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

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).

I always wanted to hear more of Ernest "Boom" Carter; supposedly there's some live recordings with him in the lineup that are insane.

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

adding to the nahs, and also saying that the Clash is a better answer than Nirvana

when did Freese play with Ween? a one-off fill-in after Claude's car accident?

NEW YORK DOLLS

The Sisters Of Mercy. Andrew Eldritch drummed on The Damage Done, their first single, but then Doktor Avalanche, their drum machine, took over and they got a lot better.

King Crimson didn't get better with Bruford, they just got different. The first Crimson album is awesome.

Swans, probably. Roli Mosimann wasn't on the first EP but took on sticksman duties for the first LP.

thought kreutzman was w the dead from first to last? mickey hart was an additional drummer, but tbh i think the dead were better wout him (certainly my fave dead years, 72-74, are all hart-less)

The Dismemberment Plan, after Joe Easley joined they got way tighter.

Love - Michael Stuart drums on Forever Changes, which is miles better than what came before.

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

― tylerw, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 4:23 PM (Yesterday)

Love - Michael Stuart drums on Forever Changes, which is miles better than what came before.

― ithappens, Wednesday, October 6, 2010 7:01 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Jim Gordon supposedly plays on "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet." I've also heard that Hal Blaine played on one or more tracks, but can't find any definitive info.

Love - Michael Stuart drums on Forever Changes, which is miles better than what came before.

He drummed on "Da Capo", didn't he? Admittedly he was better than Snoopy.

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

Mothers after Jimmy Carl Black + Art Tripp were shown the door (IMO)

I disagree -- Aynsley Dunbar was the best part of the shitty Flo & Eddie era.

Mothers got tons of better drummers, but def did not become a better band by any means

the awesome Chili Peppers run of Mother's Milk/Bloodsugarsexmagik is def a huge part to Chad Smith being a fucking rhino on the drums

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