This is the rob blatt blog.

For seventeen of the last twenty six years I’ve been trained as a drummer/percussionist. Despite telling people that I’m a bassist or guitarist first lately, I’m still a drummer at heart. Ask Amber, she’s always dealing with my tapping of rhythms.

The drummer in me has made a little breakthrough lately, My new favorite drummer of all time is Jason Finn of the Presidents of the United States of America. This has been solidified with the release of the Presidents’ latest record. (Check out my short and awkwardly worded review of the record here: These Are the Good Times People)

The progression of drummers that have been my “favorite” has a progression over the years that has been similar to my style of playing.

1. Peter Criss of Kiss
2. Tre Cool of Green Day
3. Mike Portnoy of Dream Theatre
4. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and early Foo Fighters
5. Jason Finn of the Presidents of the United States of America

When I was growing up, Kiss was my favorite band, so picking a favorite drummer was pretty easy. Looking back, I was never a fan of his style or playing. I liked that he was the drummer of my favorite band and that was about it. He was always a little too jazzy with the songs and his influence lead to the dynasty, the Kissco record and Unmasked which was just piss poor for a Kiss record.

Tre Cool was fast, loud and everything that I wanted to be as a drummer when I was 15. I still think he’s an outstanding drummer and super appropriate for Green Day. Tre Cool really began my love for what I call melodic drummers. I really fell in love with riffs on the drums listening to his playing. Dookie was full of these gems and the later records were also full of them. Also, his tasteful use of a double kick pedal (the kick is the bass drum, a double kick pedal uses both feet to hit kick drums) was what first influenced me to try it out myself.

Once I was playing fast and loud, I started listening to Dream Theatre and the technical prowess of Mike Portnoy really blew my mind. Odd time signatures and constantly changing rhythms drew me into the Dream Theatre records. I learned one or two of them from start to finish. I really learned to independently use all four limbs while playing Dream Theatre songs, and while it was cool to be playing music that technical I grew tired of counting to seven and five all the time. Dream Theatre released their best album in 2001 and the following releases were full of musical masturbation. Realizing how much I hated the records that followed opened my eyes to how masturbatory their catalog is and how unneeded that style of playing can be. I lost my love for playing the drums during this time and it seriously turned me off to this style of playing.

I seriously lost my love of drummer for a long period of time. I dropped out of the drum program in college switching to bass guitar and I also got booted from the band I helped form in my freshman year of school. I performed as solo acoustic guitar act for a while, then played bass in a metal band and finally landed as the front man and rhythm guitar in a band of friends.

I went through most of my audio engineering program in college being someone who didn’t favor any specific instrument. It seems natural looking back that I gravitated to someone who did the same. I fell in love with Dave Grohl’s playing in Nirvana and specifically “The Colour and the Shape” Foo Fighters record. Grohl’s playing was very riff oriented and “The Colour and the Shape” is one of the finest albums ever written and recorded in my opinion.

Grohl held the title until recently when I did some serious listening to the Presidents’ catalog. I’m not quite sure what Finn’s training or background are, but they must be different than mine. Many of his fundamental playing is so much different than mine that I can’t fathom some of the movements and beats that he is playing is some songs. An example is “Kitty” from the first Presidents records, specifically the bells. Even while attempting to tap the correct sequence, I get it backwards. I can’t think of a recorded song where he is overplaying, nor underplaying.

Finn’s playing is also filled with those drum riffs that I love. I can pick out songs just from their drum parts, which is an achievement that most drummers can’t do. The parts are melodic, which is difficult if you’re not trying to stand out. Melodic drum parts are those parts that you find yourself singing without the rest of the song and those fills that you want to air drum as big and grandiose as possible.

His playing really shines with the new record. Finn’s playing multiple styles and feels. A good rummer is supposed to be able to do this (I really can’t). Some songs have that pop influenced straight ahead feel (Mixed Up S.O.B.) others on the record are traditional bluegrass (Truckstop Butterfly), heavy swing (Flame is Love), and funk (Deleter). The rest are appropriate pop-rock feels that might be some of Finn’s best playing on any Presidents record to date.

Check out Jason’s blog when you get a chance.