends the Cinema Cafe at Filmmaker Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on January 22nd, 2013.

After debuting his film Sound City – Real to Reel and his supergroup, the Sound City Players, at Sundance last week, Dave Grohl is finally ready to celebrate.

"Sundance was always our goal," he tells Rolling Stone. "If we could make the deadline, submit, get accepted, this is where we would premiere the movie. [Last year] we got trashed in a yurt up in the mountains and were like, if we come back, we're having the party here. That was exactly a year ago, and it actually fucking happened."

The Sound City Players are scheduled to play their next show in Los Angeles on January 31st, with other dates "coming soon in cool places," Grohl says. "The musicians have all really jumped on after the [Park City] show. I didn't know if Stevie [Nicks] was gonna be able to do New York, and after we did this she was like, 'I'm doing New York.'" Grohl says he'll keep crossing his fingers for an appearance from Paul McCartney.

Rolling Stone sat down with Grohl in a mountainside condo overlooking Park City and chatted with the drummer and first-time director about the Neve soundboard, sharing a stage with Lee Ving and why the film is the most important thing he's ever done.

Video: Peter Travers Picks 5 Great Films From Sundance 2013

I have a theory that Sound City is actually your memoir.
Oh yeah?

Well, it's framed with three guys from Seattle getting in a van.
The great thing about the Sound City story is that it's not just one story. I'm sure each one of these musicians would tell the story the exact same way. Their love for the studio, how important it was to them as a person, how that place changed their life, what technology has done to the way we make music and what technology has done to Sound City and the importance of the human element in making music. I bet you Neil Young and Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks and Rick Springfield could all make the same movie that I did. Because even in that introduction where I say, "We were just kids, we had these songs, and we had these dreams and we threw them in the back of a van," each one of those people can say the same thing.

I always had a strong connection to that studio because Nirvana wasn't meant to be the biggest band in the world. We just weren't. So when we went there for 16 days, we weren't making that album with the intention that we were going to change the fuckin' world. We just wanted it to sound good . . . The fact that what happened actually, happened, makes me think there's something a more than just wires and knobs in that place. Personally, I have a strong emotional connection to it.

Musically, there's something magical about that place, and when I heard that they were closing I thought, "I have a studio, I make records every day. If I could be reunited with this piece of equipment that I consider to be the best sounding board I've ever worked on and the board that's responsible for the person that I am, it would be a huge full-circle emotional reunion for me." And that's why I made the movie.

You sort of isolated the Neve, the soundboard, as the magic. Are there other elements that you think were also significant?
The room where everyone recorded, it used to be a warehouse. It's where they made Vox amplifiers. It was never acoustically designed, it was just a room. But for whatever reason, if you put a drum set in this one spot, it sounded incredible. I'm not an acoustic engineer, and I could never design a studio mathematically, because it's crazy what people go through to build these acoustically perfect rooms. But Sound City just happened. And the board and that room, those two things together. That's why everybody went there. And it wasn't planned.

How much did the aesthetic of the space affect the sound that came out of there?
Tons. You didn't feel like you were at the Mondrian. You didn't feel like you were in a laboratory – you felt like you were back to the garage where you started as a musician, and in a way it would remind you that the most important thing is how it sounds. And the most important thing is how it feels. It doesn't have anything to do with the glitz or the glamour – it's all about being badass and doing something real. And they never bought a Pro Tools rig because they thought, well, you can bring one in yourself. 

How did you end up there? How did you land on Sound City?
I don't remember. I think that Nirvana had signed with the David Geffen Company and they gave us . . . maybe $100,000 to make, or $60,000 to make a record. And rather than just send us a check to Seattle, they decided they wanted us to come to L.A. so they could keep an eye on us. We couldn't afford one of the fancy places downtown, so we found out about this place that had an old Neve board. None of us had ever been there before.

And how did you decide to invite all the different artists to record with you in the film?
Part of every discussion with the musicians was about the human element of making music. Feel, imperfection, emotion, the conversation as a player, conversation between players, craft. All of those things we talk about in the film, but I thought it would make those things more clear if we demonstrated them. If you're talking about spontaneity and connecting in a moment, the McCartney/Nirvana segment makes perfect sense. I wouldn't even have to say that, you just watch it and think, Wow, they just walked into a room together and made something explosive out of nothing because of the energy in the room. It could take years to explain how or why that happens, but if you see it, those seven minutes make perfect sense. 

