Whatever Happened To Rimshots?

[AllGoodPeephole]

Bill seems to be only one of few classic rock drummers that excel in this lost art of drumming. Remember the days of Ginger Baker's Toad solos and Mitch Mitchell's intricate snare work on Electric Ladyland? And not to mention John Bonham's bombastic use of this style.

These days most rock drummers just hit the snare at any angle that just comes along. No accents or definition at all. Even maestro Neal Peart doesn't do much with this technique. Is it laziness or what? Gene Krupa where the hell are you?!

[About The Round]

Rock as an event at big stadiums took the finery out of the play I guess. But I'm a little surprised you're mentioning this because there are a lot of good articulate drumming around theese days. In the eighties it was a pain to hear almost all kind of mainstream because of the non-swinging drum styles. Sledge Hammer!
Even Bruford in his ABW&H-days wrapped the organic majesty of CTTE in celluloid plastic drum sounds. Each and every shot at the snare had the same volume. The ideals has changed and the rides and cymbals are heard at least.

ATR

[AllGoodPeephole]

Even Bruford in his ABW&H-days wrapped the organic majesty of CTTE in celluloid plastic drum sounds. Each and every shot at the snare had the same volume. The ideals has changed and the rides and cymbals are heard at least.

ATRYou got a good point on the arena sound, but even during Bill's Simmons days, he always kept his trusty Ludwig snare with him. And to good use too!

[About The Round]

Just to mention a few; The son of Steve Howe- Dylan or Virgil...Wyatt- what's his name? He has some nice stuff on his father's last album. Echolyn's Ray Weston and Jaime Salazar/Hasse Bruniusson does a lot of magic in TFK. A lot of jazzy intricacy.

ATR

[Hed G.]

It's not just the arena sound - ever since the early 80's
(basically when guys like Phil Collins discovered the then
new noisegates) drum sounds in the studio and in live
concerts have been undergoing a punishing chain of external
processing units, turning them into a regulated, consistent
pattern of pulses, easier for mixing and producing, but
rather boring to listen to! Blame the 80's, friends.

[allpurechance]

Yeah,interesting.In the 1980's,my old buddy and I used to discuss what had happened to-----cymbals!

Peter Gabriel and The Discipline Crimson seemed to just do away with them!

[Hed G.]

Peter Gabriel was experimenting at the time, and Collins
was doing the sessions (for the 3rd album - Melt).
Collins uses his cymbals heavily, so Gabriel took them
away and placed more tom-toms instead, hence
the lack of "high-end" in the overall drum sound.

As for Discipline, Bruford decided to avoid the classic
"leaning on the ride cymbal" jazzer's tendency, and
came up with some creative alternatives to the
traditional drumset sounds.

In both instances, the drums are still used in a creative
and innovative way, as opposed to the regimented
sounds and grooves of the mid 80's.

[allpurechance]

Sure.Jerry Marotta's results were good.Bruford's.

Alan still sounds good to me on the 90125 and Big Generator recordings.He used his cymbals,though.

Trite and cliched drumming approaches,although epidemic in the 80's,were not,and are not confined to them.Creative and entertaining percussion is the exception,not the rule.We Yesfans are considerably spoiled by Alan White and Bill Bruford.

I love what was said about where is Gene Krupa when you need him.

[The Whale]

I just mentioned on a KC thread today that Bill dosent sound like him self on Disciplien and now that I Think of it I think this is why.

[steve4001]

Gene Krupa where the hell are you?!Damn right! Too many drummers seem to treat their kit not so much as a dynamic tool for musical and emotional expression, but rather as little more than a collection of sample-triggers.

[Hugh Shiebler]

Whale, I was going to post this elseweher, but since you're here...

Saying that "Discipline" sounds like Primus is like saying that Genesis sounds like "The Musical Box". Les does a cover of "Thela Hun Ginjeet" and is a huge Crim-head. He is all over Belew's "Side One" album from earlier this year.

[new_sum_do_solve_ay]

These days most rock drummers just hit the snare at any angle that just comes along. No accents or definition at all. Even maestro Neal Peart doesn't do much with this technique. Is it laziness or what? Gene Krupa where the hell are you?!

Never really zeroed in on this sound. But now that you mention it one of my favorite 80s songs was Winwood's Higher Love. Probably one of the biggest recognizable hits with that style. Who was the drummer? Dallas Taylor? The opening of that tune is jammin! Is that what you mean?