Tripping Daisy - I Am An Elastic Firecracker

Tripping Daisy hold a weird place in Rock history. They were too radio for the indie kids, too indie for the radio kids, too catchy and poppy for the grunge kids and too grungy for the pop kids. With I Am An Elastic Firecracker, they managed to appeal to select members of each musical scene but are usually overlooked when people make those "best of the 90's" lists. That sucks, because this record is a good example of heavier style pop rock with a psychedelic flair. It's like if Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips sang for the Foo Fighters.

Jeff Bouck sort of got the shitty end of the stick. He is the only member of the band without a wikipedia page, and he quit shortly after recording this record, missing out the slight (but fairly large) acclaim Tripping Daisy got for the single, I Got A Girl. That sucks, because his playing, although fairly conventional really gives the record it's kick.

Sometimes, playing drums in a predictable, standard manner doesn't matter if you can do an awesome job. It also helps if your drums sound fucking amazing. Whoever placed his microphones and tuned his drums deserved their paycheck. Since they sound so good they are up front in the mix, putting the pressure on Bouck to play well because you can hear everything.

His toms in Pirahna snap and decay perfectly, meaning Jeff knew how to hit them right. You can also hear some slight delay effects on the drums which can really go all wishy washy if your time isn't right. He's got the quiet/loud dynamic that was so important in early 90's rock music, and his cymbals have the perfect amount of wash to them, making everything sound airy and heavy.

Hopefully Bouck will gain some notoriety since he plays with Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter in The Polyphonic Spree. His work on those records is impressive, but I like hearing him rock out a bit more, so I chose Firecracker. Is it a mind blowing performance that changed the world? No, but it's fairly solid. Enough to at least get a god damn wikipedia page.

Audio/Visual Evidence: Pirahnas, I Got A Girl

Meshuggah - Chaosphere

This post isn't really specific to this record (I posted it because Chaosphere is the first Meshuggah record I ever heard), I just need an excuse to talk about Tomas Haake. Haake, in my opinion, personifies the last modern development in drumming. His style, while not completely unique, takes style elements originating from guys like Karl Bartos (Kraftwerk) and Bill Rieflin (Ministry, NIN, KMFDM) and blends them with components of drumming that were not available to drummers pre-1995ish.

Along with playing like a meth addled schizophrenic, Haake manages to layer complicated polyrhythms on top of each other, performing them seamlessly in perfect time. While he isn't the first, Haake is better than everyone else at doing it, and it's because of how he taught himself.

When I posted that Silver Apples record a month ago, I spoke a little about how Danny Taylor tried to play drums as robotic and mechanical as possible. This kicked off a trend that continued for years, but it didn't really culminate until Haake came along. Along with playing drums like a machine, he became the machine by using the most modern technology available to him. I'm not sure if this was happening during the recording of Chaosphere, but he eventually began to program his drum parts first, regardless of whether he could physically play them or not. His hands would eventually catch up to his mind.

While he always was great at complicated drum parts, being able to hear them while learning gave him an edge over other similar drummers. He then took it further with each consecutive record.

Basically this might be one of the last original developments in drumming. People will always further the technology (and the music will go along with it), but it will always have a root in Meshuggah. Every time I hear Neurotica I still try and count it out.

Audio/Visual evidence : New Millenium Cyanide Christ, Exquisite Machinery of Torture, Neurotica.

Television - Marquee Moon

This album wasn't really submitted to me, but it came about from a conversation I had with my friend Elijah, who drums for Medicine Hat rock band Mount Royal. I was explaining that I had started a blog that tried to bring attention to awesome drummers on unknown albums, or underrated drummers on influential and important albums that no one ever talks about. He cut right in.

"Oh, you mean like Marquee Moon by Television."

That's exactly what I meant. Marquee Moon had been on my Itunes for years and found its way onto my Ipod frequently enough, but I had never really paid attention to the drums, I just like it. It always comes up as one of the early examples of Post Rock. The guitar playing on it is fascinating, and it's finding its way into more and more music libraries as time goes on.

Drumming wise, it's a perfect example of how what you decide to play makes the difference from just another good record with good songs to influential masterpiece. Drums can turn rock songs into jazz songs, metal songs into country songs or basically any other genre by changing nothing but the beats. This record would have been great regardless, but Billy Ficca really contributed to its designation as early post rock.

Ficca plays around with tom beats and disco beats (See No Evil), syncopated snares (Venus) and eventually psych style, cymbal heavy rock beats (Friction). It's all got a very flowing feel to it, and when we get to 10 minute title track, we get a real taste of what Ficca is capable of. He constantly changes feel and includes way more drum rolls than on previous tracks. He holds back sometimes for the guitars to shine, then shows his style during brief rave ups, or the build up towards the end. He throws is ride bells all over the place, and huge snare rolls that really bring the song a lot more power.