And releasing an album was the next step?
I wanted to show that all of these musicians come from the same place. I wanted to mix up these combinations of people that might not normally make albums together. A guy from the Germs jamming with a Beatle. Rick Springfield jamming with the Foo Fighters. Those configurations are meant to show, we're all just people and we're just musicians. I started in the garage and you started in the garage and you might have gone this way and I may have gone that way, but deep down we're all still there where we began, hopefully. So it was fun to make new music and not just go back and do the old stuff.

And the Sound City Players were an outgrowth of that?
It's an extension of the same idea. You talk about music, and then show people what that means. Take it out of the movie and put it on a stage. I am not organized in the rest of my life, I can hardly fuckin' do my laundry, but for whatever reason, I can imagine these things happening, and if I can imagine them happening then I really try to make them happen. An hour beforehand, I didn't know if we were gonna be able to do it. It's hard for me to believe, but if you have these opportunities in life, why not do them? There are times where I get so nervous before performing that I almost ruin the moment, or the experience, and I've finally realized that in those moments you have to let go of that bullshit and say, "I can't ruin this moment by being scared or by being nervous, or by being insecure or thinking that I'm not going to be able to do it. It'll be much more rewarding if I actually just do it." I would be terrified to ask Tom Petty to be in my movie, but God, I'd be an idiot not to, and when I finally did he said, "Well, you can't have a movie about Sound City without me in it, now can you?" And it's like, that's the perfect answer.

What was the most surreal moment for you at the Park City show?
Having my heroes compliment me. I'm really used to praising these people that I love, but when they sort of send praise back, it's weird, man. When Fogerty's talking about, well, this couldn't have happened without Dave's childlike enthusiasm about music, I'm like, "Stop talking about me, stop talking about me!" To be onstage with Lee Ving from Fear – I swear to God, The Decline of Western Civilization, the Penelope Spheeris movie, I got the record when I was like 12, and that really inspired me to become a musician and start a band and play punk rock music. So to stand next to Lee Ving and play "Beef Bologna," it doesn't sound like it would be this profound, life-altering moment, but it really was. It was 30 years ago that I discovered this guy, and now I'm onstage playing the songs that inspired me to become a musician. That's fuckin' nuts.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Q&A: Dave Grohl on His 'Sound City' Doc and Taking Risks in Music

Dave Grohl attends the Cinema Cafe at Filmmaker Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on January 22nd, 2013.

After debuting his film Sound City – Real to Reel and his supergroup, the Sound City Players, at Sundance last week, Dave Grohl is finally ready to celebrate.

"Sundance was always our goal," he tells Rolling Stone. "If we could make the deadline, submit, get accepted, this is where we would premiere the movie. [Last year] we got trashed in a yurt up in the mountains and were like, if we come back, we're having the party here. That was exactly a year ago, and it actually fucking happened."

The Sound City Players are scheduled to play their next show in Los Angeles on January 31st, with other dates "coming soon in cool places," Grohl says. "The musicians have all really jumped on after the [Park City] show. I didn't know if Stevie [Nicks] was gonna be able to do New York, and after we did this she was like, 'I'm doing New York.'" Grohl says he'll keep crossing his fingers for an appearance from Paul McCartney.

Rolling Stone sat down with Grohl in a mountainside condo overlooking Park City and chatted with the drummer and first-time director about the Neve soundboard, sharing a stage with Lee Ving and why the film is the most important thing he's ever done.

Video: Peter Travers Picks 5 Great Films From Sundance 2013

I have a theory that Sound City is actually your memoir.
Oh yeah?

Well, it's framed with three guys from Seattle getting in a van.
The great thing about the Sound City story is that it's not just one story. I'm sure each one of these musicians would tell the story the exact same way. Their love for the studio, how important it was to them as a person, how that place changed their life, what technology has done to the way we make music and what technology has done to Sound City and the importance of the human element in making music. I bet you Neil Young and Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks and Rick Springfield could all make the same movie that I did. Because even in that introduction where I say, "We were just kids, we had these songs, and we had these dreams and we threw them in the back of a van," each one of those people can say the same thing.

I always had a strong connection to that studio because Nirvana wasn't meant to be the biggest band in the world. We just weren't. So when we went there for 16 days, we weren't making that album with the intention that we were going to change the fuckin' world. We just wanted it to sound good . . . The fact that what happened actually, happened, makes me think there's something a more than just wires and knobs in that place. Personally, I have a strong emotional connection to it.

Musically, there's something magical about that place, and when I heard that they were closing I thought, "I have a studio, I make records every day. If I could be reunited with this piece of equipment that I consider to be the best sounding board I've ever worked on and the board that's responsible for the person that I am, it would be a huge full-circle emotional reunion for me." And that's why I made the movie.

