Place for drummers to defend themselves, if they can

You only have to punch the beat in once with a drum machine.

arf arf arf etc

1. Drummer moves kit to and from gigs/recording/rehearsals at all times.

2. 5 drums max (snare, bass, 3 x toms including floor tom)

3. No Simmons pads or equivalent.

4. Don't bring novelties like gongs/little cymbals/ethnic drums. You won't hear them.

5. No roto-toms.

seriously though, are you recording something at the moment? and if so, how's it progressing (drummer sagas aside)?

Don't knock 'em. Of various projects I'm involved with just now the one where the drummer uses a 100% electronic kit is by far the best from this p of v. Not that drum-sound angst goes away - in fact the more extensive range of kit sounds available mean that this guy's is even more extreme than the acoustic drummers I play with - but the drummer finds most of the solutions at home in his own time and arrives with ready-made sounds that (like bass or guitar or whatever) just need clean amplification. Whereas he half-hour thumpy-thump soundchecks with acoustic drummers continue to be one of the banes of every musician's existence.

The basis of a good rock record is the drum sound. Once you have that licked, you can build the rest of the record from there.

Also, be nice to your drummer, he is the guy who will be the determining whether your band is pretty good at best, or famous. A band can get away with mediocre playing in every department by the drums. AND a good drummer is the scarcest commodity in the musical world.

Beyond putting new heads on the drums and knowing how to tune them though (which is important!), the things that really matter are knowing how to PLAY them and get a good tone and having a good engineer.

And just once, can the guitarist actually help carry the drums out to the car? I mean, would it kill you?

But personality wise... jesus, they hit things for a living! Either they're dumb as cotton, or else they've got this autistic intensity that comes from having no frustrations left to beat out.

I thank my lucky stars every day that we've got a good drummer. Yeah, he's late for everything. Yeah, it takes him longer to set up his kit than it takes me to set up 2 amps and 9 pedals. But like someone up there said, good drums are the foundation of your house.

I read an intersting article once, about how drum machines are the curse of the A&R man. Apparently, you used to be able to judge how good/professional/together a band were by their ability to attract and keep a decent drummer. So go figure...

and roto-toms are crap.

As a former drummer, I got sick of lugging all that stuff around though!

So my friend ML had this forwarded to him by a friend today, who found it on Craigslist. Truly, a cri de couer:

---

Looking for someone special who would kill my drummer for $100.00. Do not fear any negative consequences for this act. Any self respecting law enforcement agency would gladly turn the other cheek once they hear this guy "play".

I am tired of hearing his 70's style fills put in the wrong spot and ending one half beat early or late depending on how much he's had to drink.

I am tired of him standing up behind his drums between songs and ripping his shirt off and flexing his muscles at wedding receptions where we were hired to play Air Supply, Carpenters, and Ann Murray songs because "chicks dig the pecs, dude".

I am tired of him showing up 20 minutes late for rehearsals then pouting until someone helps him load in his drums, then taking 30 minutes to set them up and needing a smoke break every 15 minutes, then wanting to leave early because "this chick is so fine, I can't say no, and she knows record people dude, so it's for the band"

I am totally done with him calling me up at midnight to play me some damned jazz fusion album from 1981, crying and saying how we shouldn't have sold out to "the man" and asking if I know anyone who can get him some weed knowing full well I smoked twice in '69 and never touched it after that.

I am sick of him farting on stage where the drum mics pick it up and thinking this shit is funny.

I am tired of kicking off slow ballads at well under 80 bpm only to have them morph into the methamphetimine version of flight of the bumble bee, because that's the tempo he "feels" it at. I am tired of having to carry jumper cables to the gig because "I must have left the dome light on again, dude" instead of admitting his 84 Oldsmobile is a worn out piece of crap.

I am tired of him asking when he's gonna get a drum solo.

I am tired of paying his tab at restaurants because "that chick must have stole my wallet man, but it was worth it 'cause she was a phreak". I will not move my amp again so he can put another new cymbal on the stage, because "when we learn some fusion i'll need this sound"... please somebody kill this motherfucker. I can't do it because he's my brother and mom would be so pissed off even though she thinks the band would probably sound better too. Besides, if you are good at killing drummers, you could probably make a lot of money here in the Antelope Valley.

congratulations craigslist guy you just rewrote the studio pitch for

http://bigdrumthump.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/therocker_galleryposter.jpg

What a disaster for the Antelope Valley.