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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 6, 2011 22:11:47 GMT -8
Nothings ever gonna put you dowwwwwwwwwn?
So who are the greatest drummers of all time? John Bonham and Keith Moon immediately come to mind, but I never saw either of them live. In fact, I pay very little attention to drums in general, so hopefully I will learn a lot in this thread.
I have to mention Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, because he literally blew my mind. Wow. The two drummers I've felt the most sorry for are the dude from STS9, and the dude from Helmet/Battles. They look like they are laboring through their sets, while Taylor Hawkins looks like he is floating on air. I still think the Battles and STS9 dudes belong in this discussion.
The others that stand out immediately, the Phish drummer has more bangers to hit than I have ever seen. The double bass metal drummers always impress me, and Slipknot's drummer was really the only entertaining part of their show. I also heard Lumpy is a pretty decent drummer.
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Post by emptyfox on Jul 6, 2011 22:19:16 GMT -8
Danny Carey of Tool is my favorite drummer of all time. His drumkit is one of the largest I've ever seen and he takes the drums extremely seriously. Actually his drum set-up is one of the most interesting to look at as well. He designed it himself and had the core drum kit made from recycled cymbals. He's studied Tabla Drumming with Aloke Dutta, who is arguably the best Tabla drummer alive.
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Post by Geoff on Jul 6, 2011 22:23:23 GMT -8
Fuckin Lateralus man, crazy drums in that song.
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Post by emptyfox on Jul 6, 2011 22:28:32 GMT -8
Fuckin Lateralus, how does it work?
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 6, 2011 22:31:36 GMT -8
Knowing Maynard typically surrounds himself with the best musicians, like the greats do (Zappa, Les), I was expecting a lot from the A Perfect Circle show last week. He had the old Primus drummer (who is awesome) playing with him during his recent Puscifer tour, yet on this night, he had the dude from Devo drumming. Apparently, it was the Devo dude's first night performing with APC. No wonder I left disappointed. It was a neat show, but boring overall.
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Post by Cbats on Jul 6, 2011 22:44:33 GMT -8
a devo guy who wasn't josh freese?
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 6, 2011 22:53:04 GMT -8
a devo guy who wasn't josh freese? I don't follow APC or Devo closely, but as far as I know, it was Josh Freese. Maynard said it was the drummers first APC show, so who knows if he was full of shit. All I know is the drummer was less than inspiring, and looked just like the sleeveless dude from the Flash Mob commercial.
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Post by Cbats on Jul 6, 2011 23:08:05 GMT -8
If it was josh freese you must have caught him on an off night cause he's usually quite impressive. I doubt it was him though cause I thought he said he was sitting out this APC tour to tour with weezer (weird choice...). Besides being the permanent APC and Devo drummer, Josh used to tour with Guns and Roses and Nine Inch Nails
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Post by Shaxspear III Esq. on Jul 6, 2011 23:21:49 GMT -8
Neil Peart from Rush.
/thread
I'm not even the biggest fan of Rush's music, but I've seen them 3 times strictly because they're technically amazing.
Guy is pushing 60 and still drumming like a beast.
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Post by Geoff on Jul 6, 2011 23:39:37 GMT -8
I saw Rush last week and holy shit, his drum solo was amazing.
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Post by Friendly Destroyer on Jul 7, 2011 5:49:47 GMT -8
Everytime I hear Gene Krupa I think of Joe Flaherty air drumming in Freaks and Geeks.
I will post a list very soon.
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Post by Friendly Destroyer on Jul 7, 2011 7:17:22 GMT -8
I love drums and percussion! I think it is the most creative and inspirational instrument/aspect of many albums. The 3-D soundscape the right type of drum production can do is unparalleled by any other instrument to me. Songwriting is obviously first and foremost, but the right drum sound or drummer makes all the difference in how the songs are brought to life.
