Todd Trainer is an American musician who was the drummer for the band

Shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female Kerria lacca, lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. Chemically, it is mainly composed of aleuritic acid, jalaric acid, shellolic acid, and other natural waxes. It is processed and s ...

. He also performs as a solo artist under the name Brick Layer Cake. He previously played drums for the bands

Breaking Circus Breaking Circus was a post-punk band from the 1980s, based in Chicago and later Minneapolis, founded by guitarist and vocalist Steve Björklund. History Björklund had played guitar and sang for Chicago punk band Strike Under after a short stin ...

and Rifle Sport, and he played drums with Scout Niblett in 2005.

Personal life

Trainer resides in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota and maintains close ties to his parents and sister Terri. His

Italian greyhound The Italian Greyhound or Italian Sighthound () is an Italian dog breed, breed of small sighthound. It was bred to hunt European hare, hare and European rabbit, rabbit, but is kept mostly as a companion dog. History Small dogs of sighthound t ...

Uffizi inspired the title of Shellac's fourth studio album '' Excellent Italian Greyhound''. He and his dog, along with his band Shellac, were featured in an episode of '' Dogs 101'' in 2009 centered on Italian Greyhounds.

Drumming style

Critics generally have favored Trainer's primitive approach to rock drumming. A review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' of a 2001 Shellac performance described the "stubborn crack and thud of Todd Trainer's drums", and critic Brent DiCrescenzo wrote that "Trainer beats his drums so primally, you'd swear he's only wearing a loincloth." A review in ''Spin'' of the Shellac album '' Terraform'' declared that Trainer "gracefully resurrects the lost art of the ohn Bonham stomp".Review of ''Terraform'' by Shellac,

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

, May 1998, p.140, 7/10 rating.

Brick Layer Cake

Brick Layer Cake is the solo project of Todd Trainer, who plays every instrument and sings in a deep, spoken word monotone. The music of Brick Layer Cake features very slow tempos and "drone-like" compositions, which Steve Albini described as follows: “Think of Nick Drake on downers fronting

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

, if Black Sabbath played only the good parts of their songs."

Discography

*''Eye for an Eye - Tooth for a Tooth'' (

Ruthless Records Ruthless Records was an American independent record label founded by Eric "Eazy-E" Wright and Jerry Heller in Compton, California on March 3, 1987. All of the Ruthless trademarks have been owned by Comptown Records, Inc. since 1987. Several ...

) 1990 *''Call It A Day'' (

Touch and Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. To ...

) 1991 *''Tragedy Tragedy'' (Touch and Go Records) 1994 *''Whatchamacallit'' (Touch and Go Records) 2002

References

External links

Touch and Go Records Artist PageMyspace Band Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trainer, Todd Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male drummers Drummers from Minneapolis Shellac (band) members American punk rock drummers