You sort of isolated the Neve, the soundboard, as the magic. Are there other elements that you think were also significant?
The room where everyone recorded, it used to be a warehouse. It's where they made Vox amplifiers. It was never acoustically designed, it was just a room. But for whatever reason, if you put a drum set in this one spot, it sounded incredible. I'm not an acoustic engineer, and I could never design a studio mathematically, because it's crazy what people go through to build these acoustically perfect rooms. But Sound City just happened. And the board and that room, those two things together. That's why everybody went there. And it wasn't planned.

How much did the aesthetic of the space affect the sound that came out of there?
Tons. You didn't feel like you were at the Mondrian. You didn't feel like you were in a laboratory – you felt like you were back to the garage where you started as a musician, and in a way it would remind you that the most important thing is how it sounds. And the most important thing is how it feels. It doesn't have anything to do with the glitz or the glamour – it's all about being badass and doing something real. And they never bought a Pro Tools rig because they thought, well, you can bring one in yourself. 

How did you end up there? How did you land on Sound City?
I don't remember. I think that Nirvana had signed with the David Geffen Company and they gave us . . . maybe $100,000 to make, or $60,000 to make a record. And rather than just send us a check to Seattle, they decided they wanted us to come to L.A. so they could keep an eye on us. We couldn't afford one of the fancy places downtown, so we found out about this place that had an old Neve board. None of us had ever been there before.

And how did you decide to invite all the different artists to record with you in the film?
Part of every discussion with the musicians was about the human element of making music. Feel, imperfection, emotion, the conversation as a player, conversation between players, craft. All of those things we talk about in the film, but I thought it would make those things more clear if we demonstrated them. If you're talking about spontaneity and connecting in a moment, the McCartney/Nirvana segment makes perfect sense. I wouldn't even have to say that, you just watch it and think, Wow, they just walked into a room together and made something explosive out of nothing because of the energy in the room. It could take years to explain how or why that happens, but if you see it, those seven minutes make perfect sense. 

And releasing an album was the next step?
I wanted to show that all of these musicians come from the same place. I wanted to mix up these combinations of people that might not normally make albums together. A guy from the Germs jamming with a Beatle. Rick Springfield jamming with the Foo Fighters. Those configurations are meant to show, we're all just people and we're just musicians. I started in the garage and you started in the garage and you might have gone this way and I may have gone that way, but deep down we're all still there where we began, hopefully. So it was fun to make new music and not just go back and do the old stuff.

And the Sound City Players were an outgrowth of that?
It's an extension of the same idea. You talk about music, and then show people what that means. Take it out of the movie and put it on a stage. I am not organized in the rest of my life, I can hardly fuckin' do my laundry, but for whatever reason, I can imagine these things happening, and if I can imagine them happening then I really try to make them happen. An hour beforehand, I didn't know if we were gonna be able to do it. It's hard for me to believe, but if you have these opportunities in life, why not do them? There are times where I get so nervous before performing that I almost ruin the moment, or the experience, and I've finally realized that in those moments you have to let go of that bullshit and say, "I can't ruin this moment by being scared or by being nervous, or by being insecure or thinking that I'm not going to be able to do it. It'll be much more rewarding if I actually just do it." I would be terrified to ask Tom Petty to be in my movie, but God, I'd be an idiot not to, and when I finally did he said, "Well, you can't have a movie about Sound City without me in it, now can you?" And it's like, that's the perfect answer.

What was the most surreal moment for you at the Park City show?
Having my heroes compliment me. I'm really used to praising these people that I love, but when they sort of send praise back, it's weird, man. When Fogerty's talking about, well, this couldn't have happened without Dave's childlike enthusiasm about music, I'm like, "Stop talking about me, stop talking about me!" To be onstage with Lee Ving from Fear – I swear to God, The Decline of Western Civilization, the Penelope Spheeris movie, I got the record when I was like 12, and that really inspired me to become a musician and start a band and play punk rock music. So to stand next to Lee Ving and play "Beef Bologna," it doesn't sound like it would be this profound, life-altering moment, but it really was. It was 30 years ago that I discovered this guy, and now I'm onstage playing the songs that inspired me to become a musician. That's fuckin' nuts.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Premiere: Of Monsters and Men Show Playful Side on 'Mountain Sound'

Premiere: Of Monsters and Men Show Playful Side on 'Mountain Sound'Icelandic folk band follows breakout single with endearing clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

With their touching, earnest folk sound, Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men scored a breakout hit with "Little Talks" late last year, leading to a record deal with Universal and hitting chart heights unreached by any Icelander since Björk. The group offers an upbeat, barreling follow-up with "Mountain Sound." A new video for the song finds the band setting up, performing, connecting with fans and clowning around at a festival, showing their heartfelt endearing qualities aren't limited to just sound and stage.