The title track serves as the peak of the mountain, the next tracks play around with off time stops and riffs (Elevation), and sixties style pop drumming (Prove It), but they don't really match up to his playing on the title track.

Television were really in a league of their own with this record, and thankfully due to those endless lists that magazines publish every ten years (Top 500 albums of all time, top 100 most influential records, etc..) Marquee Moon will be available for generations to come. And while it's mainly hailed for it's guitar playing, I'm sure some drummer somewhere will pick it up too.

Audio/Visual Evidence: Marquee Moon (part one, part two), See No Evil

Maps & Atlases - You Me And The Mountain EP

Submitted by: Dave Middleton

This album (or EP rather) marks a milestone for me. It is the first album submitted to me through my email by someone I don't know personally. It's also apparent upon listening to this submission, that Dave Middleton knows exactly what I am looking for and trying to accomplish, because this is one hell of a solid EP.

When I was told that Maps & Atlases were a math rock band, I was expecting loud guitars, odd times and crazy tempo changes. I mean really, when I hear Math Rock I think of Q & Not U, North Of America, or the plethora of Halifax bands that started up after Rockets Red Glare came through here. I was surprised when it turned out to be toned down volume wise, but every bit as technical and impressive as a Battles record (sans the arrogance).

Drummer Chris Hainey finds a way to be technically impressive, but remain artistically interesting. There is a fine line between doing something new and innovative or sounding like an asshole jerking off on your instrument, and Hainey never strays into the pompous side of techincal drumming.

He has a tendency to throw in super quick 16th or 32nd notes in between normal patterns, using the rims of his drums, or wood blocks to accent them. It gives an organic feel to the songs, it's never too jarring. He usually has something keeping a steady pulse (like a kick or his high hats) so you can still bob your head to the songs (even with your hands in your pockets, if thats your thing).

While it's a quick five songs to run through, Haines is engaging the whole time, you never feel like he is settling for less in his playing, it all feels thought out and clever, and with perfect time, it is executed properly with no bullshit. If a drummer this good is still working the underground circuit in his city, then guys like me have no chance.

Let's hope this blog thing works out.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Artichokes, Witch

Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Intensity is a word that gets thrown around a lot more than it should. People will say metal riffs are intense, when really they mean heavy. They will say lyrics are intense when they really mean deep (or dark). They will say a character in a movie is intense, when they really mean well acted (unless they are talking about Daniel Day Lewis, that guy is fucking intense).

I find intensity is defined by a long, drawn out rise into a huge climax, like the restaurant scene from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, or Natasha Lyonne's orgasm from But I'm A Cheerleader. Musically there is only one band that embodies the true meaning of intensity, and that is Godspeed You Black Emperor.

After releasing F#A#oo to huge underground critical acclaim, Lift Your Skinny Fists... solidified the band as an important and influential group. GYBE were one of the first bands to really bring classical music elements to the post rock genre. It required a different approach to music by every member, and Aiden Girt and Bruce Cawdron split drumming duites, resulting in an orchestral approach, paving the way for drummers like Chris Hrasky (Explosions in the Sky) and Agust Gunnarsson (Sigur Ros).

The drumming on this album blends symphony drumming with post rock intensity. There are lots of crescendos, and the snare work is very syncopated. Girt and Cawdron never get in each others way, if one is playing a steady snare rhythm, the other might swich to cymbals, or xylophone (or other percussive instruments, there are plenty on here).

With every song on this album being at least 19 minutes long, they build up over long periods of time, and towards the end the real magic happens. Both drummers have a fantastic sense of restraint, they know how to slowly build up their parts so that nothing gets boring but the tension builds little by little. When it finally gets released, they explode into a sonic assault of cymbals and loud, booming drums that would make any 60's phsyc drummer piss their pants.

This is not party music, it's music for the end of the world. If Girt and Cawdon turned out to be two fourth's of the horsemen of the apocalypse, I would not be surprised.

Audio/Visual Evidence: Storm (with some dude doing interpretive dance), Sleep (Part One, Part Two)

Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come

*Note : Before you get into this, I must warn you it is a lot longer than my usual posts. This is because I love this record. A lot. I actually once wrote a previous, too big review of it for a short lived album review website I had. I did not copy anything from the previous review.


After completing a tour that brought me from St. John's, Newfoundland to Victoria, B.C. and back to Halifax I have decided to celebrate and post one of my all time favorite records. I was introduced to this album by my friend Mike Deon, who told me, upon picking up The Shape Of Punk To Come that "If you don't buy this record right now, I think I am going to have to punch you in the face."

He was right to do so.

There are albums that sell a lot of records (The Eagles' Greatest Hits), there are albums that garner massive artistic respect (Tortoise records, or Matmos) and there are some records that change the way vast amounts of people perceive or interpret music (Velvet Underground & Nico), and sometimes, sometimes, There are albums that achieve all three (Dark Side Of The Moon, Kid A). Though album sales are not as colossal as say, Thriller, for a hardcore record, there are lots and lots of people that own The Shape Of Punk To Come (I would also argue that in 50 years, it will probably still be selling copies).

