Monday, December 10, 2012

All the talk of 10th Anniversaries and 40th Anniversaries reminded me that Blissblog recently turned ten. 

10 years!  2244 posts!  Lord knows how many words!  

Output and enthusiasm have waxed and waned over the years, but I've never considered retiring. It's too enjoyable. Although I'd almost characterise it as an irritative pleasure, an itch that has to be scratched. One that I'll be scratching for a while yet.

Alongside the outlet it offers for riffing, whimsy, and creative acrimony,  my favorite thing about bloggeration has been the communality: particularly those occasions when I've thrown out a question or a challenge to fellow bloggers and readers. So to celebrate Blissblog reaching double figures, here is the sequel to the Guitar Solos throwdown of spring 2011 and its predecessor of  a year earlier, Great Riffs.

Drum Stuff :  examples please of your favorite drummage, with YouTube clips + comments. Blog them and let me know so I can link, or email and I'll post up here.

Drum stuff defined as: drum patterns, drum breaks, drum sounds, drum flourishes, drum solos.   Or, more loosely,  grooves: just so long as the drummer is right in the thick of the reasons why the groove is so groovy.

Sole stipulation: stick to human and hand-played. Nothing made using a drum machine, nothing sample-looped or edited together out of  micro-samples. Mainly because it'd be just too huge a topic if we get into machine-rhythm (I could spend a year, easily, just on jungle). But also because there's more philosophical integrity if we steer clear of programmed beats. This is about the human body possessed by rhythm, but more than that, about musicians who are physically close, sharing the same space, joining together in the moment to build that mundane miracle, a groove.  About presence and present-mindedness.