"Mountain Sound" is on Of Monsters and Men's debut album, My Head Is an Animal.

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Premiere: Of Monsters and Men Show Playful Side on 'Mountain Sound'

Premiere: Of Monsters and Men Show Playful Side on 'Mountain Sound'Icelandic folk band follows breakout single with endearing clip $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

With their touching, earnest folk sound, Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men scored a breakout hit with "Little Talks" late last year, leading to a record deal with Universal and hitting chart heights unreached by any Icelander since Björk. The group offers an upbeat, barreling follow-up with "Mountain Sound." A new video for the song finds the band setting up, performing, connecting with fans and clowning around at a festival, showing their heartfelt endearing qualities aren't limited to just sound and stage.

"Mountain Sound" is on Of Monsters and Men's debut album, My Head Is an Animal.

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Q&A: DJ Richie Hawtin on Skrillex's 'Mind-Blowing' Sound, the Evolution of EDM

Richie Hawtin has been at the forefront of the electronic music scene for much of his life – from his early DJ sets in Detroit at age 17 to his groundbreaking work as Plastikman, which remains influential to live electronic shows today.

Today, Hawtin remains a musical innovator, even if the current crop of EDM stars enjoy a different level of mainstream fame from his. However, Hawtin has no envy or ill will for the new generation; he gets it. "What does it sound like to get in the middle of a dance floor at EDC and hear Skrillex for the first time?" he asks. "That's gotta be absolutely fucking mind-blowing if you've been brought up on rock & roll and hip-hop."

As Hawtin explained to Rolling Stone, he's very content to be the next level of EDM: the music these fans come to after entering the scene.

I spoke to [DJ] Erick Morillo recently and he was very much invigorated because he never thought dance music would take off in the U.S. the way it has. How do you feel about it?
For sure. It's like a give-and-take... I don't believe electronic music is for everybody, especially what I do, but I definitely feel a greater number of people in the population should hear and have a chance to identify with it. We've actually been building the foundation that gives this bubble life.

Has it motivated you to create new music?
I haven't been doing as much music as I did in the past. [In the] last years, I've been touring, I've been running my label and I want to get back to work on new music so I can continue the Plastikman project. Now is the time that Plastikman and my type of music needs to come back because this new generation needs to hear my take on what electronic music should be. And if I don't do that, and other people in my position don't do that, then perhaps electronic music will truly become pigeonholed into this sound that's popular right now. And that can't happen because electronic music, as soon as it gets pigeonholed and there's no innovation and no development, will just fizzle out. It needs to innovate and move forward. And that's happening again now: it's another development. There's another kid just like I was, 25 years ago, coming into a room, hearing music that sounds like it's from the future. Like what does it sound like to get in the middle of a dance floor at [Electric Daisy Carnival] and hear Skrillex for the first time? That's gotta be absolutely fucking mind-blowing if you've been brought up on rock & roll and hip-hop.

What was your equivalent of hearing Skrillex, the thing that got you on your path?
I had a number of different experiences. I found Autobahn [by Kraftwerk] in my dad's record collection; I put that on and listened to this 30-minute piece of music and was just like, "What the hell is this?" And then my early days in Detroit, going to see and hear Derrick May play was absolutely mind-blowing. He was playing records that I didn't know what kind of blend or sonic blend he was putting them through, what he was doing on this machine, this mixer with an EQ and making it high where my ears were going to bleed and then bass that was pummeling through me. It was physical, it was demanding, it was undeniable.

Are there any older artists that you feel warrant a closer listen by new EDM fans? 
There needs to be that counterbalance and I also think it's very important that kids, as they start to dig deeper, find artists they identify with that show this long foundation building of electronic music. Autechre is a great example; they just had another album coming out. Carl Craig is kind of the second or third generation from Detroit; he was inspired, as I was, by Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson. I wanna see Carl teach these kids what's going on.

So there are a lot of people – there are thousands of really active artists who've been around for a long time, especially over in Europe, and I hope more of those guys take a step up and try to make a step towards America and what's going on here. There are a lot of us who spent a lot of time in Europe, who want to see this explosion in a positive way. We've kind of all had chances to go more popular or commercial but we've all steered clear; we've just stayed to our guns and built up a long career with hopefully integrity and momentum. We're not gonna preach to people, we're gonna be there, and there are gonna be some kids who turn their heads and are like, "What's that coming from left over there or right?" We wanna be that.

