Mars Volta is certainly a great band. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is also a great musician and songwriter. But probably he's also a prick and that's the reason why he constantly keeps changing drummers.
All of them are top drummers, with different qualities and virtues. Which one of them do you prefer? Enjoy them and then rank them. My personal ranking would look something like this:
1. Jon Theodore (great sound, huge grooves, groundbreaking ideas, his playing is probably similar to the way John Bonham would play if he lived in our times, played in my two favorite Mars Volta albums, "De-loused in the Comatorium" and "Frances the Mute", has an ongoing project called "One day as a Lion" with Zack De la Rocka)
2. Deantoni Parks (great sound, really innovative rhythmic ideas, emotional playing, listens to what his band-mates are playing, reminds me for some reason of a young Jack Dejohnette, played in one of my favorite Meshell Ndegeocello records called "Devil's Halo", I'm really looking forward to seeing him record with the Mars Volta)
3. Dave Elitch ( he really enjoys playing drums, although he has enormous chops he plays for the song, hits really hard, has great hair)
4. Thomas Pridgen (jaw-dropping chops, outstanding technique, zero brains, the kind of guy I'd like to take some lessons from, but not play in the same band)
Enjoy.
Yours,Serafeim
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