Most music fans know Danny Carey as the drummer of Tool. He is one of my personal favorites. He usually plays all sorts of odd-timed beats and fills, in Tool, while at the same time putting a lot of power and emotion into his playing. I’ve also seen him around LA hanging out, (sometimes with the other members of Tool) at shows in the Silverlake/Echo Park area. He seems like a really humble and down to earth guy.

So it is no surprise that once I found out he had another band he’d been playing in recently I wanted to check it out. That band is called Volto! They’re kind of a jazz band. Basically, they play original jazzy-type songs, but still feature Carey’s powerful drumming, they also do some covers. I’m not entirely sure what covers they do, besides “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson (I saw that one on youtube).

Carey I believe, (from the looks of it),  is still playing the same drum kit he plays in Tool, minus his electronic drum pads. The band as far as I know, only plays around Los Angeles, so I plan on checking them out at the La Vee Lee jazz club here in LA on the 16th of this month. I will definitely post about that show here.  Looking forward to it…

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