Some bands are better than others ...

Find yourself a happy place between Neil Peart, tapping on a glass half full of water and people who rip off Timbaland beats. Instant success.

incredible bongo band - last bongo in belgium

Listen to Keiichi Nagase of Happy Family. Incredibly tight prog/fusion drummer who somehow makes everything sound raw and chaotic on the surface even though he's playing with a ridiculously refined technique.

Also, try Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins. He's almost the opposite, in that he plays a lot of very complicated (some might say convoluted) music but always with the energy of a punk drummer.

They're both huge inspirations for me.

'Live at Leeds','Reign in Blood', and Tony Williams on 'Out to Lunch', 'Miles in the Sky' and 'ESP'.

Beastie Boys, 'Paul Revere'

Devo, 'Snowball', 'Mongoloid', 'Gut Feeling'

Interesting ideas about electronic percussion on Jan Jelinek's Loop- finding-jazz-records. The rhythyms are not particularly complicated, but the sounds that fill the spaces in the grid are all askew, which highlights the pattern of the thing. Give it a listen and I think you'll hear what I mean.

Also, the processed drums of Mouse on Mars bear examination. Seems like a good acoustic/electronic hybrid there.

Pierre Favre!

Wilco's new drummer impresses me, though I'm not sure who he is right now. Esp. "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart." I like the way he rests.

Eternal sources of inspiration the Temptation' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "A Day In the Life"

the percussion track i always liked was one of the gillespeterson-type nu jazz things on a swiss label called future talk by he bel air prject 'dark jazzor' (terrible names eh)

that one was pretty good.

If you want a song that has a beat that pounds like a a bursting anuerism, try "Lay It Down" or "You're in Love" by Ratt. Bobby Blotzer plus some nice studio tinkering give it a nice punch. I only brought this one up because someone took mine of mentioning Rush's Niel Pert

Ziggy Modeliste from the Meters gets my vote as best drummer ever, followed close by Al Jackson Jr. and Dave Grohl. PLENTY of stuff to steal from just between those three

Billy Cobham when Mahavishnu gets ridiculous.

Go black metal! I mean, *without* the black metal bits...

kid dakota uses an ice tray on "So Pretty". it really is. pretty.

Bernard Purdie's cymbal/hi-hat playing on 'Morning Dew' by Tim Rose, and on most of Gil Scott-Heron's early recs. Steve Gadd's amazingly propulsive solo on 'Aja' by Steely Dan. The unique sound of Milford Graves' kit on the whole of 'Black Woman' by Sonny Sharrock, or other free jazzers like Sonny Murray, Beaver Harris, Tony Oxley, Rashied Ali, Susie Ibarra and Eddie Prevost, who all do startling things w/ time, space, loud/quiet, etc. John Bonham for the whump; John McEntire for the funk. Mo Tucker for single-minded simplicity; Keith Moon for unrestrained power. Jaki Liebezeit and Charles Hayward. The drum sounds on 'Spiderland' by Slint and 'At Action Park' by Shellac.

And the new Wilco drummer is a guy called Glen Kotche, who also plays a few of Jim O'Rourke's solo recs.

nixon in china esp. sitting around with the enlisted men

No that I'm particularly excited about right at this very instant, but Dave Narcizo's earlier Throwing Muses stuff is amazing.

Klaus Dinger,with honourable mentions for Stephen Morris,the man who always wanted to be a drum machine,and '73-74 King Crimson when Bill Bruford was trying to do the work of two drummers - clatter supreme.

Yesterday I bought two records: One by the blue humans called Incadescence- 23 minute improvisation with Beaver Harris on drums, his drumming was so out there, in face the whole were on another planet. Also Ascensions's Tony Irving, I bought their Five titles CD.

When I'm feeling uninspired I usually put on some Tony Williams for the sheer unpredictability and originality he brings, esp. the almost-groove stuff like Filles de Kilimanjaro.

Amon Tobin might be obvious, but I can't say enough about his drum samples and sequencing on Supermodified (and not just the killin' drum n' bass parts).

Also, listening to Max Roach's M'Boom albums (the live one especially) always recaptures my love of raw percussion for it's own sake (and musical saws).

I could go on and on and on...

