Premier Rock Forum

ERawk wrote:Mo Tucker- You know she didn't play on Loaded, right? I think that's a big reason why that one is my favorite Velvets record.

Eliza! You have got to be fucking kidding, holmes.

No, she is not a "great" drummer by any criteria measuring technical proficiency. But tell me if what she does on "Heroin" is not brilliant. Mo Tucker's drumming so perfectly complements the sleepy haze of the early Velvets...I can't imaging them sounding otherwise.

Grant Hart was an OK drummer. He just played the ride a little too much and relied on the same beats over and over. I never thought he had timing issues, especially for someone who didn't play to a click. He wasn't "bad" by a long shot.

And neither is the Swiz guy, I just remember hearing some obvious flubs on the early Swiz albums. Still. Vockins is right, he's got the sound of things coming unhinged. Having the rest of the band right on certainly helped matters.

Bad Drummer? Dude from Cryptic Slaughter. Lars Ulrich (He who gets worse as time progresses).

Colm O'Closoig: Bad, but endearing when he tried, almost like a muppet. So bad on Loveless that he got replaced with samples. Didn't he have some debilitating illness that caused him fatigue, or was that the heroin/ecstacy cocktail?

simmo wrote:
Does anyone here know the Smog song "A Hit" ? It has the most woefully/beautifully inept drums I've ever heard. They're so out of time that I figured Bill Callahan just overdubbed them himself, but then one day I was reading the liner notes to Accumulation None and found out that he actually got someone in to play those drums live. If you know the song, this fact beggars belief. Still, they are wholly crap in a good way.

I love that song!

The drums on "Be Hit" might be even worse. The tom "fills" make me laugh every time.

ERawk wrote:
Oh and Ringo, what are your thoughts on Crazy Horse?

Interestingly, I love Ralph Molina's playing. I love the way it breathes. Some guys kind of waver on being ahead of and behind the beat during a song, and it sounds like they're rank amateurs who don't understand the secret pulse of a song. Other guys make it feel natural, and swing it a little in a way that no drum machine can emulate.

It isn't something that can be taught or learned....

Molina doesn't "get" this, I don't think. I expect that most drummers who do this don't "get" it any more than grass understands why it waves in the wind. It just happens, and it's musical.

John Bonham constantly pushed and pulled the beat, too. He was more aggressive about it, but there you go, right?

Ringo? Same thing. A little quicker between the snare and the kickdrum here, leading into the fill with the "wrong" hand, giving it a little hesitation there... it's musical in a way that isn't quantifiable in simple terms.

I love Crazy Horse. I love the way that the meter and feel of the songs staggers a little drunkenly- kind of junk sick and broke down. I did my best on this record to play EXACTLY like Ralph Molina, particularly on the track "Thunderbolt."

Now.... who wants me to come stagger around on their record?

dontfeartheringo wrote:Now.... who wants me to come stagger around on their record?

uh...i'd be happy if you played good on my record.

PRF members:

Record to a click track in Pro Tools and SEND ME YOUR SONGS. I will play on your records.

I ain't joking.

I got my own studio.

the guy from mogwai is fucking lame.

I love the drumming on the Pavement records! The drum intro on In The Mouth A Desert is perfect. Perfectly crap, but somehow magnificent. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.

Gramsci wrote:The guy from Sonic Youth... very boring.

You must mean Bob Bert here. Steve Shelley is good.

Mazec wrote:

Gramsci wrote:The guy from Sonic Youth... very boring.

You must mean Bob Bert here. Steve Shelley is good.

I agree. Steve Shelley is far from boring, especially live.