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The “drum culture” (and especially the online presence of the drum culture) gets real excited about stuff that I typically don’t get excited about. And yet, I found both of the following things interesting and worth posting about. Mock me if you must.
Jonah Rocks
Everybody loves a little kid who can play an instrument. This kid is very little, and plays very well. The embedding is disabled from all his youtube videos, but you can check them out at his website.
Vadrum
I guess this dude has been a Youtube star for a while, but I just learned of him today from one of my Bethel students. I’m not sure what to think about this video, but it’s cool in the interesting sense if nothing else.
This is the drummer for the Swedish 90’s rock band Hellacopters. This video is hilarious. Trust me. Wait for it…
Sunny Day played on Fallon last night, and it was pretty rocking. For those who don’t know that band, they basically invented the Emo sound, or at least they’re the ones who really established it. They formed back in 1992 but broke up in 1995. When the group disbanded, drummer William Goldsmith and bassite Nate Mendel joined the Foo Fighters. Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins in 1997, but I think Mendel still plays in Foo Fighters. In 2003 Enigk, Goldsmith, and Mendel put out a record under the name The Fire Theft, and it is medium awesome. Dan Hoerner, the 4th member of Sunny Day, also played with Dashboard Confessional for a little while.
Anyway, I have their second album, LP2, and the music is killing, interesting, passionate, and NOT sloppy (which is maybe the difference between emo and general indie rock). Watch how freaking hard William Goldsmith plays the drums. He’s bashing, but again, not in a sloppy or uncontrolled way. For anyone who was wondering, this is how rock drummers are supposed to play…
UPDATE: The youtube video I had posted is now removed for copyright reasons, so check out the direct link to NBC here.
You know what rules? This video rules…
It’s Collins and Chester Thompson (his drummer for 30 years) battling on Phil’s recent farewell tour. My favorite part about the video is Phil’s kit, which is the same kit he’s had ever since not having resonant heads was cool.
I’m thinking about Phil Collins today because yesterday he announced a hiatus from drumming. It seems that a past vertebrae accident makes sitting behind a drum kit too painful for him to continue playing. He seems optimistic about it, so hopefully the situation will improve.
This has got to be one of the coolest live performance stage sets I’ve ever seen…
Warning: Lazy-blogger-video-post
I’ve been practicing my instrument with my free time lately, instead of blogging. Go figure. So… here’s a random cool video, instead of taking the time to think through something conceptual…
Ok, here’s the deal…
I realize I post stuff on this blog about John Mayer a lot. What can I say… I like him. I’m not a groupie or anything – I just respect his musicianship/songwriting. That, and Continuum is one of my favorite records ever. If I am totally honest, though, the main reason I’m so into his stuff lately is STEVE EFFING JORDAN on drums. Seriously, I love Steve Jordan’s playing, and Mayer’s music is the main place to see Jordan at work for the past few years.
I’ve seen Jordan’s instructional DVD a couple times, which is rad. I also have a live Mayer DVD that has Jordan on a few tracks (Where The Light Is), but aside from that I’ve not found much footage of him. So, I am super pumped to have just now discovered a bazillion clips of him on youtube that I’ve not found before. I spent the last few hours watching them, and the good ones are listed below. Do yourself a favor and watch them ALL before you go to sleep tonight, and I bet you will wake up to find you are a better drummer because of it…
Some vintage Steve Jordan – a television performance w/ Jeffy Heavy, circa early 80’s… (I feel like this might be from SNL during the era when Jordan held that drum chair).
Recording John Mayer’s “Stitched Up” with Herbie Hancock – this is a clip from a documentary on Herbie’s mulit-collaboration album from a few years ago called Possibilities. The Jordan footage ends around the 5:30 mark…
Recording Sting’s “Sister Moon” with Herbie Hancock – another segment from the Possibilities documentary, this time featuring Sting, Cyro Baptista (perc), and John Patitucci (bass). The pattern in the groove on this tune is sick.
Demonstrating a Sheryl Crow track – a clip from Jordan’s instructional DVD, The Groove Is Here.
Jamming with Danny Kortchmar and Bernie Worrell – this is apparently an outtake from The Groove Is Here.
Jamming in John Mayer’s home studio - I found this video on Mayer’s blog, which is dedicated to chronicling the creation of his new record, Battle Studies.
Another jam from the Battle Studies sessions
Performing “Don’t Need No Doctor” w/ Mayer and John Scofield – Jay Leno show
JMT… “Who Did You Think I Was” – the official video release of the first “John Mayer Trio” single. This performance totally rips.
JMT… “Wait Until Tomorrow” – the Hendrix tune on Jimmy Kimmel, from back when the John Mayer Trio was first formed.
JMT… “Bold As Love” – more Hendrix, this one from a Tsunami benefit teledrive. Check out Mayer’s response to his own mistake at 2:51…
JMT… “Cissy Strut” – the Meter’s tune from another teledrive, this time for Katrina. Jordan rocks a cocktail kit on this, and manages to actually make it sound super hip.
JMT… “Out Of My Mind” – another performance from the early days of JMT, from the Live @ Launch program. The image is pretty grainy, but the performance of this tune is one of the best I’ve heard.
JMT… “Come When I Call” – a blues tune from the Where The Light Is DVD. The pocket on this is huge, and Pino’s playing is just unreal. Snare hit on “1″ at 2:28 is oh so perfect.
Finally, there was apparently a JMT television performance that has some affiliation with “Network Live,” as I found a handful of videos from the same show all bearing that logo. The “Jam” is my fav, but unfortunately the audio/visual timing is a little off on that one…
“I Got A Woman”
“Good Love Is On The Way”
“Gravity”
“Try!”
“Jam”
I just saw this video for the first time. Someone linked to it on Facebook. I started watching it, and I started laughing right away, and then I started laughing harder, and then I couldn’t really breathe, and soon my stomach was hurting and the blood vessels in my face felt like they were going to burst, and I was honestly considering turning the video off before it was over because I was scared that I would be harmed if I continued laughing as hard as I was laughing…
I just watched it a second time now, and the same thing happened, though not quite as intense.
My friend Dayton Dodge has a son named Jack. Jack loves the drums, and has a toy “drum set” that he plays. Except, he actually PLAYS it…
Now, my daughter Betty has shown some aptitude for music, but Jack Dodge’s instincts are through the roof. The fills? The left hand 16th notes in the groove? Unbelievable.
PS. Respect the alligator xylophone.
I’ve been listening to Weather Report’s I Sing The Body Electric a ton lately, and the drummer is flooring me. As a player he is at the very least under-appreciated, but more than that he seems to be just generally unknown.
Eric Gravatt lives in Minneapolis, and currently plays with McCoy Tyner’s quartet. He also plays occasionally with his own group down at the Artist’s Quarter in St. Paul. After dominating in Weather Report for a few years, Eric decided to leave music altogether and become a prison guard. I guess that’s the reason for his disappearance into anonymity.
My former teacher, Dave King, hails Eric as one of his favorite players of all time, and openly admits to consciously and intentionally imitating Eric’s style and approach.
Here’s what Wayne Shorter had to say about Eric: “Eric was the one. Miles wanted him, but he came with us in Weather Report.”
Terry Bozzio said this about him: “Seeing him play changed my life. There isn’t — and maybe never will be — anyone who plays drums with that much intensity.”
Check out the video below of Eric playing with Tyner back in the 70’s (before his prison guard career). There’s also a great 2005 article from the Pioneer Press about Eric’s current activities.
Anyway, I added the previously mentioned Weather Report record to the AEDSK list. Trust me, it absolutely deserves to be there…
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