Category: Drummers


  • Travis Barker Plays “Don’t Touch Me” Again

    Last month, we posted a video of Barker drumming on Busta Rhymes’s “Don’t Touch Me,” but YouTube promptly took it down. It’s now back up on MySpaceTV. Check it out below while you can. The vid quality is a bit poorer than usual, so it looks like Trav is pulling a Gadd by playing with four sticks. Rest assured, however, that Barker ain’t that cool.

    Update 2022: Ah, yes, it is back on YouTube and embedded below for your listening and looking pleasure.


  • Jon Theodore’s New Band

    The former Mars Volta drummer is joining forces with vocalist Zach De La Rocha to form the power duo One Day As a Lion. The pair’s self-titled debut EP will drop on July 21, and if it lives up to the following description, we’re buying two copies:

    It’s a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask.

    The name is taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights.

    It reads: “It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.” This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound.

    Jon Theodore, oh how we’ve missed you.


  • Rikki Rockett Is Throwing Himself an Exoneration Party

    And the dude totally deserves it, what with all the false rape charges, attempted blackmailings, and media fuckups he’s had to endure lately.
    The fete will take place this Saturday (June 28, 2008) from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Valencia, California. It’s free to anyone who wants to show up, but you can make an $11 donation (which in turn will be donated to charity) that will get you BBQ and a raffle ticket for “some awesome prizes.” Naturally, there will be music aplenty, and for any of you still rockin’ Peter Fonda sideburns, there will also be an organized ride that starts at 10:15 a.m.

    [via, of course, TMZ]


  • Josh Freese on Pitchfork.TV

    Pitchfork.TV is still in beta, yet it’s already giving us drum boners about 22 hours a day. The latest bout of speedo stretching is courtesy of two NIN rehearsal vids (with a third to come) that feature Josh Freese laying it down hard and slick. We’ve embedded the low-bandwith versions below. Make sure you’re wearing loose drawers before you get to clicking.

    [Update: Damn it, it appears that Pitchfork.TV is dead. My usual question: what do they do with all the great content when a platform gives up the ghost?]


  • Lenny White: Returning to His Forever

    He charted the Netherlands of jazz/rock with Miles Davis, wailed with Freddy Hubbard, and went out on more than one musical limb with his own albums Venusian Summer, Big City, and The Adventures of Astral Pirates…but nothing he did before or since really tops his main contribution to the world of fusion: his stint with Return to Forever in the 1970s.

    Three decades later, classics from Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior were reborn at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, on June 13, where Lenny and company packed the house. If you’ve been following the reunion news, you probably know that Lenny’s right shoulder and arm have been impacted by a pinched nerve. It drains his strength and requires a scaling back of his classic chops, but his touch and taste have not suffered in the least.

    The show opened with a brief video tribute to Joe Zawinul and Miles Davis, followed by a surprise introduction of RTF by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It was like watching stars step through time, virtually unaged.

    After Kareem had the audience sing Happy Birthday to Chick, RTF launched into a night most of us who’d seen them in the ’70s never thought would happen, with personal and welcome commentary from each player in between songs. Their appreciation of the audience equaled and likely exceeded our appreciation of them taking the stage once more….

    Watching Lenny on the big screens lets you see just how little motion he uses to get such a huge sound. He didn’t need to slam the kit at all to get power out of it, which remains a trademark of his playing. Lenny’s Innovation drums (the current setup included two mounted toms and three floor toms ) had tones as pure as his Gretsch kit from thirty years ago, with the classic cracking snare and melodic toms, and his Istanbul cymbals sounded every bit as timeless.

    Lenny has never been afraid to take chances with his playing, but you could see in his eyes that pacing for the night was definitely on his mind. While he maintained precise focus, his crisscrossing of cymbal splashes still give guys twenty years his younger a run for their money. Lenny’s left foot was pumping the hi-hat nonstop, and his right foot can still make your leg hurt just watching him stomp out 16th notes. Lenny’s interplay with the band, especially Stanley Clarke, was every bit as intense as it ever was, and while the flurry of fills was scaled back by necessity, the dance of sound that sets Lenny’s drumming apart from the pack was every bit as signature.

