Sonic Youth Gossip - drummers - something is not right with these 'people'

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drummers - something is not right with these 'people'

You okay? It's been pretty silent around you lately.

example one:

really good free improv drummer. played with mats gustafson and the likes. got him on board to play with us. started out great. played a few very good shows. then it got to a point where he started crying during practices and we had to keep him from killing his ex gf. started to totally suck at drumming. couldn't sit, had to hold onto snare while playing.

then he got into a bar fight and ended with two spall fractures in his arm.

example two:

got a new drummer. more of a pop-rock style guy. very good at what he does, not so much for impro but with fixed structures... brilliant.
so we played with him for half a year now. He was really into it. Actually wanted to play with us long before (when we still were playing with the drunk guy).
got together a really intense and i think great set.
sent out stuff... had like 6 or 7 nice gigs planned. Had a label that wanted to put out record... people who heard the stuff where very enthusiastic about it.
yesterday he fucking quit the band...
5 days before first show with him.

fuck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antagon

You okay? It's been pretty silent around you lately.

Hey hey.
besides that that guy just ruined half a year of musical work and effort i'm fine.
been working a lot lately. restaurant still standing. supposedly islamic emirate of qatar is buying the place now, so we're up against them instead of france.

sorry i missed your event at the london club. next time!

to be fair
i play with several other drummers in different projects. they are very nice people. just not (very) good drummers.

that sucks! dumping you like that at the last minute is true fuckery.

can't suggest anything other than finding a new ape to replace him or pulling a big black and programming a drum machine that will never betray you.

Good drummers are rare so we guitarists have to tolerate their many idiosyncrasies.. its that or do it all yourself in the studio which frankly is too much work

don't know many drummers. the ones I've met were ok. not in the pocket without groove blah, slight technical without knowledge or lazy to tune drums. you hear that thuddy drop a brick on the pavement sound everywhere. as far as emotional problems?...hope it becomes the new stereotype.

I love drums. im the best drummer I know. once you learn rolls and that all famous rim shot in band class by the way of a friend. it's on. it's a posture thing.

also you can't be shy on drums. everybody can hear you so you have to be loud and proud. otherwise you'll get no where. but start off quiet and proud first because it doesn't matter because everyone can still hear you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Good drummers are rare so we guitarists have to tolerate their many idiosyncrasies.. its that or do it all yourself in the studio which frankly is too much work

It's true. Good drummers are fucking rare. I've never had an experience quite like what ATT's describing, but I did used to work with this really thunderous drummer, a technical wiz. He was really nice and really weird- wore pleated pants and argyle sweaters, even during sweaty disgusting basement gigs. But his eccentricity was that he was clean cut like a Mormon, and that was fine for us.

Then things just got really weird. He started desperately trying to get laid, creeped people out. Started drinking out of nowhere, and became the butt of a lot of jokes. He got, like, blind drunk to the point where he'd piss his pants during practice. Then, fist fight with guitarist for one of the bands we played with most. By then he already had a replacement filling in for him ½ the time. So .. He had to go. And he went, happily. Ended up having some serious psychological problems. 6 months later, institutionalized.

Then his replacement, who was all muscle and a little more lax on the technical side, turned out to be super ambitious, and really committed. He was a good stylistic fit, and had connections with established bands. Great guy, but also a closet heroin addict. Took a while to figure that one out.

Best drummer I ever played with was actually mainly a guitarist. But he had taken piano and drum lessons as well. He was really a genius. One day he just plopped down behind the kit and left me on guitar. He just sat there for a second during rehearsal and listened, and then he proceeded to spazz the fuck out on some crazy jazzy/mathy shit, and he just killed it. I think the rest of us tired out before he did.

Funny how things work out sometimes. We had to lose two "proper" drummers and panic for a bit before we found the perfect drummer in our second guitarist.

Then of course the band totally fell apart for completely unrelated reasons. Lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Severian

lol!! think you just defined this thread.

My last band broke up because our drummer had mental problems and ruined the band for everyone. The band before that broke up because we couldn't find a drummer (the one good one we found wanted to sing instead and brought his friend along to drum in his place, and his friend was awful)

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

yeah. also,
that dude runs the practice space we used (also with different projects). it was the cheapest and nicest of all practice spaces I ever saw in Vienna. great.
basically we were the only ones who took care of that place too. repairing shit. cleaning, organizing. big fuckwartery.
super weird, used to play with him in primordial undermind too, a band he never really liked and always wanted to play in my project. now this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Good drummers are rare so we guitarists have to tolerate their many idiosyncrasies.. its that or do it all yourself in the studio which frankly is too much work

well, guitarist are the worst too.
never had any problems with tuba players. they have very gentle minds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebeccagotcursedout

also you can't be shy on drums. everybody can hear you so you have to be loud and proud. otherwise you'll get no where. but start off quiet and proud first because it doesn't matter because everyone can still hear you.

yeah, i'm a pretty bad ass fake free jazz drummer myself too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Severian

i hear you. drummers and heroin don't seem to go together very well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

in primordial undermind, we had 6 drummers in the last 2 years.
one quit music to become a monk. he was really good though.
rest of them just disappeared.

The best drummer I ever played with quit music to get a doctorate in studying butterflies.. serious shit. He hadn't played drums in two years while getting his Masters, literally the first time he had played in all that time and was still sublime... I felt like a virgin.. then he disappeared off into academia again..

Guy just was really into butterflies

Back in da day, my two roommates were auditioning drummers for their band, and the long line of nuts that showed up were quite illuminating.

One guy just wanted to play Sabbath covers

One guy was so shitty, such a shitty drummer, that after stopping several songs earlier than midway, said "I just wanted to jam with someone"

One guy spent the entire audition complaining about the drum kit he was "forced" to use, and he did not even bring drumsticks.

Another guy played OK, but seemed more interested in talking about his past gigs as a roadie for Metallica and for Neil Young and Kiss in 1979 (he was pretty old)

the great drummers are tough to pin down, because they ussually play in like 5 different groups.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

One guy just wanted to play Sabbath covers

Send the motherfucker on over to my jam space.. I'm always down.

just because you think you've mastered an instrument doesn't mean there is a life long dedication to it for some. which is kinda crap way of thinking about it.

it's like thinking you have gone as far as your potential can put into playing guitar. put it down, then three years later you remembered what you've learned and realize u can do much more.

but, then again I've never played in a band before because where I come from people are inbreeds.

Bands are like dating multiple people simultaneously..