A few weeks ago in lessons EN went over The Meters Cissy Strut. It is also on the list of tunes for the upcoming "recital", which I may or may not try to participate in.
While checking out the Drummer Cafe I found an article on the tune (complete with video lesson).
The Meters playing it live:
Standard issue dudes on YouTube playing the drum part:
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Drummer Talk
The internet, like my life, is a place that I enjoy more when it is familiar. I like reading regular blogs, instead of broadly looking hither and yond. I like a blogger that posts every day, preferrably only a paragraph or two, but every day. I've been trying to find some regular drum reads and find, much to my dismay, that lots of the pages that are out there are updated infrequently...or not at all anymore.
I uncovered this one today, and it seems to be relatively active. I prefer blogs written by single persons, but a good site with multiple writers is okay too. This one seems to be part blog, part podcast talk show. Not ideal as I don't do podcasts, but at least it is active. They are even going to PASIC.
I'm not bringing my laptop to PASIC (mostly due to security concerns and not liking to have to haul it around), so I won't be able to live blog the event. I do plan to take copious notes, though, which will undoubtedly turn into postings here at some point.
I uncovered this one today, and it seems to be relatively active. I prefer blogs written by single persons, but a good site with multiple writers is okay too. This one seems to be part blog, part podcast talk show. Not ideal as I don't do podcasts, but at least it is active. They are even going to PASIC.
I'm not bringing my laptop to PASIC (mostly due to security concerns and not liking to have to haul it around), so I won't be able to live blog the event. I do plan to take copious notes, though, which will undoubtedly turn into postings here at some point.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
PASIC
So PASIC starts tomorrow. I'll arrive mid-day Thursday. Aside from walking around and looking at products, my plan is to attend the following sessions if they are still open and if my head doesn't explode:
Thursday, November 12
10:00 a.m.
Maria Martinez, Drumset Master Class
1:00 p.m.
Chris Pennie, Drumset Clinic
3:00 p.m.
Sergio Bellotti, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Zoro and Daniel Glass, Drumset Clinic
Friday, November 13
9:00 a.m.
Free Hearing Tests
10:00 a.m.
Steve Fidyk, Drumset Master Class
11:00 a.m.
Felix Pollard, Drumset Clinic
1:00 p.m.
Tobias Ralph, Drumset Clinic
3:00 p.m.
Benny Greb, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Akira Jimbo, Drumset Clinic
6:00 p.m.
Hall of Fame Celebration
Saturday, November 14
9:00 a.m.
Ed Shaughnessy, Drumset FUNdamentals
11:00 a.m.
Joel Stevenett, Drumset Clinic
1:00 p.m.
Dean Butterworth, Drumset Clinic
2:00 p.m.
Skip Hadden, Drumset Master Class
3:00 p.m.
Jack DeJohnette, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Virgil Donati, Drumset Clinic
Thursday, November 12
10:00 a.m.
Maria Martinez, Drumset Master Class
1:00 p.m.
Chris Pennie, Drumset Clinic
3:00 p.m.
Sergio Bellotti, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Zoro and Daniel Glass, Drumset Clinic
Friday, November 13
9:00 a.m.
Free Hearing Tests
10:00 a.m.
Steve Fidyk, Drumset Master Class
11:00 a.m.
Felix Pollard, Drumset Clinic
1:00 p.m.
Tobias Ralph, Drumset Clinic
3:00 p.m.
Benny Greb, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Akira Jimbo, Drumset Clinic
6:00 p.m.
Hall of Fame Celebration
Saturday, November 14
9:00 a.m.
Ed Shaughnessy, Drumset FUNdamentals
11:00 a.m.
Joel Stevenett, Drumset Clinic
1:00 p.m.
Dean Butterworth, Drumset Clinic
2:00 p.m.
Skip Hadden, Drumset Master Class
3:00 p.m.
Jack DeJohnette, Drumset Clinic
5:00 p.m.
Virgil Donati, Drumset Clinic
Lessons, Week 41
We spent a long time playing a String Cheese Incident tune (not sure what it was called but it had ride on 1, 2, 3, 4 and an off beat kind of cross sticking pattern) and then played Bob Marley's Stir It Up and talked about One Drop Reggae. He had taught One Drop to me a long time ago (though I can't find record of this in my lesson notes), but I didn't quite get it. I also learned it at the Experience Music Project, but again it slipped my mind. I think I've got it now, but probably won't really have it until I play it lots and lots, which I doubt will be happening anytime soon.
