Who's yr favorite SY drummer?
 

Are you guys and gals ready for a new and pointless poll? Out of these four men, which is your favorite drummer and why?

I voted for Mr. Shelley. Mainly because he has such a diverse style of playing. Although his drumming was pretty dull and straight-forward on the new album :( He's still quite possibly my favorite rock drummer!

He's also quiet and mousey looking. He reminds me of a furry, cuddly woodland creature.

Steve's the man!

Shelley all the way.

steve shelley

ss.

shelley's a badass mofo.

what a stupid poll.

sorry magnesium, but I'm not in the mood today.

Stone Cold Steve Shelley, thanks.

ss beat control

It's quite alright. Maybe you'll be in the mood tomorrow?

Skinmaster Steve Shelley is the best drummer in the world and has been for many, many years.

Who are the contrarian miscreants in the minority voting otherwise?

I could venture a guess who, but I'll refrain from doing so.

Firstly, Steve can play their parts better than they ever could.
Secondly, and more importantly, Steve could come up with those types of "tribalesque" primitive parts in his sleep.

Some people just don't know jack shit about music.

I sorta disagree with you, atari.. but whatever. i still chose SS cos hes the fuckin' man. sometimes he's kinda straight-forward and boring, but when he rocks, he rocks hard. Edsons drumming is rad on the EP though.

None of the others are bad, or at least they weren't wrong or bad for Sonic Youth for the time they were with them, and I do appreciate the others very much.

But no one should get hung up on nostalgia to the extent that it obscures what simply is undeniably true.

So far, only three out of twenty-eight have voted other than Steve and that is doing very, very good considering how wack some of the polls we have here are.

even though i own Bob Bert's drum set he used to record CIS, BMR and the Pussy Galore records, i still say Shelley is far above and beyond the best and one of the best all around drummers ever.....The drummer of a band is like the catcher on a baseball team- least recognized, but the most important all-around member and the glue that holds the team together........

steve, for sure. I love edson's drumming on the first ep, and 'voon's drumming on CIS is pretty damn good to my ears.

steve first
then jim because i still listen to all the stuff he does with the bad seeds
then richard edson because the first ep is beautiful
then bob who was sloppy as all fuck but had soul

yeah, much better now.

steve shelley, of course :)

I agree with those of you who said Richard's drumming was wonderful on the EP. I'm actually surprised that out of the four of them he's the only one with no votes.

My next question is this: If Steve were to leave the band at this point, would they still be Sonic Youth? Even though he isn't part of the original lineup, I'm pretty sure that when most people think of SY they picture Thurston, Kim, Lee and Steve. Would the band still be SY without any one of these four integral elements?

my favourite sy drummer

jimmy chamberlain... oh shit , wait.......................

double s beat attack of course..
why...
mid bit of chapel hill for one.

steve has played amazing drums on all the albums since he joined. hes versatile and just a fucking wicked drummer.
but i totaly disagree that he can play the other drummers parts as good as them.
no way.
ive heard many songs from the first few records played live that have lacked the drumming that really made em kick back then.

im voting for sclavunos as confusion and kill your idols are my faves. and the drumming is a huge part of why they are my faves.

i couldnt seriously pick between the two. steve should have played on the albums he played on and jim should have played on the songs he played on. steve is a better drummer....... but i dont like any one album of his drumming as much as i do confusion and kill yr idols.
ahhhhhhh, this is stupid anyway. im tired.

scrap that.
this is a daft thread.
steve wouldnt have been much good on confusion in my eyes. but he is the best drummer of the lot.

Whether SY would still be SY without Steve depends on who replaced him. If Chris Corsano replaced him, and could be persuaded to cut back on the tricks, then SY could still be SY. It would just be a slightly different SY.

corsano as sy's drummer would be amazing, but i dont see why his name popped up as a drummer who could replace steve.
theyre both so sos soososooosssooo different.

i prefer corsano. he can send me flying across a room and through a window with his drumming.

in my opinion, Steve's best drumming occured up until daydream nation and from there its still very good but he tends to favor the "ride" and cymbals more than i'd prefer, maybe thats why i love the way Bob Bert wails on the kit (ie the Gila Monster Jamboree vid) w/ the quite minimal setup and almost a non-cymbal attack (i find "rock" drummers who go cymbal crazy annoying as fuck) which i prefer and makes perfect use of it, Steve did some similarly amazing primitive stuff on EVOL and then really started to go for a more complicated and bigger sound from there... i was watching the vid from Stache's (1985) which is steve's 1st out of town show with the band, and he's drilling and pounding the hell out of that kit, something i haven't really seen him do in over 10 or 15 years... but i'm not complaining.

he was a big sy fan when he joined, so i always assumed he was trying to keep it similar to the prevous drummers to a certian extent for the first few albums. i think when he felt comfertable he started playing more in his own style, which i dont think involves too much tom smacking.
thats always been my thoughts anyway.

am i the only one the thinks bob bert is shite on the gila monster vid?
he really seems to hold sy back on there. i kinda understood why they got rid of him after i saw that.

I just named Corsano as a drummer who would take SY to different places. I don't think that a drummer to literally replace Steve, and just play his parts in exactly the way he would have, would be of any benefit whatsoever to the band.

It is a pointless poll, but who cares? Shelley is the man.

well, each drummer had their own style. Shelley is a more technically competent drummer, but not so 'by-the-book' that he can't dive in and hold his own thru a noise jam and 'no-wave' it with the best of them. Bert was more 'in tune' with who SY were in the early days. his drumming was more primitive, loud and Mo Tucker-esque. I liked the minimal use of cymbals, snare and basic 4/4......Edson's work was just dancey, clean and cool. didn't really fully fit the sound/genre, but still made it sound wonderful. i'd still have him on the EP if i had my choice. maybe because i'm used to it....i dunno.