Old and new

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
I went to watch Dennis Chambers in a clinic and I remember someone asking him if he liked Danny Carey. Dennis acknowledged Danny Carey (not sure if it was genuine or not) but said he didn't really listen to him. "You should" a few younger guys in the crowd countered. I thought that was a tiny bit rude, Dennis is part of a different scene and his hey day was a different era but when I thought about it later, it occurred to me that with age, people can stop learning and listening for whatever reason. Not saying this is true of Dennis (I love Dennis) but the thought occurred to me anyway.

I got the chance to see a few top drummers in a classroom setting recently and I noticed the same thing - they didn't seem to know or care what was happening in music today. They didn't know about some of the great younger drummers either.

What I'm trying to understand is why many people's appetite for new music fades at some point. Could it be that new music sounds terrible to anyone after it evolves too far from their comfort zone? Is it just a natural phenomenon where people's musical taste is crystallized in their teens and those bands they enjoyed during that time will always be some sort of home base? In the case of revered musicians, can it be arrogance? Not wanting to acknowledge young talent?

And could these older famous musicians open their minds to new ideas and be influenced the way an impressionable teen might be? Would that be good for music on the whole?

Just thinking out loud.. I'm sure others have some more developed ideas on the subject.
 
I don't know if it would be because new music "sounds terrible". I sorta got to this point where I had listened to so much music, most music sounded the same. The forms, the sounds, the playing....nothing sounded original enough for me to take notice. After ten years went by, I started to hear new music with cool things, but it wasn't like the first time I started listening (in the beginning everything was cool and new) and I could easily keep up with any new things that were coming out. But it wasn't terrible stuff, and I certainly meant no disrespect, some stuff demonstrated clearly where their influences came from, and if I had already been into their influences, why did I need to listen to them? I was into the originals. I had already heard them ;)

The situation with kids saying Dennis should listen to Danny, that's kind of a different thing, isn't? Danny's an incredible drummer, maybe Dennis is referring to never having listened to Tool? Maybe he saw Danny play without Tool? Hard to tell.
 
A bit off topic but If I was Dennis Chambers I would have been annoyed. Talk about a wasted question opportunity. Why should anyone care about what he thinks about X drummer who is irrelevant to his life?
 
A bit off topic but If I was Dennis Chambers I would have been annoyed. Talk about a wasted question opportunity. Why should anyone care about what he thinks about X drummer who is irrelevant to his life?

Asking another musician about what or who inspired them is a really common question, but asking them who inspires them currently is just as (if not even more) valid. Putting a specific name into the question isn't really that big of a deal to me. It's obvious the guy asking the question likes Danny Carey and was probably looking for a little common ground with Dennis, or maybe he heard a lick by one that reminded him of the other and tried to dig a little deeper.
 
Yeah, without having been there it's hard to tell the context. It's just the way it's phrased in the OP makes it seem like an out of the blue irrelevant question.
 
There's a scientific explanation for why we have a strong attachment to the music we loved as adolescents.

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...and_neuroscience_for_song_preference_and.html

I still like listening to new music and I don't like everything that I used to listen to when I was a teenager. But when I really need to feel the power of rock n roll, I tend to go back to the old favorites. Pearl Jam's Vs. comes to mind.


Wow. Pretty much nailed it. Although I wonder if that 12-22 age group is flexible. Not everyone develops at the same rate.
 
I read an article on how radio stations pick their music. They decide what age group they want to advertise to, then they calculate the years that the people in that age range turned 18. They go five years before and after and then play the hits from those years. It goes along with that Slate article, and how people stop listening to new music in their 20s.
 
trust me, when you get to a certain age, or certain level as a professional the less you even listen to music, much less new stuff. Most of those guys like Chambers basically do music as a job, so to them listening to music is almost associated with going to work. Guys like that tend to only listen to the stuff that inspired them coming up initially. There are a few exceptions like Mike Portnoy, who is a music addict, but he is in the minority.
 
One persons interests are not always going to overlap an others.

I have a limited interest in some forms of music...and therefore have limited exposure to the musicians working in those genres....Dennis is no different.

Liking everything makes you better at liking things....nothing more or less.
 
Dennis Chambers can play everything Danny Carey is doing.
Danny Carey cannot play everything Dennis Chambers can.
Dennis Chambers cannot come up with Danny Carey orignal parts.
Danny Carey cannot come up with Dennis Chambers original parts.