Listing good drummers doesn't do justice to Nitsuh's question, which has had me thinking all day. Whilst I think a bit more, I'll throw John Maher into the arena, as punk-pop's best.

Seconded regarding Maher, the man was a genius. It's why reunion Buzzcocks has the tunes but none of the truly inspired drive.

Yes. When he throttles back a little on the fantastic machine-gun rolls, you can even more clearly hear (and feel) what a great drummer he is. Like "You Say You Don't Love Me" or " Harmony In My Head". It's that head-long, but yet JUST controlled propulsion which makes him great. Like an Porsche accelerating hard.

No-one's mentioned Billy Ficca.

That's because I'm stupid and forgetful.

I will have much listening to do now, and I imagine much of it will get whatever part of the brain that deals with coming up with drum lines quite excited.

Out of curiosity, what do you folk think about shoegazer drumming, by which I suppose I mean Colm O'Ciosig (before they started triggering him in) and the guy from Ride? You know: super-fast with long snare- rolling fills and lots of cymbal-bashing? Colm sounds like a machine gun on "Feed Me with Your Kiss" -- the fills are so insane that I forgive him for always losing the beat as he goes in and out of them.

I suppose that stuff, drum'n'bass, and then straight-up bouncy Heavenly-style drumming are the modes I'm most locked into. That a repetitive head-nodding loops. I'll start with the jazz above and see if that breaks anything open for me.

There are so many great drummers out there! I think most of the time the drummer's the tightest musician in the band, but, let's see, right now I'm diggin':

Jim Keltner, Carla Azar, Pete Thomas, Matt Chamberlain, Yuval Gabay, Stewart Copeland, Ginger Baker, and Carter Beauford for pop

cross-overs: Billy Martin, Brian Blades, Dennis Chambers

others: Paul Motian, Bill Stewart, Joey Baron, Zakir Hussain, Carlinhos Brown, the usual other suspects

I saw a show a bit back with Bill Frisell, David Piltch, Greg Leisz, and Brian Blades on drums, and it was definitely probably the most beautiful, joyous hour of improvised music I've ever heard. M. Blades made all the difference in the world. Gorgeous.

Nitsuh said:
You know: super-fast with long snare- rolling fills and lots of cymbal-bashing?...I suppose that stuff, drum'n'bass, and then straight-up bouncy Heavenly-style drumming are the modes I'm most locked into.

Another drummer who never fails to amaze me is Jim Black. I guess he's technically a jazz drummer, but he can play in a style like you're describing too: incredibly fast, cut-up break beats that don't sound like they would be possible from a human. Plus, he's an incredible musician to boot.

'tighten up' by Archie Bell and the Drells, good, funky and tight. On a completely different tip, Janet Weiss playing with Quasi, esp on "Featuring Birds".

Maybe I missed it, but I don't think anyone's mentioned Keith Moon - which is bizarre, but even more bizarre cos I heard the Who in a boozer the other day and thought Moon was grate on 'WGFAgain' (not a new thought, I know).

Nitsuh re. Ride drumming is interesting - I think the stuff on eg. 'Dreams Burn Down' is fab. But I'm not totally sure whether it fits the shoegazing-drum description you offer.

Pinefox, I mentioned 'Live at Leeds'!

What about Slipknot? Aren't they like, ALL drummers?

Check out Minneapolis-based percussion outfit Savage Aural Hotbed. Influenced by equal parts industrial music and kodo, their sound is brutal and lovely. Imagine thunder rolling down your spine and you're about halfway towards the mental aural image of their sound.

I really love the drumming on Silkworm's Libertine (great work on In The West, too). Very sparse, simple beats, yet they really manage to define the songs and tie together Andy and Joels guitar work.

Re : Pinefox on Keith Moon - he DOES sound good on WGFA, but on the whole he's playing a lot more conventionally on Who's Next and beyond than in the mid-sixties. The drum sound is much more conventional too. On say, "Anyway, Anyhow..." or "My Generation" Moon's aggression can hardly be contained by the primitive 'production'. It sounds fantastic!

The best of Moon? "The Ox", "I Can See for Miles", "My Generation", "I Can't Explain (live at Leeds)"...