Category — General Drums

It appears that a Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy” album track will be debuted on the video game Rock Band 2.

“It seems “Shackler’s Revenge”, an apparent Democracy cut that wasn’t among those that leaked a little while back, will come scrolling down the screen this in September as part of the soundtrack to the video game/productivity leech Rock Band 2.”

“According to an unconfirmed tracklist that leaked last week, Rock Band 2 might also contain songs from Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nirvana, Modest Mouse, the Clash, the Ramones, R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, and many more.”

Guns N’ Roses choice of debuting a song on Rock Band 2 is a little weird, but also is smart as people may not have that much interest otherwise. Another thing, I can see playing songs by some of the artists mentioned would be kind of hard on the current Rock Band “drum set”, let’s hope they change that this next time around…

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Zildjian Cymbals, have added Rezo crash cymabls to their A Custom Cymbal Series.

“A Custom ReZo Crashes are now available in 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20-inch sizes, all featuring medium-thin weights, a new bell size and a new Brilliant/Traditional Finish combination.”

The A Custom ReZo Crashes feature a spectacular new look that displays alternating bands of spiral and full lathing techniques while using both Traditional and Brilliant finishes. The traditionally lathed area of each Crash helps to offer an aggressive array of bright overtones that blends perfectly with the instantaneous response achieved by the Brilliant finished sections of each cymbal. In addition, a brand new bell design for these Crashes was created to attain exceptional projection. The total design of these versatile new instruments produces a Crash effect that is high-pitched, musical and truly unique within the acclaimed A Custom range of cymbals.”

It would also be perfect for someone not looking for an overly dark crash cymbal, but still one with a shimmer and consistency to it. These cymbals seem like they will sound amazing, although an MSRP price has yet to be stated. Since they are part of Zildjian Cymbals Custom A line, start putting aside some money now.

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Beck has released a music video for the track “Gamma Ray” from his new album “Modern Guilt.”

I mentioned Beck’s new material here a few weeks ago because the drumming on what I had heard was great. While not typically thought of as a drum-associated artist, the drums sounded full, solid and vintage 60’s. Another reason I was really digging some of Beck’s new material is because of the late 60’s early 70’s psychedelic production and drum sounds. Recently I’ve been trying to find obscure records from this era.

I’m eventually going to listen to the album on vinyl, and will give some more impressions on the drumming here. Until then, check out the surreal video…

Beck “Gammy Ray” Music Video

Happy 4th of July weekend to you and yours.

If you are feeling patriotic tomorrow and this weekend, go pick up some American flag drumsticks and start playing away.

Happy 4th of July to everybody reading this blog. I’ll be back on Monday with more Drum news.

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha is part of a new band/project with Jon Theodore, previously of The Mars Volta.

The band is called One Day As A Lion and is described as “a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask,”

Supposedly the record is an “exploration of kick and snare” which sounds really interesting. If this record turns out to be what I’m imagining (basically De La Rocha rapping over live drums with minimal instrumentation), this could be amazing.

Jon Theodore is a great drummer, as proven by his previous work in The Mars Volta. And I personally think this is cooler than getting a new Rage album. It comes out on July 22nd.

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Pearl Drums is introducing a new drum kit, with new maple shells.

“Our Masters Series MCX 6-ply Maple shell has set the standard for great sound and craftsmanship for years and can be heard on countless recordings by the world’s most legendary drummers.”

“NEW for 2008, MCX 4-piece shell packs can be purchased at an average street price of just $1,500 dollars ($2,499.00 List) in your choice of 5 NEW configurations.”

“The heart and soul of MCX is the 6-ply 7.5mm shell, made from hand-selected choice Maple using our Superior Shell Technology. This offers the smooth round tone you would expect from Maple with even highs and mid range frequencies, coupled with pronounced low-end punch. The 7.5mm shell thickness provides a super wide tuning range; increased resonance and projection all of which allows your sound to be felt as much as heard.”

This drum set looks like a great intermediary step between Pearl’s lower budget models and their higher-end professional kits.  It is great that matching Pearl MCX snare drums are available as well. The tuning range of this kit is also a major plus, in my opinion, for drummers who like to experiment and/or tune to specific pitches.

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While I kind of disagree with Pitchfork Media’s opinions, oh, 98% of the time and their choice of bands to cover…they do some cool things. I guess the site has gotten so big now that they have a lot of priority and access to all kinds of stuff.

Courtesy of “Pitchfork TV” check out Josh Freese totally killing his DW drums, on this live-in-studio footage, of NIN playing their new song “1,000,000″ off of their new album “The Slip.” Really cool…

NIN: Live-In-Studio Rehearsal

This is the first of 3 parts, so make sure to check out the other 2 when they become available.

This isn’t an amazing new piece of drum hardware or even a huge advancement in anything drum related, its just pretty cool (and yes, a little cheesy).

A company called Firestix has created “Light-Up Drumsticks” which are essentially, glow-in-the-dark drumsticks. Check out the page and the accompanying video demoing the product…Firestix Light-Up Drumsticks.

The sticks look really nice in complete darkness, but I can imagine them looking kind of lame at an actual club show. Anyway, cool nonetheless. I wonder about their playability and reliability though…

So I’ve been out of town for the past week on vacation. There’s been a ton of stuff going on…

I will be checking out Russian Circles this coming weekend and there will definitely be a review posted here, and hopefully some live photos. This show should be great and will be the second time I will have seen them live. The first time, last year, the band was just starting to play one or two tracks from their (then) unreleased “Station” album and I only caught 15min of their set. I’m looking forward to this show…

Just a few days after I will be checking out Earth live at The Echo and I will post a review here again, as well as try to get some live pics, if possible.

Some current drummer news bits…

The Foo Fighters played Wembley Stadium in London a few days ago (June 7th), and were joined by none other than Jimmy Page and Jon Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. Dave Grohl manned the drums for one song, and video is available on YouTube. It’s always great to see him playing drums. He didn’t have his own usual Tama drum sets, but instead sat in on Foo drummer Taylor Hawkins’ kit. Check out more on that here…

Foo Fighters & 1/2 of Led Zeppelin

Also, Meg White of the White Stripes “sat in” on a Raconteurs gig two days ago in Detroit. The audience thought they might be getting a surprise White Stripes performance but that didn’t happen.

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Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2008

Produced since 1987 by Modern Drummer magazine, the world’s most widely-read drumming publication, the two-day Festival presents a roster of today’s top drumming talents, representing a variety of popular musical styles. Some offer solo “clinic” performances; others appear “in concert” with additional musicians. All share their talents in an educational and entertaining format that has made the MD Festival a must-see event for drummers around the world.

Dates: Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21, in the Concert Hall on the State University of New York at Purchase campus. See Map

Times: Doors Open 12:30 p.m. Show begins 1:00 p.m. and concludes approximately 7:30 p.m.

The Modern Drummer Festival is a great opportunity to see some of the greatest drummers around in an intimate setting. A lot of the drummers that regularly play the festival are world-class, stadium headlining drummers who will perform and show off a lot of the chops they otherwise don’t get to on their regular gigs. This is also a chance for fans to see, in detail, the drum kits, configurations and other gear these players use.

Click here for a list of the drummers appearing at this years edition.