Living Legends Music has posted a cool 8 part interview with Dream Theater drummer, Mike Portnoy, on their YouTube channel.  The interviews discuss the beginnings of Dream Theater, to the creative process, to artistic fulfillment.

Here’s Part 1.  For more, check out their channel.

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Source: AP | Big Drum Thump

It appears the retail giant, Best Buy, wants in on the music retail business and plans to start offering gear at their stores.

Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.

“We’re not just extending the shelf space in the store, we’re creating a designated area specifically for this experience,” said Kevin Balon, the company’s vice president of musical instruments. “And we’re trying to create an authentic and genuine musical instrument store look and feel inside of Best Buy.”

I don’t know about you, but I think this is an awful idea and will be a losing proposition for the yellow-tagged juggernaut.  I just don’t see me walking into Best Buy to drop $5k on a DW kit from some part-time high school kid when I’d MUCH rather go to a real music store and talk to drum professionals who can really take care of me.

I can see mom and dad getting their kid’s Christmas drumset there, but no real serious musician would buy into this.  The only real department that would be a logical benefit for Best Buy would be pro audio because it lines up alrady with their existing market base as an electronics retailer.

Oh, and I’m sure Guitar Center is worried about this.

Filed under: Gear, News, Opinion | 2 Comments »

In what seems like a “why did they wait so long” kind of story, Vic Firth has recently unveiled a new Lenny White Signature stick to correspond with White’s reunion with Return 2 Forever and their tour.

The stick is 16″ long and .580″ in diameter - between and 5A and 5B.  Think Erkine ride stick with a beefier tip.

There are lots of cool videos and more over at VF.com’s Lenny White page.

Filed under: Artists, Gear, News | 2 Comments »

Source: Gigwise.com

Cream bassist Jack Bruce has sparked rumours that the band may reunite this autumn for a special one off show in London.

In an interview with Billboard, Bruce said that he and Eric Clapton are expected to attend the Zildjian Awards at the Royal Festival Hall in October to see drummer Ginger Baker receive his Drummer Achievement honour.

“‘Cause I’m only the bass player, I can’t say for sure. I know there’s a good chance we may play at that event … but I don’t want to overstate it and make it into something it isn’t,” he said.

Read the full story …

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PRESS RELEASE

The Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) will take place in Austin, Texas from November 5 – 8, 2008. For the second time in the event’s history, Austin will play host to more than 7,000 drummers and percussionists from around the world at the Austin Convention Center and Hilton Hotel.

PASIC is the world’s largest and most prestigious drum and percussion gathering that features more than 130 events on 13 stages with the leading artists from around the world in the percussion community. Session topics span a variety of areas including drumset, symphonic, marching, recreational, world and keyboard percussion.

“The Percussive Arts Society and the City of Austin are very excited that we are bringing our 33rd annual convention back to the Austin Convention Center,” states PASIC Director Jeff Hartsough. “If PASIC 2006 is any indicator for what to expect this year, we have the potential to set an all new record for both attendance and exhibitors; add in the incredible line up of artists and PASIC 2008 is no doubt going to be the largest and best convention ever!” (more…)

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According to this article from CBCnews.ca, Clem Burke and other drummers had their vitals monitored as they played and, in Burke’s case, “[his heart rate readings] could have been [that of] a premiership footballer”.  The full details of the Clem Burke Drumming Project study, conducted by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Chichester, are to be released this Monday (28 July, 2008), but the comparisons between sport and drumming seem quite startling.

This is something I think we’ve always known, but it’s nice to see a study that gives drummers their due as performers, whether musical or athletic.

Filed under: Education, Musicianship, News, Randomness | No Comments »

Drum! Digital has posted the free, digital version of its May 2008 issue.  This issue features R.E.M. drummer, Bill Rieflin, as well as a drum teachers roundtable.  Good stuff .. and it’s FREE!

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Hello, hello, hello!  As many of our listeners/readers know, we’ve been out of the country almost the entire Summer doing various and sundry things all around Europe.  Well, you’ll all be glad to know that we’ll be back on the air in August with a brand new season of Drummer Talk to quench your drumming thirst!  Until then - Auf Wiedersehen!!!

Filed under: News, Randomness | 3 Comments »

Carmine Appice (pronounced a piece) the man, the myth, the legend, the hair, the mustache… you get it all in Carmine Appice: Drum Master Class. Carmine Jumps straight into the teaching as soon the video begins and the topic is double bass shuffles. He demonstrates a basic double bass shuffle and then goes through some ideas about how spice up the basic shuffle anyway you want.

The cool thing about this video is that they have a transcription that pops up on the screen when Carmine is going to play something. The transcription is written in white which is usually dumb because it’s usually hard to see against most backgrounds. It’s very easy to see in this vid, so thumbs up there. He then demonstrates a cool lick between the hands and feet that you can throw in about anywhere to give it a semi-boogalooish feel. Good stuff so far.

He then moves on into drags and how he applies them in some of his rhythms. He demonstrates drags on both his hands and feet. Alot of this stuff is in his realistic rock book and DVDs so bear that in mind if you already own some of his other stuff. however the stuff he covers in here is the stuff that modern rock drumming is made of. (more…)

Filed under: Music/DVDs, Reviews | No Comments »