We also spent a long time talking about his trips to Jamaica on behalf of a music charity that repairs people's homes. And we discussed whether or not I want to play in the student recitals Dec 12/19. Not sure yet. You only play one song, which is kind of a pain to show up for.
We also spent a long time talking about his trips to Jamaica on behalf of a music charity that repairs people's homes. And we discussed whether or not I want to play in the student recitals Dec 12/19. Not sure yet. You only play one song, which is kind of a pain to show up for.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Revisiting Travis Barker
So speaking of second looks...
I finally dug into the Hal Leonard playalong book for Blink 182. The first time I looked at this book I didn't buy it because the drum parts looked too easy, and I said I was unimpressed with Travis Barker.
Following the charts along while listening to the tunes, though, I gotta say that I misjudged Barker. Yeah, there are parts that aren't that hard, but there are parts that are kind of complicated too. Lots of kind of complicated parts. Lots of parts that I certainly couldn't get right away.
So I'll be spending more time with Mr. Barker. I think that Blink 182's music is right up my alley too. I really don't know (like Green Day) why I never listened to them before. Chalk it up to old age.
I finally dug into the Hal Leonard playalong book for Blink 182. The first time I looked at this book I didn't buy it because the drum parts looked too easy, and I said I was unimpressed with Travis Barker.
Following the charts along while listening to the tunes, though, I gotta say that I misjudged Barker. Yeah, there are parts that aren't that hard, but there are parts that are kind of complicated too. Lots of kind of complicated parts. Lots of parts that I certainly couldn't get right away.
So I'll be spending more time with Mr. Barker. I think that Blink 182's music is right up my alley too. I really don't know (like Green Day) why I never listened to them before. Chalk it up to old age.
Revisiting Dave Hower
I was tired yesterday from running an ill-prepared for 5K and from a couple of hours of drum practice (like real practice, on actual exercises), so I decided to just play something for fun. I've been bored lately with most of the stuff that I usually play for fun, so I pulled out three Nields records and decided to play along to one of my favorite drummers, Dave Hower.
I haven't listened to or played any Nields stuff in a good long while. I always liked Hower's style and I always thought it was many notches above my own abilities.
Playing along last night I wasn't trying to copy the parts verbatim by any means, I was just having fun, but I was surprised by how easy the songs came. His parts are much more restrained than I remember (though that WAS one of the things that I always liked about him). They were heavily based in simple eighth note bass patterns and lots of ghost notes on the snare. A modified funk pattern really, which has come to be something that I have a predisposition towards. So his parts ended up being things that I'd play if I wasn't thinking too hard.
One odd thing that I noticed, that I would not have been able to identify just a few months ago, is that he plays with a ton of rim shots. A great example is the song May Day Cafe. It's crazy! Maybe it isn't actually rim shots but some metallic type snare that I don't know much about, like timbales. Whatever it is, I didn't notice it at all before, and last night it was all I could hear.
Rimshots aren't ever something that I've tried to do, but for some reason, I tend to hit them alot. It's something about the way that I have my snare set up and my technique. Anyway, once I heard them on May Day Cafe I started noticing that he does it a fair amount.
I actually got a little bored and stopped playing. I noticed how prominent that the vocals/guitars are in these songs and what a back seat the drums take. The fact that this would bore me represents a huge evolution in my musical tastes:from the singer/songwriter/acoustic guitar player to drummer. It is strange to see it so starkly displayed.
I still like The Nields and I still think Dave Hower is a great drummer. He'll always be on the short list of drummers that made me want to pick up the instrument. But it might be awhile before I can come to appreciate him as much as I once did.
I remember the first time I kissed a girl in public that it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. I thought it was true love. My much more jaded partner in crime told me that it had nothing to do with love (nor, did she suspect, with my sexual orientation)...that it was all about newness and taboo. Looking back just about 18 years later I think she was only part right. It wasn't "true love" or even "real love"...it was "young love". It was all new and fresh and I was the first one to discover everything that there was to discover in the world.
