Pooh's Heffalump

Went to see Pooh's Heffalump with the kids. The tune Two Princes from the Spin Doctors is on the soundtrack. That cool intro fill sounded amazingly well and fresh in the theater and reminded me how much I digged Pocketfull of Kriptonite and the playing of Aaron Comess on it. Some great pop songs with a funk twist and great musicianship. I played Two Princes many times in clubs in the 90s and loved it.
I thought they had fallen into oblivion and did a search on Aaron Comess and he looks very busy recording and producing for many artists in his own studio. Also the Spin Doctors released several other albums afterwards that I wasn’t aware of. Are they worth checking out?

www.aaroncomess.com

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 27, 2005 07:32 PM: Message edited by: Tombo 7/4 ]</font>

Pocketfull of Kryptonite is a great album and Aaron Commes' drumming is really strong on it, so much character too.
Funny though, I don't know about the US, but here in the UK you can't look in a charity shop or bargain bucket without spotting a copy of this album!!

Ha ha Dazz!!

I know what you mean! It's such a shame, the drumming is top notch on that album.

The snare intro to "Two Princes" is great, what a snare sound! (A Brady, I'll have you know) [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

MP

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 02, 2005 11:35 AM: Message edited by: Groovemeister ]</font>

Oh yeah, I used to be big into Aaron and Spin Docs... that live album is really cool.

Man, what a stellar snare sound on Two Princess, and his ghost note grooves are so tastey! I read too that it was a N&C snare but what are the details (size, material, etc)?

I remember an old Modern Drummer interview where they asked him about the ghost notes and his feel and he basically admitted that it all developed by chance since he always dragged the stick on the snare after a backbeat... not meaning to. lol

Hey Dazz, you know the Spin Doctors will be on tour in the UK soon, right? I plan to catch them in Milton Keynes at the Stables (http://www.stables.org/) on 8th March, all being well.

I picked up all three albums from eBay for about ?6 plus postage. Criminal robbery. They didn't get very favourable reviews at the time, but I like 'em.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 28, 2005 05:45 AM: Message edited by: moosetication ]</font>

Quote:

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Originally posted by CLWarunki:
Man, what a stellar snare sound on Two Princess, and his ghost note grooves are so tastey! I read too that it was a N&C snare but what are the details (size, material, etc)?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Brady Jarrah ply.

Yea time to time we have a pop song who have Magic ghost note and a drum kit who sound so good, another example is Gene Lake with Charles & Eddie - Would I Lie To You, So tasty [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] , you think he use a Pearl drum for this recording like he used at this period or another one ? [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 28, 2005 07:09 AM: Message edited by: donu ]</font>

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Originally posted by Groovemeister:
The snare intro to "Two Princes" is great, what a snare sound! (A Noble & Cooley, I'll have you know) [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not so. According to Comess in a posting to MD forum:

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i played a piccilo brady 14 inch snare with a coated ambassador head .....it was recorded at the power station in nyc..now called avitar studios...one of my favorite sounding rooms....we used a few room mikes and a mike on the top and bottom head of the snare.....probably a 57....also it was compressed pretty hard going to tape which really brought out the ghost notes..i believe it was neve pre-amps.we also used a little lexicon reverb along with the natural room sound..it was one of those lucky days where we just got a great sound and then it was mixed really well....i have been trying to get my snare to sound that good ever since....good luck.....
aaron comess

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Yes- heavy compression on the snare. VERY hard to duplicate the ghost strokes at the volume on the track!

When I saw the movie preview recently and I heard that drum intro it brought a smile to my face(after many years of therapy for playing that song hundreds of times in Top 40 bands)

I saw them live a couple of years ago at a summer festival and Aaron was killer. Great groove, cool ideas and not as simple as you might expect. They took a lot of stuff out, odd times etc. and then the singer would enter and the stuff would straighten out a bit. I'd definitely see them again.