Why I say inspirational is because often some of the best songwriters are not always the most proficient musical players. Having a drummer who understands the songwriting allows the artist (or band) to go where ever they want. Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) would probably be a good starting point to illustrate what I'm fumbling with here. To me a better example would be Michael Blair. He is a long time drummer of Tom Waits, who did the majority of the percussion on all of his 80's and beyond abums
In Waits' songwriting he is looking to bring to life something more than just a song. There is a definite feeling only akin to his music (especially his 80’s output) that transcends through each song. He is also borrowing from many traditional styles of music (mainly from the 30’s and 40’s), yet obviously has no intention of trying to get some kind of “Revival” sound. It’s all very creative, singular and subtle stuff. When you think about albums like Swordfish, Rain Dogs and Frank’s Wild Years it’s pretty incredible that they sound so creative and unique, when really they are only hair away from sounding like someone pilfering all the “cool” aspects of the 30’s and 40’s and calling it their own. Michael Blair’s intuition of the sound Waits is going for really brings his songwriting across that pilfering line and into some kind of bizzaro alien world of songwriting that is totally his own. Having someone as solid as Blair to keep the beat (Blair is also responsible for most of the percussion as well) allows Waits and the rest of the band to venture off into whatever direction they feel like going (all while still delivering a concise song) .
I also love drummers who have a very distinct and creative voice (drum voice, not vocal voice). Guys like Levon Helm (the Band) and Joe “Zigaboo” Medeliste (The Meters) excel at this. They both play very traditional groove music, but elevate the songs entirely as a result of their interpretations of standard groove and rhythm. This is cool to me because it is brilliant drumming at its simplest. In the case of Helm, songs like “The Weight” or Neil Young’s “See the Sky About to Rain” are so completely unsoulful in their writing, but are dripping with soul on the recordings as a result of him adding his inflections on some very standard songwriting.
Although drummers like Neil Pert and Dany Carey are beyond impressive in a technical sense, I love guys like Harvey Mason (Herbie Hancock, Headhunters. He’s also worked with Beck) and Elvin Jones (Coltrane, Love Supreme) when it comes to virtuosity and technical playing. Again, for me it all goes back to how they allow the musicians around them to perform at their best and most creative. The clear distinction for their role, opposed to Blair’s and Frantz’s, is they are simultaneously establishing a backbone for wild improvisation and initiating the improvisation themselves. Wicked fucking talent that can melt your mind (PS – sorry for bringing Jazz into this, but you know…)
Amazing modern drummers for me are Glenn Kotch (Wilco) and Thorvaldur Thór Thorvaldsson (Jonsi).
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Post by Friendly Destroyer on Jul 7, 2011 7:19:25 GMT -8
But really, this dude it the greatest drummer on the planet.
DROP THA BEAT SKILLET!
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 7, 2011 7:22:50 GMT -8
Oh man I wish they had the full like eight minute Skillet drum solo on the webs because I'd sit and watch it right now.
His name is Night Moves, and he was born with it. And he loves tanks.
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Post by Friendly Destroyer on Jul 7, 2011 7:28:26 GMT -8
I was very disappointed to only find a 16sec clip.
Man, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm more familiar with drumming in somewhat of a tradional context. When I first heard "Optiganally Yours" I was blown away by his use of percussion and the recording of it. That is the type of shit that takes you inside your headphones.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 7, 2011 8:05:35 GMT -8
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 tuned 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.
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Post by Lump on Jul 8, 2011 11:25:36 GMT -8
Thanks Friendly D for reminding me why I love playin' drumz.
Also, for me:
Greg Saunier Steve Gadd Tony Williams
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Rusty
North American Scumfoot
Posts: 710
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Post by Rusty on Jul 8, 2011 18:47:48 GMT -8
Proficiency is fine but I prefer style. 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. Greg Saunier Steve Gadd Tony Williams 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.
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Post by Friendly Destroyer on Jul 9, 2011 10:58:37 GMT -8
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Post by StormyPinkness on Jul 9, 2011 15:14:11 GMT -8
Well since no one has brought it up yet, I am the best Rock Band drummer. Just putting that out there.
Oh and also the drummer from Ween is one of my favorite. He stuns me when I see them live.
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