So I’ve been out of town for the past week on vacation. There’s been a ton of stuff going on…

I will be checking out Russian Circles this coming weekend and there will definitely be a review posted here, and hopefully some live photos. This show should be great and will be the second time I will have seen them live. The first time, last year, the band was just starting to play one or two tracks from their (then) unreleased “Station” album and I only caught 15min of their set. I’m looking forward to this show…

Just a few days after I will be checking out Earth live at The Echo and I will post a review here again, as well as try to get some live pics, if possible.

Some current drummer news bits…

The Foo Fighters played Wembley Stadium in London a few days ago (June 7th), and were joined by none other than Jimmy Page and Jon Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. Dave Grohl manned the drums for one song, and video is available on YouTube. It’s always great to see him playing drums. He didn’t have his own usual Tama drum sets, but instead sat in on Foo drummer Taylor Hawkins’ kit. Check out more on that here…

Foo Fighters & 1/2 of Led Zeppelin

Also, Meg White of the White Stripes “sat in” on a Raconteurs gig two days ago in Detroit. The audience thought they might be getting a surprise White Stripes performance but that didn’t happen.

Source.

It hasn’t really been announced on any major music news sites such as Stereogum, Pitchfork, etc…but Russian Circles will be touring and coming through Los Angeles again. Witness Turncrantz drumming skillz in person!

The band will be playing The Troubadour in West Hollywood with the band Daughters and its $10 advance and $12 at the door. This is one show I will not be missing. You can expect to see a review up here after the show.

It’s pretty much a full US tour…

-Russian Circles, touring with Daughters-

Jun-03 Iowa City IA Picador
Jun-04 St Louis MO Bluebird Theater
Jun-05 Kansas City MO The Riot Room
Jun-06 Denver CO Marquis
Jun-07 Salt Lake City UT Burt’s Tiki Lounge
Jun-08 Boise ID Neurolux
Jun-09 Seattle WA Neumos
Jun-10 Portland OR Doug Fir Lounge
Jun-11 Chico CA Cafe Coda
Jun-12 San Francisco CA Slims
Jun-14 Pomona CA The Glasshouse
Jun-15 West Hollywood CA Troubadour
Jun-16 San Diego CA The Casbah
Jun-18 Phoenix AZ The Clubhouse
Jun-20 Austin TX Red 7
Jun-21 Ft Worth TX Lolas
Jun-22 Houston TX Rudyards
Jun-23 Baton Rouge LA Spanish Moon
Jun-24 Birmingham AL Bottle Tree
Jun-25 Atlanta GA The Drunken Unicorn
Jun-26 Chapel Hill NC Local 506
Jun-27 Wilmington DE Harmony Grange
Jun-28 Cambridge MA Middle East Upstairs
Jun-29 Brooklyn NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
Jun-30 Baltimore MD The Ottobar
Jul-01 Buffalo NY Mohawk Place
Jul-02 Detroit MI Magic Stick (*no Daughters)

Russian Circles @ Myspace.com

Russian Circles new album “Station” contains a lot of elements you’d expect from the band, which is one of the reasons why its a good record.  The album starts off with the track “Campaign” which begins with a mathy riff set over an ambient droning guitar, and sounds almost too pretty for the band. The song increases its build with many layers of delayed, ambient guitars and eventually gives way to…well…another mathy riff, before Turncrantz cymbal and snare rim hits lead the band into a soft groove followed by a heavy tribal section.

The expectation is one of the best things about this album, just when you think a song is going to get loud and punishing it keeps you guessing and waiting. Turncrantz drumming helps the anticipation build a lot, everything that made the percussion on the first album great is displayed here again…solid grooves, fast fills, cymbal flourishes and heavy tribal tom beats.

I am really enjoying this album, I feel that the band has all evolved as players. The production on this album, once again is great, everything can be heard clearly, when the guitars kick in they are intense, the snare, bass drum and tom sounds are all crystal clear and the bass guitar is punchy as well. I think the band has managed to trump themselves, as I may like this one more than their first album “Enter”.

The new album from band Russian Circles, “Station” has been released. While I haven’t heard the album yet I’ve seen a few reviews, most notably from Pitchforkmedia.com. Pitchfork gave the album a 6.9 rating, whatever that means. They also gave the bands debut album “Enter” a 6.4 rating.

I usually tend to disagree with pitchforkmedia and the rating of Russian Circles “Enter” album, so this may mean I’ll end up liking the bands new album as well. I’m going to get a copy of the album as soon as I can, give it some listens and then post a review up here…

Russian Circles “Station” Review @Pitchfork.com

So I wasn’t able to get my camera in to the show, but I did see the drummer, Dave Turncrantz’ setup. I was surpirsed to see that he had a very minimal 4-piece setup. To the best of my recollection, at this show he was using 2 crash cymbals and a ride.

As far as Russian Circle’s set as whole, it was amazing. They played with the same tenacity that you hear on their album “Enter” but a lot louder, (obviously) and and with a lot more jamming. At one point during the song “Death Rides A Horse” they let the drums keep on playing this one hypnotic hip-hop style beat, eventually culminating in the rest of the band coming back in with it and just rocking.

The band is working on a follow up record that should be out soon. They should also be touring again soon, I strongly recommend seeing them live if you get the chance. They are phenomenal.

Not many people know the band Russian Circles. They are a 3 piece-instrumental band from Chicago, IL, their music is typically long and exploratory as well as heavy and abrasive. They’ve played shows with the likes of Pelican, Tool, Minus the Bear, Mono and many others.

The drummer,  Dave Turncrantz, while probably almost never mentioned in most drumming websites/publications is one of the best I’ve heard recently. His drumming features some of the craziest rock beats, staccato jazz fills and heavy tribal tom work that are all perfectly executed. On the bands album “Enter” he displays all of these skills, a lot of which are played at fairly fast tempos, making his technique all the more impressive.

I’ll be seeing Russian Circles live this week, so I’m really interested to see what kind of set-up he has. I’ll be posting a review of the show up here.

Check out the song “Carpe” for a really good example of the drumming discussed here…

Russian Circles @ MySpace.com