Use of Odd Meter and Poly-Rhythms

[NickInCollege]

I don't know how many of you out there are drummers (I am a guitarist actually) but I can REALLY appreciate the amount of thought that went into the rhythm of Forty Six & 2 from about time 4:05 all the way to the climax of the song at around 5:07ish. I've counted it out and it seems to begin with three measures of 7/4 and then a measure of 8/4 then three measures of 7/4 followed by one of 8/4 then five measures of 7/4 followed by one of 8/4 and ending with six measures of 7/4 plus a polyrhythmic section which goes into the "See my shadow changing / strecthing up and over me / soften this old armor" badass climax.
I basically have three questions/comments. First... if you add up all of the measures i listed above you get 20 measures plus the polyrhythm section. At measure 11 (starting the second half of the 20 measures at around 4:34) the really complex drum work begins. At measure 17 is where I am totally blown away. I count measure 17 as 7/4. At beat three does Danny honestly start to play eight even notes to finish off the measure? That would be eights over the remaining five beats in the measure 8:5! That's pretty sweet... Secondly I am blown away during the final poly-rhythm section. It goes into 3/4 in the foreground but if you listen closely you can hear the bass chugging away still in 7/4 in the background. Three measures of 3/4 (evenly? That's really my question... Far be it from me to criticize but it does seem that the end of the three four part holds out a little long before continuing... thus suggesting that it was not completely even) played on top of two measures of 7/4 suggesting an unheard of poly-rhythm of nines of fourteens 9:14!
The third and real question though... is does anyone know what the heck I was just talking about?!? If so, are you a drummer in the College Station or Dallas/Carrollton area? If so, do you want to jam some time? My friend and I are guitarists who have been looking for a drummer that understands odd meter and other stuff like that who would be interested in playing with us... look in my profile for contact information. We like to write in weird times like 13/8 and 5/4 and changing rhythms and stuff... a lot of which is inspired by Tool.

[InfernalMethod]

You're looking for a drummer in the dfw area, heh.

My advice is to check high schools actually, in the marching band's drum line. I was a percussionist for six years in Rockwall, at the high school. There are almost always a plethora of scary little munchkins who can play the shit out of a drum kit. They are young, but for the most part thats all they care about, percussion.

Steal one while he waits for the bus, chain him to a throne and don't feed him till he plays.

Make him wash his hair.

Thats all.

If you need a singer, find me. or don't. yes.

OK
MSM

[InfernalMethod]

Don't look in a high school.

Go to a college, YOUR college. There is bound to be some music major with an odd-meter fetish who plays drums. These people are perverts, but you can trust them.

OK
MSM

[Cracker]

Better yet, ring the nearest High class jazz music college, and ask them for some numbers of drummers available for lessons in your area. Depending where you live, you should get a fairly decent list of excellent drummers.

[AmidaTong]

It seems to be the other way around with me...i'm a drummer and i have a bassist...looking for a guitarist in the Columbia, SC area. but anyway...if you listen to 80's King Crimson, they do alot of phasing, where both guitars will start out playing the same thing, and then one guitar will start the next measure a note early, and you get a really cool effect of two guitarists playing one beat off of each other. check out their songs like Three of a Perfect Pair, Frame by Frame, or Discipline...anyway, if you know these songs, it sounds like the guitar and bass are doing this phasing during the 20 measures you are talking about...i'm a drummer, so i don't have the ear to pick this out...are they phasing or not?

[megadan]

I understood most of that :)
Not a drummer though.

But... just to play devils advocate...
I defintly hear the 7/4 bars from 4:05, on the bass. I can't count the drums as well, but maybe this is just another case of the lateralus into... which everyone thinks is in a bunch of crazy time sigs, but's basically just in 4/4. Just playing weird rythems doesn't nessicarly mean it was done to fit a time signature, most of the time when i play weird rythems, it isn't with a time sig in mind, it just sounds interesting and a certian signature happens to follow it. No doubt that Danny is an amazing drummer, but as long as everyone knows the riff, it doesn't matter what time signature its in, it'll still be right, in fact, if you all know it, you can have any number of beats you want, and it won't make a lick of difference, really.

Now if that was just babble, i appogive, i'm not a musical theory expert, so feel free to ignore if so :)

[paraflux]

The three guys are constantly playing in different time signatures, danny sometimes playing in three different ones by himself. That is what gets me, his ability to make it click and push everything towards the closing of the grand cycle that all of the other cycles are part of. That in itself can teach people things. I think the use of polyrythms are triggers for some forms of awakenings.

[LazyE462]

Ok, first off those sections are in 7/8 and 8/8, not 7/4 and 8/4 (this is for easier counting). And its 1 measures of 7/8 and then one of 8/8, goes through that progression about 4 times, then danny start his solo thingy. Not his polyrythm in that progression previously stated is really 10 againt 15, youll notice that with his cymbal hits, and then his roto tom hits(all before his little solo thing).