What advice would you give to the young DJs being swept up by the bubble?
It's about a long, slow burn. If you really believe in what you're doing and you feel you're really good, then don't take the easy way out. If you're good and you're dedicated, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities over the next five or 10 or 15 or 20 years and if you don't take a long-term approach, then this music won't have the possibility of a long-term approach. If you're only short-term, this bubble will be short-term, so build up your integrity, pace it out and also try to keep control. This is your life, this is your art; don't relinquish control for a quick paycheck or a bigger gig.  

Have you seen any young artists blinded by the hype?
I saw it at the EMbiz conference, just the people out there. There are so many people in business and artist development; everyone wants a piece of the pie, people who haven't had anything to do with this music. They're making decisions, grabbing artists, trying to be the next messiah of electronic music. Everybody is just chomping at the fucking bit right now. It's pretty sad in that way.

What do you think will happen if the bubble bursts?
We spent the last 25 years building a foundation that is way stronger than this bubble. If this bubble bursts, there's gonna be a hell [of a] lot of people still here doing our thing 'cause we don't need this bubble to survive. We are on a long, slow, steady path. When I started, I was worried [and asked], "How long is this music gonna be around?" But I stopped asking that question a long time ago.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Q&A: DJ Richie Hawtin on Skrillex's 'Mind-Blowing' Sound, the Evolution of EDM

Richie Hawtin has been at the forefront of the electronic music scene for much of his life – from his early DJ sets in Detroit at age 17 to his groundbreaking work as Plastikman, which remains influential to live electronic shows today.

Today, Hawtin remains a musical innovator, even if the current crop of EDM stars enjoy a different level of mainstream fame from his. However, Hawtin has no envy or ill will for the new generation; he gets it. "What does it sound like to get in the middle of a dance floor at EDC and hear Skrillex for the first time?" he asks. "That's gotta be absolutely fucking mind-blowing if you've been brought up on rock & roll and hip-hop."

As Hawtin explained to Rolling Stone, he's very content to be the next level of EDM: the music these fans come to after entering the scene.

I spoke to [DJ] Erick Morillo recently and he was very much invigorated because he never thought dance music would take off in the U.S. the way it has. How do you feel about it?
For sure. It's like a give-and-take... I don't believe electronic music is for everybody, especially what I do, but I definitely feel a greater number of people in the population should hear and have a chance to identify with it. We've actually been building the foundation that gives this bubble life.

Has it motivated you to create new music?
I haven't been doing as much music as I did in the past. [In the] last years, I've been touring, I've been running my label and I want to get back to work on new music so I can continue the Plastikman project. Now is the time that Plastikman and my type of music needs to come back because this new generation needs to hear my take on what electronic music should be. And if I don't do that, and other people in my position don't do that, then perhaps electronic music will truly become pigeonholed into this sound that's popular right now. And that can't happen because electronic music, as soon as it gets pigeonholed and there's no innovation and no development, will just fizzle out. It needs to innovate and move forward. And that's happening again now: it's another development. There's another kid just like I was, 25 years ago, coming into a room, hearing music that sounds like it's from the future. Like what does it sound like to get in the middle of a dance floor at [Electric Daisy Carnival] and hear Skrillex for the first time? That's gotta be absolutely fucking mind-blowing if you've been brought up on rock & roll and hip-hop.

What was your equivalent of hearing Skrillex, the thing that got you on your path?
I had a number of different experiences. I found Autobahn [by Kraftwerk] in my dad's record collection; I put that on and listened to this 30-minute piece of music and was just like, "What the hell is this?" And then my early days in Detroit, going to see and hear Derrick May play was absolutely mind-blowing. He was playing records that I didn't know what kind of blend or sonic blend he was putting them through, what he was doing on this machine, this mixer with an EQ and making it high where my ears were going to bleed and then bass that was pummeling through me. It was physical, it was demanding, it was undeniable.

Are there any older artists that you feel warrant a closer listen by new EDM fans? 
There needs to be that counterbalance and I also think it's very important that kids, as they start to dig deeper, find artists they identify with that show this long foundation building of electronic music. Autechre is a great example; they just had another album coming out. Carl Craig is kind of the second or third generation from Detroit; he was inspired, as I was, by Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson. I wanna see Carl teach these kids what's going on.

So there are a lot of people – there are thousands of really active artists who've been around for a long time, especially over in Europe, and I hope more of those guys take a step up and try to make a step towards America and what's going on here. There are a lot of us who spent a lot of time in Europe, who want to see this explosion in a positive way. We've kind of all had chances to go more popular or commercial but we've all steered clear; we've just stayed to our guns and built up a long career with hopefully integrity and momentum. We're not gonna preach to people, we're gonna be there, and there are gonna be some kids who turn their heads and are like, "What's that coming from left over there or right?" We wanna be that.

