Big Drum Thump

Drum and Drummer News and Photos

  • Wii Game for Air Drummers

    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.

    Now this guy can look even more jackass-y:

  • Bun E. Carlos Forms Supergroup With Hanson Vocalist

    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.

  • Steven Adler Is in a Horror Movie…

    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 though it prob won’t make as much money as The Rocker, it might just be more (unintentionally) hilarious.

  • Signed Drumhead From Neil Peart on eBay

    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.

  • TRAPS Magazine Is Dead

    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.

  • TRX Offers New Hi-Hats

    ‘Member way back in the ’90s 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 TRX, 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.

  • New KISS Record on the Horizon?

    Not so fast, friends. You’re going to have look somewhere other than KISS for your fix of old-dude-rock, at least for the time being. According to drummer Eric Singer in the video below, the band doesn’t yet have definite plans to enter the studio, despite persistent rumors.

  • Josh Freese Is an Awesome Drummer

    But he’s also pretty friggin’ hilarious. We told you about his upcoming solo album, but we neglected to mention some of the premium packages he has put together for those of you with enough scratch. Here they are, in full tongue-and-cheek glory:
    $7

    • Digital download of Since 1972, including 3 videos

    $15

    • CD/DVD double-disc set
    • Digital download

    $50

    • CD/DVD double-disc set
    • T-shirt
    • “Thank you” phone call from Josh for buying Since 1972. You can tell him what you like about the record that you purchased, or what you thought sucked. Ask whatever you want, like “Is Maynard really THAT weird?” or “Which one of Sting’s mansions has the comfiest beds?” or “Are Devo really suburban robots that monitor reality or just a bunch of dads from Ohio?” or “Why don’t the Vandals play more stuff off the first record?” It’s your 5 minutes to yack it up. Talk about whatever you want.

    $250 (limited edition of 25)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Signed drum head and drumsticks
    • Go on a lunch date with Josh to PF Changs or The Cheesecake Factory (whatever you’re into).

    $500 (limited edition of 15)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Signed cymbal and sticks
    • Meet Josh in Venice, Calif., and go floating together in a sensory-deprivation tank (to be filmed and posted on YouTube).
    • Dinner at Sizzler (get your $8.99 steak and “all you can eat” shrimp on)

    $1,000 (limited edition of 10)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Signed cymbal, drum head, and drumsticks
    • Josh washes your car OR does your laundry … or you can wash his car.
    • Have dinner with Josh aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.
    • Get drunk and cut each other’s hair in the parking lot of the Long Beach courthouse (filmed and posted on YouTube, of course).

    $2,500 (limited edition of 5)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • Get a private drum lesson with Josh, or for all you non-drummers, have him give you a back and foot massage (couples welcome).
    • Pick any 1 member of the Vandals or Devo (subject to availability) to accompany you and Josh to either the Hollywood Wax Museum or the lunch buffet at the Spearmint Rhino.
    • Signed DW snare drum
    • Take 3 items of your choice out of his closet (first come, first serve).
    • Change diapers and make bottles with him for an afternoon (after hitting the strip club).

    $5,000 (limited edition of 3)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Josh writes a song about you and makes it available on iTunes.
    • Co-direct a video with him for the song about you and throw it up on the YouTubes.
    • Josh gives you and a friend a private tour of Disneyland.
    • Get drunk together. If you don’t drink, we can go to my dad’s place and hang out under the “Tuba tree”.
    • Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam will send you a letter telling you about his favorite song on Since 1972.

    $10,000 (limited edition of 1)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Signed DW snare drum from A Perfect Circle’s 2003 tour
    • Josh gives you a private drum lesson OR his and hers foot/back massage (couples welcome, discreet parking).
    • Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner.
    • Josh takes you and a guest to Club 33 (the super-duper exclusive and private restaurant at Disneyland located above Pirates of the Caribbean) and then hit a couple rides afterward (preferably the Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror).
    • At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours….take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please.

    $20,000 (limited edition of 1)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • A signed drum from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour
    • Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and Josh take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube).
    • Josh gives you a tour of Long Beach. See his first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd Street where his buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up tile just weeks before joining Nirvana. See the old Vandals rehearsal spot, the liquor store he got busted at using a fake ID when he was 17 (it was Dave from the Vandals’ old ID). Go check out Snoop Dogg’s high school. For an extra 50 bucks see where Tom and Adrian from No Doubt live. For another $25 he’ll show ya where Eric from NOFX and Brooks from Bad Religion get their hair cut.
    • Spend the night aboard the Queen Mary and take the “Ghosts and Legends” tour. (Separate rooms … no spooning.)
    • Josh writes 2 songs about you and both are made available on iTunes and appear on his next record (you can sing back up on ‘em, clap, play the drums, triangle, whatever).
    • Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again … couples welcome and discreet parking available).
    • Pick any 3 items out of Josh’s closet.

