The Boredoms - 77 Boadrum DVD

In the summer of 2007 legendary Japanese noise rock group The Boredoms hand picked 77 drummers from around the world, brought them to New York and set them up in a park for a one of a kind performance. The drums were set up in a spiraling motion, and patterns would begin in the center and travel outward until the entire group played in unison. With a set of colored sticks with various meanings, The Boredoms would orchestrate the entire performance from an elevated stage in a middle, and for an hour and a half the city of New York was witness to one of the loudest, most powerful performances ever recorded, whether they wanted to be or not. This DVD is a must-see for any drummer, just ogling at all the different kits they wrangled up could take up a lot of time.

If you're wondering what 77 drums sets look like in spiral, well, here ya go.

This DVD is a mixture of documentary footage and performance footage, and it gives great insight into how this giant project was executed. If you have a surround sound system, the drums will swirl around you, putting you right in the middle of the performance.

This is something that will probably never happen again, and is a true example of drumming as an art. When things really get going you can hear the true force that exists in drums and it must have been heard for miles. If you watch closely you will see a crowd full of people in tune with what's going on, and if you look closer you'll see one hippy in a bandana and tie-dyed shirt just losing his mind trying to grasp what's happening.

I mean c'mon.

duuuuuuude.

drums.

Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms

The best part about getting further and further away from the 80's is that we can finally listen back and really sort out the gems from the turds. You have to appreciate the 80's for what it was; a time where technology in the industry was moving much faster than the participants and where excess and grandiosity were the way of the world. Never have bands been so removed from their audiences as the entire Decade of 1980. Any organic part of a song was basically rung out with digital effects until it had almost no character at all. They were selling millions of albums and making billions of dollars off of artists for the first time, and the bigwigs sort of went a little nuts. It started with Frampton and it sort of ended with Nirvana, but for a good 12 years or so the music industry behaved like the son of a Saudi Prince attending university in another continent, shoving money around just for the sheer pleasure of it.

My point is, a lot of the influence and importance the 80's actually had wasn't really apparent until now, twenty years later. Once people finally got a handle on how to manipulate the technology into progressing the art, things improved drastically. Engineers had the time to work the kinks out of the recording software, and musicians had time to figure out which effects are good (FUZZ) and which effects are dumb (PHASER). With regard to recording technique and style, if we never had Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, we might not have had Kid A. Think about that, hmm? Brothers In Arms is impressive even in it's dryly recorded, synth-infused world. Great songs will work no matter what you do to them, and this record is a great example of that.

Recently it was disclosed that after longtime drummer Terry Williams couldn't hack it, jazz session master Omar Hakim was brought in and recorded every song in two days. The only piece of Williams' recordings left on the album are the echo-y, crescendo drums at the start of Money For Nothing, which I have to admit, are pretty fucking cool.

Hakim's drumming is a lot more practical, albeit necessary for the type of album Brothers In Arms is, and its definitely part of the reason this album was so popular that it put the entire CD manufacturing business on hold when it was released. The straight, minimalist style of drumming on So Far Away and Money For Nothing still feels like rock drumming but it's never bombastic, it's always even and concise.

The second half of the record is more folk/world music influenced, but instead of being too jazzy Hakim plays more the way Nick Mason would; sparse, but straight and dynamic. Well thought out hits and patterns let Mark Knopfler's talent as a songwriter shine through. With a laid back approach on the bass by John Illsley, you get a tinge of cool guitar stuff too.

It's kind of nice to hear a different rhythmic approach to Dire Straits' songs. Terry Williams had his own merits, but it shows a lot of character to step aside and let another man have at it for an album. Williams returned for the subsequent tour and catered his playing on these songs according to Omar's style.

I'm not sure I could be that passive, but I'm glad he was.

NOTE: These videos are of Terry Williams playing Omar Hakim's patterns.

Indie Spotlight - Orphan Choir - S/T

I've always had a lot of respect for Nate Gelinas. Orphan Choir were one of the first bands I met on tour that I really felt a connection with, musically and socially. Nate played the drums with force and precision, and he's one of the lucky guys who just looks cool playing the drums.

We picked up the Orphan Choir vinyl last time we were in Windsor, Ontario. That was six months ago and I still listen to it constantly. Songs like the Night Nurse are just so rich in tone and energy, with Gelinas' playing just hard enough to be noticed, but never pushing others aside.

The way he locks in with the bass most of the time is reminiscent of mid seventies studio-rock, but his hands keep things chaotic enough that it never feels overdone. Nate does a lot of stuff on this record that is really stylish, and it's that style that sort of holds the album together thematically for me. The guitars and vocal styles change quite a bit, but the drums keep it all kind of cemented.

Sure, maybe I could use my blog to give props to people and bands that I know personally, but where is the fun in that? Besides, I just said I respected him, I never said I liked him. Nate Gelinas is actually a huge asshole.

I'm kidding.

Please don't hurt me Nate.

Young Widows - Old Wounds

The drumming on this Young Widows album is unique because in essence it is very minimalist, but there is so much power behind it you don't really notice. Take the first track for example, Took a Turn. The drums come in nice and solid with a slow and steady rock beat, but Jeremy McMonigle chops it up and drops out parts here and there, accenting the few hits he makes. I found a Youtube video of someone playing the drums along to this part, and he does a great job of coming in and out at the perfect time, so you can see what I'm talking about.