What advice would you give to the young DJs being swept up by the bubble?
It's about a long, slow burn. If you really believe in what you're doing and you feel you're really good, then don't take the easy way out. If you're good and you're dedicated, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities over the next five or 10 or 15 or 20 years and if you don't take a long-term approach, then this music won't have the possibility of a long-term approach. If you're only short-term, this bubble will be short-term, so build up your integrity, pace it out and also try to keep control. This is your life, this is your art; don't relinquish control for a quick paycheck or a bigger gig.  

Have you seen any young artists blinded by the hype?
I saw it at the EMbiz conference, just the people out there. There are so many people in business and artist development; everyone wants a piece of the pie, people who haven't had anything to do with this music. They're making decisions, grabbing artists, trying to be the next messiah of electronic music. Everybody is just chomping at the fucking bit right now. It's pretty sad in that way.

What do you think will happen if the bubble bursts?
We spent the last 25 years building a foundation that is way stronger than this bubble. If this bubble bursts, there's gonna be a hell [of a] lot of people still here doing our thing 'cause we don't need this bubble to survive. We are on a long, slow, steady path. When I started, I was worried [and asked], "How long is this music gonna be around?" But I stopped asking that question a long time ago.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Pop Hitmaker Benny Blanco Talks 'Payphone' Success, Ke$ha's New Sound

Benny Blanco at the 60th annual BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills, California

Benny Blanco knows how to make a hit. The 24-year-old producer-songwriter, who first cut his teeth with Dr. Luke, has helped architect some of the past half-decade's chart-toppers, including Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and "California Gurls," Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" and "We R Who We R," and Britney Spears' "Circus." 

For his latest gig, the Reston, Virginia native piggybacked off last year's success in producing Maroon 5's chart-crashing single, "Moves Like Jagger," with "Payphone," a pattering earworm that features rapper Wiz Khalifa. After working with Khalifa on his latest single "Work Hard, Play Hard," Blanco wanted to throw a wrench into the Maroon 5 machine by adding some hip-hop flavor to the band's sound. "I love when things don't make sense, like, 'Holy fuck!'" explains Blanco. "You don't hear him on the song at all. I like when bands dip into a whole different genre."

Co-produced with Sweden's Shellback, "Payphone" is lodged at Number One on Top 40 radio and Number Two on Billboard's Hot 100, just one Carly Rae Jepsen phenomenon away from the top slot.  The falsetto-bolstered tune is the product of a collaborative session between Blanco and writers Ammar Malik and RoboPop (a.k.a. Daniel Omelio), who constructed a piano line and demo track that Blanco molded into a proper melody, then handed off to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine for lyric treatment.  

Five minutes before Khalifa arrived at the studio, Blanco laid the sound beds for the finger snap-driven portion of the jam. But Max Martin, who executive produced Maroon 5's latest album Overexposed, wouldn't let the original hook stand. "He was like, 'Yo, this song is so awesome, but the chorus should be a little different,'" Blanco says. "We wound up making it more acoustic sounding and wanted it to have an up-tempo feel, but have it still feel natural."

Blanco is also lending that stripped aesthetic to longtime collaborator Ke$ha for her anticipated new album, due out later this year. Recently, Ke$ha and Blanco hit the studio with producers Dr. Luke and Cirkut to work on a song that he describes as "old hippie rock," co-written with fun. lead singer Nate Ruess. "It's stomps and claps, and the chorus doesn't really have any drums in it, basically. The feeling is so good," says Blanco in his surfer drawl. "And then the verse just pops in, and it's very unexpected and it pops into electronic. So it's rock, it's big electronic breaks and drums."

Though Blanco relishes his solo success, which recently includes winning Songwriter of the Year at the BMI Pop Awards, he'd rather keep his team of pop technicians close. "When you're making music, it's meant to be shared with people. Sometimes, even if I'm writing a song, someone else brings a vibe. There's something different about it," he says. "If someone can play a better bassline than me, I'll let them do it. I'm just here to fit in and see where it goes."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Pop Hitmaker Benny Blanco Talks 'Payphone' Success, Ke$ha's New Sound

Benny Blanco at the 60th annual BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills, California

Benny Blanco knows how to make a hit. The 24-year-old producer-songwriter, who first cut his teeth with Dr. Luke, has helped architect some of the past half-decade's chart-toppers, including Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and "California Gurls," Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" and "We R Who We R," and Britney Spears' "Circus." 

