Big Drum Thump

Drum and Drummer News and Photos

Month: November 2007

  • Motley Crue Drummer Nikki Sixx?

    Nikki Sixx? A little freakin’ fact checking goes a long way.

    (…I know that one day, probably very soon, I’m going to regret having mentioned that.)

    The Indian site newkerala.com is reporting that “drummer Nikki Sixx” has written about his heroin addiction in a new book.

    Now, I know these dudes are in India, and verifying the drug adventures of aged rock stars is probably low on their list of life concerns (what with all the rioting and rigged elections and stolen nukes), but if a drummer like Tommy Lee, the man with one of the biggest back beats and largest cocks in rock, can’t get his name correctly mentioned in a e-rag published half way around the world, what hope do any of us wee bashers have for, well, anything at all?

    And now somebody will have to tell this poor guy not to Halloween in India.

  • Adam Ficek Can Sing

    Looks like Babyshambles basher Adam Ficek has got himself a side project called Roses, Kings, Castles. There are a couple acoustic tracks up on the band’s Myspace page (all instruments and vocals apparently performed by Ficek himself), and they have a kind of undeniable, degenerate charm.

    But probably not enough charm to bed a Kate Moss.

  • Frankie Banali Talks About Kevin DuBrow

    Here’s what the Quiet Riot drummer had to say about the man who helped make metal mainstream in the ’80s:

    I’m at a loss for words. I’ve just lost my best friend….Out of respect for both Kevin and his family, I won’t comment further. There’s going to be a lot of speculation out there, and I won’t add to that. I love him too much.

    Very sweet.

    Check out the complete CNN article for an unimpassioned Quiet Riot primer. You know where to go for the good stuff.

  • Herman Rarebell Is a DJ…

    At least for a few hours. The former Scorpions drummer is taking a turn at platter spinning on this Greek radio station tonight, but fuck all if we can find the link to listen in. If anyone figures it out, leave a comment.

  • Travis Barker Is Not Dead

    A shit load of rumors were popping up on the Net last week about Barker’s demise. A day before his 32nd birthday, so the story goes, Barker was found dead in his garage. A record company spokesman, however, has since confirmed that Trav is still alive and stomping.

    …Of course, that is what the Man said about Paul McCartney too.

    And does this mean we have to stop listening to rumors about Blink-182 getting back together?

  • Sepultura’s Drummer Has Something to Say

    …but we don’t know what the bloody hell it is, because the interview is in Portuguese.

    Oh wait, scroll down a bit and there’s a translation.

    [reading….reading….still reading….]

    Hmmm, we liked it better when it was in Portuguese.

  • Ray Luzier Cooks With Korn

    A maxim: good journalists do research, but great journalists steal from the competition.

    That’s why we are happy to report that Drummerzone has reported that Ray Luzier is sitting on the throne for Korn on the group’s 2008 European tour. As you certainly remember (because you’re all a bunch of drum nuts), Korn has had quite the game of musical drum chairs lately. Luzier will be taking over for the studio-bound Joey Jordison who took over for the fired Terry Bozzio who took over for the hiatusing David Silveria.

    So who will be on the hot seat once the tour is over? Maybe one of you fuckers. Just be sure to give us an interview when you’re famous.

  • Want to Play Drums With Franz Ferdinand?

    Now this is fuckin’ cool. Albanian artist Anri Sala‘s newest exhibit combines the two things we love most: drums and James Joyce. Oh, and Franz Ferdinand of course. Three things, then.

    When you enter Sala’s exhibit, called Ulysses after Joyce’s great novel, you’ll hear the melody of a new song by Franz Ferdinand, also cleverly called Ulysses. Visitors are then led downstairs, given a “score” (i.e., a set of verbal instructions like “bootless” and “lickitup” and”rolywholyover”), and invited to sit at a kit and create the tune’s drum part. The catch is that you have to remember the song’s melody…and follow that verbal score for hints. Every visitor’s effort is recorded, and if you’re lucky, you’ll end up on a CD release of the project that’s scheduled to drop before the Glasgow lads’ official disc.

    Finally. A place for performance-art, Franz-fanatic, Joycean drummers to call their own. The world is complete.

  • Allison Miller Hits More of the Road With Ani DiFranco

    Ani DiFranco, the little punk-folkster that could, is adding more dates to her 2007-2008 tour, and she’s taking Allison Miller along for the ride. If you’ve spent any time in jazz clubs in New York, then you’ve probably heard Miller doing her swing thing…and you might be a little shocked to find that she can also lay down a heavy backbeat. But hey, how did you think she got all those muscles anyway? I saw her backing Ani earlier this year in San Francisco, and getting a chance to hear her live was definitely worth suffering that dude in front of me who was off-key-singing and arm-pit-reeking all show long. Check out Miller’s website.

  • Drum-Off at Guitar Center

    Get your sticks in shape, mutherfuckers, ’cause it’s time again for Guitar Center’s annual Drum-Off. The regional finals take place in just over a week, November 14, 2007. Go here for store locations and contact info. We can’t, unfortunately, give you God’s number if you need to beg for better chops: she’s busy finding us money to help pay for this blog.

    The finals will be held in Hollywood on January 5, 2008. The always-entertaining Stephen Perkins is slated to play host, and we’re hoping that also-billed bashers Brooks Wackerman, Adrian Young, and ?uestlove will get to do some actual drum playing of their own.

  • Decapitated’s Drummer Dies From Head Injuries

    Death metal got a whole lot deader this past Friday (November 2). Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka, skin slayer for the Polish band Decapitated, died from injuries sustained to (ironically enough) his head when the group’s tour bus crashed. Dude was only 23 years old. Rumors are circulating that the band’s bus driver was at fault.

    Apparent moral of the story: employ mutherfucking drivers who can mutherfucking drive.

    Blabbermouth has an exclamatory eulogy from Meshuggah’s Tomas Haake:

    The metal community has lost one of the most talented and skillful drummers of our time! I remember when I first heard DECAPITATED‘s ‘Organic Hallucinosis’ and it just blew me away! What a band and WHAT A DRUMMER!!! Vitek was a true talent and drummer genius and his passing is just so very, very wrong! The future will be a sadder place without your drumming!!! Our thoughts go out to the band and to their families in this sad, sad moment. Rest in peace, Vitek.

  • Babyshambles Drummer Sounds Like a Wuss

    And no, we’re not talking about his playing (which is pretty solid in that rock-n-roll-sloppy kind of way). Adam Ficek, basher for the Brit band Babyshambles, says that Kate Moss had a negative effect on his group’s music. He’s referring, of course, to Moss’ relationship with Babyshambles’ lead singer and lead degenerate, Pete Doherty. The two have spent most of the last couple of years keeping England’s dealers in gold teeth and matching Jaguars, and it was difficult for Doherty to get any quality work done–what with all the court hearings, rehab stays, and the inevitable (and much photographed) drug binges. That is a legitimate complaint. But Ficek just sounds like he’s upset that it was yet again a lead singer who managed to get all squelchy with a supermodel:

    “Kate was detrimental to the band. It was all about the lead singer and his girlfriend, not about the rest of the band.”

    Oh well. If all we got to bang was our kit, we’d probably be jealous too.