John Bonham's Hot Rod from "The Song Remains The Same" Gets an Update

Interesting article about Bonzo's Andy Brizio-designed custom rod HERE

We Drop Some Links On You!

Going that extra mile to deliver you more useless drum information...

1) Shins drummer Sandoval fired from Shins

2) Ex-Shins drummer Sandoval to open taco cart

3) Jet drummer Cester cuts off tattooed fingertip while cooking

4) Richie Ramone Rocks ...(a symphony orchestra!?!)

5) Max Weinberg passes sticks for Springsteen gig over to son Jay

6) 27 hour and 23 second drum roll sets new world record!

You Look Like You Need Some Bonham

Here's some Zeppelin for you on a dreary Tuesday morning courtesy of Wolfgang's Vault. That would be John Henry Bonham on the drums. Enjoy!

Outbreak @ The Outpost - Stoughton, MA May 10-11

CLICK ON PIC TO ENLARGE IT

Just spent a couple of days working yet again with drummer Erik Perkins and the rest of the jaunty lads of Outbreak. You may remember Erik from such bands as No Trigger and such classic All Things Loud postings as "Smartbomb @ The Outpost 5/19/08"

Yes Erik is one busy fella and this session was no exception. Taking a break from a massive touring schedule, the band dropped into the Outpost to record a new collection of ditties with renowned hardcore/punk rock producer Jim Siegel (Dropkick Murphys, The Unseen, Blood For Blood, Death Before Dishonor). Erik recorded 14 drum tracks in two days, rarely needing more than one or two takes, no mean feat in itself. Add the fact that many of the songs had blistering tempos and you have yourself one of them sizeable achievements. He did the music proud and for my part I think I was able to make the drums sound pretty decent.

What drums did Erik and I make sound decent you ask? Well you got your ubiquitous Eames toms (which are featured heavily on a few numbers), your standard issue Pearl Steve Ferrone snare drum (yes again!), your standard 2001 DW kick drum, and some heavy-ass Vater Fatback hickory logs to hit everything with. Throw in a smattering of fine Paiste cymbals and you got yourself what we in the biz like to call raucous rock and roll.

The New Alibis @ New Alliance, Cambridge, MA

Stopped by New Alliance Studios on Saturday to lend a hand tuning drums for my buddy Jessie for the new New Alibi's waxing. Rock was made.

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show

I drove down to Newington Sunday and spent some time at the Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show. I did lots of schmoozing with old drum biz friends and vintage collectors and did some serious drooling over drums that I wanted but definitely did not need. The kit I almost went to the bank machine for? The late 60's/early 70's 4-piece Premier kit in gorgeous Aquamarine Sparkle at Carter Harris' booth (bottom photo). I love vintage Premier's; they were very well made, the hardware is great, and they usually sound fantastic. Carter was asking a very fair $750, snare included. It was a real test of my willpower to walk away from that, especially since the Aquamarine is one of my fave coverings . (I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing a 14x22" Radio King bass drum priced @ $150, but that's another story)

Ran into my buddy Joe Montineri (third pic from top), one of the first custom drum builders in the industry. In his former role as Product Development Manager at Keller, Joe designed the Vintage Mahogany and Vintage Maple shell lines. He's one of the most knowledgeable drum makers in the business and he helped to pioneer the custom drum industry that has grown so big in the last few years. I thought I knew a lot about what makes drums sound good until I met Joe...

I stopped by the MCD Percussion. booth and checked out some of their beautiful solid shell snare drums. The drum that caught my eye and ears was made from sycamore (second photo from bottom) and has wonderful figuring. Sycamore is a relatively soft wood to make a drum from, so I was surprised by the rich tone and full body of the drum.

The top two photographs are of Jack Lawton of Lawton Drum Company. No, Jack is not a little person, that's an 18" diameter snare drum that was custom made for a customer to replicate a drum used in a Beatles video where the fab drummer is playing a giant kit. It's an oversized 60's Ludwig Jazz Festival snare, complete with Keystone badge, white interior, and muffler. The snares were custom made by Puresound, but the real surprise was how good the drum sounded. It was all I could do not to order one on the spot, just to see the look on the faces of the engineers when I pulled it out at a session.

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ The "House" April / May 2005 Sessions for Stadium Arcadium

After many e-mails from ATL readers, I realized I never actually had made an entry about the sessions I worked on for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so as per your requests, here's the story (four years later!) behind my work on Stadium Arcadium:

Back in April/May 2005 Chad Smith magnanimously asked me to come out to L.A. to drum tech on the Red Hot Chili Pepper sessions that would become the double CD "Stadium Arcadium". The record was being produced by longtime Pepper's collaborator Rick Rubin and was recorded at Rick's Laurel Canyon mansion studio known as "The House", an aging Grand Guignol structure where the Peps had also recorded their 1991 breakthrough blockbuster "Blood Sugar Sex Magik".
I shipped about eight of my snare drums out to LA and we also rented a new Gretsch kit and more snare drums from Drum Paradise. The job itself was one of the easiest ones I've ever been involved with. Rick Rubin runs a laid back session and the band was incredibly well prepared, having done about nine months of writing and pre-production before they set foot in the studio. Chad, like many other great drummers, can make any drum sound good, and he was very good about communicating what kind of sound he wanted for each song. We'd pick out a snare accordingly, sometimes changing up after a first take if we weren't getting the right sound. Standout snare drums were a Gary Noonan custom 5x14" brass snare, a 6.5x14" 20-ply Pearl Reference wood shell snare, my Pearl Steve Ferrone, and a Yamaha David Garibaldi 3.5x14" brass shell drum. I used coated CS batters on most of the snares and Emperor heads went on all the toms.

