Modern Drummer YT: "Brendan Buckley Morrissey Tour Kit Rundown" (December 15, 2022)



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Interesting watch.
100 songs & a Rubber Ring tease 😯
FWD.
 
Yep, more interesting stuff from Brendan. I love his willingness to share these insights, his obvious passion, & his dedication. We like him, big time; great guy. I think the current band line-up is superb.
 
Really interesting watch, seems a lovely lad. Interesting that Morrissey even dictates the colour of the drumkit!
 
Seems like a level headed guy!

Did I hear that right? Jessie is the musical director now? Taken over from Boz - Well, I suppose it could have been Sam, I guess.
 
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This is so good - I know next to nothing about drums but Brendan comes across amazingly well here. He's smart and articulate and you can tell he works incredibly hard to keep improving. Love it! (Although when he talks about Morrissey varying the setlist for his "repeat customers"...he could perhaps do that just a tiny bit more, given that the band has 100 songs they can play?!)
 
One of the Rochdale Buckleys, no less. A singular breed and a solitary race.
 
Time will tell where he falls in the order of Morrissey's best drummers, but he is talented and seems down to Earth. I'm certainly happy he's Morrissey's drummer, if we can't have the brilliant Matt Walker anymore.
 
Really enjoyed watching that, lot of interesting stuff about how the band and Morrissey work together.
 
Really enjoyed this! So would of liked to hear more from him re everything basically but I guess he has to tread carefully...
Excellent!
 
Time will tell where he falls in the order of Morrissey's best drummers, but he is talented and seems down to Earth. I'm certainly happy he's Morrissey's drummer, if we can't have the brilliant Matt Walker anymore.
Matt Walker IS brilliant and I wish I could have seen Andrew Paresi live. I love his work.
Buckley is not a power drummer but a technician and I love that about him.
Let's see what he comes up with when he's writing the songs. I anticipate it will be excellent.
 
They know hundreds of songs??? Well then let's hear them...They played a nearly identical setlist the entire last tour!!
 
Matt Walker IS brilliant and I wish I could have seen Andrew Paresi live. I love his work.
Buckley is not a power drummer but a technician and I love that about him.
Let's see what he comes up with when he's writing the songs. I anticipate it will be excellent.

You sound as if you understand percussion. Paresi, throughout his entire recording career, has done many interesting things. He was good on both Morrissey albums he featured on - especially on tracks like Driving Your Girlfriend Home.

Just for fun, my opinion is that the best drummers/percussionists of Morrissey's solo career are Matt Walker and Woodie Taylor. Morrissey DID have the incredible Matt Chamberlain drumming on the Ringleader recording, but Matt C. never performed in the band (plus, he played that recording pretty much by-the-numbers and you don't get to hear how special Chamberlain really is when you listen to Ringleader unfortunately). Taylor was silky smooth, like Steve Gadd would be, playing on the Vauxhall/Boxers era recordings - but I don't believe that he played any performances with Morrissey's band either.
 
You sound as if you understand percussion. Paresi, throughout his entire recording career, has done many interesting things. He was good on both Morrissey albums he featured on - especially on tracks like Driving Your Girlfriend Home.

Just for fun, my opinion is that the best drummers/percussionists of Morrissey's solo career are Matt Walker and Woodie Taylor. Morrissey DID have the incredible Matt Chamberlain drumming on the Ringleader recording, but Matt C. never performed in the band (plus, he played that recording pretty much by-the-numbers and you don't get to hear how special Chamberlain really is when you listen to Ringleader unfortunately). Taylor was silky smooth, like Steve Gadd would be, playing on the Vauxhall/Boxers era recordings - but I don't believe that he played any performances with Morrissey's band either.
I agree about Chamberlain. He too was great and you are saying he has even better work. What do you recommend? I looked at his credits one time and he has been hundreds of records.

I really like V&I drumming as well.

I think Spencer was pretty mediocre on Your Arsenal but improved dramatically for Southpaw Grammar. I think his intro to The Operation is fine but it's not very adventurous. I hear his improvement more in other songs and I think Nobody Loves Us has a great drum track. For Maladjusted he's fine but still bottom of the list.

