Quote Originally Posted by The Man View Post
I'd like to point out that you didn't respond to Bunny's post.
On what makes a talented musician? I fail to see why I should given that it seems fairly self explanatory, but since you insist, I generally consider talented musicians to be musicians who are very proficient at their instrument and in the case of a band setting, play very well off of each other. I'll admit that not everyone brings a lot to the table in terms of proficiency (I don't think Steffan Lessard is a particularly amazing bass player, but he does the job and did write my favourite DMB song so I can't knock him too much), but as a whole, they all play together extremely well, especially when they break into their extended jams.

To be honest, I quite like the simplicity of the outfit. Drum lines are there to keep the beat, rather than go off on some 'double-pedal' mental self-gratifying solo
As a drummer I find the description of drummers serving to keep the beat to be quite narrow minded and downright rediculous. Like saying all guitar players should only play rhythm, though I agree that complex drumming for the sake of complex drumming is ridiculous. That said, I find it ironic that you'd refer to Carter's drumming as their to keep the beat. He does keep the rhythm obviously, but his drumming is quite complex and unorthodox, particularly for mainstream rock music.