Subrick's Picks: A look At Up & Coming Drummers – Pick 11
Written by: Richard “Subrick” Lowell
Salutations, fair internet readers. It is I, the fat man himself, the World’s Ugliest Drummer, Subrick here with another soothing round of video picking that will give some lucky person some extra notoriety.
Before we begin this magical romp through the bowels of the internet, however, a matter of importance has come up that must be addressed. Back on October 27th, a drummer by the name of Duane Timlin, who many may know as the former drummer for Dying Fetus as well as one of the top candidates for the then-vacant drummer position in Forbidden, was ejected through the windshield of a car and thrown onto the pavement, suffering a cracked left orbital bone in his eye as well as massive amounts of soreness. Like many people, he doesn’t have insurance, so rather than let him get buttfucked by his medical bills, Sick Drummer Magazine’s founder Ian MacDonald has set up a donation page for Duane. The goal set is $3000, but I want to make sure that the page exceeds far beyond that goal. And Duane, if you’re reading this, let me tell you that I hope you get better as soon as possible. Just a little over a year ago, I myself was in a horrendous car wreck, one that left me with a broken shoulder, broken pelvis, and I was unable to walk correctly for almost three months. I know exactly how you are feeling right now, and it sucks more than anything that can possibly suck now, then, or in the future. You are definitely a sick drummer, and I wish you the best of luck in your recovery.
If you want to donate to Duane’s fundraiser, follow this link and give as much as you possibly can: http://www.giveforward.com/giveduanetimlinahelpinghand
For your chance to be featured: All you have to do is post a video of you drumming to YouTube, Vimeo or whatever video site you prefer, and embed the link on this website in the SD Videos section. Nothing more, nothing less, but you do need to be a registered member of our site to post.
There are three categories on which I base my selections: Playing Ability, Production Value, and Kit Sound. All three are pretty straight forward, but here’s what I specifically look for with each category.
Playing Ability: I look to see if a player is technically sound; timing is good, endurance and power are up to par, among other, more miniscule things.
Production Value: I prefer to watch video from a good quality camera, or studio quality. By studio quality, I don’t mean the greatest production sound ever recorded. I classify studio quality as a drumming performance recorded with microphones and/or triggers. Electronic kits are very much encouraged (especially when using less conventional samples). Now, if you have sound quality that isn’t as good, that doesn’t mean you won't be included in my selection process. Everyone is eligible to be featured.
Kit Sound: One of the most important characteristics! We all have read Eyal Levi’s article about why drum performances are always sound replaced these days. For those who haven’t, the basic gist of it is because drummers don’t know how to tune their drums. Considering that many drum videos I see on YouTube involve players that have really bad sounding kits, it seems rarer and rarer that drummers actually tune their drums. Meet all three of these criteria, and you have a shot to be featured. You could be playing the most radio friendly Disney pop imaginable, but if I feel your video meets these criteria, you could make the front page.
And now, let us move on to the picking.
Today’s pick is literally one of the fastest drummers I have ever seen in my life. His name is Nolan Weber, and he drums for the death metal band Garoted. In this particular video, he is playing along with Garoted guitarist Drew Frerking. Something that I’ve always really liked about Nolan is that he is ambidextrous to the point that both his left and right sides are perfectly equal. Very few drummers I have seen are like that, with other examples being Alex Jadi and Alex Rudinger of Threat Signal. Nolan plays on a relatively small kit for this kind of music; two rack toms, one floor tom, two kicks, and a snare. His cymbal setup is a big larger; two crashes, two rides, two chinas, hi-hat, and two splashes. Normally in extreme metal you’ll see a drummer who has a kit that’s straight out of an 80’s hair band video, only with even more stuff on there that makes lugging it around without a road crew a fun exercise. My personal favorite thing about this video however is that all the double bass used here, no matter how fast, is all single strokes and not doubles. And that’s coming straight from Nolan’s mouth too, as I had asked him a few things pertaining to the video without letting him know that I was writing about him (oh the joys of surprises).
{hwdvideoshare}id=1361{/hwdvideoshare}
Nolan’s links:
That does it for this installment of Subrick’s Picks. Don’t forget to like this article, leave a comment, subscribe to my and Sick Drummer’s multiple pages and channels, go back and read all my other articles, and like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, and sadly I do not have a Broski t-shirt, Broski headband, Broski sunglasses, or Broski scarf for you to buy (fans of wrestling and the internet show Z! True Long Island Story will get this). Subrick out!
And once again, please give to Duane’s donation fund. He needs it right now:
Leave a Reply