Should I sack my drummer?

[Hemisaurus]

You want everyone to jam with you, three times a week for the past three years, and you haven't actually done anything?

Three times a week is excessive to a lot of people, unless your warming up to something.

...and get off the must buy new gear kick, drums are expensive, cymbals are horrendously expensive, it's the tuning, not the price tag, my favourite set of Gzus's drums are the beaters he's had for 20+ years, they sound great, mixed cheap ass heads, but well tuned.

Maybe convince him to get one of those torque limiting drum keys, so he doesn't over tighten everything. Get your Marduk friend in to tune the drums maybe.

[Pundan]

Sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather just do a solo project all on my own and never play out than deal with that shit. "I'm not in the mood". What? And? Practice is work, nobody is always in the mood for work but you do it anyway or you suck. I suck because I don't practice enough.

Hehe, yeah somewhat of a nightmare. As I've said, I wouldn't think twice about if it weren't for our longtime friendship. This thread + all the other people I've talked with who knows the guy all point me in the direction that it's better to sack him than to continue this path. I already have another band with my bass-player going on, it's going to be a four piece psych/QOTSA-like band, something in that line. I want to play heavy sludge too though so I'll still keep this band going with or without a drummer. I've put up ads for a new drummer already

[Pundan]

You want everyone to jam with you, three times a week for the past three years, and you haven't actually done anything?

Three times a week is excessive to a lot of people, unless your warming up to something.

...and get off the must buy new gear kick, drums are expensive, cymbals are horrendously expensive, it's the tuning, not the price tag, my favourite set of Gzus's drums are the beaters he's had for 20+ years, they sound great, mixed cheap ass heads, but well tuned.

Maybe convince him to get one of those torque limiting drum keys, so he doesn't over tighten everything. Get your Marduk friend in to tune the drums maybe.

Nah, us the band wants that. It's what we have chosen together, the drummer's been on it. He's has his turn, he can be very positive for a couple of months then come some months where he's negative and not fun to be around. We're in the latter kind right now.
We've tried to get him to buy a drum tuner but he thought that was too expensive ($80).

[Hemisaurus]

I'm meaning like a torque wrench drum key, they run about $15-20 here.



If you have someone who can sit in, I'd suggest you try it, even let the drummer know, sort of say, well you can't make it so J. is filling in, or whatever.

[VOLVO)))]

It took playing with another drummer that I didn't lock with at all to appreciate the drummer in my band. The dude I jammed with was an AWESOME drummer, but we just couldn't ever lock. I never closed my eyes and jammed out. I was always watching him, and he was always watching me. No chemistry, or nothin'.

I got to band practice the next night and we didn't even end up practicing any of our material, we just fuckin' jammed out for two hours, then went to the skatepark.

It's the same thing with my bass player, It took playing with someone else to realize how good you have it, sometimes.

[liquidsmoke]

I've put up ads for a new drummer already

This is not good. Think about it.

[VOLVO)))]

I'm meaning like a torque wrench drum key, they run about $15-20 here.



If you have someone who can sit in, I'd suggest you try it, even let the drummer know, sort of say, well you can't make it so J. is filling in, or whatever.

I have one, it works well to get a consistent stretch across the skin, but tuning is in the ears...

[Pundan]

I've put up ads for a new drummer already

This is not good. Think about it.

Yeah will do man. It's not my call to make really, it's a decision us as band has to do. I'm just checking of the interest in a doom/sludge band. I want this to work.

[Pundan]

I'm meaning like a torque wrench drum key, they run about $15-20 here.

Thanks for the suggestion man, looks sweet I'll look in to it.

[Hemisaurus]

I've put up ads for a new drummer already

This is not good. Think about it.

Yeah will do man. It's not my call to make really, it's a decision us as band has to do. I'm just checking of the interest in a doom/sludge band. I want this to work.

Were you out-voted or something? Apart from yourself and the drummer, how many other people are in this band?

[The Shocker]

Get another drummer on the side if possible and he may just fade out.

Syd Barrett him!

[Hemisaurus]

Syd was a nice guy, and as time proved out, Waters was a dick

[The Shocker]

True.  I love Syd  Barrett, but the story of them just stopping picking Barrett up for practice was pretty funny (in a terribly bad situation).

[Pundan]

I've put up ads for a new drummer already

This is not good. Think about it.

Yeah will do man. It's not my call to make really, it's a decision us as band has to do. I'm just checking of the interest in a doom/sludge band. I want this to work.

Were you out-voted or something? Apart from yourself and the drummer, how many other people are in this band?

We're a three-piece, we collectively make decisions though so it's up to me and the bass-player not me by myself.

[justJon]

True.  I love Syd  Barrett, but the story of them just stopping picking Barrett up for practice was pretty funny (in a terribly bad situation).

Interesting part in "Which one's Pink?" where Nick Mason says something like, "We all felt bad about it. It was so bad we nearly said something."

[Pundan]

True.  I love Syd  Barrett, but the story of them just stopping picking Barrett up for practice was pretty funny (in a terribly bad situation).

I totally dig that thing too even though it was a terrible one to do.

I talked to the bass-player today, we're not going to talk with him about it tomorrow. We know the dude personally and there must be something in his personal life now that he's not telling us, we can respect that. But if it continues in this negative pattern we'll confront him right away, might be tomorrow, might be a week from now but we think he got the message from the bad mood this Tuesday. If he shows up tomorrow and haven't practiced or even listened to the song or whatever we'll have that talk with him then. Basically next time it's going to be his last chance. We're both pretty sure that it will happen, but we've had the serious talk with him before and we can't call him to a band meeting every time he does something we think is bad - he should know this by now.

The best thing I got out of this whole drama was that the bass-player said that he needs to step up to the plate more and voice his opinion. He's not very vocal at all times, but we talked through it and we're on the same page. Next time will be his last warning.

Thanks for all the suggestions and support, we might not have followed any of your suggestions at all but I valued every single one of them.