| wwittman wrote on Tue, 10 May 2005 14:25 |
| xonlocust wrote on Tue, 10 May 2005 13:31 |
when seeing an opening band or any band that isn't yet well known (again, relative speaking - we are talking indie rock here) - in a rock band setting, it's almost always the drummer that is the limiting factor on whether they make it to the "next level".
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Wow I REALLY don't find that.
This may be ANOTHER thread, but for me the limiting factour is usually SONGS, which should be obvious, and seocnd, an overall charisma or presence.
Do they FEEL like stars or not.
Most bands, even some otherwise not bad ones, DON'T and you can just TELL they probably won't make the jump to the next level.
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i think you misunderstand my point. let me try and clarify: of course songs [and the definition of that is very mutable] are the underlying factor - i thought everyone here was on common ground on that issue - thanks for making the implicit explicit.
i know in my neck of the woods [and from what i understand, pretty much everywhere] good drummers are also at a premium, and as such have the luxury of being courted by the best songwriters. (it's a buyers market for drummers) look in any weekly paper and count the drummer wanted ads vs guitarist wanted.
what i meant to illustrate was: take 3 songwriters of decent caliber (again, refer to my contextualization of local band vs touring band in my first post, indie rock, not major label size - we're not looking for the next jet here) and the band who starts to reach out of the area is usually the one with the better drummer.
indie rock however has its peculiarities - take don cab. in the indie rock context - i think we can all agree [i hope so, are we all on board here? this is the indie rock forum right?] they're pretty sucessful. "songwriting" in the traditional sense is not the first thing i think of when i think of don cab. they were something unique, and somewhat of a spectacle for sure - even though for the life of me i couldnt hum a bar of one of thier songs or a u.s. maple record either - but this is indie rock we're talking about - and both bands are pretty succesful indie rock bands by my standards.
don cab would not exist were it not for thier drummer. so much so that he mounted a reunion tour by himself under the band name. were they ever going to be on a major or have a snowballs chance in hell at playing on tv or something - no. but that's what i'm talking about.
to switch back to a bit for more traditional songwriting (say, more in the vein of spoon or ted leo) - it's a symbiotic relationship onstage, the songwriters know they're backed by a good drummer and hence "FEEL" like stars. a good drummer knows his/her worth, and the bandmates know that.
regardless, i can speak for the bands i see in my town and that i play with, that the ones on indie labels touring and making impressions outside the city, and generally "making it happen" have the better drummers. i just know every guitar player/band dude/songwriter that i know sure as shit values a good drummer much higher than the average bear.
perhaps our definition of "next level" isn't in sync. i'm talking who's gonna be on tour and sell a 5-10,000 records vs who's gonna press 1000 and have 600 doorstops.
best,
nick
