The Bad Plus - Physical Cities

[lanslinden]

this was written by the bass player. i think he is the most impressive of these guys.

[skintune]

You're not listening in the correct mediums for "new" generation - there is very very scary talent out there- beautiful, intensely dynamic and advanced forward thinking drummers - search- Think about it -aren't we influenced by everything currently and before us- and us current players are just sponges /exploring new directions of our masters- playing 30 years plus already I am more excited now more than ever about the evolution of Jazz, rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, metal, afro cuban etc

[skintune]

You're not listening in the correct mediums for "new" generation - there is very very scary talent out there- beautiful, intensely dynamic and advanced forward thinking drummers - search- Think about -aren't we influenced by everything currently and before us- and us current players are just sponges /exploring new directions of our masters- playing 30 years plus already I am more excited now more than ever about the evolution of Jazz, rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, metal, afro cuban etc

[shootsbraw]

no words

[manuelmarches]

The best band today!

[veokfwjbotgwr]

magic. they're like one organism.

[lds4044]

@veokfwjbotgwr

at first I thought you said orgasm...either way its a true statement!!!

[metalcore929]

what a fantastic group

[BagelBites48]

I can't imagine the rehearsal for this.

[kaiyma]

BOMMMMMMMMMMMMM.............

[rivers221]

I've been playing for eight years and David King is one of the only drummers I hold as a role model for my playing. If I can get half as much emotion into a performance as he does, I will be happy.

[stupidpablo1]

This song cracks me up.

[wcx08]

Ahaha I don't know if anyone's noticed, but in every live version of this song I've seen, Dave always touches his face/head in some way during the longer pause in this breakdown. It's funny. I wonder if it's part of his counting.

[Cadence55]

those double stops are just nuts. im sure its been written out, but they are so freaking tight. not even looking at eachother. their time is just so together.

[wcx08]

The break down is in 4/4. The pattern isn't hard to learn. It repeats three times. But who cares. Don't look so far into and just enjoy it. It's awesome.

[Devinopps]

the point i attempted to get across for the sole reason only that essence of this music lies within the true spontaneity of it. sure they rehearse, and "know exactly what they are doing", but listen to how dave king plays, this is my prime example of feeling the music

[Gretsche87]

he is an amazing drummer.

[Devinopps]

the fact that people would even attempt to hold a legitimate argument over the time signatures to a bad plus performance is beyond me. jazz is jazz, it is free, there is no rules, no guidelines. jazz is the musicians true emotions from within, and just playing, playing...improvising whatever comes to thought it is true spontaneous genius. nothing else. so don't even stress it, just feel the music.

[crodolpho]

they can't do this stuff without rehearsing for hours and hours. They know exactly what they are doing... improvisation is different.

[macmint91]

are you saying that this syncopation is improvised? like they all just happened to play the same thing at one? a lot of thought has obviously went into that part of the song especially, there is a structure

[ELPsteel]

@Devinopps

lol what. The fact that you would even say something like this shows that you are definitely not a jazz musician. When you listen to Coltrane, you are listening to more than just "pure emotion" and "spontaneous genius." You're listening to countless hours of dedicated study. In all music, even improvised music, there are in fact many theoretical rules and guidelines, and in this case time signatures are one of those guidelines, hence the discussion at hand.

[nestletreb]

"I'm bleeding... and I'm wearing white pants....that is so punk rock."

-Dave

[Bball33unc]

bad sound ahhhh

[shinybeast78]

FUCKING CHRIST I WISH I WAS THERE.

[wcx08]

The pattern here is not that difficult to understand...They exploit the fact that there's nothing keeping time in between the hits. But this part of the song is in 4/4, so if you count the eighth-notes they're simply just playing downbeats and upbeats. If Dave were to keep time with the eighth-note with his left foot, it'd be much easier to understand and feel. And yes the pattern repeats three times

[natesquared]

the song actuallly alternates between 5/16, 3/4 and 10/8(which is really just 4/4 +4/4+2/4)

[prehensiledream]

No, you are wrong. This is entire song is in 4/4 time with complex syncopation.

[natesquared]

check wikipedia list of songs in odd time signatures

[prehensiledream]

I don't really care what is written in wikipedia, this song is clearly in 4/4 time with complex syncopation and complex subdivision of the beat.

