Alan Myers wasn't the first drummer that DEVO had, but he's the one most associated with the band. Myers joined the band in 1976 as the third drummer for the band, and went on to record and served with them for five albums, from 1978's Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! to 1984's Shout. He left the band after Shout, citing that he felt creatively uninspired. He continued to created music, with Babooska, a band founded by his girlfriend, then later with his own band Skyline Electric. He worked full time as an electrician in Los Angeles since leaving DEVO. He passed away on June 24 at the age of 58 from complications from brain cancer.
Myers was called "The Human Metronome" due to his precision at drumming. His drumming always struck me as pitch perfect. Some songs he did almost sounds like a drum machine, not a human being. He was a drumming robot. Check out the perfect timing on his early recording of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction":
Later in DEVO's career, the band went more electronic and they began experimenting with electronic percussion. Myers' work on "That's Good" was especially inspired during this time.
One of my favourite bits from Alan Myers was from the disastrous 3DEVO tour, in which a backstage tech messed up the click track the band was using, thinking it was out of sync. This messed up the bands performance so much they had to stop, but Alan kept right on drumming like the pro he was.
In my opinion, DEVO wouldn't have been as successful as they were without Alan behind the drum kit. RIP Alan Myers.
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