Introducing Cold Album Drumming!

I’m so freaking excited to announce my new music project: Cold Album Drumming!

Be sure to smash that subscribe button on YouTube 😂 and vote on the albums you’d like to hear me play.

What the heck is “Cold Album Crumming?”

Cold Album Drumming is where I play along to the albums I know intimately, but have never played drums to before. The drums are recorded totally cold: One take. Cover-to-cover. No learning. No listening. No practice. No warm-up. In most cases, I haven’t listened to the album in many years. I give a little preamble to describe my relationship with the album, then I hit record and let ‘er rip.

Why do this? Quite simply, it’s fun. Fun to operate on pure recall, fun to figure things out on the fly, fun to play along with some of my favorite music, fun to have a musical outlet I can squeeze into my lunch break.

200 albums

I’ve been chipping away at Cold Album Drumming for months now. Whenever I find a spare window of time before work, during my lunch, or after work I’ll scramble down to my basement, quickly pick an album to play, hit record, and go at it.

So far, I’ve identified about 200 albums that I feel I could play, and keep thinking of more to add. These albums have been the soundtrack to my life, so I know the songs, the parts, and the music pretty dang well. But with a few exceptions I’ve never played drums to them before. It’s a really fun project to connect with some of my favorite music in a totally different way. I always come away with a greater appreciation of the album and the artists that created them.

Launching with 8 albums

So far I’ve recorded 25 albums that I’ll be trickling out on a steady weekly rhythm (you should subscribe on YouTube and RSS). I’m launching the website with 8 albums! I picked some really fun ones to start. I’ll link them up as well as a sample song from each album:

Discovery by Daft Punk

Watch the whole album

In Rainbows by Radiohead

Watch the whole album

Santogold by Santigold

Watch the whole album

Aquemini by Outkast

Watch the whole album

Emperor Tomato Ketchup by Stereolab

Watch the full album

Plastic Beach by Gorillaz

Watch the full album

Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround by The Kinks

Watch the full album

The Crane Wife by The Decemberists

Watch the full album

Vote! And follow along

There’s MUCH more to come. I have about 25 albums recorded already, and this is the kind of thing that I like to do in my free time (Weird? Yes. But I feel like it’s the right kind of weird.)

If you think this crazy idea is kinda fun, here’s what I’d love you to do:

Thanks so much! Here we go!