    Throughout classic tunes that included “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy,” “Vulcan Worlds,” “Sorceress,” and “Song to the Pharaoh Kings,” Lenny spun time as only he can. After a mid-show break, the band returned to showcase each player, and Lenny’s solo was more about timekeeping than any kind of chops display. He’s always been a tasteful player; time has only seasoned him in this respect. And if anyone had any doubt about Lenny’s ability to still kick hand/foot paradiddles in the ass, his reprise of a few classic full-throttle measures from “Medieval Overture” abruptly put that thought to rest.

    After closing with “Dual of the Jester and the Tyrant,” RTF came back for an encore that melded “Dayride” into “Spain.” Maybe the most magic in the evening was a simple gesture on Chick’s part, playing small phrases and having the audience sing them back. For a few moments, you forgot that anything else in the world existed outside the Gibson Amphitheatre walls.

    And one moment that will especially stay in the audiences’ minds came when Lenny White took the mike and spoke directly about how the evening was a testament to the longevity of instrumental music.

    “You all know these tunes. We don’t have to tell you their names. Maybe we can all play music again and take the industry back,” Lenny commented, which definitely got a rise, as did his closing thought.

    “I tell audiences the same thing every night. In an age of boy bands, THIS is a man band!”

    Hell yeah it is. And for my money, Lenny White is still the man.


  • Cosby’s Drummer Dreams Dashed by Max Roach

    Bill Cosby, one of the more famous of the famous people who really want to be drummers, decided to get another gig after he had a gander at Max Roach.

    I finally went to see Max play and he played a song “Parisian Thoroughfare” that Bud Powell wrote….Max sat there so relaxed and playing it like he was wiping off a table top or something. And I said, “No, no. I got to be funny.”

    Yeah, Cos, we’ve all been there at some point. Let’s go have some puddin’.


  • Jason Bonham Would “Do It in a Heartbeat”

    Yeah, you know what we’re talking about: a Led Zep tour. Bonzo’s boy told the BBC today that his sticks are essentially loaded and cocked and ready to rock the fuck out whenever he gets the call.

    Somebody get Plant a cell phone.


  • Tommy and Pam Are Back Together

    Rolling Stone reported yesterday that drummer Lee and bombshell Anderson are giving it another go. Tommy said to the magazine:

    Pamela and the kids have moved in with me….It’s awesome, man. It’s definitely working. You can tell on the kids’ faces—they’re happy when we’re together.

    Whoa, first a Motley reunion and now Pam. Think there’s any hope for Paiste cymbals to wriggle their way back into his heart?


  • No New Band for David Silveria

    Rumors were circulating last week that ex-KORN drummer David Silveria had formed a new group called Satellite Syndrome. Blabbermouth is now reporting that the band’s MySpace page was a hoax and that Silveria is, quite sadly, still out of the drumming biz. According to KORN vocalist Jonathan Davis,

    I just think [David] is done with music; it’s not his passion anymore. It sucks, but hey, he has to be happy, right?

    Here’s to happier drum days gone by:


  • Chad Smith and Chickenfoot

    We’ve known since late February that Chad Smith and the Chili Peppers are on hiatus and that he started jamming with super group Chickenfoot—Sammy Hagar on vocals and guitar, Joe Satriani also on guitar, Michael Anthony on bass, and Smith himself on drums. The jams must have gone well because it appears the foursome are going into the studio to track a real-deal debut album. Hagar says:

    We’ve written eight, nine songs….When people hear the music, it’s Led Zeppelin. It’s as good as that. I know that’s a mighty bold statement….We could rival Zep.

    Hmm. We’re hoping Sammy’s playfully sardonic tone was just lost in translation when he said that, but anything with Chad Smith playing drums will no doubt be worth at least a listen or three. Stay tuned.


