The American Analog Set - From Our Living Room To Yours

So you think your pretty laid back eh? Pretty cool? Intellectual maybe? Do you invite your friends over to talk about Koyaanisqatsi or The Cabinet of Dr. Cagligari? Do you actually understand Thomas Pynchon novels*? Did you play drums on this record? What's that? You didn't? Oh, sorry. I thought you were cool.

I looked pretty hard, but I couldn't find anywhere online to tell me who played drums for American Analog Set on this record. I picture him being a cross between Jeff Lebowski and that dude from the Dos Equis commercials. I don't even think I want to know. I mean, you probably think you're pretty cool, but I bet that while you were reading On The Road for the first time, this guy was at a wine tasting sneaking off to get a BJ in the bathroom from some saucy Harvard Law graduate*. I kind of wish we lived in a world where people's musical endeavors were a direct representation of their personality. Maybe Noel Gallagher wouldn't be such an asshole.

*Because I sure don't.
*It is also entirely possible that he was actually in a dank, stuffy basement playing Dungeons and Dragons with his dad.

Audio Visual Evidence : Magnificent Seventies, Don't Wake Me

BDK Hall Of Shame - Chris Frantz on the mic.

Every once in a while I come across a drummer doing something that makes me slap my forehead in befuddlement. Things like that need documentation.

In this case, I came across this gem while watching Stop Making Sense, probably one of the best live concerts I have ever seen. It's an incredible performance, I've probably watched it ten times. but something happens in the middle that always makes me shudder, and it's all Chris Frantz's fault.

Don't get me wrong, I love Chris. I even wrote about him here, but when Tom Tom Club takes the stage to give David Byrne a chance to change into his over sized suit, Frantz uses the opportunity to embarrass himself. It's not that he shouldn't have a mic, hell, Tom Tom Club is his band, he can do what he wants. It's that his random out bursts of "check it out!" and "SHA!" on his snare hits are so cliche and out of place that he instantly becomes the most annoying person on stage. By the time he starts chanting "James Browwwwwnnnnn" I find it unbelievable that someone could act SO WHITE. At best he sounds like a confused hype man repeating himself as he fails to get a reaction. At worst he sounds like an out of touch investment banker trying to emulate 1980's black culture in an effort to seem hip.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but as the song goes on and he doesn't shut up, I cringe at the sound of his voice. It's the only part of Stop Making Sense that makes it feel dated, and I resent Chris for that.

I also think it's interesting that I can feel embarrassed for someone for something they did before I was even born.

If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on Youtube.

Cake - Comfort Eagle

Todd Roper first joined Cake to play on their second record, Fashion Nugget. He established himself as a rarity, a rock drummer who was a minimalist. Roper rarely left the pocket and his fills were simple, precise and exactly what was needed in a band as multi-layered as Cake.

Roper developed his minimalist approach as time went on, and by the time their fourth record, Comfort Eagle came out, his playing felt a lot more like a Hip Hop drummer playing in a rock band. I've always had an interest in subtle playing (probably because I am terrible at it) and Comfort Eagle is a fantastic example of how slight variations in technique can really affect a song. In Shadow Stabbing, Ropers kick drum keeps a steady bossa nova pattern, but in the choruses he straightens it out, really driving the vocals.

Meanwhile Rick James has some cool kick drum/bass guitar pairing, and Roper throws in random tom hits and wood blocks to keep things interesting. Roper hasn't lost his rock roots, he merely chooses when to showcase them. Commissioning a Symphony in C and Arco Arena are good examples of proper rock drumming.

I've listened to this record hundreds of times, it always finds it's way into my summer play lists, and it is solid the whole way through. Long Line of Cars has some of those subtle fills I was talking about (as well as a catchy horn line at the end) and Love You Madly is probably my favorite Roper performance of the album, he plays a slick high hat pattern and keeps his kick and snare at a minimum so as to leave room for a conga rhythm that is buried underneath it all.

Cake are one of those bands that have dozens of little parts buried under the main song, and it's a treat to listen to it with headphones and pick out all the hand claps, bells, clocks, horns and tambourines.

It's like musical Wheres Waldo.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Comfort Eagle, Love You Madly

Stereolab - Dots And Loops

Stereolab are pretty hit and miss. With every album there comes laid back jazzy songs, epic and long post rock pieces and stupid funky jams. I chose Dots and Loops because they keep the funk to a minimum. Also because Andy Ramsay plays some rhythms that make me question the number of hands he was born with.

