glassjaw7":3dqv7l9i said:
Oh Christ, drummers...don't get me started. Drummers ruined 5 years of my life! I grew up jamming with this drummer all through high school who was just excellent. Then I went to music school in Minneapolis and he moved there from our hometown in Michigan to start an original metal band. We won a battle of the bands and won studio time and were doing well for ourselves.
Then his parents get a divorce and it totally changes him. He quits the band and now he plays in a funk/bluegrass/jam band called Down Lo. They're doing well and touring and playing shows with Phish and Wyclef and shit. But I could never replace him. I tried about 50 or so drummers over the following years and could never get back what we had.
We were supposed to play at 93x-fest on the main stage when he quit. Then I lost my singer who was insanely good. That's my sob story
I had a similar sob story in my "formative" years myself. Since drums are my main instrument (been playing over 30 years) I think I have some insight into the drummer's pathology. I too hung out with and played drums with one of the most talented and creative drummers I had ever heard all through high school and 3 or 4 years beyond. He was from the Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio and Bill Bruford school and I was a total Bonham, Powell, Vinnie Appice guy so we spent hours trading licks and jamming. One problem I had was that I knew I would never, in a million years be as good as this guy. The other problem was all my friends played drums and I knew of no guitar players that were worth a shit that also played the stuff I was into at the time: Slayer, Metallica, Kreator, Van Halen, Led Zep, Dio i.e. METAL
So I bit the bullit and taught myself guitar my senior year of high school. By summer I was decent enough and started jamming with my buddy who by this time earned the nickname, Drum God since his double bass work rivaled and on good night, surpased Dave Lombardo's. A couple of years later he flaked out, joined some hippie band, played/toured with them for years, squandered his true talent and went on to have a "normal" life.
My band at the time tried out several replacements and they all were miserable failures, so bad that I put the guitar down and started playing drums for the band. Since thenI have played with a couple of decent drummers but they all, including my good buddy from high school have had several fatal flaws:
1) Drummers typically don't understand song structure, arrangement and dynamics
2) Most drummers over play or are too busy (Less really is more)
3) They don't know how to play for the song
4) All of which leads to their feeling of inadequecy which in turn leads to all of their retarded, diva-like behavior
My advice to anyone looking for a drummer is to first make sure you like them as a person. If they're cool and willing to listen, they can be molded. Second, never let them try to "add" something to or restructure a song. They're ideas are usually stupid and are just a pathetic attempt for them to "show off" some "killer" fill they came up with. Also, make sure they can play "in the pocket" for the type of music you play. So many drummers I have played with have no "feel" and can barely keep time (pst...keeping time is what drummers are supposed to be doing). And finally, have some empathy. Most drummers are just frustrated singers or guitar players who can't handle sitting way back there, out of the spotlight. That's why they "practice" in between songs at rehearsal when you're trying to tune or talk to the bass player about that one note that isn't jiving during the chorus...
), but he actually did a pretty good job. He had the strangest kit that I've ever seen...the toms all looked like the bell end of a sousaphone.
