The hilarious thing about OY is that it isn't really percussion; all the percussion sounds on the two OY records are produced using the Optigan (or the Talentmaker). That's how it ends up sounding all murky and wet. Somehow no less great.
Personally I'm not big on flashy drummers. I've got nothing but respect for Neal Peart but I can't stomach more than a couple minutes of that type of bombast. Proficiency is fine but I prefer style.
Take Primus, for example. Primus has been through three drummers in the last twenty years, and technically Bryan 'Brain' Mantia probably had the best chops but he was undeniably Primus' worst drummer. One of the things that gives a Primus song its stuttering, angular weirdness is the negative space in all that complicated noise. When Brain was drumming for them most of that was eliminated. It certainly effected the songwriting that resulted from his time with the band (Brown Album was the beginning of the end and the hated Antipop is basically unlistenable). I loved Tim 'Herb' Alexander and the work he did on the bulk of their classic albums, and after Brain I didn't think there could be a satisfactory replacement. At this point, though, their current (and original) drummer, Jay Lane, would be high in the running for my vote for 'Best Around'. He has an expansive, almost psychedelic sound that works for Primus SO well, but most importantly he manages to be the backbone of a band that includes Les Claypool.
Zach Hill (Hella) is a cracked-out beast. Sounds like a fucking octopus on the drums. Again, though, that bombast. Instead I'd point to Adam Pierce, who has a similar style but is much more muted. Adam Pierce's project Mice Parade (it's an anagram, isn't that cute?) is a weird kind of experimental pop group which mostly revolves around Pierce using his extensive drum kit as his primary songwriting instrument. He also drums for the Philistines, but Mice Parade's albums to me are among the most interesting looks at what a great drummer can really do. The way the guitar and vocal melodies are made to move and flow with Pierce's intricate, long-form percussion excursions is entirely unique.
Oh and I have to talk about Danny Elfman again, sorry guys. A lot of people don't know this but Elfman is a phenomenal percussionist. His extensive musical education included several months traveling through Africa, where he internalized those wonderfully complex African polyrhythms that Paul Simon was trying to ape on Graceland. This is where my love of chuned percussion comes from -- from listening to Elfman beat the bones on the old Boingo albums. He used to carry this ENORMOUS marimba around on tour that he'd brought back from Africa. You can see it in performance videos, it looked like a complex series of bird's nests hanging from the belly of a fossilized manatee. And it sounded like rain drops in hell. And it's an instrument and a skill set he still puts to use in his current career as a film composer -- as dismal as Burton's 'Planet of the Apes' was, the music was outstanding; walls and walls of different percussion instruments, many of them played by Elfman himself.
Basically a marimba or a xylophone or a glockenspiel is gonna get me every time, when it comes down to it.
Totally agree with you, don't get me wrong Neil Peart and all the drummers with a 150 piece drum kits can sure play. But I'd personally rather see what a really great drummer can do with a small kit, even just a snare/bass/hi-hat combo can yeild my favorite results.
Steve Gadd is mesmerizing , and Greg Saunier is probably the most fun person to watch play the drums, ever.
EDIT: I was thinking about this more, and remembered an old friend from high school that thought, no wait, he fucking knew that Travis Barker was the best drummer ever, it's all he ever talked about; and god forbid if you ever said otherwise. Anyways, I just thought I'd state that I think he is the most, overrated drummer of all time. Enough Said.
I don't know a thing about zune other than it was also the name of microsoft's failed iPod competition.
In this case it means that HG, our friend Steve, a random 15 year old kid that we found, and I won zunes at Sasquatch 2008 in a Rock Band contest. They were actually pretty cool little devices and the software was not proprietary like ichunes.
I was next to this guy at a concert who was air drumming through the whole first band. He was cute, so at the break I asked him if he was a drummer. He said that he considers himself one, but he's only ever played rockband drums. I didn't even have a response to that.
*(the drummer for Frank Zappa...as if I needed to say that)
Get some in you... a simple youtube search for Terry Bozzio and you will find the finest percussion work ever made by man on the most insane drum kit you could ever imagine... If you're actually into this debate, you already know who he is. if not, you're in for a real treat.
Also: Steve Gadd.. YES!... and Virgil Donati
And yes... Gene Krupa was way beyond his time.... and will always be a legend.
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