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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
Hey, crew!
Sorry I haven't been on in ages... that whole life thing... gets ya after awhile. I went on a bit of an odd bender after getting into college - it really hit me that my adult life's starting and I have limited time to fuck around and decide what I want to do with it. Plus, I caught the flu, which made me even more irritable. To those of you whom I need to send blanks to, they're in the mail! Sorry for the delay! That damn life!
Seems like the bad blood on this board has cleared up. It was really odd - for the first time in my posting career, both Rocks Off and I were having a bad time!
Anyhow, a question for those of you who've been in/are in a band.
Our drummer is a real nice guy. He's got an arrogant streak but has worked to get over it and admit that he is, in fact, a fairly nondescript (some would say lousy) drummer. He's also promised me that he's going to get through January and devote the rest of his high school career (We're all seniors) to the band, practicing, getting better, etc.
Problem is, I joined this band last, so even though I wind up singing a lot of the songs just because I'm the only one who can scream with any authority, my clout is limited with the lead guitarist, our "spiritual leader", and our keyboardist, the "we should do what I want or I'll get bitter" leader, even though sometimes he winds up actually enjoying playing stuff other than dirges. I make him sound like a bad guy there, but he's really not - he's totally cool and I like him or I wouldn't be in his band, but he's got his moments.
Anyhow, we've had a week of totally lousy rehearsals. We just got back from winter break, we're all tired, and we really fuck it up. We were close to breaking up Thursday night. The drummer isn't helping matters, but neither is anyone else. We really just... sucked. We all agreed that we needed to go in a new direction, but couldn't agree on what that was. The keyboardist wanted to add more Pink Floyd to our repetoire, which everyone vetoed, the rhythm guitarist wanted to go in the direction of Hendrix and Chuck Berry, which I approved of, the lead guitarist, being the spiritual leader, didn't really say anything, and the drummer agreed with the rhyhm guitar guy and added Dylan and The Beatles to the list. I said we should keep writing new material and agreed with the drummer and rhythm guitarist, which was then pretty much universally agreed upon.
So we all left feeling crappy. Tonight, I go out for pizza with the keyboardist, who tells me he's had it with the drummer and wants to fire him. We're all good friends, so this comes as a bit of a shock to me. He's holding us back, he says, with his lousy playing. Now, as the other half of the rhythm section, I think he's a mediocre drummer, but there's nothing about him that's worse than, say, Ringo Starr. Only if you go to our shows with an ear for him making mistakes will you even notice. The keyboardist says that he's got another drummer, a guy I've played with before when I was working two bands at once, a jazz-based, Charlie-Watts-esque in style and personality guy. He wants me to give him carte blanc to fire the drumer. I tell him I like the drummer too damn much to fire him without giving him a chance, and that he wants to get better. He says we have to separate the drummer as a friend, where he's great, from the drummer as a musician, where he's lousy.
I really don't want to fire him. I want to give him a chance, but, the keyboarist said, we've got maybe one semester more together and if we don't find a way to make ourselves the best we can be and get an album in the can, we're done, forever. If he is really holding us back, then I understand. But I think this past week has just made us alredy tired and sloppy bandmates unjustifiably mad and he's looking for someone to blame. He just came down on the weakest link in the band.
So I told him to give our old drummer a week and see how he does now that we're getting into new stuff. If nothing happens, we'll have a rehearsal with the other drummer, play a few tunes, see how we feel.
This evening I wasn't planning on playing at all since the band was in such a bad mood, but we rehearsed (without the drummer - he'd gone home early - the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist switched off on the drums), and positively rocked. We totally blew through "Fire" and "Johnny B. Goode" and figured 'em out on our first few times through 'em. I was even playing the bass really well, and for the first time I think that I can say I've moved beyond the "let's plunk the root and do some nifty octave things" for good, after writing a killer bass line to that old Ween song "The Roses Are Free" and then figuring out "Fire" without the rhythm guitarist lecturing me. Which is OK for a year-and-a-half with the instrument on-again off-again. I'm getting better. (Knock on wood.) We laid down a nice few tries at trying to wrap ourselves around the finale to Abbey Road, and I screamed my guts out and it really worked. For the hell of it, we played "Hey Jude" to close it out as we all had to leave at eleven and went berzerk. Totally on fire. I was seeing red.
So now I'm really happy that the band's energized and I think we've got some of that gusto to learn new stuff now. So I think that might help our drummer escape retribution... but the keyboardist's still got his mind set on toasting him.
I don't want to fire him because he's a great friend, but afte that killer rehearsal, I totally see where they get that feeling that he's holding us back.
