The Daily Anarcho-Stack. 21st Century female Drummers that are my best picks (so far.)
If I did a list of my favorites before the 21st Century I would never finish the list.
Female drummers usually are not something most consider as a focus on music but I am fascinated by women drumming as it is not usually the easiest instrument to master but the easiest to start learning (if you discount the bass in one of my previous Anarcho-Stacks.) I would say keeping time and striking a surface hard, repeatedly does present challenges that, on the whole, a lot of women do not gravitate to. So, that being said, I have three female drummers that I admire and follow in the 21st Century alone. If we were to do a list of my top ten, top drummers in a decade, or best drummers in each genre, I would never finish the list.
I think I have mentioned before that I love Kittie and have followed them for more than twenty years. Mercedes Lander, the co-founder and sister of guitarist Morgan Lander, has the ability to not only keep the beat and provide heavy sounds to Kittie but also create patterns in her drumming that sound as if there are two drummers and not one. She does not need a click track. And sometimes in the heavy metal genre, that could be useful with off-key signatures of certain songs.
Here she in 2010, on Cut throat, off the album In the Black:
She also has another outfit she drums to where you can hear her drumming pattern more clearly, in her new group, The Alcohollys:
Meg White, (The White Stripes): You would think with simple, nearly idiosyncratic melodies, and non-technical chops, a less refined drummer would have faltered after being on just one song. But Meg White did not falter and it is almost like she could “sense” when Jack White would stop on a note, a lyric, or change up rhythm. To be honest I think she dictated where the song would go and then Jack could finally play his part, but that is just me. She did not need a click track. She was the click track. This is especially apparent on the song, Blue Orchid off of the Get Behind Me Satan album:
I really do not care to speculate on what Meg White does with her time after The White Stripes, I just know I want her to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not have her even show up. Except to drum, as her acceptance speech. ^.^
Stella Mozgawa (War Paint and as a Session Musician: When a drummer says they started to listen bands like Primus and Tool; you know they are going to be good. I would say Stella has take drumming to an art-form of minimalism and mindfulness. It does not describe the previous female drummers above at all. It is as if she using the drums that are already included in her arsenal as it feels to me I am in a trance or in a dreamy state. Not quite drumming where you can meditate too but not drumming you can head-bang too. She has reach a compromise with the metronome. Metronomes goes in a one dimensional pattern. Back and Forth. Stella goes in a three dimensional pattern. Any direction that the drums require, basically. This is what I like about her drumming the best.
Here she is, with WarPaint, playing Undertow live, off of the album The Fool:
In Her Name,
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