STEWART COPELAND

So says the Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postro ... ck_dr.html

(Including "rock" certainly creates a bit of a safety net.)

Thoughts?

(SC has already popped up in the comments. For EQ's sake, I'm glad to see Travis Barker hasn't been mentioned yet.)

Please advise the Washington Post that STEWART is still alive.

I have no idea how such things are judged. I've only seen/heard him play twice, nearly ten years apart. First time all I registered was 'powerful and grinning'. Second time, well, if 'best rock drummer alive' means reveling in it, feeding off and throwing ideas to the bass player, flirting with your guitarist (MUSICALLY, people) but never, ever losing a really wonderful dirty groove, then yeah. He's not bad

ETA: Sod it. I forgot emoticon thingies aren't working. TCV at Reading might have been the most thrilling 'rock' performance on drums I've ever been in the presence of, but it was hard to judge on account of the entire band being so magnificent. It is not inconceivable that my judgement was impaired by a keytar and Josh Homme's falsetto.

smudge wrote:I have no idea how such things are judged. I've only seen/heard him play twice, nearly ten years apart. First time all I registered was 'powerful and grinning'. Second time, well, if 'best rock drummer alive' means reveling in it, feeding off and throwing ideas to the bass player, flirting with your guitarist (MUSICALLY, people) but never, ever losing a really wonderful dirty groove, then yeah. He's not bad

ETA: Sod it. I forgot emoticon thingies aren't working. TCV at Reading might have been the most thrilling 'rock' performance on drums I've ever been in the presence of, but it was hard to judge on account of the entire band being so magnificent. It is not inconceivable that my judgement was impaired by a keytar and Josh Homme's falsetto.

Hah. I pretty much agree with your first assessment. Grohl impresses me on the "powerful and grinning" front. But he just doesn't have the personality on the drumkit that Stewart does, which is why SC is still (and likely will always be) #1 in my book.

Other rock drummers may be more "powerful" or technically proficient/impressive. But I can pick Stewart out from the crowd anytime from just one bar of his high-hat playing. He's got a style that's playful and complex and entirely unique that I love. And that's about the end of that debate for me...

I agree 110% with what sockii said!!!!

The only one who can stand the comparison with Stewart - in terms of solid rock - is most likely Neil Peart (as Stew knows all too well...).
The others who could are all dead.

Augh.

Uggg. The Washington Post is my local paper and it's actually sitting in a wet bag at my feet (thank you dog). Since I was too lazy to remove it, I read the link instead. I do love me some Dave Grohl but so does the rest of the area. He was born and raised in Springfield, VA just outside of DC so I always wonder if his legendary status here radiates elsewhere. Apparently so.
Still, it's kind of like apples and oranges. I have a hard time comparing drummers with such different styles. They are right about that mega watt grin though.

OT:

I heard on the radio yesterday that Dave did his first tattoo himself when he was 16 and apparently it looks like someone put a cigarette out on his arm. OUCH!

policefan wrote:OT:

I heard on the radio yesterday that Dave did his first tattoo himself when he was 16 and apparently it looks like someone put a cigarette out on his arm. OUCH!

From Rolling Stone:

QUOTE

Playing with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in the new supergroup Them Crooked Vultures is a dream come true for Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl, the singer/dummer tells Rolling Stone in an exclusive Q&A in our next issue.

Grohl’s Zeppelin worship goes all the way back to his teenage years, when he got the first of three Zep-inspired tattoos — he’s got John Bonham’s three-circle Led Zeppelin IV logo tattooed in three places. “I did the first one myself when I was 16,” he says. “I tried to get different colored ink to make it seem pro, but now it looks like someone put a cigarette out on my fucking arm.”

The second was slightly more professional: he got it done in an illegal squat in Amsterdam. “It was done by an Italian guy named Andrea whose tattoo gun was made out of a doorbell machine,” he says. “When my mother saw it, she was like, “David!” I was like, “Mom, I’ve done a lot worse shit than this, believe me. Look at my other arm.”

And the last one Grohl paid for with his first check — that would be $400 — from being in Nirvana. “Kurt and I were living with each other in Olympia. The place was so depressing,” he says. “I took the $400 and bought a Nintendo, a BB gun — mind you, I was 21, not 12 — and got that tattoo. One of my fondest memories of living in that rat-shit-hole apartment was buying a dozen eggs at the A&P, bringing them to Kurt’s backyard, and me and Kurt and Buzz [Osbourne] from the Melvins shooting at the eggs. Those were the days.”

END QUOTE

Dave is good, don't get me wrong...
But it's very telling of the new talent that's coming around if people are chosing a guy who was known for drumming in Nirvana years back LOL!

I just wish that there were more drummers nowadays who were "pushing the button" as it were - except for maybe Betamax (Hot Head Show - and no I'm not ass kissing because it's a group Jordan is in - I don't do ass kissing, the kid has a lot of Jazz-derivative chops and really is knockout!), Bran Dailor (Mastodon - excellent feel and "technique", something that is rarely seen nowadays) and Danny Carey (Tool - Tasteful chops and precise deliverance).

I think what we'll all agree on is that what makes Stewart so special is not so much what he does, but the way in which he does it, personality, vigor and all - he has a natural spark which has always pricked up my ears.

Ho hum, not much new music creates that vibe anymore.

Anybody got any tips for any other tubthumpers who I've overlooked?

I've always thought Derrick Bostrom was better than Dave anyway

-P- xXx