Big Drum Thump

Drum and Drummer News and Photos

Category: Drum News

  • Tommy Lee Makes Up With the Crue

    Hey, let’s hear it for maturity. The latest lawsuit between the Crue guys has been resolved without the usual bout of fisticuffs.

    Last year, three-quarters of the band brought a $20 million case against Tommy Lee, accusing our favorite sex-filmed drummer of focusing on his own career over that of the collective Crue (remember Tommy Lee Goes to College?). Now…it looks like all is forgiven. And though settlement terms have not yet been disclosed, there don’t appear to be any hard feelings.

    The whole band is currently in the studio making a new album and, if this quote from Nikki Sixx is any indication, probably getting lots of complimentary blow jobs:

    I fucking love this new Motley Crue album….Tommy’s kickin ass, Vince sounds insane and Mars is shredding on guitars. It doesn’t feel like one song is better or worse than any other.

  • Kevin Pereira Plays Drums With Coheed and Cambria

    And it’s all thanks to Rock Band.

    For those of you not familiar with the “cable television darling,” Pereira is the cohost of Attack of the Show and apparently a rabid Coheed fan (who isn’t really?). He wrote a piece about how playing Rock Band can actually make the gamer a real drummer and got the chance to put his skills to the test by playing with C&C. Check out his tale here, along with a video segment of his performance [Update 2022: doesn’t appear that Pereira’s blog is up any longer]. Chris Pennie comes on camera about two minutes in. Love his face when Pereira pretty much pulls off the triplets.

  • Bobby Sanabria Has a Lot to Say

    Seriously. Sanabria gets downright chatty and thoughtful about the history and future of jazz in this interview with (who else?) Jazz.com. Choice excerpt:

    …[J]azz was still a viable force to a certain extent and even had a small kind of resurgence in the late sixties, early seventies with the fusion movement, which to me, was an incredibly creative time period. You had certain groups opening up for rock bands, like John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra opening up for Aerosmith. People like Larry Coryell, the Eleventh House, etc. Of course, Miles Davis became the darling of the rock set. Everybody from Crosby Stills and Nash to the Grateful Dead were into Miles Davis after the Bitches Brew album. But slowly but surely the mainstream ties that jazz used to have to mainstream audiences disappeared….This all relates to politics. When Ronald Reagan deregulated the FCC, all of a sudden all of these radio stations were up for sale and Viacom and Clear Channel bought up all them. They made them into pop, rock and MOR stations, over a thousand radio stations. Most of them were jazz and black oriented music stations. That really killed jazz.

    Or maybe just put its head in the noose. Luckily, though, the hangman has been too busy listening to Sanabria and these other dudes to tighten the rope:

  • Tommy Aldridge (Surprise!)

    This should be good news: double-kicking statesman Tommy Aldridge is giving a surprise clinic tomorrow night. The bad news? It’s in London. As in London, England. For the five of you from that part of the world who regularly visit BDT (yes, you five…Google Analytics tells us you are out there), haul ass to The Institute now and get us some good pics. And for the rest of us poor bastards:

  • Yamaha Drums Gets Its Groove on Euro-Style

    Oh, people with passports and ready spending cash. This is good, good shit. Yamaha is taking its Groove All Stars (aka Groove Night) to Musikmesse this year (March 13). The drummers scheduled to appear include Tommy Aldridge, Claes Antonsen, Pedro Barcelo, Tom Brechtlein, Bruno Castellucci, Dmitris Chistodoukas, Michal Dabrowka, Ralf Gustke, Wolfgang Haffner, Arthur Hnatek, Akira Jimbo, Oscar Kraal, Rick Marotta, Christian Meyer, Andy Newmark, Loic Pontieux, Volkan Oektem, John “JR” Robinson, Andrew Small, Erik Smith and Martin Valihora.

    In case you’ve never swindled your way into a Groove Night during winter NAMM, here’s a recent clip of Antonio Sanchez playing Zep’s “Good Times, Bad Times.” You can safely expect this caliber of drumming all night long.

  • Drummer Roy Haynes on NPR

    On this NPR broadcast, the always dapper Roy Haynes sounds as smooth as he no doubt looked. The two-part episode features six songs (or about 40 minutes of music) from his current quartet, Fountain of Youth Band. The recording is impeccable, particularly for a webcast, so get an earful before the Public powers-that-be make it go bye-bye.

    By the way, BDT gives 25 bonus points to the show’s host, Dee Dee Bridgewater, for noting that Haynes plays “on drums…and cymbals.”

