Tre Cool listed at #2 of Top 5 Punk Drummers of All Time

[Spike]

It just implies that Mike is bad without Tre.

It said "even better" so that's not what I got from it.

[The Disappearing Boy]

Not particularly relevant, but worth posting anyway:

[Cob]

Travis is no slouch, but Tre edges him out purely because he always knows exactly what a song needs. Travis does't overplay as much as people say he does, but he does do it, so in that sense he's not as solid as Tre. Love the both of them though. Also I'm very happy that Bill Stevenson was up there.

[Hermione]

Go Tre!

[Vic_Rattlehead]

This list needs Smelly from NOFX.

[greendepent]

And Brooks Wackerman?

[Davis Weiss]

I just want to throw out there that Barker is really not as great of a drummer as people think he is. I've studied drums and percussion for the past 8 years and have played drums and percussion in different forms, genres, and countries. Tre is clearly better than Barker on the most basic of levels and even the technical aspects of drumming. For one example (easily the most basic thing a drummer should know) Barker just fists his drum sticks while Tre knows proper stoke types and technique for holding sticks and other percussion stuff (tambourines and vibra-slap from Cuatro)

Tre (not so much on recent stuff but earlier in his career) puts together more complex patterns and works his bass hits into the off beats and even in some cases quarter note triplets while Barker does straight 16th note patterns down his (horrible angled and placed) toms.

All in all Tre is by far the better drummer

[Steven Seagull]

This dude wins because he's just too funny

[Mykee Mexx]

lmfao...

[wood]

Umm...where is Meg White on this list?

[peppermint butler]

i know these guys may not be punk, but no one has anything on dave grohl, or ( more importantly) john bonham.

[Guest]

i know these guys may not be punk, but no one has anything on dave grohl, or ( more importantly) john bonham.

Dave Grohl used to play in a shitty hardcore punk band before joining Nirvana, and Bonham definitely invented many drum styles associated with punk. But yeah, they're completely irrelevant to this competition because neither of them did anything outstanding in a punk band.

[WhiteTim]

i know these guys may not be punk, but no one has anything on dave grohl, or ( more importantly) john bonham.

Well to be fair Nirvana is more punk than they are grunge (only a few songs on Bleach could be considered to be actually grunge...)

And Nirvana is featured heavily in the movie "1991 The Year Punk Broke"

[peppermint butler]

Well to be fair Nirvana is more punk than they are grunge (only a few songs on Bleach could be considered to be actually grunge...)

And Nirvana is featured heavily in the movie "1991 The Year Punk Broke"

still ,grohl kicks ass

[Jack [DF]]

I just want to throw out there that Barker is really not as great of a drummer as people think he is. I've studied drums and percussion for the past 8 years and have played drums and percussion in different forms, genres, and countries. Tre is clearly better than Barker on the most basic of levels and even the technical aspects of drumming. For one example (easily the most basic thing a drummer should know) Barker just fists his drum sticks while Tre knows proper stoke types and technique for holding sticks and other percussion stuff (tambourines and vibra-slap from Cuatro)

Tre (not so much on recent stuff but earlier in his career) puts together more complex patterns and works his bass hits into the off beats and even in some cases quarter note triplets while Barker does straight 16th note patterns down his (horrible angled and placed) toms.

All in all Tre is by far the better drummer

I 100% back this dude. I haven't studied percussion in any capacity, but simply being a drummer in a few shitty garage bands and gigging around has shown me that what this dude is saying is true. I am not going to play an indie pop song with the same techniques as a punk song. I play in a punk rock band. With them, I stick to basic ("straight 16th note pattern") fills and simple, fast, repetitive parts. Is it because I'm a poor drummer? No. It's because it fits the music. I also play in an indie rock band. With them, I play more quietly (because, though Barker wouldn't know, dynamics are huge in drumming). The fills, when appropriate, are more delicate and more technical, not just "I can hit the toms really friggin' fast!". Off-beats are everything; with the exception of punk, I think it's important to approach drumming as if you're a jazz drummer. The drums exist to keep the beat and accentuate the other instruments. When the other instruments have a hard hit on an off-beat, I'll hit the snare to match it. Style is EVERYTHING.

Tre understands the basic idea that what's appropriate in a loud-fast-rules punk song like Burnout is leaps and bounds from what works in a surf-rock song like Last Ride In. Two bombastic arena rock songs, say Wake Me Up When September Ends and Brutal Love, have different characters and should be approached differently. Hell, the man's concept of whether or not the hi-hat in a certain song should be open or closed is more thought-out than most drummers' entire parts for a song. His fills are actually interesting, unlike most drummers' "snare-snare-hi tom-hi tom-mid tom-mid tom-floor tom-floor tom" stuff. His more "technical" playing (like the rolls in Nobody Likes You) is crisp and precise and not over-the-top. It blends well with the song. And honestly, just listen to the rolls in Misery. That's the precision of a military snare player. And yet, when a song such as, say, Armatage Shanks comes along, he's energetic and powerful and manages to sound like a better-controlled version of a standard pop-punk drummer. As a final note, the kick drum phrasing in Sassafras Roots is sublime.

Travis Barker, while not being a terrible drummer, is not all that great either. When Blink plays their older material, he plays, as I said earlier, "really friggin' fast". It fits. Blink's early material doesn't require too much talent from a drummer, it just needs someone who can keep a beat and play at extremely quick tempos. Once you hit Enema of the State and (especially) the self-titled, though, there's a lot more room for more specific drum beats. I really like what he does on songs like Don't Leave Me and Stockholm Syndrome; on those two, I think he doesn't get too ahead of himself and his parts fit the feel of the song. Don't Leave Me is just a cheeky little pop-punk breakup song, and his drumbeat is quick and upbeat and energetic. Isolate the drums and I'd believe it was the Descendents. Stockholm Syndrome is the heaviest song Blink has in their repertoire, and Barker's drums give the track enough movement while still feeling really solid. The quieter middle section is very conducive to the 16ths on the closed hi-hat, and nothing sounds out of place. Most importantly, the fact that he pretty much lives in the off-beats throughout that song adds a lot to paranoia and claustrophobia of the lyrics. The first tom fill that he plays doesn't kick back into the beat until the and of 1 on the next measure and it feels really stilted and uncomfortable. It's great. And then there's a song like "I Miss You". I honest-to-god think that "I Miss You" may have the single worst, most out-of-place drumbeat in the history of recorded music. I swear to god they sat around in some room writing and Travis went, "Hey, so you know that acoustic song? Maybe I'll play a boring, repetitive and uncreative hip-hop beat behind it, and really bash the shit out of the drums, except it's still acoustic and fitting because technically I'm using brushes". That song didn't even *need* drums in the first place, and the track he laid for it just makes it feel like some douchey Sublime song. Adam's Song is another prime example of him overstating his presence. The offbeat splash cymbal feels really unnecessary, and even in the studio version he's way too... present. He treats every song like it's a loud rap-rock song, and that wrecks a lot of the cool stuff that Blink tries to do.

At any rate, now that that block is done, Tre is a far cry from the best drummer on the planet but he's FAR better than Barker. As a personal aside, I'd say the best drummer of all time is Jimmy Chamberlain. I could write a fucking book on why, but I've already taken up enough space on this thread.