Ableton Forum

the question to me is where did all the great drummers go? back in the day, most of the great rock bands had wildly inventive drummers -- who, zep, hendrix, etc. last truly inventive rock drummer i can think of is copeland, though i'm sure i'm forgetting some (grohl doesn't count -- he plays great, but it's pretty much basic patterns he beats silly).

did the drum machine kill inventive/creative drummer? don't get me wrong, some of it was excessive (rush?), but who needs a drummer if all he's going to play is something you could easily program. (i'm conveniently ignoring all the progrock/metal bands (e.g.) tool where drummers still play more complicated stuff.)

(love buddy, but i'd go with tony williams -- crazy how young he was when he started with miles.)

matt cameron is one of my favorites from the 90's. i am having a hard time thinking of a 'new' rock drummer that i am really into.

it's weird how creative bands like primus and soundgarden were bands on the charts not too long ago.

(i'm conveniently ignoring all the progrock/metal bands (e.g.) tool where drummers still play more complicated stuff.)

Well there´s your answer right there - that´s where they went. Tool is a no-brainer of course, but there are tons more, mostly from sweden. Opeth, Meshuggah, Mastodon, Disillusion all have PHENOMENAL drumers. And the music is great too.

Prog metal is a form of music that can really "handle" complex drumming IMO, because it goes hand in hand with the nature of the music in general. Like bread and butter. So the technically proficient drummers gravitate towards it. That genre wasn´t around back in the day.

If you have too complex drumming it can sometimes detract from the quality of the music. Some things are made to be simple

One drummer I was totally blown away by recently, not by the complexity of his playing but his soulfulness and awesome groove is whoever is playing with Badly Drawn Boy these days. They played a set in Reykjavik last year and quite frankly the drummer saved an otherwise lacklustre performance. No idea who he is however