  • Julian Dorio Whigs Out…

    Er, not really. I just wanted to write that headline.

    Dorio, drummer for the Whigs (get it, get it?), gave a longish interview to a blog called Backbeat Online. He talks about how he got started playing drums and what his role in the band is:

    I think my job is to make the song as good as possible, and if that means I need to play something simple and staying out of the way, that’s what I need to do. And if it means I need to play something a little more intricate or complicated, I’m happy to do that, too. It’s never about the drums or putting on a show by myself. It’s always about enhancing the song.

    But don’t take his word for it. Check him out here:

  • Dave Grohl for President?

    Former Nirvana bassist and current blogging renegade Krist Novoselic makes the case in this post from the Seattle Weekly. Grohl’s relevant qualifications and experience:

    • “His ability to lead is without question.”
    • “The Foo Fighters have rocked the world with their message of compassion and hope.”
    • “He’s a straight shooter both with drum fills and policy proposals.”

    Hell yeah! Send us a form to sign, and we’ll make sure the i’s are dotted, the t’s are crossed, and there ain’t a hanging chad in sight. Of course, we’re not quite sure how Grohl is going to survive this video, but if Bush can get away with being a rank jackass for eight years, anything is possible.

  • Chad Smith Is Taking a Break

    But only from the Chili Peppers. After getting a fistful of Grammy nominations for Stadium Arcadium and touring over 18 months to support the album, the Pepper guys decided to take a well-deserved year off. Smith, though, is keeping busy by jamming with Chickenfoot, recording with Glenn Hughes, and hanging with Dick Van Dyke.

    Presumably he’ll also have some time now to learn his cymbal setup before doing another promo video.

  • Lenny White Returns With Return to Forever

    Return to Forever—one of fusion’s iconic, most influential groups—is getting back together for a U.S. tour this summer. Mid-’70s lineup, dudes! Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, and drummer Lenny White. All four musicians have kept ridiculously busy since RTF disbanded in 1978, and it never quite seemed like they would play together as that band again. White says:

    We had gone through so many questions…of people asking, “When is it going to happen?” and it would get to a certain point and it wouldn’t go any further. Then things began to change, and people started listening to different kinds of music—to the point where I just said, Man, I just don’t think it is going to happen.” But then we started talking. And I felt that maybe the time had finally become right musically for something like this to happen.

    Hey, musically “right” or not, we are jazzed (and fusioned) and are getting in line now to be ass raped by Ticketmaster. Until then:

  • Morgan Rose Lost His iPhone…

    And almost leaked his band’s new album. He had loaded Sevendust’s soon-to-be-released disc on his iPhone to play for a select few at the recent NAMM show in Los Angeles. All was going well until he forgot the sexy little Apple in a cab. But instead of falling into the claws of some BitTorrent junkie, the phone was found by a Randall employee who got it back to Rose with nary a note missing. Looks like we’ll have to wait until April 1st after all.

  • Taylor Hawkins Has a Grammy

    Congrats to Hawkins and the other Foos for picking up a Grammy tonight. Their CD Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace won for Best Rock Album, beating out discs by Daughtry (huh), Bruce Springsteen (surprise), John Fogarty (…is he still alive?), and Wilco.

  • Lars Ulrich Don’t Lie

    New Metallica is on the way, and Ulrich has spoken a little bit about it to Revolver. Apparently (and somewhat miraculously), producer Rick Rubin has the guys returning to the kick-ass sound, energy, and drumming (!) of albums like Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.

    So does that mean we’re going to feel metal up our collective ass? Here’s what Lars had to say:

    I hate to be that specific, because six months from now people are gonna go, “What the f***? Lars lied to us!” But it feels that way to me.

  • Mike Piazza, Drummer

    Well, he does hit things with a big old stick for a living, but we had no idea that MLB’s Mike Piazza also plays drums. Paiste is apparently a little more up on these things and featured Piazza at a NAMM autograph signing a decade ago.

  • Dave Grohl to Play With Zeppelin?

    After last month’s one-off Led Zep gig, the reunion rumors kicked in with full force, and now Dave Grohl is reportedly interested in taking over the drum chair….Well, yeah, who the fuck wouldn’t want that gig? It seems likely, though, that Jason Bonham will handle the stick swinging duties should Zeppelin actually tour. Grohl himself said as much to NME.com in this interview:

    I am at their beck and call, but Jason should be the one….It should be Jason and everyone knows that, it should be Jason. And Jason’s a fucking phenomenal drummer, you know? And he’s a really sweet guy, he’s a really good guy. They seem like a family, they feel like a family that have been around for a long time.