| 07 April 2010
Although I don't know how to play the drums (Rock Band aside), it's probably one aspect that I listen to most in songs. Something about beating on those pads has always intrigued me, because there seems to be an infinite amount of possibility within even a simple time signature. It's something ancestral, carnal, and just downright fun.
These are my top six favorite modern drummers. I made a playlist at the bottom of the post, so listen to it while reading what I have to say about each drummer. Hopefully you'll actually hear what I'm trying to say.
6. Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes, Little Joy, Neon Neon)My favorite part of Fabrizio Moretti's drumming is that I've been able to watch it grow over the years. Initially, his role in The Strokes was to be their living drum machine, playing out simple yet fitting drum patterns in perfect time. But in The Strokes' latest album, and in Little Joy after that, he's grown to become a full-on drummer in his own right, playing more conventionally while still continuing to be entertaining. He's not going to conquer the world with his drumsticks, or make it on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine (thankfully), but every time he gets behind a drum kit it sounds good to me. Also, he's probably the coolest guy on my list. Smoking while drumming? That's craaaazy!
5. Dave Grohl (Scream, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Probot, Tenacious D, Them Crooked Vultures)Easily the most recognizable guy on my list, Dave Grohl got his big break in Nirvana, and has kept Foo Fighters alive and kicking for 15 years now. Although kids these days might associate him more with singing and playing guitar, there's no mistaking his proficiency behind a drum set. I was never terribly blown away with his work in Nirvana, but his drumming on the first two Foo Fighters albums is much more personal and interesting (more on that later), and it only gets better from there. His skill really shines as a studio drummer, especially with Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf and his metal side project Probot. Maybe because he's less hindered by his own identity, or he works better on the fly; either way, Dave Grohl has a stunning discography that's blemish-free.
4. Bryan Devendorf (The National)The only drummer who has been in just one major band, Bryan Devendorf makes up for it with the excellent job he's done as drummer for The National. What makes him stand out is that he's given some very subtle, rarely-shifting music to work with, and creates something intriguing every time. Not one to be content with a simple 4/4 beat, he takes each verse on as if it's an opportunity to come up with a new progression. The end result is a rhythm section that never fails to inspire, and takes The National's already-good music to something well beyond good.
Take the song in the playlist below, "Brainy", from 2007's Boxer; it opens with some simple but busy kick and snare work, and eventually cuts to the hi-hat to give the song a more driving pace, and then returns to beat numero uno to start it all over again. Altogether, we're looking at only a few different drum patterns through the whole song, but this diversity is just enough to keep things interesting - especially when you realize that the rest of the band plays only one riff throughout the whole song - and you start to see the genius in Devendorf's work.
3. David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Unwed Sailor, Damien Jurado)David Bazan isn't a drummer by trade (although his first musical project was as drummer of Seattle band Coolidge), you can hear that he's a drummer through and through in every song he drums in. He drummed for some of the best Pedro the Lion albums (Winners Never Quit, Control), and on the first Unwed Sailor EP, as well as several sessions with various Seattle musicians. There's nothing flashy about the way he plays, but his subtlety is in keeping with the subtlety of the rest of his canon; there's a deceptive sense of mediocrity on initial first listen, but after repeated exposure, you get a real sense of how methodical and complex everything actually is. It's the major factor that's drawn me to Bazan's work for the past decade, and his drumming has played a good part in this.
Just listen to "Magazine", the Pedro the Lion song in the playlist below. See if you can listen to the chorus without being blown away by how the drums just bring everything together perfectly.
2. William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters, The Fire Theft)After Sunny Day Real Estate's first breakup in 1995, Goldsmith joined Foo Fighters for some initial touring and to record The Colour and the Shape. In a bit of a dick move, Dave Grohl went off and re-recorded nearly all of the drum tracks without Goldsmith's knowledge - and the worst part about it was that Grohl had forced Goldsmith to do 90+ takes on several songs, with some single-track sessions lasting over 12 hours each. A couple moments still made it into The Colour and the Shape's final cut, but Goldsmith left the band at that point, and with good reason. Since then, he's drummed for two more SDRE albums as well as a Fire Theft album, which was basically just SDRE anyway.
What makes Goldsmith so memorable are his succinct fills and inventive drum patterns. I can't think of a fill that's more memorable than on the breakdown of "Rodeo Jones", from SDRE's second album, or the drum patterns for nearly all of the songs from SDRE's third (and best), How it Feels to be Something On.
1. Matt Johnson (Blenderhead, Roadside Monument, Nintey Pound Wuss, Suffering and the Hideous Thieves, Starflyer 59, Raft of Dead Monkeys, Jeremy Enigk, Rocky Votolato, The Out Circuit)This dude is the most under-appreciated drummer in all of mankind's history. Although some of the bands he's played in were shit (Blenderhead), or achingly mediocre on record (Suffering and the Hideous Thieves), every time he gets behind a kit, he makes the band better. His work with Roadside Monument is definitely the highlight of his career, and he's always excelled in mathy, progressive measures. He's currently in The Out Circuit, led by the bassist of the now-sadly-defunct Frodus, but his playing seems more restrained and safe, which is sad considering the power he's conveyed in bands like Raft of Dead Monkeys and Roadside Monument.
Matt Johnson writes complex drum patterns but keeps them from being confusing. It's a cliche, but this guy freaking rocks. He can take a song that would otherwise be fairly momentous, and turns it into something monumental. It's hard to listen to tracks like "Egos the Size of Cathedrals", from Roadside Monument's final album, and not just want to rock the fuck out. If I could play drums, I would play drums like Matt Johnson. If I was lucky.
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