I think that I have to go through the paces of young love...the love of a new drummer discovering everything for the first time...getting obsessed with John Bonham or Tre Cool or Neil Peart or "namethedrummeroftheweek." Someday, if I keep up with this madness long term, I'll have settled down from the excitement of all of those first kisses I will actually redevelop my own taste and come to appreciate music again for reasons other than hearing the most recent, most exciting, weird or complicated new drum thing. Someday I'll be able to hear the song again, the music again, instead of only being able to hear the drum part. I think when it is all said and done there will be a place for Dave Hower again, not as a hero per se, but as a well respected fellow musician whose music I will greatly enjoy. Hopefully I'll get there without any shortcuts. Young love is worth every pointless painful minute and I wouldn't trade the ride for the world.
Great example of the modified funk beat, and a song about falling down in love, Jennifer Falling Down (more Nields tunes here for the uninitiated)
I haven't listened to or played any Nields stuff in a good long while. I always liked Hower's style and I always thought it was many notches above my own abilities.
Playing along last night I wasn't trying to copy the parts verbatim by any means, I was just having fun, but I was surprised by how easy the songs came. His parts are much more restrained than I remember (though that WAS one of the things that I always liked about him). They were heavily based in simple eighth note bass patterns and lots of ghost notes on the snare. A modified funk pattern really, which has come to be something that I have a predisposition towards. So his parts ended up being things that I'd play if I wasn't thinking too hard.
One odd thing that I noticed, that I would not have been able to identify just a few months ago, is that he plays with a ton of rim shots. A great example is the song May Day Cafe. It's crazy! Maybe it isn't actually rim shots but some metallic type snare that I don't know much about, like timbales. Whatever it is, I didn't notice it at all before, and last night it was all I could hear.
Rimshots aren't ever something that I've tried to do, but for some reason, I tend to hit them alot. It's something about the way that I have my snare set up and my technique. Anyway, once I heard them on May Day Cafe I started noticing that he does it a fair amount.
I actually got a little bored and stopped playing. I noticed how prominent that the vocals/guitars are in these songs and what a back seat the drums take. The fact that this would bore me represents a huge evolution in my musical tastes:from the singer/songwriter/acoustic guitar player to drummer. It is strange to see it so starkly displayed.
I still like The Nields and I still think Dave Hower is a great drummer. He'll always be on the short list of drummers that made me want to pick up the instrument. But it might be awhile before I can come to appreciate him as much as I once did.
I remember the first time I kissed a girl in public that it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. I thought it was true love. My much more jaded partner in crime told me that it had nothing to do with love (nor, did she suspect, with my sexual orientation)...that it was all about newness and taboo. Looking back just about 18 years later I think she was only part right. It wasn't "true love" or even "real love"...it was "young love". It was all new and fresh and I was the first one to discover everything that there was to discover in the world.
I think that I have to go through the paces of young love...the love of a new drummer discovering everything for the first time...getting obsessed with John Bonham or Tre Cool or Neil Peart or "namethedrummeroftheweek." Someday, if I keep up with this madness long term, I'll have settled down from the excitement of all of those first kisses I will actually redevelop my own taste and come to appreciate music again for reasons other than hearing the most recent, most exciting, weird or complicated new drum thing. Someday I'll be able to hear the song again, the music again, instead of only being able to hear the drum part. I think when it is all said and done there will be a place for Dave Hower again, not as a hero per se, but as a well respected fellow musician whose music I will greatly enjoy. Hopefully I'll get there without any shortcuts. Young love is worth every pointless painful minute and I wouldn't trade the ride for the world.
Great example of the modified funk beat, and a song about falling down in love, Jennifer Falling Down (more Nields tunes here for the uninitiated)
Pink Houses vs Clovis Mann
I haven't been out to see live music in some time. Part of this is blatant laziness and my desire to be in bed by 10pm every night. Most shows in these parts don't even start until 9 or 10pm. And I've been on the wagon for a little while now, so staying away from show venues (read: bars) has just seemed easier. Nothing cures the boredom of waiting for your favorite band to take the stage like getting shit-faced drunk...and that's something I'm trying to avoid these days.
But Saturday night I decided I needed to not be such a lame-o, so I went out. Two shows peaked my interest, Pink Houses at The Badger Bowl, and Clovis Mann at the Lazy Oaf Lounge. The reason for my interest in both was the same, also being the reason that this post qualifies for this blog, that being that I wanted to watch the drummers.
