O gather together all ye drummin bretheren!

Why Do Lead Singers Bash Drummers?

By Andy Doerschuk Published April 27, 2010

Drummers don’t just sit at the back of the stage because that’s where our drum riser happens to be. We tend to get shoved back there figuratively as well as literally. If you need evidence, do a web search for the phrase “drummer jokes,” and watch as the stereotypes pile one atop the other. Not convinced that they reveal a hidden prejudice against your drumming brethren? Okay. Try replacing the word drummer in any one of those jokes with an ethnic slur and see what happens the next time you repeat it in a crowded room. Better bring your boxing gloves.

If we only occasionally had to endure being the brunt of a joke, there really wouldn’t be any problem. But some musicians still feel that drummers are somehow less musical because we play rhythms and beats instead of chords and melodies. And nothing riles me more than a lead singer who likes to blame the drummer for everything — real and imagined — that goes wrong onstage while onstage.

I’ve seen this one far too many times. The lead singer counts off a song. You‘ve got the tempo locked into your internal metronome a couple clicks before the first downbeat. The band comes in at precisely the tempo the singer specified, but by the eighth measure he or she demonstrably turns to you and yells, “Will you pick it up?” with a scowl — as if it was somehow your fault that the singer counted off the song too slowly.

So you bite your tongue and pick up the tempo. And for a verse — or even worse, half the song — the groove wobbles backward and forward while the band tries to guess the proper bpm and find a pocket to lock into. I’ve seen this throw off a band so badly that it can render an otherwise jumping dance number to an embarrassing train wreck.

The drummer did nothing wrong, but the singer definitely blew it. Counting off a song at the wrong tempo is like starting to play a solo before you tune up your instrument. Actually, in my opinion, if a song happens to start off a tad slower or faster than usual, professional musicians — and professional singers — should be able to make it work, especially without having an onstage hissy fit.

Here’s another great one that I recently saw. You’re in the middle of a song, and without turning around, the singer puts one hand down and makes some kind of circular motion toward the drummer, as if someone was running in front of you and wanted you to catch up. What exactly is the meaning of this inexplicable signal? Well, my first instinct tells me that the singer wants the song to speed up.

But it might also mean, “give me more.” But more of what? More volume? More ghost notes? More fills? It’s hard to say, so you know what I do? I give them more of everything while slightly picking up the tempo. I don’t do it to be malicious. I’m simply trying to fulfill the wishes of a singer whose mind I am unable to read.

Yet more reasons why we drummers must stick together.

taken from: Drum Magazine

I'm quoting...

This is from a blog called "The Cautionary Revolution", the dude who's writing it calls himself apocalypse nowish.

I have some things to say about drugs, but in this case I don't, cause apocalypse said it all for me. I quote:

It is time for people of this earth (excluding government that never will acknowledge it) to realize two things; firstly that the “war against drugs” is unwinnable. It doesn’t matter how severe punishments there are for peddling drugs are or how many police officers you put into the equation, it has no barring whatsoever if you throw the military at kingpins, it will always, without exception, fail. Secondly it is the ‘war’ itself that creates the problems, not the drugs or the gangs. In effect it is the government that is at fault, not the mafia or the terrorists.

he's talking about the war against drugs in Mexico.

This civil war in Mexico could be over tomorrow if they legalized drugs. But you see, the government doesn’t want that, not for any nice protecting of you reason, oh no, they want this war because when there’s a war going on, who do we turn to for protection? Yes, that’s right… This is also why they are fighting the war against terrorism, the war against poverty, the war against unemployment, the war against inflation. All of these things are created by government and then fought by government under the disguise of "war".

listen to the dude. he's right.

This isn't a game. This is war.

Humanity: habit or choice?

So I saw this blog entry in this sickos blog: http://whoyoucallingaskeptic.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/feral-children/. (its really cool, Saya found it). And the video annoyed me because of this point of view towards humans being represented as something entirely different than other animals. Sure scientists and psychologists and whosoever might be amazed by this "phenomena" which occurs since centuries (as whoyoucallingaskeptic points out) and it really can be compared to the argument for atheism that goes something like: "have you ever considered that if you have been born Iran instead of the US you might've been a Muslim instead a Christian?".

The human is a creature of habit, and this it very commonly uses for its own defense. Living in buildings, eating at a table, shitting in your own house, all poor excuses and concepts that are necessary for many to shape an image in their mind about 'life' though it is not necessary to 'live'. Living the way we live is habitual. Being a man, an American, religious and/or human are merely concepts some Homo Sapiences imagined collectively into being. Before you go out today to find a job or to take a class about some hypothetical concept, ask yourself "Did I really choose to be a human?". Too much is being done already for the sake of parents, tutors and authorities.

The Bitter Truth

OK this is a guy who has never been understood by his family, his girl and even by his creators. He was abandoned as a child, was left by his only love Rogue because of some misunderstanding, he never got to sleep with her -and what the hell happened to them in the end anyway?- and finally, he was forsaken by his creators by becoming an irrelevant and lame character in the Wolverine movie. Wolverine! It could at least be an X-Men movie!

This guy in his purple shirt is so gay that I don't even want to post it to my blog.

of course, all of the movies sucked, but that's an entirely different matter.

This poor fuck called Gambit couldn't even get laid during whole sessions of comic books, he is the character who suffered the most and he got never the proper respect.

Even now I see at Marvel's site that originally the points of Intelligence given to him are 3 out of 7 (three!). Thankfully the fans were so nice to hike it up to 6 points. And anyway, the most popular hero is Spider Man?? Come on guys! In what kinda retarded world are we living in??

Oh, and I have to add, Gambit as the character Death is totally lame. I think the "Character-Creation-Department" has to be a little more in touch with the "Plot Department". I mean, what kinda company are you running there? This is totally unprofessional.

but this guy is cool. dig this guy.