try hanging a picture straight without nails........

try sonic youth without double s beat attack

nuff said

Very few drummers have become legends, in facts they're only two : Max Roach and Steve Shelley...

what you have to understand is that when you write experimental ROCK music you have to have a fucking great drummer to pull everything together cohesively, and to do it outstandingly, which steve shelley does. he is a fucking awesome drummer, and noone else could fill his sonic shoes

Yes, he's the best.


Pitchfork Fest is the best performance of Daydream Nation so far, in my opinion. (I haven't listened to that second Roundhouse show yet.) Lots of nice comments in the thread; I like jennthebenn's post too.

Steve Shelley, mediocre? No seriously, listen to Theresa's Sound-world (for instance), then you'll come. Steve isn't the best drummer technically speaking, but he totally ROCKS because he's really not just the rythm... there's much more in his game, in my opinion.

this is the dumbest thread ever.

steve has one of the most distinctive drumming styles of any drummer. you can tell a sonic youth song by whatever technique it is that he uses (i'm not a drummer, but i can tell his sound.)

aside from the fact that, as everyone has previously stated, he IS one of the nicest people in the entire world, why anyone would criticize him for essentially not being "cool enough" to be in the band is beyond me. if you're not at band practice or a part of the creative process yourself, you have no idea what he brings to the table in those terms. i could personally give a shit whether he's "experimental" enough of a human being or musician. if lee, kim and thurston didn't think he added something, he wouldn't be in the band.

i heard steve has a skin disorder where his feet are no longer covered in skin, but scales.

I've had the pleasure to meet Steve a few times before shows, and he's always been really friendly and warm. Less importantly, I think he's an excellent drummer.

Actually, I prefer to call people who play drums "drummists."

very nice.
all i know is that he is the greatest drummer of all time, and he doesn't wear a watch.

question: how do you keep up with time without a watch?

answer: you are steve shelley!

Yeah, I agree. He holds it down. Had it been anyone els, their sound would be far too unorganized. Of course (this is beyond obvious), it would not be Sonic Youth.

Actually, I prefer to call people who play drums percussionists.

He discovered and was the first to record Chan Marshall. Not only that, but was actually a member of Cat Power for the first 3 albums.

That alone earns him my love (SY aside).

That's just my opinion but I don't think Cat Power are that important.

there is a reason why he plays for them, though. they wanted him to play for them and they were one of his favorite bands.

for his drumming mad skills- listen to the beat on Nevermind (What was it Anyway). synchronicity that i was listening to it when i saw this thread and this song has some of my favourite drum sounds of all time on it.

s.

i think Steve's a great drummer, & so do a lot of other people apparently. He's awesome... and he's seemingly a really sweet guy as well. What more could anyone ask for???

When I took a friend to see them a few years ago in Newtown, he thought the best thing about them was Steve ("He's a bloody good drummer!") but he felt that the others were just going through the motions.

he's definitely an awesome drummer. you should listen to his drums on Non Site #3 on Lee's Amarillo Ramp. its very unique to me and it definitely fucking grounded Lee and Thurston's guitar feedback spiel. i was listening to it the other day and was just surprised by it. and it was all improv if i remember.

i met the guy in hoboken at one of thurston's show. great guy. very friendly. im just glad i told him that im a HUGE fucking fan. not of sonic youth but of steve shelley.

I love that quick break he gets in Pipeline/ Kill Time.

I can't think of too many other major rock musicians who have been around so long and yet have so little known and confirmed about their personal life! I mean, someone mentioned seeing him with a woman; I remember back in the '80s and early to mid '90s, it was almost automatically assumed by every fan I met that he was gay!

^ I wish.

steve is extremely cool! he put up with a lot of badgering on my teenage behalf (for the sake of compiling information to eventually build the sonicology, of course, though he probably didn't realize it at the time) and was always really tolerating of my insane questions. i'm still embarassed whenever i see him (happened to stay in the same hotel as the band when thurston played seattle last october, ran into him in the lobby!), but he will always rock. one of my favorite drummers after all these years, his 'thousand leaves' era kit was so cool to watch/hear him play. and, to make this my third mention of 'psychic hearts', his drumming on that album is really fucking cool too.

i have a bunch of pix of steve's kit circa 2006 on my gear site if anyone hasn't seen them: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/eq/ -- click 'steve'

steve is a really good drummer. he looks like harry potter. after july 25th he will be the only member who has not reached the age of 50.
that's about all there is to say about this fine young man.

I went to a Daydream Nation show with a friend who doesn't like Sonic Youth. He was really impressed with Steve's drumming (especially during Eric's Trip) and that he looked like Harry Potter. But he didn't like the other members of SY because of the things they did with their guitars.

Thats cause he rocks ... and as nice as mary poppins as well

I deeply admire his style, especially on SYR 1+2, WM and ATL.
On these releases, he drums with subtelty it blows my mind.
Am i the only one to notice that shift in style, like it's more jazz-oriented, there are more details.

When u watch EPKs he looks like a polite soldier in the studio but he also gave a straight NO NO when the band said "Murray Street" was going to be called " Street sauce"
well done, good for him, no?
"Street sauce" sounds like a GZA LP title, he he

It is amazing how much a smaller man, (Ie. not a Kenny Arnoff or muscle dude) can pound out such amazing rhythms...

Much to the chagrin of some of my friends, I actually like "Ringo style" drumming. As in no frills...

The beginning of "Unmade Bed" is killer along with many other Steve moments

i love this man. he can do no wrong. he completes sonic youth. long live steve.

hes so fuckin good, a good, solid drummer that knows exactly when and where and what to play

he is playing very simple but he is useing all percusion and thats what is the best. he is usualy playing simple rythmes but not only on hi hat Bass Drum and Snare Drum. this whats is the most importend. he is the best for sonics...

Steve only sounds "simple" on the more recent and expansive music that soic youth has done. steve's drumming on sister, saydream, goo, and dirty is balls out fucking MONSTER drumming. pounding the skins like a goddamn mad man.

I also love how in most sonic youth videos steve is shown reading something, like he cannot be bothereed to participate in the video process! LOVE IT!

plus he signed my shirt.


when sonic youth played Houston about 3 years ago we went outside after the show and waited with around 30 other people for any sonic members to come out and we saw steve (about 100 feet away bu the backstage door) andthe securituy guysacted like he wanted to be escorted to their bus so they started to make a ring around him to "protect" him fromnus the fans, and we were all yelling "steve!" and he grabbed a security guard, pointed at us and (to read his body language) sdaid something to trhe effect of "those are my people"
and came over and talked to everyone and signed everything and wa a fucking great goddamn rock star in my eyez.

Steve is the man he's the one that holds it all together.

Well,

Obviously he is very dedicated to the band and to music in general. It re-assuring to see a non-flashy white man achieve succes in the entertainment industry!

Which has some many press attention seeking hounds and crass individuals...

i dont think hes simple, everything about the sonics is pretty complex

It'd be awesome if the Crucifucks got back together for a little bit.

sonic youth should've taken them out as the opening band on the daydream nation tour and the crucifucks could've played their entire first album while the sonics played daydream nation.

That strikes me as a very weird desire, but to each his own I guess.

steve, as he was a member of the crucifucks, gave the band the direct link to hardcore of which they were all enamored with, and is probably one of the main reason they started to make real pop songs instead of remaining a noise rock band.

Why do you make all this shit up?

so hardcore punk is somehow a prerequisite for pop music? that makes no sense!

HAHA. I actually lol'd.