George Hurley (Minutemen)
Another So-Cal punk band to hit the scene, with their jerky-folksy-Beatles-punky-violent sound (yeah it's a mouthful, just listen to Double Nickels on the Dime and you’ll understand), George Hurley contributed jazz-influenced stripped down drumming. Somehow he sounds clean and chaotic at the same time, he really is one of the drummers whose style makes no sense on paper but does well in application. He plays far differently from the standard punk drummer textbook, but by forging his own sound, he was able to turn himself into a legend.
Glenn Kotche (Wilco)
Glenn Kotche focused on pushing every boundary he could, drumming on things that aren’t traditionally used as drums (ping pong balls, hubcaps, chains, ball bearings, air tubes, you name it, he’s hit it). Kotche is also well known for his use of a MIDI pad on stage to play compressed drum sounds to pair with his actual drumming. Kotche wasn’t the first person to do this (lots of Japanese bands; Fishmans, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Harumi Hosono), he was the first to record unusual or “unintentional” polyrhythms and replay them via software during his set for added flair.
Advertisement