Brakhage starts everything off fairly low key. Ramsay plays a jazzy shuffle, sort of like an Air song, but he slips in a couple crescendo'ed snare rolls that sound beautiful. Flower Called Nowhere has a drum mix that is much dirtier and lo fi than the rest of the album, it gives his playing this cool 1930's feel to it, and splayed kick and snare patterns bring to mind old school guys like Max Roach and Tony Williams.

Most of the songs on this record are 4 - 5 minute pieces of cool rhythms, and repetitive parts that float along pretty well. Refractions in the Plastic Pulse is none of those things. This 17 minute epic is a well thought out piece that seems to travel through years of music rapidly. It starts with old school Jazz, slowly works it's way into a fusion inspired piece, then after briefly touching with New Wave it slowly dissolves into reduced bit-rate electronic music, a very "new jazz" sort of thing. It sounds like Four Tet, except it's 1997.

Ramsay is a master of playing complicated parts at a medium pace, letting their well placed hits really deliver. Prisoner of Mars and Parsec are good examples of this. This is when he is at his best, and this is when his true talent comes through.

Not when he's groovin' on some funky phat bass lines.

Audio/Visual Evidence: Miss Modular, Rainbow Conversation

Indie Spotlight - The Sourkeys - s/t

This album is so rare that this is the biggest image I could find of the album cover. The Sourkeys were one of the first out of town indie bands I ever saw, and I got to see them twice in the same night in my hometown of Yarmouth. After buying the album (which looked super cool, with a bright yellow sunflower in the center, and the outside ring of the disc being clear). I always thought I would get tired of it, but it always found it's way back into rotation (and it continues to do so on my Ipod). They returned to Nova Scotia a couple of years later to play at the Pop Explosion and I was sure to be there.

My favorite song has always been Sick Since Sunday and as they neared the end of their set I feared they wouldn't play it. I was a little tipsy by the time they played their last song and began walking off the dark, poorly lit stage in Hell. I started yelling. "I didn't pay TEN DOLLARS to see you NOT play Sick Since Sunday."

"We don't really know it anymore."

"Too bad. Play it."

"But our bass player, he..."

"Play it."

"I... I guess we could try..."

By this point everyone had been wanting an encore anyway, so when they kicked into the bass line everyone went nuts. We all danced and sang along and it was the perfect closer to the night.
After they finished I went to the merch table to thank them and we talked about Yarmouth and common friends we had and eventually the bass player came around and I told him how well he played the song even though it wasn't planned. He was sort of quiet.

"Yeah, well we used to play that song all the time, but I developed rheumatoid arthritis in my wrists and it kills me to play it."

I probably should have felt bad, but I didn't. If Brenden Shanahan can skate off the ice with a broken ankle, then Johnny Bassman* can run through Sick Since Sunday once on a tour.

What does this story have to do with the drumming? Nothing, but unless you own this already or know someone who does, you'll never hear the cool off time stuff Mike Lurz does in May, or the balls out rocking he does on Demon Or Deity. I can't even find a video of these guys playing on youtube to show you.

How's that for elitism.

*Note: Not his actual name.

Sonic Youth - Murray Street

It took me a long time to figure Sonic Youth out. Probably longer than any other band. I'm still not sure it was worth the time. Early on, when I would listen to a Sonic Youth record and enjoy maybe 7% of it, Steve Shelley was enough to keep me interested through that other 93%. Now that I can actually take in a Sonic Youth record for what it is, I still find the way he plays drums fascinating. He is the most calculated drummer there is. Sometimes he is intentionally sloppy, but he plays the part so well it's incredible. It's like seeing Anthony Hopkins play a bum.

The first Sonic Youth record I ever got though fully (and actually liked instantly) was Murray Street. I think other records have better songs, but Murray Street was really the point where everything sort of clicked on, and a lot of it had to do with Steve's drumming.

The Empty Page has some cool sparse patterns in the verses and awesome layered cymbal work in the following parts. Disconnection Notice is laid back, loose and perfectly textured playing, the high hats and snares are spattered through out, with little flourishes to keep everything in motion.

Shelley can stay in the background for long periods of time. With the long improvised noise parts that come with being in Sonic Youth, someone has to hold everything down. That doesn't mean he doesn't mix it up with the rest of them though, Karenology dissolves into a mass of free time playing, eventually becoming very ambient. Shelley disintegrates his drumming perfectly, breaking things down at the same rate as the others.

I don't know if I can really take credit for being a big Sonic Youth fan just yet. I still only like about 55% of what I hear, but the numbers keep rising at a steady rate. I'll keep at it, if everyone put as much time into digesting albums as I had to in order to like Sonic Youth, the music business would be a completely different monster.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Disconnection Notice, The Empty Page