Good things come in groups, I guess. Flipside Memphis, which is a series of videos about local Memphis music and such that MTV has recently put out, put together a short video about the Memphis Drum Shop. I know we’ve talked about our love for MDS ad nauseum on the show, but I think this video really sums it up. AND, the main narrator is my own instructor, Renardo Ward. Pretty cool. Check it out. Links to the Flipside Memphis site can be found after the jump.
Great news for Jim Petit and the guys at the Memphis Drum Shop! Music Inc. Magazine has named MDS as it’s 2008 Independent Retailer of the Year and ran a long feature article on owner/founder Jim Petit in a recent issue. VERY interesting read. You can download the article itself from the magazine’s website here. Check the links below for more info on Memphis Drum Shop or Music Inc. Congrats to MDS! Best Drum Shop in the world!
Alfred Publishing’s pulling out the big guns this time. With the release of their “Drum Atlas” series of books, drummers can now find a book on specific countries and the rhythms found in those countries. Seems like a pretty cool idea to me. Although… I wonder why they chose India, Brazil, Cuba, and… Salsa… Salsa’s not a country. Although I could go for some chips and salsa right now.
Finally! Someone has published books with drum transcriptions of big name bands and not made it dull and professorial! Alfred’s released two new song books cataloging the drum transcriptions of two rock heavyweights, Led Zeppelin and Rush. I’m interested to see how they’ve notated “Black Dog” for the breaks and “When The Levee Breaks” to see if they incoprorated the delay on the bass drum. When/if you play that particular groove, do you add in the bass drum delay on your bass drum part? Listen back to the track if you’re drawing a blank. Terrific track. Go Alfred!
The first clip shows Erskine playing a more-or-less free form drum solo. It was recorded in 2004 at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). The second video, down below, features the drummer in a trio with guitarist John Abercrombie and bassist Marc Johnson, recorded at NYC’s Village Vanguard. Lastly, the third clip provides a glimpse of Erskine the teacher, as he demonstrates a New Orleans-style groove and solo.
Looks like Alfred Publishing is really trying to make a series out of their On The Beaten Path books. Following up their award winning “On The Beaten Path: The Drummer’s Guide to Musical Styles and the Legends Who Defined Them,” and the associated book on Prog Rock, Alfred’s getting into the metal game with their latest release. I think their next release in this series should be jazz. I think there are tons of guys who would eat that up. Bring on the swing!
Lots of good metal drummers in this book, including the coffee-drinking Charlie Benante. Maybe he and this book can curl up next to a warm toasty fire on a winter’s night with his coffee mug. HARDCORE!!!
Sadly, the good people at TRAPS Magazine have decided to cease production of the magazine. The parent publication, DRUM!, will continue, but it looks like the TRAPS experiment can’t weather a tough economy. This is a shame. TRAPS was a fine publication that really set the bar for in-depth drumming/music journalism. We’ve given TRAPS the love on the show before and we will miss them.
The fellas over at Drum! Magazine have posted a the Bozzio article from their recent Traps issue as a fre PDF download. What are you doing still reading this? Go get it now!
All About Jazz: Let’s start with what everybody wants to know. How did you get the nickname “Tain”?
Jeff “Tain” Watts: Oh, Lord [laughing]. [Pianist] Kenny Kirkland gave me the name. I was playing with Wynton around 1983 and we were driving from West Palm Beach to Miami and Kenny passed a gas station called Chieftain Gas with a symbol of an Indian with a headdress and he said, “Chief Tain, you’re going to be Jeff ‘Tain,’” and I said, “No I’m not,” but then I could not avoid it.
This book looks interesting. It’s a history of rhythm from the Middle East, specifically Iraq. Looks well researched. I think it’s it’s an interesting take on the whole thing. With all the stuff going on over there, it’s easy to forget that this is a country that has rich musical heritage. Definitely worth a gander.
It’s Thanksgiving Break, so eat some turkey with a show from the archives! This show was originally posted on October 6, 2005.
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On this week’s show we discuss practice pedagogy, finding the right teacher, practice journals, and the three (or four) books every drummer should own. Dave is joined this week by Shane and Bryan (and Ian tries to iChat in, but can’t .. boo!) Show Notes
We’ve been tooling around with the stream service, Ustream.TV and we think we’ve found a live streaming solution! Beginning October 17th, we will be offering live feeds of the Drummer Talk Podcast recording session. We typically begin recording around 2:30 (Central), so tune in and get in on the show!
We continue in our mini-series of unlocking episodes featuring Dave on drum kit. This week, we cover tips on unlocking Ted Reed’s classic instructional book Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer (or simply, Syncopation.)
The cheese is the hybrid rudiment of the week, the English Muffin brings the news, Dave reviews the Boss DB-30 metronome Ask Dave covers cocktail kits, but due to time constraints, we were unable to get to have a Drummer of the Week. Show Notes
A funny thing happened when Barker posted a video of himself on YouTube in September drumming thunderously in time with Southern rapper Soulja Boy’s smash hit single “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” Almost immediately, it began to spread virally among hip-hop heads. Fast-forward a year: The clip has been streamed a whopping 17.5 million times, and no one is more surprised than Barker, who says he put it online as a means to a much simpler end.
“You might have heard some of my remixes but never known it was me,” he said one blindingly hot afternoon at his North Hollywood recording studio. “I thought, ‘If I want my remixes to be popular, if I want people to even know I’m doing them, maybe I should use YouTube.’ I never thought we’d get as many views as we did. I was tripping!”