I thought Dean Butterworth was a little stiff and always played it pretty straight forward. Fine but forgettable.

Spike Smith never really impressed me. He wasn't bad but still near the bottom of the list. Even though he didn't play on an album I did see like 10 shows on that 99-00 tour.

As far as percussion goes, for many years I only listened to Rush and I focused specifically on the drums and watched every video I could of Neil Peart playing and teaching so I know drummers can take things very far and do interesting things.

When I watch Buckley play he has a similar approach to Peart from a movement perspective. He moves only as much as he needs to. I suspect he's more creative than we have been able to see so far so I am excited to hear the new album when it comes out in 2031.

As for Matt Walker, what I like about him is he plays with a lot of power but and interesting fills. He is the musical star of Years of Refusal and when he played other people's drum parts live he usually made them better.
 
I agree about Chamberlain. He too was great and you are saying he has even better work. What do you recommend? I looked at his credits one time and he has been hundreds of records.

I really like V&I drumming as well.

I think Spencer was pretty mediocre on Your Arsenal but improved dramatically for Southpaw Grammar. I think his intro to The Operation is fine but it's not very adventurous. I hear his improvement more in other songs and I think Nobody Loves Us has a great drum track. For Maladjusted he's fine but still bottom of the list.

I thought Dean Butterworth was a little stiff and always played it pretty straight forward. Fine but forgettable.

Spike Smith never really impressed me. He wasn't bad but still near the bottom of the list. Even though he didn't play on an album I did see like 10 shows on that 99-00 tour.

As far as percussion goes, for many years I only listened to Rush and I focused specifically on the drums and watched every video I could of Neil Peart playing and teaching so I know drummers can take things very far and do interesting things.

When I watch Buckley play he has a similar approach to Peart from a movement perspective. He moves only as much as he needs to. I suspect he's more creative than we have been able to see so far so I am excited to hear the new album when it comes out in 2031.

As for Matt Walker, what I like about him is he plays with a lot of power but and interesting fills. He is the musical star of Years of Refusal and when he played other people's drum parts live he usually made them better.

I did notice that Brendan plays with an effortless almost jazz style, very little movement and no large gesturing. I am also a big Rush fan, especially of the Signals album. I've seen them twice, once for the Vapor Trails tour then once for their 40th year tour - where they played Moving Pictures in it's entirety.

Dean B. was a little rigid, though he's a good timekeeper. His drumming on 'Hard To Walk Tall....' is probably his high mark in the group. I've got really no opinion on Spike other than with his punk background he probably brought some energy to live shows, many of which you attended!

Spencer is a talented enough musician all around that he could pick up the drums and play decently well - though I think he actually stated he never liked to drum, and you could hear that it wasn't his passion. He was pushed by Steve L. to drum more passionately during the Southpaw sessions and it helped him. His drumming aside, Spencer did contribute in writing a few Morrissey songs that - at the time they were written - helped fill in the gaps that the rest of the current material left remaining. Spencer also seems like a very genuine person, and it's easy to understand why he is beloved by many Morrissey fans.

Chamberlain has played off and on with Tori Amos for her entire career (besides being a studio drummer for various artists has also been a part of Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, and also played in the SNL house band). There are many good examples of his skills, but I would listen to 'Cruel' (live) off of Tori Amos' 'To Venus and Back' for instant Chamberlain action. Take in that whole track to understand the full power of Tori and her band at that time (early 2000s).

Matt Walker is very gifted. From his early work with Smashing Pumpkins (listen to 'The End is the Beginning...' and 'Tear') to what he's accomplished with Morrissey, his talent is clear ---- especially in unique tracks such as 'Girl From Tel Aviv'. I was disappointed when Morrissey started touring with Buckley --- only because it meant Walker had gone (and I don't think there's been any official statements made about that anyway). However, after so many live clips I've seen with Buckley in Morrissey's band, I'm sold on the guy.
 

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