Upcoming Netflix Documentary on Drummers

[Rattlin' Bones]

I watched it. I was counting down the minutes until the ending because I at least wanted to see the whole thing through but I definitely wasn't entertained.
It was a mix of pseudo-cerebral nonsense combined with a healthy dose of Neanderthal without any coherent point except to repeat the pots and pans cliche over and over...

Exactly. And it didn't have any thesis or any sorta goal or objective. Fiction screenplays are in 3 acts and you put the protagonist in some kind of dilemma or conflict in act 1 that they spend act 2 trying to solve. Nonfiction or documentaries need to have a thesis something the writer and director are trying to show. This thing was all over the place.

 

[paradiddle pete]

I'm not sure that Dune was the only influence on Lucas. I think there was a Japanese movie called the 7 Samurai that also had a huge influence.

Al Strange, Copeland's On Drums was super cool! I haven't seen or been able to find "The Art of Drumming", but I keep hearing good things about it.

I'd say it is a direct rip off of Starman movies , one of them even has a Death Star.. Evil Brain from outer space I think.

 

[SomeBadDrummer]

I watched it, start to finish. I liked some parts. Overall, I'd say meh, mostly because of the way it was made.

They interviewed as many drummers as they could find (or afford) within their time constraints.

If Netflix has trouble finding or affording drummers then God bless the rest of us mere mortals. Meh is about the most positive thing I could say

They then grouped clips into half-a-dozen or so categories, based on the commonalities of what was said in the interviews.

Sounds like at least they attempted to pull it together into a cohesive denouement.

 

[jansara]

Hammer as loud as you can, bash the shit out of the drums and people will say, "Wow! What a great drummer."
Works every time.

 

[Stroman]

I only made it through ten or fifteen minutes. It just didn't interest me, right out of the gate, and I found that amazing, honestly.

 

[Over50drumguy]

Just finished watching . I didn’t hate it but as some others said , I was kinda looking forward to the end so that at least I could say I watched it all . I liked a few parts. It’s one of those things where if you’ve got nothing else to do you watch because…. well…….you’re a drummer . If I had set aside time to watch it I think I’d have felt cheated. Underwhelmed was my first feeling.

 

[Al Strange]

Hammer as loud as you can, bash the shit out of the drums

Have you seen me play live by any chance?!

 

[TOMANO]

I enjoyed it! Fun discussions and history.

 

[GretschedHive]

It was nice to see guys like Keith Moon and John Bonham get some exposure for a change

I get that you were being sardonic, but I actually really appreciated that they didn't just go into the madman aspect of Moon—although that was certainly discussed—but also talked about what set him apart from other drummers musically. That's something that seemed to me to get overlooked for decades, starting just a few years after his death, and it's nice that it's once again becoming part of his legacy.

 

[yammyfan]

I get that you were being sardonic, but I actually really appreciated that they didn't just go into the madman aspect of Moon—although that was certainly discussed—but also talked about what set him apart from other drummers musically. That's something that seemed to me to get overlooked for decades, starting just a few years after his death, and it's nice that it's once again becoming part of his legacy.

I enjoyed that part too. It was probably my favourite segment of the film.

 

[PaisteGuy]

I just finished watching it. Some of it was entertaining (Nicko is always fun to watch and listen to, as well as Stewart Copeland), and some of it was Meh. But what caught my eye, was that it seemed to be an ad for DW drums mostly. I was half expecting John Good to get a producer credit.

 

[bongoman]

I watched it last night. It was okay, a pleasant little diversion. I liked seeing and hearing Nicko talk affectionately about his beginnings. For a while I followed Emily Dolan Davies on Instagram, she’s cool, so I enjoyed seeing a bit of her excitement too. But it definitely floundered and flopped toward the end.

 

[MrInsanePolack]

Finally got to watch this last night. It expressed many of the same feelings I share about being a drummer. As a drummer, I was also able to share in some of the more personal bits, like when kids get drums as a gift. Non drummers dont know how that feels.

I enjoyed the movie. Non of my personal heroes were in this film and I don't care. It still did a wonderful job of explaining why some of us like to hit things with sticks, myself included.

Lots of fantastic drumming in the film too if you are into that sort of thing.

 

[NouveauCliche]

It was ok - I made it through maybe 15/20 minutes while doing other stuff.

There's something about these general docs about drumming I don't find terribly interesting - now a specific drummer or album etc. maybe - but drumming as whole - eh.

 

[Mastiff]

I swear it's all the same cast of characters as Copeland's documentary, which I watched recently too. Copeland's book is kind of interesting BTW.

I haven't watched a ton of these documentaries, but I'm tired of hearing about Ringo and Keith Moon and Bonham, etc. They were hugely influential, but the people who were originally influenced by them are really old by now. I'm 50 and those dudes were old when I got interested in drums (influenced by Peart). And time has moved on, with the current generation (and old timers who are still at it) doing absolutely amazing things. I'd love to see a documentary that skimmed over some of the history to spend more time on newer stuff - you know, within the last 40 years or something.

 

[boomstick]

There's something about these general docs about drumming I don't find terribly interesting -

That's how I feel about music docs in general, at least the ones I've seen on streaming services. If it's about a band, it's often 60-90 mins of people talking about how awesome the band was. That's nice and all, but it gets tiresome. I haven't seen this drumming doc, but it seems like it's basically drummers playing and talking about drums. This is something I can experience by spending a couple hours on youtube, and that way I can seek out the players that interest me. Just like a fictional movie, a doc has to have a story in order to be compelling, and for it to be really interesting, it needs some sort of conflict. I have seen some great music docs like "A Band Called Death" and "Searching for Sugar Man," but these seem to be few and far between.

 

[Rattlin' Bones]

That's how I feel about music docs in general, at least the ones I've seen on streaming services. If it's about a band, it's often 60-90 mins of people talking about how awesome the band was. That's nice and all, but it gets tiresome. I haven't seen this drumming doc, but it seems like it's basically drummers playing and talking about drums. This is something I can experience by spending a couple hours on youtube, and that way I can seek out the players that interest me. Just like a fictional movie, a doc has to have a story in order to be compelling, and for it to be really interesting, it needs some sort of conflict. I have seen some great music docs like "A Band Called Death" and "Searching for Sugar Man," but these seem to be few and far between.

+1 on Searching for Sugar Man. And you're right. There needs to be some conflict. More simply, some thesis that director is offering and then documenting the proof. If not then it's an aimless wandering pointless set of vignettes that goes on and on until it stops. Should follow the Three Act Model. Most good documentaries do.

 

[bongoman]

My favorite music doc was Genghis Blues, about Paul Pena. It starts with a fascinating main character whose life to that point was already a good story; then it embarks on a literal adventure of a lifetime with him, while he was still alive.

 

[NouveauCliche]

My favorite music doc was Genghis Blues, about Paul Pena. It starts with a fascinating main character whose life to that point was already a good story; then it embarks on a literal adventure of a lifetime with him, while he was still alive.

Oh dude - +1 for Ghenghis Blues. I remember when that came out - we had an arthouse cinema that played these kinds of films in our town and we all went and saw it - pretty cool.

Later in life my jazz trio would work with throat singer Baatarjav Erdene Tsoght from Mongolia - we did a cultural exchange program where he came to the US and we did a show of his music and ours - then we had a couple of pieces we put together.


Then we flew into Ulan Bator, Mongolia and played the Giant Steppes of Jazz festival.

A lot of that all came from how interesting we thought Ghengis Blues way back in the day!