Pink Houses, to my pre-show understanding, is a John Cougar Mellencamp tribute band. I'm not a rabid JCM/JC/JM fan, but I do enjoy the man's music more than average. He's had several drummers over the years, but one of the more steady ones has been Kenny Aronoff, who plays a kind of no nonsense rock and roll. Not very fancy, but well done. I wanted to see how the Pink Houses drummer pulled off Aronoff.
It was a bizarre experience to say the least. The show was at Badger Bowl, which is, well, a bowling alley. The room was packed, perhaps with about 125 folks, all ages 45 to 65. Plenty of them dancing. I have rarely seen these people at live music shows in all the years I've been attending them in Madison. I wonder if they just hang out at Badger Bowl all the time. I was suddenly aware of a vast cultural divide in this town...between places like the High Noon Saloon/Frequency/etc and places like The Badger Bowl.
And then there was the band.
Pink Houses is a ten piece band. Two guitars, bass, keys, drums, percussion, fiddle, mandolin, and two backup singers. The percussion guy occasionally pulls out a sax. The mandolin player sometimes adds a third guitar. And everyone...and I mean everyone...plays tamborine. In addition to these ten members, there were 3, perhaps 4, crew members. CREW MEMBERS! Yes, they had a sound guy, a light guy, and a guitar tech (the 4th person seemed like they might actually be the Badger Bowl sound person). I'm not sure how a band at the level of Pink Houses can afford to pay such an entourage (at 6 bucks a head). The economics makes no sense to me. And the capper...they all were using in ear monitors. The concept of in ear monitors at a bowling alley gig is just so funny I can't stand it.
The first couple of songs were just fine. JCM/JC/JM tunes. The lead singer belted them out from behind an acoustic guitar through a headset microphone. Jeans, cowboy boots, bald spot, and plenty of attitude. And god bless him. The drummer, my reason for being there, was servicable, but not remarkable. The parts were simple and not anything that I couldn't play. They were recognizable, but not the parts that Aronoff probably plays. I also didn't care for the sound of his snare, but that's personal preference. The bass player too wasn't doing much above and beyond the standard rock playbook. But together, the ten of them pulled off what they were trying to accomplish. They were a JCM/JC/JM tribute band that sounded reasonably like the real thing. And they were rocking the house.
And then things went terribly wrong. They morphed into a generic mainstream rock cover band. They played some vaguely Christian music...and then went full steam into schlock. The backup singers took turns at the lead. Half way through We Will Rock you I had to leave. I'm not sure why they didn't stick with JCM/JC/JM...lord knows the man has enough tunes to fill a 2 or 3 set show. For what it is worth, I doubt that the crowd cared. They may have, in fact, loved the schlock. I don't think of myself as a musical elitest, but I also find it shocking when people sink so deeply and so unironically into stereotype.
Counterpoint...Clovis Mann.
I left Badger Bowl and drove straight across town to the Lazy Oaf Lounge, a bizarre little venue that used to be a Mexican restaurant. The geometry of the room is kind of odd, with a full third of the space hidden behind the bar, which is in the middle of the room. There were, perhaps, 12 people there watching Clovis Mann. Rather, there were, perhaps, 12 people in the entire bar. Probably only five of them were watching the show.
Clovis Mann is a blues/rock/jamband on the verge of jazz. They play mostly originals. They are musical. EN, behind the drum kit, had a light touch on his small Gretsch jazz kit that I'm pretty sure wasn't mic'ed (in contrast to the over playing of the Pink Houses guy, made even LOUDER by amplification). His parts were more ornate than I'm used to seeing him play, very jazzy. Tons of ghost notes. He took a full, but tasteful, solo. He was classy, or as classy as a guy in kind of a hippy band can be. At the Lazy Oaf there's no sound guy. No lights other than a red spotlight shining from the floor right into the musician's eyes. Never mind in ear monitors, there's no monitors at all. I didn't stay long. They aren't really my cup of tea, even though I think they do a great job.
It was just about the biggest contrast I could imagine. A totally bizarre night. And I was still in bed by 11:30pm.
