Deerhoof - Freind Opportunity

When it comes to using your instrument in a creative way, drummers get the short end of the stick. Guitar Players, bassists, keyboardists, anyone with an electric instrument can just add on a pedal, or tweak their amp or guitar, or use different set-ups to get as many different sounds as they want. For drummers, unless you have serious cash to fork over for an electronic kit, you are pretty much stuck with a snare, kick drum, a couple toms and some cymbals. There is no real way to get around it, drummers have been stuck with the same set-up (pretty much) since the thirties.

Thankfully there are STILL drummers that find ways to play in an original, interesting way, and Greg Saulnier is one of those guys. Whether he is recording with a full kit or playing live with a stripped down kit (when I saw them he used a kick, snare and one cymbal) Greg plays drums in a way that is as much classically orchestrated as it is off the cuff and improvised. His snare work is fairly unique, he seems to throw in trills and rolls in places that don't seem to fit. He knows when to lay off and let John Dietrich (Deerhoof's equally talented guitar player) take the helm, and he knows when to play multi layered patterns over standard riffs (like in the album opener, The Perfect Me) giving them this jarring sense of rhythm.

On every Deerhoof record Greg pulls off many styles, on Friend Opportunity he does everything from psych drumming (Cast Off Crown) to straight rock (+81), to jazz fusion (The Galaxist), to sort of kraut rock inspired minimalist beats (Believe E.S.P.). It's refreshing to hear someone who melds every school of drumming there is, modern and historical. He is one of the most important drummers of my generation, and I wonder in ten or fifteen years what he will be capable of.

I heard on his new record he took two ride cymbals and made them into hi-hats. That's a step towards genius.

Audio/Visual Evidence: The Perfect Me, +81, Believe E.S.P.