They might have been inspired by a Pollock or perhaps just a 3-year-old’s art project, but whatever the case, Tama’s new limited-edition Iron Cobras will get your feet feeling super psychedelic. Street price is $350 for the single pedal and $750 for the double.

Kix made it big in 1988, essentially at the end of the hair metal era, with the album Blow My Fuse. The main single was the incredibly popular anti-suicide ballad “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” but as far as we are concerned, the quintessential, you-must-listen-to-this-now Kix tune has always been “Cold Blood.” In the video for the song, Jimmy hammers it down with traditional grip, one of the few rock/metal drummers who have used it (Steve Smith with Journey and pre-accident Rick Allen with Def Leppard are the others). Looks like Jimmy has switched to matched since then, but he definitely gets points for old-school-cool.

Update 11/20/22: Good news. The band released a statement to Blabbermouth about Jimmy’s condition. He’s stable, alert, and undergoing testing:

“KIX drummer Jimmy Chalfant is awake, alert, resting comfortably and in good spirits in the hospital after collapsing towards the end of their performance at the Tally-Ho Theater in Leesburg, Virginia on night one of a two nights stint. While clearly a cardiac event, it is unknown at this time whether or not Jimmy actually suffered a heart attack. Jimmy will be undergoing a series of tests to determine exactly what in fact occurred. The second performance scheduled for this evening (Saturday Nov 19th) is understandably postponed with a makeup date pending the prognosis of Jimmy’s condition. KIX appreciates the outpouring of love and concern for Jimmy and thank everyone for their courteous understanding in the matter.”

If you love jazz or fusion or movies or drumming education or just drums in general, then you love Peter Erskine, even if you don’t know it yet. He made it into PASIC’s hall of fame back in May of this year, and I’m surprised it actually took that long. Peter has pretty much been a legend since playing and recording with Weather Report in the late 1970s. He now has over 700 albums under his sticks and two grammy awards. You might not listen on the regular to total jazzbo tunes, but you’ve definitely heard Peter playing on the Austin Powers, La La Land, Logan, or House of Cards scores. The dude and his drums gets around.

I saw him live way the hell back in 2009 at the NAMM show. He was demoing Roland’s new (at the time) V-Drums. I’m going to embed the old videos of the performance here. The vid image and sound quality is pretty atrocious, but you can still see and hear how great a live player Peter is (and also how great those early V-Drums were!).

Or less awful?

Music Radar is taking votes for its annual best-metal-drummer award. Crowning a “best” musician in any genre is always a thankless, ultimately fruitless, and sometimes downright dangerous endeavor, but none of us semi-evolved simians can resist a list for long. MR’s candidates are more hit than miss at least, a good mix of legendary and new(ish) shredders, so we tip our sticks to that.

Did your fav player make the cut? I voted for Brann Dailor…because I’m quite old I suppose but also because he’s super amazing and I’ve lately been thinking quite a lot about Mastodon, the namesake band of a certain decentralized Twitter alternative. Voting ends on November 20, 2022.

Candidates for Best Metal Drummer of the Year

• Art Cruz – Lamb of God
• Ben Gordon – Parkway Drive
• Brann Dailor – Mastodon
• Casey Grillo – Queensrÿche
• Charlie Benante – Anthrax
• Charlie Engen – Five Finger Death Punch
• Christoph Schneider – Rammstein
• Dan Searle – Architects
• Daniel Erlandsson – Arch Enemy
• Danny Carey – Tool
• Dave Turncrantz – Russian Circles
• Dirk Verbeuren – Megadeth
• Eloy Casagrande – Sepultura
• Fabio Alessandrini – Annhihilator
• Jay Weinberg – Slipknot
• Jon Larsen – Volbeat
• Marco Von Allmen – Zeal & Ardor
• Mario Duplantier
• Matt Alston – Machine Head
• Matt Garstka – Animals as Leaders
• Max Portnoy – Tallah
• Michel “Away” Langevin – Voivod
• Mike Wengren – Disturbed
• Nicko McBrain – Iron Maiden
• Ray Luzier – Korn
• Thomas Haake – Meshuggah
• Thomas Hedlund- Cult of Luna
• Zack Simmons – Goatwhore
• Zyon Cavalera – Soulfly

The drum has a couple of interesting features that I haven’t seen on a drum-set snare. First up are its “freedom lugs” and claw hooks, which when loosened can be tilted back to release the drumhead. This allows for quick head changes without completely removing the tension rods. Very cool.

The drum also has three different sets of snare wires that can be individually adjusted for different sounds. Also very cool.

Not sure how those two features would actually translate to louder kit playing, but I’m definitely intrigued, especially about the freedom lugs. I would imagine that rock drummers for example have more of a need to change heads than classical percussionists do. Perhaps though the lugs aren’t as sturdy or hold tuning as well for heavy-sticked playing.

Not sure, but gimme gimme.

Drum Workshop is 50 years old this week, and they are celebrating with a bunch of live events in Santa Monica, CA. Because most of us sadly are not in or around that particularly delightful beach-adjacent locale, you can also sign up for live streams of the events. Today’s clinic features DW co-founder Don Lombardi and drum superstars Terry Bozzio and Thomas Lang. After you sign up, check out at the link above the really swank timeline of DW’s history as a drum and hardware maker.

The 50th anniversary drum set is drool worthy as usual (perhaps “DW” actually stands for “drool worthy”?). It’s a 6-piece shell pack made of persimmon and spruce. Sizes include 8″ x 10″ and 9″ x 12” mounted toms, 12″ x 14” and 14″ x 16” floor toms, an 18″ x 22” kick, and a 6.5″ x 14” snare. The shell hardware is an “antique gold” that I really dig. Looks great with the “burnt toast burst” lacquer finish. Only 100 kits will be made, so get your wallet ready.

He died on October 28 from head trauma due to an accidental injury, which is particularly galling because the dude was only 63 and in outstanding shape. Check out his superb playing posture for example.

So I’ve decided to take away the candy bowl this year and hand out homemade copies of Frankenchrist instead. The little knobtards in my neighborhood could do with less sugar and more music-muscle anyway.

Roland turns the big 5-0 this year, and they are celebrating with a new e-drum concept called the D-Flux. The triangular pads look a lot like Roland’s Alpha drums, the company’s first foray into electronic bangables way back in 1985.

The D-Flux, however, will build on all of Roland’s considerable experience and success with the sounds and mesh pads of its venerable V-Drum series. The really interesting part of the new D-Flux is its take on the kick drum—now essentially two horizontal belts that purportedly replicate the dynamic feel of a drumhead.

I’m intrigued for sure. The triangle-shaped pads do make sense in terms of saving space (you can nestle them right against each other), but I still profoundly love the look of Roland’s gold-standard V-Drums, especially the Acoustic Design series. It could just be that my old-ass eyes can’t see the future very well.

The D-Flux isn’t for sale yet or perhaps ever, but it is supposed to be out on a “global tour” where some lucky drummers can get sticks on it.

Roland has also put together a retrospective of their e-drums. Though clearly a marketing piece, it’s still a good read if you are interested in some of the major moments in the history of electronic drums.

More pics and a vid of the D-Flux below.

Followill said the course moved from his “bucket list” to the “fuck-it list,” and then continued to have a bit of understandably snarky fun on Twitter.