Phil Selway, nothing he does is too flashy, but he's solid as a rock on every Radiohead track:
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Paul Thompson, he can play proto-punk, art rock, glam, basically anything:
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Steve Shelley: Thurston and Lee get all the press in Sonic Youth, but they have one of the best rhythm sections of all time, IMO:
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Oh yeah, there's also those great session guys like Steve Gadd and Jeff Porcaro.

Must second Dave Lombardo. Very rarely does a band suffer so badly from the loss of a drummer as Slayer did when Dave Lombardo left.

Morgan Rose of Sevendust is my personal favorite.

Danny Carey a close second

Shannon Larkin of Godsmack is a blast too watch

John Bohnam
Pete Thomas

My fav ever is Keith Moon, but I love these guys also...

Mitch Mitchell (wow, am I the first to mention him?)
Pete Thomas ("No Action" is just relentless)
Rick Buckler (of the Jam)

Stewart Copeland
Keith Moon
Dave Grohl
Ginger Baker

purely personal:

Mitch Mitchell
Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa)
that chick in The White Stripes (I don't know if she's a great drummer, but female drummers are hot)
Billy Cobham

Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree must be mentioned :)

I never come into the music thread but tonight I'm glad I did. I am a female drummer and have been taking lessons on and off for about two years now.

Watching all the clips is a great motivator to get back and start practicing again.

Thanks :)

I love Bill Peterson!

I'm at work and will post my other favorites tonight.

Thanks for all the videos, there are a lot of good drummers that I have never heard of... but Neil Peart is still the best!

No doubt. I think he won the Modern Drummer award for best prog drummer this year. First time Portnoy has been dethroned in over 10 years I believe.

Gavin is just a monster. He's added so much to PT.

Here's a good instrumental showing off his stuff (from their live DVD):

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Gene Hoglan (Death, SYL, Old Man's Child)
Nicholas Barker (ex-Dimmu Borgir, ex-Cradle of Filth, ex-Old Man's Child, currently in Testament)
Hellhammer - (Mayhem, Arcturus....and tons of other bands)
Asgier Mickelson - Borknagar
Lars Ulrich - Metallica
Martin Lopez - ex-Opeth
Inferno - Behemoth
Bill Stevenson - Descendents
Moon, Bonham, Copeland....of course
Richard Christy - ex-Iced Earth, ex-Death
Ole Ohlman - Dissection

Unbelievable. Can't believe I forgot him.

Also, a couple more token answers:

Mike Portnoy
Ringo Starr
Jim Gordon (session, Derek & the Dominos, and yes, I know the story. But the guy was still friggin great)

and for more recent drummers: Josh Freese is pretty good too.

My faves (all are oldskool):

Phil Collins
Buddy Rich
Ralph MacDonald
Harvey Mason

Eric Singer is the best... nuff said

other great drummers

Jason Bittner - Shadows Fall
Dave Lombardo - Slayer
Scott Travis - Judas Priest

I haven't heard much of Eric Singer. I know who he is. I know he's endorsed by Pearl and has a pretty sweet signature snare drum. What makes him so great? Personally, I never saw the big deal behind Kiss, considering none of the songs do anything for me whatsoever. Seems like more show than music, but that's all beside the point. And, for what it's worth, I am a drummer and play mostly metal.

So tell me what's so special? (I'm not being a jackass, I'd really like to know)

Dave Lombardo
Sean Reinert
Jimmy Chamberlain
Jean Paul Gaster
Shannon Larkin

http://www.kamworld.net/chris/images/Butthead.jpg

Uhh, if I wanted to read, I'd go to school.

:)

Eric it the main go to drummer. (hired gun)

Regardless of what you think of Kiss, that is a poor repreentation of his work (although he's been with Kiss forever he only recorded 2 albums with them and that was over a decade ago)

His work with Alice Cooper is a better representation especially live, Alice lets Eric really cut loose on drums solos which is almost nonexistent in Kiss.

you also need to look at Sabbath, Badlands and the other umpteen projects he's been part of.

Cozy Powell
Mongo Santamaría

Topper Headon of the Clash. My favorite drumming songs of his are Guns of Brixton, Train in Vain, and Straight to Hell.

For me what I love about Eric Singer is that he's a hybrid of the 70's Rock drummer, and the 80's Metal drummer. Having a Jazz backgroud gives him the ability to play all the finesse stuff. He's got the double bass chops to play full on metal like Scott Travis, but he can play with a groove and feel that Travis has never shown (maybe he can and just hasn't done it on album or live, but Travis' playing on straight rock songs always sounded a little stiff to me). Don't bet me wrong, I think Scott Travis is one of the best Heavy Metal drummers around...

I would disagree that Eric Singer's work with KISS isn't indicative of what he can do. Listen to his playing on Alive III, Carnival of Souls, and Unplugged and you get a much better picture of what he's capable of. (His live solos back then were nothing short of amazing.)

I also saw him live playing for both Paul Stanley and, later on, Alice Cooper. In both cases I came away from the shows in awe of his ability to play for the song first, but still show off chops and to really hot rod some of the songs (such as "Parasite" which was on the original post for this thread). Compare the KISS songs he plays with the original versions - even the Eric Carr stuff from the 80's like "Creatures of the Night," and in just about every case he adds more flash without losing any of the feel of the song.

My favorite version of "Deuce," is the Alive III version where he adds the triplet drum beat to match the guitar riff. The song sounds right the way he played it then, and whenever I hear it played differently - even on the original version - it just sounds a little wrong.

And he makes it all look so damned easy!

finally a mention of buddy rich. hes a fuckin maniac on drums!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwBdHsVGag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgeX9iYOFSQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erE8WTngaAY buddy rich vs animal from the muppets!