    $75,000 (limited edition of 1)

    • Signed CD/DVD and digital download
    • T-shirt
    • Go on tour with Josh for a few days.
    • Have Josh write, record, and release a 5-song EP about you and your life story.
    • Take home any of his drum sets (only one, but you can choose which one).
    • Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborghini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while.
    • Josh will join your band for a month…play shows, record, party with groupies, etc.
    • If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4-day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm).
    • Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here).
    • If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a U.S. resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks.
    • Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robins place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna.

  • Get a Free Rack Tom From Ludwig

    In honor of its 100th-anniversary year (and perhaps in concession to depression-era economics), Ludwig is announcing the “6/4/5 Program,” which allows up-and-coming players without a whole lot of cash to get a bigger kit. For a limited time, all new Epic, Element Lacquer, and Element series 5-piece sets will include an additional rack tom for free. Three “6/4/5” shell packages are available in each series, with MSRPs ranging from $755 for the Element series, $1,045 for the Element Lacquer, and $1,270 for the Epic line.

  • Josh Freese About to Release Solo Album

    Yep, Mr. Freese is taking the solo plunge for the second time. On March 24, he’ll release a new album, Since 1972, as a digital download on his site; a physical product (can never have enough coasters, eh?) will be available a few weeks later. Freese will be handling drums, vocals, and nearly every other instrument as well.

    Why? Because he is that bad a bad-ass.

  • Steven Adler Gets a New Drum Set

    We knew all that face time on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House was going to pay off for Steven: he just scored (err…um…) a new kit courtesy of Rikki Rockett’s Rockett Drum Works.

  • Who Played Drums in Foreigner?

    Definitely not some dude named Corey James, a homeless, transient fellow who convinced a chick he was the drummer for Foreigner, promptly stole her Corvette, and then crashed it.

    Seriously.

    Why he thought Foreigner was the way to go is beyond us. Everyone knows that women who own Corvettes totally dig Night Ranger. If he had claimed to be Kelly Keagy and just showed her his awesome sweatbands, she would have simply handed the keys over. And perhaps her virginity to boot.

  • Drummer Louie Bellson Has Died

    Elder drumming statesman, double bass pioneer, all-around great showman, and a totally nice dude, Louie Bellson died two days ago at the age of 84. Click on over to the Telegraph for an excellent obituary on this excellent drummer. Condolences and cards, should you wish to send any, can be addressed as follows:

    Mrs. Louie Bellson
    c/o Remo, Inc.
    28101 Industry Drive
    Valencia, CA 91355

  • Gretsch Updates Renown Drum Set Configurations

    [Press Release]

    Gretsch has updated its popular Renown series kit configurations to appeal to drummers looking to step into a high-performance kit at a moderate price. Shell packs include a bass drum, toms, and floor tom. Add-on snare drums (14″ x 5″ and 14″ x 6.5″) will be offered in all current Renown finishes. Renown will continue to feature 6-ply maple formula shells, 30-degree bearing edges, Silver Sealer shell interiors, die-cast hoops, GS-9025 hinged tom brackets, and 12.7mm floor tom legs with chambered rubber feet.

    All models are available in the following finishes: Autumn Burst (AB), Cherry Burst (CB), Slate Silver Sparkle (SSL), Deep Inca Gold Sparkle (DIGS).

    RN-F604 – 4pc Groove Shell Pack
    Sizes: 20″ x 16″, 10″ x 8″, 12″ x 9″, 14″ x 14″
    Retail price: TBD

    RN-E824 – 4pc Euro Shell Pack
    Sizes: 22″ x 18″, 10″ x 8″, 12″ x 9″, 14″ x 14″
    Retail price: TBD

    RN-R643 – 3pc Rock Shell Pack
    Sizes: 24″ x 16″, 13″ x 9″, 16″ x 16″
    Retail price: TBD

  • Gretsch New Classic Series Available in Satin Natural Finish

    [Press Release]

    Gretsch’s New Classic series expands its finish offerings with a new Satin Natural finish option for all drum set and snare models for 2009. Classic and clean, the Satin Natural finish complements New Classic’s retro look and appeal. The New Classic series includes proportionate shells, which increase in thickness as shell diameters increase to give a full, balanced tonality across the entire drum set. Drum hardware appointments include vintage-styled tube lugs, the very low mass “ITS” integrated tom suspension system, and the 9025 hinged tom and floor tom leg brackets. Die-cast hoops and Silver Sealer shell interiors are also featured in the New Classic series.