Thanks so much for the tips - I love percussive, driving rhythms in music (Rhythm of the Saints is my son's favorite album - you can always find A beat)-

always too happy to share. (rolling my eyes at the numerous implications of what i just typed...)

as for Rhythm of the Saints, it is percussively lush. i love some of his stuff. some of the songs toward the middle-on have some interesting time sigs but i haven't taken the time to count/figure them out, i just go with it. for now. hmm, could be re-listening time.

I played drums in high school until I sold the set for college cash. Never got to see the Popo, though.

ah...

go get a set, dang it. :)

and then

bang! boom! smash!

Adam Ant and Simple Minds are not what I expected you to recommend at all...

i can be a man of surprises, sometimes even to myself.    :+)

and Adam Ant blows. Adam & the Antz, however...different and much tastier kettle of fish. very unique vibe he had going with those first few LPs. but Dirk Wears White Sox was the shit; he used to be quite the S&M/B&D punk back in the day, once had a lunchtime gig at the Commonwealth Club (or some such emminently respectable place) and was sporting all his leather etc and doing his second or third song, i believe it was...Beat My Guest. the manager came up to the stage with Adam's paycheck in hand and said, as only the English dryly can, "We'd like you to leave." classic.

also, Adam once told Nancy that if Sid needed bass lessons (which, as we know, he did) that he would be happy to help. Sid busted into Adam's dorm room or apartment a day later and beat him up.  

I will check them out.

you may enjoy them quite a bit. go for the used CD bin at your local indie record store, or look for the LPs, they're always really affordable. if you're still into that LP thing...i know i am.

I like 'Pincushion' by ZZTop for it's simplicity - but if I were a Pro I could see that style getting old quick...

not at all. Frank Beard can hit. jesus, Le Grange is still fresh all these years later (well, i heard that on the X, anyway...)

i think Frank, like Neal, was a more interesting drummer in the old days (i often like my earlier recordings better than what i'm doing now [though it's technically more able]). there's a simplicity and directness in a lot of earlier playing that is very cool.

My drumset was in the basement of my parents house and I fooled around drumming Police and Rush tunes before practicing for band. The school band also played jazz - so I had to get brushes. One day I'm listening to Styx 'The Grand Illusion'[don't ask] and I ask my Mom - 'do you like Styx' - she says - 'I like brushes better." har har -

good one.  :)

i actually saw Styx at the Cow Palace in '83. (oh shit, did i type that out loud on a public forum?)

and, no, it wasn't because i'd lost a bet.

I'm off to quest after Kent Klark...

go man go! IRS did put out a retrospective CD in '95, KK - Kollected Works. listened to it Friday and was highly amused, i tell you, highly amused.

happy hunting!