First of all, all of you who degrade Travis in anyway make me sick. I can see how you think he is a drugged out, stuck up celebrity, but that is not him. All of you who just watch his television show and listen to Take Off Your Pants and Jacket most likely think he is a jerk who isn't very good. If you were fortunate to see him at this years Guitar Center's Drum off 2006, you would have been impressed. For one, he played maybe 1 or two fills that were fast. His other work was comprised of medium-tempoed, irregular patterns played on a simple set up: snare, hi-hat, two crashes, floor tom, cowbell, and a picolo tom. He played very impressive off- beat rhythms with the cowbell and the simple set up. Ten minutes later, he moved off the drum set onto a marching snare and did a twenty minute snare duet with Adrian young (No Doubt) compirsed off very fast sixteenth and thirty second notes filled with flams in the most unique and complicated ways, along with odd metered measures with some challenging rolls.
Moreover, my point is that drumming is an art; not a competition. Yes, bands compete for money,fame, etc, but when you are discussing an art, like drumming, you do not critisize. When you take it to that extent, you take out the fun of the art. If you ask 1,000 drummers to play the same beat, you will hear 1,000 different versions of the beat. Just because Travis doesn't play like Gadd, doesn't mean you have to say "OMG i hate travis barker because he plays all fast." For one, he doesn't play "all fast," for you completely ignorant people out there. His technique is quite fulfilled, as he uses the Moeller technique quite well. Better yet, he idolizes drummers like Gadd. Secondly, for all of you who think his "technique is horrible" (i.e., reaching off his seat to his toms, hitting too hard, etc.) you are quite mistaken. The reason he comes off his seat is for emotional reasons; it is proof he loves to play the drums ( an art, not a competition remember?). And, oh yeah, who ever said that Gadd and Rich ( I'm not critisizing these two, I idolize them both) play rudiments with feel rather than just as a "rudiment," and who said Travis has horrible technique because he "comes off his seat," you are contradicting yourself my friend. He comes off the seat, as I previously said, for emotional reasons, and feel. As Charles Dowd said, "drumming is what you make it," and Travis resembles that quote pretty good. For those who critisized Travis on the video where he is playing the military-like snare rolls, give me a break. Do you think he was playing in front of Gadd or in a drum off crowd of 5,000 people? Please, it was in front of Mark Hoppus; he was fooling around and he probably didn't even know he was being filmed. He was not playing to his full extent obviously.
Moreover, for those of you who think I'm "completely obssessed" with Travis are extremely wrong. Yes, I idolize him, along with Danny Carey, Virgil Donati, Gadd, and hundreds of others. The reason I wrote so much was because I was so sick and tired of you guys ragging on an extremely talented drummer based on albums like 'Enema of the State." If you ever take the time to listen to a Box Car Racer cd, that is where Travis plays more technically challenged songs compared to songs like "Man Overboard." And again, if you think Travis is "overrated and horrible," please, give me a break; Why is he going to add a thirty second note parididdle-type fill with accents in odd places in a studio song? Travis plays to fit the music, and he does it very well. If you want to see Travis play his drums, check him out at a drum off, or a concert maybe- not a CD or old screw around video that was put out 3-10 years ago.
If you are going to reply to this with cussing and by degrading me in any way, please save your time. I'm not bashing on any of you at all, I'm just giving my opinion on a very talented drummer that is apart of a world of great drummers. However, if you plan on critisizing what I said in any negative way, I feel sorry for you because you have taken the fun out of the art of drumming.