I never knew the piano part was Rob, that's pretty cool. I always assumed it was someone else who made the seed because it was called "Drum Song", so I figured he would have given it a proper demo name.
Yeah, but only because there are no other instruments, and it plays nothing but root notes. And someone mentioned Brad during the Faint extended outro... no, just no.
So what? It still has a prominent bass line. I said that because people were talking about how you can't hear the bass or whatever. Where does PikachuFuck in his post say that Rob played the piano on TLTGYA? If there's piano on that song anyway...
Yeah, when I picked up guitar recently (and I mean barely learned anything beyond basic chords, but still) I realized that LP's instrumentals aren't incredibly complex. Of course, others have already said what I think. It doesn't matter what the sheet music looks like, if it makes me feel something when listening for the first time, it's good. That's what music is for, for me at least. Not something to academically study/critique. Of course I can appreciate some huge solo or something, but the lack of doesn't make me appreciate the music any less. They're doing their job by making music that invokes emotion. I would love if their next album was incredibly complex musically and just blew this whole convo away lol.
Every member has his strengths and weaknesses and they're without a doubt capable instrumentalists but certainly not great ones (from what I can tell live). Here, again, I'm sure there's a difference between each member of the band. Dave and Rob f.e. I think are the best instrumentalists in the band, whereas Mike's multitasking is pretty amazing. I think Brad's strengths lie in the studio, though. I cringe everytime I hear that Fain outro.
Having a difficult time finding it, but someone said recently on the forums that Brad's main contribution is probably within the studio. I don't think we'll ever really know the extent of his work during recording, all the focus seems to go towards Mike.
^From what I've gathered from in-the-studio LPTV's and making-of's, he's right behind Mike in being involved with the production. Chester does little beyond lyrics and vocals.
Honestly, it doesn't bother me that some of the band members aren't masters of their instruments. They have established a certain sound within a given song and stuck with it, even if that meant using simplistic patterns and structures. What truly matters to me is the incredibly diverse range and depth that the band has showcased over the years, as this is what keeps me coming back for more of their music. I really do think that LP can be considered genre-less, no matter how simplistic or straight-forward their instrumentation may be at times, and this is something I can appreciate.