Why drums?

[Odd Fella]

I actually admire good drummers and percussionists, the way they coordinate their limbs as if they were independent from each other, not run by the same brain.

That's exactly why I posted the Bozzio vid. He's a master at that. I don't listen to him to hear a good drum groove, heck just listen to the hi hat. Watch the vid and listen to the hat. It's a f**king spot on metronome amidst everything else he's doing.

I had never heard of him before this thread. Who has he played for?

I always found the Talk Talk drummer pretty good for a pop band. He had a very physical way of playing. He must have been totally exhausted after every concert.

Not sure this is live, the toms sound strange, but he has some sort of pads on them, maybe trigger pads or pads to shut them up (@ 50 secs):

[VOODOO U]

I had never heard of him before this thread. Who has he played for?

Off the top of my head, during the 80s he was in Missing Persons with his then wife on vocals. In the 90s he played with The Knack.

I always found the Talk Talk drummer pretty good for a pop band.

I do like some of their stuff i just never paid attention to the drummer. I'll check it out.

[Bunny_boy]

If we're talking about pop/rock drumming, I've always liked Britt Walford from Slint. He also looks about 12 in this home footage montage.

[VOODOO U]

I always found the Talk Talk drummer pretty good for a pop band. He had a very physical way of playing. He must have been totally exhausted after every concert.

Not sure this is live, the toms sound strange, but he has some sort of pads on them, maybe trigger pads or pads to shut them up (@ 50 secs):

Well f**k. Just checked this out and had I known it was going to be my favorite Talk Talk song......
Anyhow, yeah it's more than likely just for show the way the drunmer is playing all busy with the toms. It's definitely a drum machine that's playing (not undermining the song btw).
Didn't notice any pads but regardless the whole performance was syncing to the actual recording. All in the name of promotion.
On a side note, i remember when i first heard this song and how much of an impact it made on me.
We lived in a private community in Pennsylvania and it had this country club with tennis, basketball courts, a pool, restaurant/bar, yadda yadda.
On the first floor of the main building was a mini mart and my mom sent me out to get her a chocolate bar.
I remember this like it was yesterday and i owe it all to the song.
It was a Saturday morning. I go in to get the chocolate and there was a line at the sole cashier (it was a very small mini mart).
As im waiting, Life's What You Make It is playing on a nice sized boom box behind the cashier.
I deliberately walked around the postage stamp sized store pretending i was looking for something else just so I could hear the whole song.
When it finished the radio station made no mention on who the artist was. It went straight to a commercial. I was pissed.
So i buy the chocolate, go home, and my sister is watching MTV.
Guess what video was playing......

[VOODOO U]

If we're talking about pop/rock drumming, I've always liked Britt Walford from Slint.

This is alternative rock as opposed to pop. Reminds me of the 90s akin to Thinking Fellars Union Local 282 (saw them open for the Boredoms hence how I heard of them).
It's actually a relaxing song and yea, although the drumming is typical, it's exactly what the song calls for and well done at that.

[GaryG]

Wasn't expecting Slint or TFUL282 mentions when i opened this thread but always appreciated.

Yeah, I like drums but when they know their place. Take a fairly simple music like most rock, it needs something punching out the beat so appreciate the form it takes. What I personally don't like is more a production thing, having the big drums because that's what you do, big cracking gated reverb snare blatting everything else out metronimically (thanks 80s). Though, yeah, that works sometimes too, take Peter Gabriels 'Intruder', one long unrelenting drum/snare combo (he didn't want any cymbals on the album ) but what the whole song hangs so gets a pass. The Talk Talk track is a good example imo, I can easily imagine that with a less imaganitive beat but where they went with it works perfectly.

My personal 'drum crime' track (which pains me as it's Anton freakin' Fier...), starts of ok but then... just why...

[Bunny_boy]

That might be why I don't really listen to BSOR very much, especially considering Grant Hart in Husker Du. I can't remember the name of the drummer in Sugar, but I loved his style as well.
But yeah, even Anton Fier can have an off day (of production).

Anyways....the kick snare combo is for creating a backbeat, isn't it? And it's loud, loud enough to hear in a venue from the back of the room in the 1920s/30s small jazz combos, before they amped everything up. Goes for the acoustic 40s and 50s stuff as well, but I'm not sure if they had started amping stuff by then?

A bit off topic, but I've always been taken by the way a pop/rock group is almost always bass, drums, guitar, and nothing else. Yes a few have piano, etc, but that standard combo was codified early on and has not really changed

[GaryG]

Both of Bob Moulds early solos kind of had that big rhythm thing going kind of dragged them down I feel. BSOR especially, shame as both great players, Fier especially, thinking first Feelies LP, almost tribal at times. Malcolm Travis in Sugar, yeah he was great on those records. But, Grant Hart... Jazz drummer in a hardcore band

Fred Armisen has an amusing special on Netflix, Standup for Drummers. Bit hit and miss but there's one rather cool bit where he has half a dozen or so kits set up in the theatre, representing different decades (big ol' trap kit, electronic ones etc), he proceeds to work his way through them showcasing how he sees drumming for that decade. I think illustrates your point here nicely.