Refused accomplished something in 2 full length records that some groups spend careers trying to do (and sometimes never achieve). They broke up shortly after releasing this album in 1997, and no one has really topped it since.

It's easy to recognize true passion in the way someone plays music if you know how to look. It's the difference between Pete Townsend and that dude who plays guitar for Maroon 5. It takes a certain amount of skill, artistry, talent, fury and originality to play something that's everlasting, and as cliche as it might sound, the way that David Sandstrom plays drums on this record forever changed the way I interpreted and listened to music, and it totally shifted the way I played drums.

You can saw "aw yeah, whatever, they were just a carbon copy of Nation Of Ulysses", you can try to be arrogant and say "everyone flips out about this album, it's not THAT good." You can say those things but you will sound like an idiot, because in the back of your mind you know that this was the perfect album released at the perfect time, and it helped hardcore music gain respect from the music elite just as much as Fugazi or Husker Du did.

Everything on this album, from the passion, to the power, to the sheer force of the songs is all grounded in Sandstroms playing. The opening track, Worms of The Senses/Faculties of the Skull, is seven minutes of jagged, off center playing that just throws everything into chaos, it opens with huge cymbals, a snare that sounds like a gunshot and flies into quick high hat catches, ride bells and the most snare control I have ever heard in a hardcore band (until Converge came along, at least). It shifts halfway through into a completely different songs, equally as jarring. As the song dissolves into radio waves and techno beats, Liberation Frequency filters in with a completely different drum kit sound. This album not only varies wildly in drumming style, but the way the drums were recorded is different for almost every song. His playing is slightly straighter on this song, with him keeping the kick on quarter notes and being really crash-heavy on the chorus.

Not one to remain in place, David switches it up again for the third track, The Deadly Rhythm. It comes in with a simulated 1930's radio jazz recording (to my understanding, this is also Refused), it then jumps into hard hits and guitar shots, with the ride cymbal keeping the swing going. It's a blending of drumming styles that seem impossible to mix (like an alarm clock milkshake), but somehow Sandstrom makes it work. The song breaks down into a stand up bass solo and full out swing drumming. Then, it kicks back into the fury with one of my favorite guitar riffs on the record, and stacatto, powerful ride bell hits from David.

This leads into a dance punk song, not fairly common at the time in harder music (but by no means unique). This song foreshadows a movement that wouldn't really hit the mainstream until years later with bands like Fall Out Boy or Panic At The Disco (although I doubt any of them know it).

In New Noise, David sits in the pocket a little more, half timing his usual beats, giving the song a lot more meat behind the riffs. This lasts until a big rave up at the end, where you can just feel how hard he is hitting his drums.

Basically, as the album goes on, every song have David
a) rocking the fuck out
b) blending drumming styles that have existed from 1920 to present (and by present, I mean our time, which would have been the future at the time this was recorded).
c) playing something completely unique
d) burning calories

After Refused broke up I heard that Sandstrom moved to a reclusive spot of Sweden and sits in his house all day making weird records (and possibly going slowly insane).

Listen to this record, and this will make complete sense to you.

Audio/Visual Evidence : The Deadly Rhythm, The Shape Of Punk To Come (wait for the band to kick in, it's worth it), New Noise,

Spoon - Kill The Moonlight

You don't have to get far into Spoon's fourth album, Kill The Moonlight to figure out that Jim Eno is an awesome drummer. The opening track, Small Stakes, has him playing swirling snare and tom rolls over a driving, stacatto piano line. His playing has a dirty, gritty feel to it, and it is enhanced by the roomy, lo fi way the drums sound. This is a guy who knows exactly how his drums should sound, and plays accordingly.

Piano based pop music requires a different feel than most rock music. Where you can usually get by hammering away rock beats in a guitar band, piano rock requires more texture and space. Eno usually holds off at the start of songs, and when he comes in everything just sort of takes off.

He plays around with different styles, he can rock his toms like in Something To Look Forward To, or Johnathon Fisk, where he comes out of a punk rock-ish tom beat into straight rock, and alternates every four bars between them.

In All The Pretty Girls Go To The City (which seems to have the same melody as A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins) he fills space with his snare rims, and he keeps the song loose and wavy, letting the jangly piano really come through. Basically, Eno is the perfect drummer for this band, and he has been there from the start. He and main songwriter Britt Daniel have been through a lot together. They were signed to a major and subsequently dropped, getting picked up by an indie label, eventually gaining the respect they deserved, and it comes through in how they play off of each other. Their song arrangments have a mature, seasoned feel to them, and I have a feeling it doesn't take them very long to get their songs in working order. They are an example of perseverance and talent finally paying off, and thankfully you can hear them almost everywhere now.

Maybe that means Soulja Boy will be on my TV less and less.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Johnathon Fisk, Someone Something, Small Stakes