But Saturday night I decided I needed to not be such a lame-o, so I went out. Two shows peaked my interest, Pink Houses at The Badger Bowl, and Clovis Mann at the Lazy Oaf Lounge. The reason for my interest in both was the same, also being the reason that this post qualifies for this blog, that being that I wanted to watch the drummers.
Pink Houses, to my pre-show understanding, is a John Cougar Mellencamp tribute band. I'm not a rabid JCM/JC/JM fan, but I do enjoy the man's music more than average. He's had several drummers over the years, but one of the more steady ones has been Kenny Aronoff, who plays a kind of no nonsense rock and roll. Not very fancy, but well done. I wanted to see how the Pink Houses drummer pulled off Aronoff.
It was a bizarre experience to say the least. The show was at Badger Bowl, which is, well, a bowling alley. The room was packed, perhaps with about 125 folks, all ages 45 to 65. Plenty of them dancing. I have rarely seen these people at live music shows in all the years I've been attending them in Madison. I wonder if they just hang out at Badger Bowl all the time. I was suddenly aware of a vast cultural divide in this town...between places like the High Noon Saloon/Frequency/etc and places like The Badger Bowl.
And then there was the band.
Pink Houses is a ten piece band. Two guitars, bass, keys, drums, percussion, fiddle, mandolin, and two backup singers. The percussion guy occasionally pulls out a sax. The mandolin player sometimes adds a third guitar. And everyone...and I mean everyone...plays tamborine. In addition to these ten members, there were 3, perhaps 4, crew members. CREW MEMBERS! Yes, they had a sound guy, a light guy, and a guitar tech (the 4th person seemed like they might actually be the Badger Bowl sound person). I'm not sure how a band at the level of Pink Houses can afford to pay such an entourage (at 6 bucks a head). The economics makes no sense to me. And the capper...they all were using in ear monitors. The concept of in ear monitors at a bowling alley gig is just so funny I can't stand it.
The first couple of songs were just fine. JCM/JC/JM tunes. The lead singer belted them out from behind an acoustic guitar through a headset microphone. Jeans, cowboy boots, bald spot, and plenty of attitude. And god bless him. The drummer, my reason for being there, was servicable, but not remarkable. The parts were simple and not anything that I couldn't play. They were recognizable, but not the parts that Aronoff probably plays. I also didn't care for the sound of his snare, but that's personal preference. The bass player too wasn't doing much above and beyond the standard rock playbook. But together, the ten of them pulled off what they were trying to accomplish. They were a JCM/JC/JM tribute band that sounded reasonably like the real thing. And they were rocking the house.
And then things went terribly wrong. They morphed into a generic mainstream rock cover band. They played some vaguely Christian music...and then went full steam into schlock. The backup singers took turns at the lead. Half way through We Will Rock you I had to leave. I'm not sure why they didn't stick with JCM/JC/JM...lord knows the man has enough tunes to fill a 2 or 3 set show. For what it is worth, I doubt that the crowd cared. They may have, in fact, loved the schlock. I don't think of myself as a musical elitest, but I also find it shocking when people sink so deeply and so unironically into stereotype.
Counterpoint...Clovis Mann.
I left Badger Bowl and drove straight across town to the Lazy Oaf Lounge, a bizarre little venue that used to be a Mexican restaurant. The geometry of the room is kind of odd, with a full third of the space hidden behind the bar, which is in the middle of the room. There were, perhaps, 12 people there watching Clovis Mann. Rather, there were, perhaps, 12 people in the entire bar. Probably only five of them were watching the show.
Clovis Mann is a blues/rock/jamband on the verge of jazz. They play mostly originals. They are musical. EN, behind the drum kit, had a light touch on his small Gretsch jazz kit that I'm pretty sure wasn't mic'ed (in contrast to the over playing of the Pink Houses guy, made even LOUDER by amplification). His parts were more ornate than I'm used to seeing him play, very jazzy. Tons of ghost notes. He took a full, but tasteful, solo. He was classy, or as classy as a guy in kind of a hippy band can be. At the Lazy Oaf there's no sound guy. No lights other than a red spotlight shining from the floor right into the musician's eyes. Never mind in ear monitors, there's no monitors at all. I didn't stay long. They aren't really my cup of tea, even though I think they do a great job.
It was just about the biggest contrast I could imagine. A totally bizarre night. And I was still in bed by 11:30pm.
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