[revvy]

nm

[Odd Fella]

I always found the Talk Talk drummer pretty good for a pop band. He had a very physical way of playing. He must have been totally exhausted after every concert.

Not sure this is live, the toms sound strange, but he has some sort of pads on them, maybe trigger pads or pads to shut them up (@ 50 secs):

Well f**k. Just checked this out and had I known it was going to be my favorite Talk Talk song......
Anyhow, yeah it's more than likely just for show the way the drunmer is playing all busy with the toms. It's definitely a drum machine that's playing (not undermining the song btw).
Didn't notice any pads but regardless the whole performance was syncing to the actual recording. All in the name of promotion.
On a side note, i remember when i first heard this song and how much of an impact it made on me.
We lived in a private community in Pennsylvania and it had this country club with tennis, basketball courts, a pool, restaurant/bar, yadda yadda.
On the first floor of the main building was a mini mart and my mom sent me out to get her a chocolate bar.
I remember this like it was yesterday and i owe it all to the song.
It was a Saturday morning. I go in to get the chocolate and there was a line at the sole cashier (it was a very small mini mart).
As im waiting, Life's What You Make It is playing on a nice sized boom box behind the cashier.
I deliberately walked around the postage stamp sized store pretending i was looking for something else just so I could hear the whole song.
When it finished the radio station made no mention on who the artist was. It went straight to a commercial. I was pissed.
So i buy the chocolate, go home, and my sister is watching MTV.
Guess what video was playing......

There are black pads on all drums (see screenshot), probably to silence the beats and not to interfere with the playback

Those coincidences... And did that song make you decide to become a drummer?

I actually prefer Talk Talk's earlier stuff, when they still used a lot of synths, and Simmons drums. I remember I had the album with the puzzles on the cover, very good sound quality. Unfortunately, my favorite TT song was not on it iirc:

[Bunny_boy]

More 90s stuff

[Negoba]

Terry Bozzio was one of many crazy good drummers who played for Frank Zappa.

I have often wondered as well how the modern drum kit came to be so established. Even to the point that we emulate it electronically with similar patterns when you could create all sorts of noises to serve the percussive function. I assume some music academic has looked into this and there is some sort of answer. I guess establishing with a low frequency pulse punctuated by high frequency accents does have some fundamental functionality...

[VOODOO U]

There are black pads on all drums (see screenshot), probably to silence the beats and not to interfere with the playback

Ah ok, yes you got it. Those are mutes. Something Alex Van Halen could use on his cymbals on some songs.

Those coincidences... And did that song make you decide to become a drummer?

No I was four when I encountered drumming. My mom was friends with a neighbor who's teenage son was a drummer. We visited one day and he let us in his room to hear him play.
My mom covered her ears and had to listen outside the room.
I stood there in front of the kit absorbing everything and loved it.
Of course now i have tinnitus and lower back problems but goddamit it was worth it.

I actually prefer Talk Talk's earlier stuff, when they still used a lot of synths, and Simmons drums.

Ok so you like the simmons sound over acoustic. I'm vice versa but can appreciate the simmons sound in ie: reggae. Early reggae not anything current and definitely not reggaeton.
The only thing reggaeton is good for is Shakira shaking her ass.

[VOODOO U]

I have often wondered as well how the modern drum kit came to be so established. I guess establishing with a low frequency pulse punctuated by high frequency accents does have some fundamental functionality...

That's basically it. Each drum head emits a frequency based on size and depth and certain frequencies work well to create an impact. Impact meaning it conjurs human response.
I firmly believe that our modern society utilizes knowledge that is very ancient.
You can't maintain control of people without first establishing a means to control and so, with that being said, the knowledge which forms the foundation to maintain control of people through a civilized circuit came before the dawn of modern man. It had to.
If there's a holy Trinity, music is at the top as far as influencing and impacting the human system.
The standard drum kit is no accident. It packs in stadiums of people.

[noiseboyuk]

I've often wondered the same thing as the OP, it's a fascinating question. Perhaps the kick / snare duo mimics footstomps and handclaps, a very natural human way of generating rhythm since forever. The low frequencies of kicks / footstomps physically shift the most air... a downbeat might sort mimic a heartbeat?

Africa is surely very important in terms of the musical development of what rhythms work. The djembe goes back thousands of years, and you can hear how you can get both low and high tones from the same drum:



I guess as time went by, people experimented with different kinds of drums, the larger ones accenting the lower frequencies.

Culturally I think black music began to dominate from gospel and soul, and so much western music off-shot from that. Someone once observed that white congregations in churches instinctively clap on the downbeat which sounds leaden and crap, while black congregations instinctively clap on the offbeat, which gives all the energy.