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!

You can join the show by heading to drummertalk.org/live.

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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

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The guys over at Big Drum Thump are keeping up to the minute updates on the status of the plnce crash involving Travis Barker.  Head on over now to get the latest …

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Source: San Fransisco Chronicle

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!”

Read the full article …

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Source: Harmony Central

PRESS RELEASE

For drummers who are serious about becoming better players, the first steps are to study the masters and learn to “play for the music.” Off The Record, by Ed Breckenfeld (Modern Drummer Publications), is an exciting new book and DVD-ROM multi-media package designed to help drummers do both. The collection of lessons from one of Modern Drummer’s most popular columns showcases more than 500 drum tracks by the world’s most important, influential, and inspiring drum artists — defining just what great drumming is all about.

The innovative educational bundle is recommended as a supplement to lessons and self-study for drummers of all levels. It includes a 120-page book with note-perfect transcriptions of isolated drum patterns with in-depth analysis of how they were created to fit the style, context, and structure of the song. It also includes a bonus DVD-ROM that contains nearly 180 MP3 tracks recorded using advanced software and techniques to emulate the sound, feel, dynamics, groove, and intensity of the original drum parts.

Read the full press release …

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Here a slick video of three of modern drumming’s greats duking it out with stick tricks.  The collabo at the end is the highlight for me.

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Source: Rockband.com

If ever a band was tailor-made for Rock Band, it’s the progressive metal outfit Dream Theater. And if ever a Dream Theater song was made for us, it’s their current single “Constant Motion”—a full seven minutes’ worth of monster riffs and tricky changeups, representing this hyper-proficient band at its most aggressive.

Turns out that Dream Theater’s drummer Mike Portnoy (who wrote “Constant Motion” about his experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a Rock Band player himself, and was looking forward to giving the song a runthrough. The genial Portnoy also talked to us about the band’s formation at Berklee, their evolution over the years, and the current status of Portnoy’s second band Transatlantic (a particular favorite of your interviewer’s). And since the cat’s out of the bag by now, we also talked a bit about the earlier DT classic “Panic Attack,” which will be hittng as an in-game track for Rock Band 2

Read the full article and listen to the interview here …

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Source: AllAboutJazz.com

AAJ: Are you still planning a documentary on the history of fusion in jazz?

LW: Yes, that is my intention. I’m compiling interviews, viewpoints, footage. I want to start with Miles and Bitches Brew and go from there.

AAJ: Any plans after the RTF tour?

LW: I plan on recording a new project of my own to be released maybe next year or sooner depending on whether I can finish it in time. I also have a few pop projects I’d like to try to get out. I’m renovating my laboratory so that’s going to take some time. And I’m just going to take some time to breathe…

AAJ: Any words of advice for other innovative artists compelled to search new forms and ideas?

LW: Like the Nike ad…Just Do It.

Click here to read the full interview …

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Leave it to China to put on such a crazy, spectacular display!  Last Friday at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, the opening ceremonies kicked off with a countdown featuring 2,008 synchronized drummers.

While we can’t grab video from the NBC feed, someone who was in the stands has posted a video over at MySpace. 

What’s the most amazing … these drummers are all sync’d without music!

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Drummer Talk returns THIS Friday, August 8, to kick off Season 4.  We’ve got lots of cool things in store for the new season including some new features, more interviews, and more of the same crazy zaniness you’ve come to expect from Drummer Talk!

Tune in to the Internet’s longest running drumming podcast.  And tell a friend!

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In an effort to bring their site to meet the demands of the modern Internet user, Modern Drummer has updated their website with new features.  According to an article from DrummerCafe.com …

These recent developments represent an ongoing pledge to our readers and the drum industry,” explains Modern Drummer associate publisher Tracy Kearns. “Since Ron Spagnardi first began publishing Modern Drummer in 1977, we have been dedicated not just to covering the drumming community, but delivering this information in a variety of ways that serve the needs of players, students, teachers, dealers, manufacturers, and distributors. The digital age is here. Call it revolution or evolution, Modern Drummer continues to be on the leading edge.

Unfortunately there are a few blunders that MD is making.  The site redesign is simply terrible and looks woefully amateur.  Why would a company with one of the best designed magazines have such a sloppy, hacked together looking web presence?  It’s as if the art departments for the site and mag didn’t work together at all.  I feel that any company’s website should reflect the tone, attitude, and style of their physical counterpart, but the new MD.com is nowhere near the polish of the mag.  (more…)

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Drummer Talk now has a Facebook group that you too can be a part of!  If you’re a Facebook user, login, then click on this link to join the group.  Be our friend!!  w00t!

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Our friends across the pond at Mike Dolbear have just posted a cool interview with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer, Chad Smith.  The interview covers his roots, his origins in the RHCP, and moving to California.

What we’re trying to do, is move the whole thing away from ‘what drum sticks do you use?’ type of question. So… what drum sticks do you use?

It’s not working Bob!

Ok, I’ll try again. What got you into drumming?

I started being interested in drums when I was 7, so it would have been the late 60s. I had an older brother who played guitar, he was two years older than me, and seeing as you look up to your older siblings, I wanted to play too. I didn’t have that moment lots of Americans had of ‘ooh, I want to be them’, or ‘ooh I saw Ringo’. So I don’t know why it was the drums themselves, I liked hitting things, normal kids stuff I guess and I just wanted to be able to play along with my brother. So that’s when I started.

Click here for the full interview.

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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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Man, Drum! just loves giving it away!  They’ve just offered a free PDF download of the excellent Lenny White article from the Summer 08 issue of Traps.

For fusion fans, the prospect of Return To Forever getting back together again after all these years (the group dis-banded in 1976) is akin to a Beatles reunion, and for the past few decades seemed about as unlikely. Corea was the lone holdout in recent years. While Clarke, Di Meola, and White had been lobbying for an RTF reunion, the three were unable to persuade Corea to take up the cause, until now.

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