The tension in McMonigle's playing is held in perfect balance with short bursts of release, it's like he's riding his drums at the rodeo and trying to keep them roped in the whole time. Every shot is so forceful and precise, there is not a hint of excessiveness in his playing.

He also has a keen ability to throw in things like quick cymbal chokes or off-time rhythms, and in 21st Century Invention we get a little taste of both. You can tell Jeremy is playing a set of drums with massive toms, and I hope that means we're starting to get more into the John Bonham style of a huge drum sound, rather than the trend of the mid-90s to have really tight, quick sounding drums. A drum has a tone and a decay people, and both sound fine if you record them properly. One thing is for sure, McMonigle is beating the piss out of his drums, and no matter how big they are, they sound like their 2 stories high.

I saw Young Widows at the Halifax Pop Explosion probably two years ago, and I saw them blow a roomful of minds. Most people were either there to see Canadian math-rock heroes Metz, or the wild band from Isreal everyone was talking about (Monotonix), but since then I hear mention of the Young Widows set more than either of them.

I hope someday you'll be at some random show where Young Widows is playing and when they start their first song you'll think, "Ok, this is pretty good, I'll stick around." And then they'll kick on their stage lights, and you'll feel like your being blinded by some post-hardcore alien spaceship, and for the next 45 minutes you don't know what the hell is going on, but it's awesome.

Maserati - Pyramid Of The Sun

While I already wrote about Jerry Fuchs' playing on the Maserati record Inventions For The New Season, it should be known that the new album, Pyramid Of The Sun has recently been released and is his last performance in studio before his untimely death.

The pulse and style of Fuch's playing is something that will resonate for years to come, and the band were right to take their time with the post-production on this record to make sure the quality of his drumming is matched by all other aspects of the recordings. He was a well timed, hard hitting, drumming machine, and he will be missed.

Go pick up this album and pay your respects.

Komeda - The Genius of Komeda

While it's fairly pompous to label yourselves geniuses on your own album, I gotta admit that this Komeda record is fairly infectious. I threw it on after finding it in a pile of junk CD's someone gave me, I figured I'd see if anything caught my interest before I dumped the lot of them. I noticed that the album was produced by Pelle Henricsson who had produced the masterpiece that is Refused's The Shape Of Punk To Come, so I figured I would give it a shot. Warm, lush indie-pop sounds hit my ears, reminiscent of other European pop bands like Stereolab and Laakso, but with a slightly darker twist. The songs take a steady rhythmic pulse and expand on it with jazz-like melodies and sultry vocals, a nice blend of everything.

Jonas Holmburg's drumming spans lots of styles, from the noisy straight rock beats on More Is More to the latin infused patterns on Rocket Plane (Music To The Moon) that build and swell with well placed cymbal crashes.

Boogie Woogie/Rock and Roll has a really cool New-Wave feel to it but with much smoother rhythms, Holmburg's playing never jolts you, it always feels very methodical. In Disko he takes a few bars to really play some cool off time shots, and they feel as organic as everything else.

Maybe I should have listened to more CD's in that pile before tossing them, I could have found a bunch of hidden gems.

Nah, probably not. One out of twelve ain't bad.

Most music sucks.

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!

I got this album from my landlord when he found out I was into records. He brought Look Sharp! over one day while doing some light repairs. I was a little put off, but he seems to know his stuff, so I put it on.

It turns out I like Joe Jackson. Who knew? You probably like him too. We've all heard Is She Really Going Out With Him? on the radio time and time again, and if your into metal you might know Anthrax's version of Got The Time, the last song on this record. Think about it, Joe Jackson was a pale englishman in a suit and tie, and of all bands, Anthrax wanted to play his music. You can imagine he probably had his shit together. The hits on this album aren't even the best part, there's some cool stuff all over this record, and Dave Houghton is nice little drummer discovery I've made because of it.

As with most New-wave drumming, Dave Houghton's playing reminds me a little of Pete Thomas on this album, but a little more focused. I find he's locked in a little more. on Happy Loving Couples he keeps his playing really minimal, the bare essentials required to keep things moving. Sunday Papers has a cool sort of swagger to it, but Houghton keeps it tight so that it never steps out of line. and Throw It Away is just a balls out rocker with a 60's psych feel to it. Houghton beats the hell out of his drums and manages to nail the stop before the chorus as tight as ever.

Houghton's drumming is a prefect example of a melding of the very precise 50s style rock drumming and the more bombastic style of the early 70s. Baby Stick Around or Pretty Girls could have easily come from Buddy Holly without really changing anything but the volume of the playing.

Houghton really shows his stuff during a break in the title track Look Sharp! He gets about 8 bars of a solo in over a unaccompanied staccato piano line, and it's a brief glimpse of his speed and technique.

Dave left Joe Jackson's band in 1980 but eventually returned years later and has been with Joe ever since. If you get the chance to see him play some of these song, take it. His minimalist approach to rock drumming is rarely seen in finer form than on some of these songs.