Here’s one for my student, Max: from an early demo by northwest punk legends Poison Idea. With our Iron Maiden shirts and long hair, my friends and I went to see them play in somebody’s basement in Eugene at about this time— we were surprised that we were not made to feel unwelcome. The drummer is Dean Johnson. Thee Slayer Hippy wasn’t with the group until later— he was a character in his own right. He produced a demo by my band, and had a lot of wonderful stories like about the time either Jerry or Pig tricked him into smoking PCP. I think he’s recently been released from prison for a series of Drugstore Cowboy-style pharmacy robberies. Anyway, here’s Dean’s basic beat:
For much of the song he hits some crashes, and plays these fills:
BONUS PUNK SET-UP. Several times at the show Johnson played this little lead-in when he would come in with the drum beat— to me it’s a quintessential punk set-up:
The track: