Big Drum Thump

Rock Band and Guitar Hero not dumbed down enough for you? Just plug in We Rock: Drum King, a forthcoming Wii game for air drummers.

We shit you not. And though “supergroup” may be an overly generous and optimistic description of Bun E.’s new band, Tinted Windows, we can totally dig such unabashedly cheesmo pop. It takes either a complete lack of musical integrity or enormous hairy testicles to play music like this. For now, we’ll give Bun a check mark in the big balls box. Check out the promo vid below.

And, no, we don’t mean his drug-addled life is like a horror movie. The former Guns N’ Roses drummer actually has a role in an “action/horror/sci-fi comedy” film called Dahmer vs. Gacy. In it, serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy go mano a mano to see who is the craziest crazy in the land. Adler’s character is apparently one of the victims.

Awesome. And it’s probably way better than The Rocker.

[via Music Radar]

Peart has donated a signed 14″ Drum Workshop drumhead to help raise some cash for Robert “Bobby” Corrales, a Southern California deputy sheriff who is battling leukemia. The eBay auction is open until March 2, and the top bid at the time of this posting is $511.

Time to smash open those piggy banks, thumpers.

[via BW&BK]

Well, shit. TRAPS magazine, the very sexy and sophisticated sister mag of DRUM!, has ceased publication, an unfortunate casualty of the current economic crisis. The final issue, which features Tony Williams as the cover story, is still in stores and will be on sale until March. Grab it while you can.

[Press Release]

Enter Music Publishing, Inc. today announced that TRAPS magazine is merging with its sister publication, DRUM! Published quarterly since 2007, TRAPS has been widely hailed for its innovative editorial content, including book-length interviews, top writers and photographers, annotated transcriptions and a focus on jazz and rock drumming history. It will suspend publishing immediately. Current subscribers will receive DRUM! magazine subscriptions and be invited to join an upcoming TRAPS web community.

According to publisher Phil Hood, “In this recession it is imperative for us to focus our efforts our flagship product, DRUM! magazine. TRAPS is incredibly popular with its readership, but the downturn, particularly in advertising, makes it impossible for TRAPS to reach its goals in the near term. We are not immune to the forces impacting our advertisers and other publishers.”

TRAPS launched a test issue, featuring drumming great Max Roach on the cover in 2006. It published three issues in 2007, four in 2008 and one in 2009. Other cover stories featured John Bonham, Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haynes, Terry Bozzio, Lenny White, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Steve Gadd.

“We learned a tremendous amount from the TRAPS experience,” says editor Andy Doerschuk, “and we want to incorporate some of that TRAPS approach in DRUM! as we go forward.”

The final issue of TRAPS, featuring Tony Williams, remains on sale until March.

‘Member when Zildjian’s K/Z hi-hats, which combine a light and cutting top cymbal with a heavy and loud bottom cymbal, were the coolest thing on the planet? TRX is trying to tap into a little bit of that mixing-it-up mystique with the introduction of its DRK/BRT hats. This time around, though, the combination of choice is a bright top cymbal over a dark bottom. According to the press release, the cymbals produce “bright, penetrating closed hi-hat sounds with fuller, more explosive open and half-open sounds.” You can snatch them up in 13″, 14″, and 15″ models.