Ride - Nowhere

If I was to sit down and interview Lawrence Colbert and ask him what inspired the way he plays drums on this record, I would hope he would lean back in his chair, take a long haul off of a cigarette, release a plume of smoke over his head and in a hazy, British voice tell me, "Thunder, man. Thunder." This is obviously never going to happen (I don't even know if he smokes) but there really is no other way to describe his playing.

It sounds like rolling, crashing thunder.

When Ride released this album, I was six years old. I was spending too much time watching sesame street, annoying my sister and (sometimes) pooping my pants to care about the shoe gaze rock scene going on in Britain. My musical reach stretched to my mothers Michael Bolton cassettes, and that's about it. I don't even know how I discovered it as an adult, but I like to think that as a drummer these things just find me because they are supposed to.

On this record, Colbert is never not going crazy (double negative, I know, I have a bad habit). Even on slower songs like Dreams Burn Down he is smashing cymbals, soaring over the loud, squealing guitars. On the first track, Seagull, it feels like one giant drum roll with a few rhythms thrown in just to keep the other guys locked in. He must have been loud as hell in concert, I don't think he even fully closes his high hats anywhere on this record, all of the cymbal playing gives it this wishy washy effect, perfect for early 90's rock (a la Blur, or early Pumpkins).

The funny thing, is that the only song he seems to try to play a steady beat in, Vapour Trail sounds forced and a little wonky. He wasn't meant to hold back.

The beast cannot be tamed.

Audio/Video Evidence : Seagull, Dreams Burn Down, Nowhere