  • Keith Moon Isn’t Good Enough…

    …for the English Heritage foundation. Moonie fans have been campaigning for the EH to install one of those blue here-lived-a-great-person plaques at his London residence, but they got shot down. The official response:

    Moon died aged only 32, and many of his contemporaries, including other members of The Who such as Pete Townshend, are still living. Further time should be allowed to pass so he can be considered alongside his contemporaries.

    Fuckin’ what? Jimi Hendrix already has one, and he died at 27. And he wasn’t even British.


  • John Densmore, Jazz Drummer

    The coolly eloquent John Densmore, former drummer for The Doors, has penned an essay about his journey in jazz—from enthusiastic fan to accomplished pro.

    On an off night from the Orbit, a Santa Monica bar gig I got with my very lame fake ID from Tijuana, I stumbled into the Renaissance Club on the Sunset Strip, where Lenny Bruce had performed. It was my first time in a jazz club, and I was ushered to a table in the back behind a pole. I was one of very few white people in the place, and the Renaissance Club was intimidatingly cool. It had an attitude. I hadn’t cultivated one yet.

    Pretty soon I was hitting all the great haunts: The Lighthouse, the Bit, the Parisian Room and Melody Lane down on Adams Boulevard. Some teenagers were dragged to church by their parents to get a dose of religion….I found it with jazz.

    This music has brought me back to these clubs, only this time I’m on stage! It is with great humility that I step onto the same stages that my early mentors commanded. Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Oscar Peterson. There probably isn’t a jazz musician you could name that I haven’t seen play live.


  • Smith, Copeland, and Barker Demo New Guitar Hero Drum Kit

    Game haters, prepare to get that stick out of your bum. Three genuine drum heroes—Chad Smith, Stewart Copeland, and Travis Barker—think GH’s new kit is pretty slick shit, and there’s even a video to prove it. [Update 2022: Alas, the video has been removed.]

    We experienced some server hang trying to watch it (every 14-year-old drummer on at least four continents is clicking that link right now), but be patient: it’s worth the wait.

    Drumming quote of the day: Commenting on the kit’s durability, Chad says in the video, “If it holds up to me beatin’ on it, it should do pretty good.”

    [via Engadget]


  • Rape Charge Against Rikki Rockett Is Dropped

    Happy news indeed. The Neshoba County DA has dropped the recent rape charge against drummer Rikki Rockett because, well, Rikki wasn’t the guy they were looking for. Turns out that a tool named John Minskoff, a convicted felon, used Rockett’s name to convince the alleged rape victim to sleep with him. It also turns out that the woman was planning to extort cash from Rockett by filing the rape charge.

    Sound like a bad Jim Thompson novel? Rockett’s very real indignation makes up for the incredible plot twists:

    I think it was a case where the woman and her husband unfortunately believed they could extort money from me and my band….This is a gross example of people attempting to abuse the law for personal profit. They tried to subvert and make a mockery of the criminal justice system. It is abhorrent and disgraceful….I remain surprised that no member of the educated and savvy press ever googled the name ‘John Minskoff’! Had they done so, they would have found out that in 1996, John Minskoff claimed to have been involved with the rock band, White Snake, when he lured and kidnapped a 15-year-old girl in Reno, Nevada. Minskoff is a violent career criminal and felon and convicted perjurer with multiple convictions who has admitted to impersonating “rock stars” to sexually pursue women.


  • John Dolmayan Talks Scars on Broadway

    A lucky bastard over at Artist Direct sat down for a lengthy chat with ex-SOAD’ers Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan about their new band, Scars on Broadway. Described by the interviewer as the “perfect middle ground between Slayer and The Beatles,” Scars sounds like it’s going to be some serious super-awesomeness for us mere mortals, but it’s just drum business as usual for Dolmayan:

    I’m pretty much always in the zone. If you put me behind a drum set right now, I’m in the zone. When I’m playing, the more melodic the music is, the more I feel it. It just becomes like I’m not even in power anymore. It just happens. It’s just a natural thing that happens, like breathing or walking.

    [via Blabbermouth]