[skunkfunk89]

I concur

[sbvasshat]

are you sure it isn't 5/8 in the beginning? And the part of the song in the video is in 4/4 I would say, or 1/4 because there is really no implied "1"

[OGNOGN]

I love how King sells the breaks. Great stage vibe.

[tabascoman830]

this nuts man!!!!

[jakedam]

I have transcribed the pattern. It starts over at 48.5 seconds when they hit 4 eighth notes in a row.

[kalvinnova]

wow. starting at 0:15. I've been pondering this for almost a year. What is the pattern!? It's a massive display of memory power. an incredible showcase of band chemistry!

[whoatherejohnny]

I was thinking the same thing. There's either a pattern I'm not seeing or they have very good memories.

[deathbyfeedback]

there is indeed a pattern

[whoatherejohnny]

What is it? (:

[musicfreak21]

if i am ever bored one day, and got time, i will transcribe it....

[musicfreak21]

you will get it man. it's there.

[thenbensaid]

@musicfreak21 TELLL USSSS!



[nguyenbr]

they are playing the same thing three times. the first repeat starts at 0:49 and the 2nd repeat starts at 1:22. if you listen to the rest of the song, the pattern shows up too.

[ItSfOrThEhIpPoS]

a guy at my school figured it out and wrote it down with a few people

[blackstar69]

it's david king's planet. we just live on it.

best drummer

ever.

[amosbass]

wonderful wonderful wonderful!!!

[Capuano]

WOW. That tiny space of silence at 2:57 was awesome.

[kayin4o8]

the real band should be called 2 guys and that one guy on the drums..hes killin it

[danvilone]

Bad Plus is Bad ASS!!

[jazz4lifebaby]

holy crap talk about the dave king show! i love this group

[ColtraneGilg]

seeing them play tomorrow in philly! can't waittt

[VacantMinds]

Any time I see a youtube vid of Bonham or Peart drumming, I always watch this exact video afterwards just to reassure myself that Dave King is indeed the best drummer ever. Seen The Bad Plus twice and Happy Apple once. This video is pretty amazing, but even this doesn't do their performances justice.

[TachyonDrums]

@VacantMinds As a fellow Dave King fan, I can tell you I was absolutely blown away by Dan Weiss. Look him up. And Mark Giuliana. While King is still my favorite and out of this world in talent, Weiss will astonish you and Giuliana, especially playing with Avishai Cohen, does on one bass drum what mortals do on 3 (not counting King, since he is not mortal).

[pajjooo]

nice drums.good band

[ChefEspeff]

Yeah Dave is ridiculous. I love how he has such a small set (compared to other so called "amazing drummers") but he gets so much different sound out of it. I too hate the drummers seen as good by the public eye because they play double bass drum pedals really fast and hit the toms quickly.

[fizm]

Yes!! Today's rock drummers bash. They don;t play musically/dynamically. Anyone can shut themselves into a room and practice insanely fast 16ths for hours on end. And I'm not an anti-rock jazz snob, but no mistake all the great rock drummers of the past (Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon, Nick Mason, Clive Bunker, Carl Palmer, Bill Bruford, John Densmore etc, were jazz influenced.

[timothypetergreen]

Amen brother

[molle124]

Should I mention John Bonham?

[fizm]

Bonham was fantastic with his deep grooves, but even watching all his 16th triplets around the kit on "Moby Dick" gets old after the first minute. Again, fast execution is just fast execution; there is nothing particularly talented or interesting about speed.

[jek21]

@fizm I don't know if I agree, man. What rock drummers are you thinking of? What about guys like Gavin Harrison or Matt Cameron?

[VacantMinds]

Dave King is likely the greatest drummer alive today. I just saw Happy Apple last night, one of the other groups he's in. Once you see him perform live.....o man

[Al3xMusic]

David King is (in my opinion) the best drummer ever seen. He needn't a double bass pedal to prove it.

[CitizenErased24]

agreed. double bass pedal is pure overkill in 9 out of 10 places imo ;) bad plus are awesome.

[Henw]

thats not true at all. Thats so closed minded, there are SO many ways you can incorperate it tastefully

[CitizenErased24]

did you read what i said? I know people can do it hence not 10 out of 10. what i'm saying is 90% of the heavy metal bands or what-have-you overdo it these days. i still love danny carey, neil peart, dave goodrich...