For his latest gig, the Reston, Virginia native piggybacked off last year's success in producing Maroon 5's chart-crashing single, "Moves Like Jagger," with "Payphone," a pattering earworm that features rapper Wiz Khalifa. After working with Khalifa on his latest single "Work Hard, Play Hard," Blanco wanted to throw a wrench into the Maroon 5 machine by adding some hip-hop flavor to the band's sound. "I love when things don't make sense, like, 'Holy fuck!'" explains Blanco. "You don't hear him on the song at all. I like when bands dip into a whole different genre."

Co-produced with Sweden's Shellback, "Payphone" is lodged at Number One on Top 40 radio and Number Two on Billboard's Hot 100, just one Carly Rae Jepsen phenomenon away from the top slot.  The falsetto-bolstered tune is the product of a collaborative session between Blanco and writers Ammar Malik and RoboPop (a.k.a. Daniel Omelio), who constructed a piano line and demo track that Blanco molded into a proper melody, then handed off to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine for lyric treatment.  

Five minutes before Khalifa arrived at the studio, Blanco laid the sound beds for the finger snap-driven portion of the jam. But Max Martin, who executive produced Maroon 5's latest album Overexposed, wouldn't let the original hook stand. "He was like, 'Yo, this song is so awesome, but the chorus should be a little different,'" Blanco says. "We wound up making it more acoustic sounding and wanted it to have an up-tempo feel, but have it still feel natural."

Blanco is also lending that stripped aesthetic to longtime collaborator Ke$ha for her anticipated new album, due out later this year. Recently, Ke$ha and Blanco hit the studio with producers Dr. Luke and Cirkut to work on a song that he describes as "old hippie rock," co-written with fun. lead singer Nate Ruess. "It's stomps and claps, and the chorus doesn't really have any drums in it, basically. The feeling is so good," says Blanco in his surfer drawl. "And then the verse just pops in, and it's very unexpected and it pops into electronic. So it's rock, it's big electronic breaks and drums."

Though Blanco relishes his solo success, which recently includes winning Songwriter of the Year at the BMI Pop Awards, he'd rather keep his team of pop technicians close. "When you're making music, it's meant to be shared with people. Sometimes, even if I'm writing a song, someone else brings a vibe. There's something different about it," he says. "If someone can play a better bassline than me, I'll let them do it. I'm just here to fit in and see where it goes."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Exclusive Album Stream: Delta Spirit Expand Their Sound on Third Album

Click to listen to Delta Spirit's album 'Delta Spirit'

Delta Spirit's third album finds the band moving away from the roots-rock sound of their earlier records and embracing a broader sonic palette similar to that of My Morning Jacket, Radiohead and Wilco.

"We found the sound that we've been looking for, that we've been growing into, and as soon as we hit on it, we ran with it," says frontman Matt Vasquez. "That’s why it's a self-titled record, so we could connect our identity with the album, because this album is what we think Delta Spirit is. People make records for their time, and we wanted to make one for our time."

The album won't be in stores until March 13th, but you can stream the record in its entirety now.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Exclusive Album Stream: Delta Spirit Expand Their Sound on Third Album

Click to listen to Delta Spirit's album 'Delta Spirit'

Delta Spirit's third album finds the band moving away from the roots-rock sound of their earlier records and embracing a broader sonic palette similar to that of My Morning Jacket, Radiohead and Wilco.

"We found the sound that we've been looking for, that we've been growing into, and as soon as we hit on it, we ran with it," says frontman Matt Vasquez. "That’s why it's a self-titled record, so we could connect our identity with the album, because this album is what we think Delta Spirit is. People make records for their time, and we wanted to make one for our time."

The album won't be in stores until March 13th, but you can stream the record in its entirety now.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Lucero Refine Their Sound With 'Women and Work'

Ben Nichols of Lucero performs during Warped Tour at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.

Lucero frontman Ben Nichols talks just like he sings, his voice crackling with the same tobacco-infused rasp he has used for the last 14 years to sing about women, whiskey and heartbreak. “We’re not flying by the seat of our pants quite as much as we were in the old days,” he tells Rolling Stone while discussing the Memphis sextet's new album, Women & Work, out March 13th. “There’s another level of refinement that goes into it.”

Back in “the old days,” Lucero made stripped down alt-country records that earned them a small but exuberant fanbase. Then, in 2009, the band signed a deal with Universal/Republic and released 1372 Overton Park, which saw Lucero embrace Memphis’ rich musical history by adopting a heavy soul influence and adding a horn section to their sound. It was their biggest, best effort yet.

The Universal deal didn’t last. “It was kind of the classic story of an A&R person falls in love with you, gets you signed to the label, and then almost immediately gets fired,” says Nichols. But the Memphis country-soul sound cultivated on 1372 Overton Park – horns and all – stuck around. And now backed by a new deal with Dave Matthews’ label, ATO, Lucero are doubling down on the momentum they amassed on 1372 with Women & Work.