Any advice?
-tSYX --- It's only rock'n'roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do... |
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| Soul Survivor |
Well, in life you gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes it's fun to live, other times...not quite as fun. If you feel that you can do better without this drummer, then can him. He may be a good friend, but he can still be a friend and not be in the band. You gotta do whats right for the band |
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| beer |
geez that was a long post. but i think i managed to get the point of it.
First, buy a loaf of bread and some delicious deli cut ham. proceed to build a sandwich.with cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, tomatoe, etc. then secretly hide it in the refrigerator.
then, call a band meeting. in the middle of the band meeting, jump up and proclaim "Shit!, a ham sandwich sounds good right now, doesn't it?" then, scamper off to the fridge and grab the secret sandwich.your bandmates will be bewildered and quite possibly aroused.then, in front of the band, proceed to take one bite of the secret sandwich. then(and this is the most important part), look your drummer in the eyes, and say, "i had sex with your girlfriend last night. do you want the rest of this sandwich?"
if the drummer responds: "yes!"
then fire him.
if he responds : "NO!" then fire him anyway.
for this is a delicate situation, and an out of work drummer is a hungry drummer.
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| egon |
although i am not in a band (nor do i play an instrument)
i'd say you have to fire him.
seems there's already too much friction in your group and you haven't even gotten anywhere yet...
but more over, from your story it sounds like none of you guys are really in line with each other. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Don't fire him, just tell him how a nice fuck are his girlfriend and his sisters and he will quit
Warning: say it on the phone |
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| stonedatbirth666 |
You must suck! Ringo is a MOTHERFUCKER! |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
quote:
stonedatbirth666 wrote:
You must suck! Ringo is a MOTHERFUCKER!
A good motherfucker or a bad motherfucker? Because I was under the impression, in listening to my Beatles records, that Ringo Starr wasn't exactly the highest card in the deck when it came to drumming. Or, indeed, even in the deck at all. He got much better as time went on, sure, but initially George Martin wanted to fire his asssssss.
-tSYX --- I just wanted to show you what my politics arrrre... |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
Attention: I am taking beer's advice, as that might be the funniest thing I've read in years.
In his honor, any instrumental jams on our first album will be named "Secret Sandwich".
-tSYX --- Secret sandwich time. |
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| stonedatbirth666 |
Ringo was the shit way back when, or he wouldnta been a BEATLE! |
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| telecaster |
Fire all of them and get some hot chicks to play in their place
Problem solved |
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| Phog |
You should take your drummer aside and let him know that there's talk of replacing him. That might light a fire under his ass and get him practicing more. If it doesn't, you need to replace him. |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
quote:
telecaster wrote:
Fire all of them and get some hot chicks to play in their place
Problem solved
Can't. That's already been done. They're called The Von Bondies.
Ringo wasn't the shit way back when! Ringo was awful way back when! He got better... but everyone knew intially that he was there because of his personality more than anything else.
-tSYX --- Like a Rollllling stahwwwwnnee... |
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| FPM C10 |
I guess a lot of this depends on the band's intentions. I've played in several bands where the only intention was to play together as therapy and not go insane - i.e. have fun, which can get harder and harder as you get older. In a case like that a mediocre drummer with a sunny disposition trumps a difficult yet brilliant player. However, as soon as you start playing gigs, then it matters what you sound like, and it's impossible to cover up a bad drummer. Then you have to worry about what other people think and whether you'll get paid and whether you'll get asked back and all of that crap. It sounds like the band has a limited shelf life and you need to make sure you don't ruin any long-term friendships solving your problem, but if EVERYBODY in the band plays drums better than the drummer, that's not good. If you're playing in front of people and plan to record, you need to be the best you can be.
When I was in high school the way we solved problems like this was to call a band meeting and agree to break up. Then the next day everyone except the guy we wanted out started a new band. |
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| bez85 |
don't show your ignorance..Ringo wasn't there for his personality..you'll be lucky to play with anyone as talented in your lifetime |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
quote:
bez85 wrote:
don't show your ignorance..Ringo wasn't there for his personality..you'll be lucky to play with anyone as talented in your lifetime
I already have.
Look, early Ringo - not that great! Interesting, and certainly brought to the fore a lot of nifty tricks in rock drumming, but both Charlie and Keith Moon had the game down better than he did in '63-'64 - indeed, through their lifetimes. Ringo was an OK drummer with nothing special about him that rose to the position of being a drummer good enough to play in The Beatles.
-tSYX --- No navigator to find my way home... |
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