Drums and Anthrax

After reporting on this earlier, it seems that MORE anthrax-related drum scares are happening. Seriously people, since when do West African drums become such a threat to national security?

Drummer Spotlight: Travis Barker

It might be cheesy to make a sentimental entry about a man who just recently escaped death by a thread, but there’s no denying Barker’s talent as a drummer. Here’s a brief primer to what many dismiss as “that blink 182 drummer” and the star of his own reality show.
A drummer known for his loudness, [...]

Slapstik – New Stick

The Slapstik company has developed a new stick that’s said to revolutionize drumming. The stick has a flexible tip that – I guess it’s the drumstick equivalent of the double bass pedal. According to the site, “The Slapstik® opens up a wide range of drumming methods that are simply impossible to execute with a traditional [...]

Product Spotlight: DW double-bass pedal

You know that Drum Workshop’s doing something right when even anti-double bass pedalists think that the DW pedal cool.

Before this revolutionary design, double bass players had the reputation of being overindulgent, arrogant and show-offy. Since DW released this, drummers have been able to explore the sound provided of two double basses without actually having two–thereby [...]

100 Hours of Drumming

In a fascinating exercise of human endurance, Allister Brown played drums for 100 consecutive hours. Although he was allowed a five minute break for every hour he played, I can’t imagine the difficulty of this feat. If anyone has ever played in a band, even one hour behind the set is pretty exhausting.
Here’s the [...]

Acoustic vs. Electric

A lot of people ask me about my opinion regarding electronic drums and it’s this: I generally advise against them.
Now, before all the electronic-drummers get all uppity, I must say that playing on electronic drum sets is fun as hell. With a good one, you can literally have hundreds of different sets in one, interchangeable [...]

Copeland

A recent Police performance in my hometown has prompted me to reflect on Stewart Copeland, one of the best drummers in rock history.
It seems that there are unofficially two schools of influence for the modern rock drummer: Led Zepplin’s John Bonham and Copeland. Drummers in the Bonham tradition prefer hard-hitting, all out rocking, while Copeland-style [...]

Listen for the cue

What do you call a drummer that just broke up with his girlfriend?
-Homeless
How can you tell if a drummer’s knocking at your door?
-The knocking speeds up.
As much as it pains me to say it, I love jokes about drummers. Not that I think they’re true (although there are always the select few who fit the [...]