Big Drum Thump

That’s right, thumpers. Time to whip your sticks in shape and woodshed the shit out of your best solo: Guitar Center’s annual Drum-Off is back! Here are the sign-up details straight from the press release:

Sign-ups for the preliminary rounds of the Drum-Off competition begin August 1, and run on a “first-come, first-serve” basis, with a maximum of 30 registrants per store. Contestants must sign up with a Guitar Center drum department associate at their local store—no phone or Internet sign-ups are available.

Local competitions start September 23 in all 214 Guitar Center locations from nationwide. One winner from each store will be chosen to move up to district competitions (24 locations), followed by regionally hosted semi-finals (6 locations) and culminating in the final championship Drum-Off in Los Angeles in January of 2009 (exact date and venue TBD).

COMPETITION DATES
STORE PRELIMS: September 23, September 30, and October 7
STORE FINALS: October 14
DISTRICT FINALS: November 4
REGIONAL FINALS: December 2
GRAND FINALS: January 2009

And you can have them too. We’ve kinda bagged on drummers in the past for sticking their names to a clothing line, but ?uestlove, aka Mr. Chillacious, can do no wrong as far as we’re concerned. His Nike signature shoes are the kind of ugly that goes in a circle and somehow miraculously becomes cool. Pick up a pair in New York tomorrow for $175.

…Well, not us specifically, but anyone who peruses The Deftones’s blog. Here’s the straight poop about the band’s upcoming album:

Hey all, we’re almost finished tracking our record up here at The Spot and we’ll head up to Terry’s studio in Seattle next month to add the final touches and begin mixing. We’re all excited about how this record is taking shape, and can’t wait to share it with all of you! In the meantime, we want to let our friends in the Phoenix area know that we’ll be headlining KUPD’s End of Summer Scorcher Sept 20th in Peoria, AZ with our good friends Alice In Chains. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, AUG 2nd at all local AZ Club Tattoo locations. They’ll also be available online beginning Monday, AUG 4th via Tickets.com. Check it out at KUPD.com.

[via Rhythm]

Aww yeah, a new Vadrum video! And this time it’s doubly freakin’ sweet because Jack Black is in it.

[via Meinl's blog]

We promise this isn’t a site devoted solely to his Travness, but dude is constantly in the news lately. He recently spoke with Metromix Los Angeles about the X Games and his future drumming plans. Surprise, surprise: Blink-182 ain’t much in the cards.

You know, to be honest with you, I haven’t spoken to Tom [DeLonge] in five years. I speak to Mark [Hoppus] every day, he’s one of my greatest friends, so…that’s the status of that. I think everyone would have to be friends, and I think we’d all have to want to do it in order for it to happen.

[via The Most Useless Blog Ever]

It’s official: the independent store for musical instruments is effectively dead.

Best Buy will be joining Guitar Center as one of the planet’s largest retailers of gear, including drum kits. By the end of the year, Best Buy plans to have as many as 85 music centers inside its stores. According to the Associated Press:

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….[D]rum kits will retail for as much as $5,000.