[myphriendmike]

also agreed. the majority of shitty drummers i've met are thrilled to overuse a double bass. Simply tasteless and loud, and rarely ever serves a purpose. King is the man cause he can play busily yet QUIET.

[Rachelyne]

i wouldnt call that quiet....

[Klewt]

CAN

[hipdrummer]

killed it

[craycpanda]

... Holy... Shit... That was amazing!

[akihiko0121]

amazing!!

[Hringriin]

Funny: Their stuff didn't arrive so the teacher for drums of my friends needed to bring sticks and so on ... After concert they were given back to him, used, of course, AND SIGNED ... isn't that nice?

RoSh ... You made it! :o)

I think that was a prober birthday gift ... Although you have had your birthday one month earlier ... But wayne ...

[Hringriin]

I've seen them live yesterday in Bremen ... OMFG those sound and visual quality at first is not good ... Sitting in the first row and feel the feeling of the artist of you own and seeing them have fun playing their songs is amazing ... AND they aren't shy ... After concert the went out to the stage again, 'cause some friends of mine were waiting there and they asked us while we shook their hands how we'd liked their sound and so on ...

[iwillmaceyou]

Thanks for posting. These guys rock my freaking socks!

[irak3]

Saw them play last night, best live jazz concert I've ever seen

[narb182]

haha i see you ira.k

i saw it too.

[neocatalyst]

HAHA Dave scratches his forehead on 0:59

[Donbour]

My favourite band of all times and genre.

[BryanButelefski]

121212121212121212121212121212

123451234512345123451234512345 <see the #'s line up

[BryanButelefski]

Hey- one of you guys mentioned wanting to know the rhythms and time signatures.(Im a jazz drummer)The form of the tune is essentially ABCBD. What is happening throughout the "A" is that Reid (bass) and David (drums) are both playing in 5/8. Ethan (piano) is looping 2 1/2 bars of 2/8 over the bassist and drummers' 5/8. What makes this totally BA is how all of the players meet up every couple of measures. (haven't counted that yet).

[jonsilence]

For me, this is the most 'out' thing I've seen here by them. This is cool. Yeah, as a drummer I find it awesome. Can't figure out WTF he's doing. Wish I could hear the other players. Anyone who likes this will freak if you check out HIROMI Uehara doing 'XYZ"' or 'Reverse' here on YouYube. I prefer her trio stuff to that of Bad; its similar but more angular and out. But Bad are still cool. And whacked!

[Regina2w]

I believe I was at this show. If it was recorded at Joe's Pub in NYC on 1/20/06.

[musicfreak21]

nope. los angeles. catalina grill. march 31 2006

[brouhajoe]

i knew it, i must've been just to the left of you (or whoever filmed), this blew me away.

[Paroxysm714]

I saw them do this in Chattanooga. These guys are ridiculous; everyone should see them live!

[IAMLAZLOWXX88]

Lol I think they do that stop time thing in the middle just to see how much they can annoy the audience. Viva The Bad Plus!!

[DorothyValentine]

I aint gay, but I'd do Dave King.

[JamesRex27]

I saw them live in Toronto opening for Roy Hargrove . . . brilliant. Physical Cities is one of the most syncopated songs I have ever heard.

[raydenovo]

obviously, you are judging them by this one video.

[poonjabbi]

underrated? are you people high? did you have the sound turned on? where is the rythem or "good" sound... a 2 year old makes better tunes with a xylophne.... not being mean, just go practice more, you'll get the hang of it.

[wwworthlesss]

Are you high? If you think play drums or have any concept of rhythm do me a favor and try to count that for me. What time signature is that in? Dave King and the rest of the band is unreal, go see them live and you'll know what I mean. They are the future of jazz.

[jonfuckingrules]

my thoughts exactly, the way dave king navigates his way through all of the seemingly chaotic unison hits WHILE HE IS PLAYING A FUCKING SOLO baffles me.

[desirhythm]

punjabi valla, thats too bad you dont understand complex rhythm, if you did you would know not to say such foolish things. It is called a subdivision

[olivetreecanada]

David King is a beautiful freak of nature. How on earth do they count this out?

[jonfuckingrules]

Dave King is easily one of the most underated drummers out there right now.

[ischiagra]

I heartily agree.

[doddsalfa]

a lot of music:)

[Fun123fun123]

Oh baby, how amazing.

[DrFuinha]

Oh shit ! Awessome !