“To me, it still sounds like Lucero,” says Nichols. “The songs are still coming from the same place.” But he admits that working with veteran Memphis session musicians like saxophonist Jim Spake, who worked with the band during the demo process for 1372, and keyboardist Rick Steff, who joined the band in 2006, gave them the confidence to explore new musical territory. “It was just the opportunity to play with such talented guys who are part of Memphis’ musical history. Once you know that’s at your disposal, you start writing songs with that in mind, knowing what you can do.”

Women & Work was produced by Ted Hutt, who has also worked with the Gaslight Anthem, and the tracks range from aching Memphis soul to rowdy, old-fashioned barroom boogie rock. The album closes with “Go Easy,” which employs a full-on gospel choir on its drunk-at-the-pulpit refrain. “Ted Hutt pushed it more into that gospel sound,” says Nichols. “We ended up re-writing the chorus for it with a more traditional, gospel feel.”

Meanwhile, the lyrics to the album’s first single – the nostalgic “Sometimes” – draw inspiration from Nichols’ family, which the singer says is close-knit. His younger brother Jeff is an emerging filmmaker and his next directorial feature, Mud, stars Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey and is slated for a 2013 release. “My little brother’s kicking ass,” says Nichols proudly.

As for Lucero, they are generating buzz of their own. The band netted an unlikely spot on the 2011 Warped Tour, and they are set to hit Atlantic City for Metallica’s Orion Music + More Festival in June.

“We’re in the best spot organizationally than we’ve ever been,” says Nichols. “We’ve never had any delusions about being big-time rock stars. But like my dad says, 'Just get a few more people through the door, sell a few more records.'"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Lucero Refine Their Sound With 'Women and Work'

Ben Nichols of Lucero performs during Warped Tour at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.

Lucero frontman Ben Nichols talks just like he sings, his voice crackling with the same tobacco-infused rasp he has used for the last 14 years to sing about women, whiskey and heartbreak. “We’re not flying by the seat of our pants quite as much as we were in the old days,” he tells Rolling Stone while discussing the Memphis sextet's new album, Women & Work, out March 13th. “There’s another level of refinement that goes into it.”

Back in “the old days,” Lucero made stripped down alt-country records that earned them a small but exuberant fanbase. Then, in 2009, the band signed a deal with Universal/Republic and released 1372 Overton Park, which saw Lucero embrace Memphis’ rich musical history by adopting a heavy soul influence and adding a horn section to their sound. It was their biggest, best effort yet.

The Universal deal didn’t last. “It was kind of the classic story of an A&R person falls in love with you, gets you signed to the label, and then almost immediately gets fired,” says Nichols. But the Memphis country-soul sound cultivated on 1372 Overton Park – horns and all – stuck around. And now backed by a new deal with Dave Matthews’ label, ATO, Lucero are doubling down on the momentum they amassed on 1372 with Women & Work.

“To me, it still sounds like Lucero,” says Nichols. “The songs are still coming from the same place.” But he admits that working with veteran Memphis session musicians like saxophonist Jim Spake, who worked with the band during the demo process for 1372, and keyboardist Rick Steff, who joined the band in 2006, gave them the confidence to explore new musical territory. “It was just the opportunity to play with such talented guys who are part of Memphis’ musical history. Once you know that’s at your disposal, you start writing songs with that in mind, knowing what you can do.”

Women & Work was produced by Ted Hutt, who has also worked with the Gaslight Anthem, and the tracks range from aching Memphis soul to rowdy, old-fashioned barroom boogie rock. The album closes with “Go Easy,” which employs a full-on gospel choir on its drunk-at-the-pulpit refrain. “Ted Hutt pushed it more into that gospel sound,” says Nichols. “We ended up re-writing the chorus for it with a more traditional, gospel feel.”

Meanwhile, the lyrics to the album’s first single – the nostalgic “Sometimes” – draw inspiration from Nichols’ family, which the singer says is close-knit. His younger brother Jeff is an emerging filmmaker and his next directorial feature, Mud, stars Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey and is slated for a 2013 release. “My little brother’s kicking ass,” says Nichols proudly.

As for Lucero, they are generating buzz of their own. The band netted an unlikely spot on the 2011 Warped Tour, and they are set to hit Atlantic City for Metallica’s Orion Music + More Festival in June.

“We’re in the best spot organizationally than we’ve ever been,” says Nichols. “We’ve never had any delusions about being big-time rock stars. But like my dad says, 'Just get a few more people through the door, sell a few more records.'"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »