Let's List Acts That Got Better Once They Got A New Drummer

i can't actually think of that many bands who traded *down* on drummers. Yes (bruford to alan white)?

Luna kinda took a dive when the feelies drummer quit/was fired.

i can't actually think of that many bands who traded *down* on drummers.

Slayer, a few times.

depends on which 'love me do' you listen to. best is on all the decca and tony sheridan stuff though i think. i don't think i've ever heard any beatles stuff w/ jimmie nicol drumming.

rem traded down

the VU traded down when billy yule stepped in for moe tucker.

the who also imo

not hating on Ringo but i could see the Beatles being more or less the Beatles without him

this is so wrong

yeah 'ringo drum fill' is easily in my top five 'these dudes are are trying to sound like the beatles' cliches

the who also imo

― balls,
i think Kenny Jones was just a bad fit, not a weak musician

12. Velvet Underground

lol beaten to the challop - I knew someone would do this!

Xp "She said she said" and "a day in the life" woulda been totally different

12. Velvet Underground
meant that they improved once moe joined the band, replacing angus maclise.

neutral milk hotel

Gay Dad

Flaming Lips

Gay dad otm

Black Uhuru?

and straight up, Ringo plays on the first Beatles single, so I don't know how much Pete Best you've actually heard

― dro™ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 1:21 PM Bookmark

a couple tracks and he was terrible

Slayer, a few times

ehh, they technically only did once, and it's not like Bostaph was any slouch, he was just much inferior to Lombardo...although I did 'LOL' while reading a Lombardo interview where he criticized the speed degradation in Bostaph's opening drum solo on "Killing Fields", capping it with "and they were criticizing MY drumming!"

Jon Dette never appeared on a studio album -- so he doesn't really count for argument's sake. Then they traded Bostaph for Lombardo which was a re-upgrade.

Mayhem

the gerbils

i can't actually think of that many bands who traded *down* on drummers.

Tony Allen leaving Fela Kuti's band definitely made the music worse.

3. The Who (Zack Starky > Kenny Jones, at least for this band)

Actually, Simon Philips replaced Jones for the 1989 tour. Starkey replaced Philips, and it was still just as massive an improvement.

james brown (up and then down, down, down)

wait, who are you counting there? starks -> stubblefield?

From wikipedia entry on josh freese (which ones got better after he arrived?):

A Perfect Circle,
Nine Inch Nails,
Devo,
The Vandals
Sting
Paul Westerberg
Guns N' Roses
Ween
The Offspring
Weezer
Desert Sessions
Ashes Divide

wait, who are you counting there? starks -> stubblefield?

i was thinking famous flames (with maceo's brother melvin i think?) going into clyde & jabo. the drumming on the early stuff is great too, but not as iconic as when the music changed.

Nirvana would never have been Nirvana as we know them w/o Grohl

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat no

ah ok, got your back there xp

not sure how that's controversial, crut

x-post Smashing Pumpkins traded down, for sure.

Chamberlin >> Kenny Aronoff and Joey Waronker and other dude c. "Adore."

XP - Elvis Costello. Needs explaining, who took over from Pete Thomas, Jim Keltner or someone?

simon & garfunkel

jimmy hendrix (going from mitchell to miles)

hmmm i disagree...miles in def a "better" drummer i guess, chopswise for sure, but do NOT think that hendrix's work got better after

Elvis Costello. Needs explaining, who took over from Pete Thomas, Jim Keltner or someone?

― MyFatherWillGuideMeUpARopeToYourMum (MaresNest), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 5:52 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think the trading up there is Pete Thomas from the Clover drummer who played on My Aim Is True

how many of the clover dudes ended up in the news?

the breeders traded down on drummers burt got debatably better?

although that guy wasn't bad really -- there was a funny bit when The Police where on Elvis's show on the Sundance channel and Stewart Copeland complimented Pete on a great fill on "Watching The Detectives" and Pete had to admit it wasn't him. (xpost)

oh, who played on "watching the detectives"? such great drumming.

but do NOT think that hendrix's work got better after

controversial i know (pretty sure this still gets argued about in high school cafeterias?) but i love the band of gypsies shit.

Traded down:
Jeff Beck Group (from the otherworldly Mickey Waller to the meh Tony Newman)
Lynyrd Skynyrd (from the "Holy shit, he really WAS locked in a barn with Leon Wilkeson for 8 hours a day!" Bob Burns to the relatively scatterbrained Artimus Pyle)

x-post Actually, "Watching the Detectives" is Steve Goulding (of the Rumor, later the Gang of Four and Mekons) on drums, no slouch!

Metallica, for that one UK festival gig when Lars was taken ill and they got Lombardo and the Slipknot guy to fill in
King Crimson when Bruford joined
um, Marillion

Grateful Dead

Spinal Tap--first they got better, then they got worse, then they got much worse, then they got much better, then they got worse, then they got better, then they got worse.

unwound

The Fall

I will admit that Springsteen got better after Max joined, but I always like Vini better (wouldn't have worked w/ later style though).

(or y'know, Harrison's money that he'd mysteriously made disappear via Handmade) (xpost)

All the Beatles except Paul came very close to declaring bankruptcy at one point or another. Peter Doggett's You Never Give Me Your Money is a depressingly fascinating account of the post-Beatle years and the myriad ways each Beatle got screwed financially.

Yeah, I'm about halfway through it...

Screaming Trees

Wilco

Gun club apparently became much more solid once the original rhythm section of Don Snowden and Brad Dunning were replaced by Rob ritter and Terry Graham but i still ahven't heard what the original line up sounded like. Neither of them were musicians with any previous history though. But Snowden went on to cowrite Willie Dixon's autobiography. So have wondered if he introduced a lotof the blues influence. Ranhkin jeffrey lee was known for writing on other roots musics and reggae before the band formed.

Earliest music by the Gun Club I've heard is before Brian tristan left for the first time to join the Cramps and get a new name.
BUt rhythm section there is Ritter/Graham.

Jefferson airplane Spencer Dryden replaces Skip Spence after the first lp. Spence goes off to play guitar in Moby Grape then melts down.
Dryden is one of my favourite drummers.
Band goes off the boil when he's replaced .

Deep Wound become Dinosaur when J gives up drums to play guitar and Murph from All White Jury joins on drums.

Does George Hurley come in to play drums transforming the Reactionaries into the Minutemen or are there further changes.

Budgie joins Siouxsie and the Banshees to replace a departed drummer and the psychedelic period starts. Though coincides with John Mcgeoch coming in on guitar.
Budgie's come in from recording drums on the Slits lp Cut. Not sure if he's an improvement per se there. Palmolove had a ramshackle thing that went with the band's early ethos and direction changes a bit.
Previous Banshee drummer replaced SidVicious in original line up. I think he had tried not to be heard and only lasted one performance. Replacement lasts 1st 2 lps which are pretty decent.

The Fall

― Mark, Wednesday, 6 October 2010 00:23 (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which drummer though? Personally I thought Karl Burns' drumming on "Live at the Witch Trials" was hideously flashy and bombastic, they improved when they went to tippy-tappy rockabilly drummer Mike Leigh, improved again when they went to super solid Paul Hanley, arguably impoved again when Burns rejoined and they had the two drummer line up... and that's only the first 4 years.

Echo and the Bunnymen, hurf hurf.

Miles Davis kind of "traded up" just by refreshing his sound. challenging himself with different drummers: Jimmy Cobb, Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Jack De Johnette, Al Foster, Ricky Wellman etc are each so distinctive---Wellman was from Chuck Brown's Soul Searchers, of the DC go-go community. Of course he changed a lot otherwise, but wouldn't have worked as well without just the right drummer for the phase.

Interpol. the first demo of PDA (circa '98-99) isn't on youtube anymore but it's just awful. the Fukd ID #3 ep or whatever.

pretty reliable pattern:

band changes drummers early on (especially before first record) = they get better
band changes drummers years into career = they get worse

Seems otm mostly. Sure some people will be posting exceptions come the morrow

Yeah, I had another thread with that converse, bands that got worse when they got a new drummer.

I've just remembered Stuart Cable's dead. That cheered me up.

― Already WSed last summer (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 10:21 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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Got worse Jefferson airplane to Joey covington. Went from one of my favourite drummers to somebody I just find leaden.

Sonic youth

Which change are you thinking of? I'm a stan but I don't agree that the Shelley-era albums are better than Bad Moon Rising (Bob Bert) or Confusion Is Sex (Jim Sclavunos and Bert), although there are a lot more of them. I do think the band got better after Jim Sclavunos replaced Richard Edson (after the first EP), although I'm not even sure how much that has to do with the drums.

The Germs

the who
led zeppelin
spinal tap

many would say oasis but i'm a tony mccarroll diehard, fuiud

Mayhem, easily. like, I love the Deathcrush EP with my whole heart, but the weakass drum patterns Manheim came up with for the titular song suck ass. they couldn't have done De Mysteriis with that dude.

once you hear versions of the song "Death Crush" that the piece of shit Hellhammer played on, it intensifies the song even more. though he's definitely fucked with his drum parts over the years for that one