Not wanting to offend anybody, but thats the situation in a nutshell.
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I admit it... I'm an old fart, still marveling at Elviin Jones' playing. But I am not fossilized, tell me who the young drummers are that I am missing out on.... Anybody that emerged after 1987 would be new to me except the drummers who also make a living as frequent clinicians like Mr Greb and Mr Mayer.

How do I need to listen to and why? I hope this continues the thread and isn't a hijack
 
Although I'm up there, I do like a lot of new music today. One young drummer, for whom I'm old enough to be his dad, impresses me the most out of the new breed of young drummers - his name is Jay Postones, he plays in a prog group called TesseracT (for those that don't know). I strongly recommend checking out their music. Rhythmically, they are incredible...

Jay - http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2013/05/jay-postones-of-tesseract-drummer-blog/#_

TesseracT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-hnSlicxV4

or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rOxRJtpiD0
 
- his name is Jay Postones, he plays in a prog group called TesseracT (for those that don't know). I strongly recommend checking out their music. Rhythmically, they are incredible.

Nice... Just gave a listen to a few live songs. Very tasty and subtle drummer in a style that is hard to display/notice those qualities - he grooves! Wouldn't it be nice to play with their guitarist - his rhythmic sense and Jay's really complement each other and drive the band.
 
Nice... Just gave a listen to a few live songs. Very tasty and subtle drummer in a style that is hard to display/notice those qualities - he grooves! Wouldn't it be nice to play with their guitarist - his rhythmic sense and Jay's really complement each other and drive the band.

Exactly! The bass player is also phenomenal. I believe he is the second percussionist in the band, very much like Rocco Prestia (although no one can be compared to Rocco!) is with Dave Garibaldi in Tower of Power. It truly was a good musical find.

I also like Anoup Sastry who plays in the bands 'Intervals' and 'Sky Harbor'. He's a young man from Maryland who's been quite prolific for his age.
 
I am 57, and I do not listen to much stuff from my youth, which was the 60s and 70s. Peace and goodwill.
 
I thought this was pretty interesting when I first read it, and at least sort of relevant as to older, established musicians not being too familiar with with what's going on presently. Vai seems very open-minded and understanding.

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/tosin-abasi-explains-djent-to-guitar-legend-steve-vai

This one time back in middle or high school we had a really top-notch trumpet player come in for some career day/week thing. She had been all over the world and I think she said her husband was a professional trombonist. It was like an hour-long clinic where she played a little but it was mostly about musicianship and professionalism and practice and dedication. Anyways, someone asked her something along the lines of what music does she like to listen to, and her response was that she's so busy making music that she couldn't remember the last time she listened to any recordings for her own enjoyment. She did say she liked nine inch nails, though.

I guess you can't fault the busy pros for not being caught up with the scene kids.

Also me and my friend went up to her and asked her something about professional drumming. She said something like "Decent drummers are like a dime a dozen, but the most important thing is time. I've played with a few great drummers that have perfect tempo, but if you ever get stuck with someone with crappy time, it makes you want to slit your wrists."
 
Being far more interested in the songwriting style of a band, how amazing the drummer is is almost an afterthought.

First and only time I saw Tool was their first show in Seattle opening for the Young Gods in a very small club. Nobody ever heard of them, including me, so there *might* have been 20 people in the room with maybe only10 of us standing at the front of the stage. They were really great, and Danny Carey did not disappoint.

But. As good as they were, they didn't really hit that sweet spot with me and I've been a little underwhelmed with them ever since - even though I know they're a great band.

I can go on and on and list a ton of great drummers that I practically never listen to simply because the bands they play with don't trip my trigger, though there are a few that I can "tolerate" (haha) if the drumming warrants it. Weckl's bands usually fall into this category.

I doubt Dennis Chambers sits around listening to Tool much so it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't have much to say about him. I think it's a little rude to presume that someone should listen to anything they might not dig just because of one spectacular player.

In any case, I'm 47 and my appetite for new music has never really waned (at least not yet!), but there have always been "great" bands that I haven't paid much attention to simply because I'm not enamored with their music. Led Zeppelin would probably top the list, and they're way before my time. It's weird because I like them all individually (especially Bonham), and I could make a LZ compilation with 5 or 10 songs that I like, but for the most part ... there are just so many other bands I'd rather listen to (like The Beatles, haha!).
 
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