In the 80s I worked with a guy who would play live Dead tapes all day. Shit drove me nuts. I'm thinking, 2 guitars, a bass, keys and a drummer and no ones keeping the beat! What is wrong with these guys?
classic
im by no means a fan of the dead.. but i have to give them the props for exactly what you wrote above.
if you get together and jam with a bunch of dudes its inevitable that yer gonna lock into certain grooves, riffs etc etc.. the dead seemed to be completely immune to that... its WAY harder than it sounds
anyway i know a few folks have seen the Soul of the Funky Drummers tape with Clyde and Jabo showing what they would do when they played live with James. If not, i highly recommend it.
There's also a John Trop??a's album with two drummers playing at the same time... I think one of them is Steve Gadd... humm... no, Purdy... fuck, I forgot. B.
a lot of motown songs had two drummers, especially whitfield produced temptations. at least thats what Pistol Pete[/b] said.
Jazzy Jay told me that funky drummer is dope because of the two drummers. anyone else ever heard that?
Clyde Stubbefield took full solo responsiblity for that in our interveiw of him in '98, so that goes against what you've heard I guess. We interviewed a lot of those drummers... jabo, pete, clyde, etc. Not to say musicians don't always remember things correctly, or better yet, like to take credit after the fact when something blows up.
DoMakeSayThink and GodSpeed You Black Emperor are two bands I've seen use two drummers and it was brilliant. Whether they played at the same time or came in at different times and dropped breaks and beats all over each other - it was very amazing and exciting. It's funny to watch drummers looking at each other trying to anticipate the next change, too - especially when they make those funny open-mouth fish-faces.
I was gonna post pretty much this exact same post.
Frankly, I don't know how much the two drummers thing adds to the overall quality of their recordings (dunno what it'd sound like with just one), but I'd imagine it'd sound a lot less full. Seeing two drummers live is pretty oddly dope.
an interesting observation i forgot to bring up earlier was that the last time i saw Sharon and the Dap Kings, about a month ago in nyc, they had two drummers. It was Homer and some new chap who looked pretty young. Don't know what they have in store for him but he got a moment to shine with some nasty as fuck gut bucket breakbeats...giving Homer a run for his money. most of the time though he was just giving basic complementary assistance to Homer. It would be pretty serious if Gabe unleashes the dual funky drummer action with the Dap Kings. Then again it could have been just a live training session for a new backup Dapkings drummer.
was thinking today of other drummers that could of been two: Tony Allen, Jaki Liebeziet, and Elvin Jones
Some UK New Wave bands were into this, The Fall and Adam and the Ants both used two drummers...easy as it is to dismiss Adam & the Ants for their gay-ass "Highwaymen" costumes and makeup, their songs were all based around hard beats, with some nice drum patterns. I wanna say Big Country had 2 drums too, but they might have just had the drums way up in the mix...
I always been really into the idea of having two drummers. have seen some good bands recently w/ two drummers...this new band band with memebrs of Orthrem and Erase Eratta called Bermuse is two drummers, two bass players and a guy doing noise. I also saw this band open for Friends Forever last summer called Foot village that was just four drummer (on four drumsets, set up in a circle). They played in the woods. it was sweet.
on a related note, i just found a killer minute long two-drummer private press break today. check it
There's also a John Trop??a's album with two drummers playing at the same time... I think one of them is Steve Gadd... humm... no, Purdy... fuck, I forgot. B.
Comments
They should just trade in the whole band, shit is garbage
classic
im by no means a fan of the dead.. but i have to give them the props for exactly what you wrote above.
if you get together and jam with a bunch of dudes its inevitable that yer gonna lock into certain grooves, riffs etc etc.. the dead seemed to be completely immune to that... its WAY harder than it sounds
DOPE ISH!!!!
That tape is ill!!
There's also a John Trop??a's album with two drummers playing at the same time...
I think one of them is Steve Gadd... humm... no, Purdy... fuck, I forgot.
B.
Clyde Stubbefield took full solo responsiblity for that in our interveiw of him in '98, so that goes against what you've heard I guess. We interviewed a lot of those drummers... jabo, pete, clyde, etc. Not to say musicians don't always remember things correctly, or better yet, like to take credit after the fact when something blows up.
I was gonna post pretty much this exact same post.
Frankly, I don't know how much the two drummers thing adds to the overall quality of their recordings (dunno what it'd sound like with just one), but I'd imagine it'd sound a lot less full. Seeing two drummers live is pretty oddly dope.
-e
was thinking today of other drummers that could of been two: Tony Allen, Jaki Liebeziet, and Elvin Jones
on a related note, i just found a killer minute long two-drummer private press break today. check it
I usually prefer 1 drummer and a percussionist.
JB and the album below are the only notable exception :
mmmhh...
Steve Gadd + Rick Marotta on the drums
B.
Love it, don't have it, need it