The whole experience was a pleasure made even more comfortable by my luxurious lodgings at Chez Smith courtesy of Nancy and Chad, who's son Cole was born in the middle of the two month session. The resulting platinum-selling album speaks for itself and went on to win a whole mess of Grammys and other awards. I'm proud of the work I did, but to be honest I could have put up garbage cans and they would have sounded great.

Sadly, my early-vintage digital camera died during the session and I lost a lot of great pics, so these shots came from a disposable "analog" camera my last night on the job.

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show 4/19/09

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show for 2009 will be held on April 19th, in Newington Connecticut. The show will run from 10a.m. to 4p.m. and will be held at The Sphinx Shriners Center. Over 30 exhibitors, consignment area, and dozens of doors prizes. Special guests include Jack Lawton, William F. Ludwig III, Gary Asher, and Joe Montineri. Live performances include clinics by Larry Levine, and Bobby Rondinelli, and a tuning seminar by Jeff Ocheltree. For further information contact Rick Smith, at (860) 523-1850, or CTDRUMSHOW@aol.com. Check out the web site - www.CTDRUMSHOW.com

Square Drums?!?

Has the world gone crazy? Square drums?!?! What's next, shark-shaped guitars? Don't know anything about these drums except that they are square and I want me some. Link HERE

Motown Funk Brother Uriel Jones Passes Away At 74

Article Here: Hard-rockin' drummer was key Funk Brother
The great Uriel Jones has passed. I will always remember Mr. Jones fondly as one of the first drummers to agree to to be interviewed for my first book "Star Sets". His pocket and groove was unmatched and the records he was a part of stand as some of the greatest in American pop music.

Big D and the Kids Table @ Camp Street Studios

Here's a couple pics from the session I'm working on this week w/ Boston's own Big D and the Kid's Table at Camp St. Studios in Cambridge, MA. More info in the next day or so. (Thanks to Sean Rogan for the most excellent wide-angle shots!)

Times are tough, but Links are free...

Drumming in the news:
1)Josh Freese knows how to promote a record!

2) Andy Burrows leaves Razorlight for "personal reasons"

3) Questlove talks about the Root's new gig on late night TV.

4) Lars Ulrich illegally downloads Metallica!

5) Blur drummer to leave after tour.

From My Drum Arsenal: The Raw Brass Snare Drum

Behold my 14x5" Raw Brass snare drum, a one-of-a-kind custom creation that has beaten it's way into many a drummer and producer's heart. The shell came from my good buddy and the Godfather of the vintage drum scene John Aldridge. He had tried to start a drum company to build brass shell replicas of 1920s era Ludwig Black Beauties, but when a problem occurred with the metal spinner who was fabricating the seamless shells, John had to shelve the project into which he had sunk a considerable amount of money. He was left with a few choice shells, one of which he generously donated to me. It sat on the shelf for about a year before I took the time to drill and assemble the drum. I used some 8-hole brass hoops and 8 brass tube lugs I had left over from my Galaxy Snare Drum days and I threw on some 14 strand Puresound snares and a brass-plated Ludwig P-83 strainer that was laying around.

I owned plenty of brass snare drums already so I thought I'd try something different. I had noticed a marked difference between the sound of old brass snare drums compared to newer ones, but I didn't have the patience to age the shell for 75 years to mellow it's sound, so I left the drum unfinished to provide a less reflective surface for sound to bounce off of and hopefully get a warmer tone. Normally, brass drums are buffed and lacquered (or black nickel-plated in the case of the Black Beauty) to produce a lasting shiny finish. I have always liked the patina that certain metals acquire through oxidation over a period of time so I thought the drum might look unique and change appearance over time.

The result is what you see above. I started using it on sessions and the response was overwhelmingly positive. The drum has tons of body and just as I had hoped it was less brittle sounding than a brand new brass snare drum. It is one of my "go to" drums when a focused, bright sound is required.

Here's the Raw Brass snare drum on That's How You Know by Morningwood:

Link Again

Drummers and drums in the news...

1) Motown Funk Brother Uriel Jones recovering from heart attack

2) How Dave Grohl got the Paul McCartney Grammy gig

3) Step 1: Impersonate British Drummer. Step 2: Steal Corvette

4) Taylor Hawkins: 'Dave Grohl is a control freak'

5) Child-Like robot can play the drums

6) Become an iPhone Drummer

Edith at Woolly Mammoth Sound and a Lesson Learned.

I spent the weekend at David Minehan's Woolly Mammoth studio in Waltham, MA working with local Boston band Edith and drummer Scott Rogers. We used the studio's Gretsch Reknown 22x20" (!) kick and 16x16" floor tom, my 13x9" Eames rack tom , a 14x6.5" Yamaha Sensitive Series snare drum, my 14x6.5" Pearl Steve Ferrone snare, and a 14x5" "Raw Brass" snare that I built.

We A/B'd 3 different bass drums and to my surprise ended up using the very deep 22x20" Gretsch, which goes against my predjudice of favoring shallower kick drums (14", 16", or even 12") in the studio. I have had to revise many of my preconceptions over the years, because for every rule I have about recording drums there is always an exception that makes me look stupid. Deeper kick drums are a relatively recent innovation designed to deliver a powerful attack by pushing air down a long cylinder. My experience has been that these drums are all attack with very little of the round tones that define a great bass drum sound. But here's the kicker (pun intended): on any given day, in any given studio, with any given drummer, and any given set of mics, and any given engineer, you are going to get different results and that's what happened Saturday. We tried other traditional size kick drums and they just didn't sound as good as the Gretsch. Once it was miked up it of course had great attack but it also had a nice round tone and was in balance with the rest of the kit. In other words it didn't sound like I expected it to. If I didn't know better and just listened to the results I would have sworn it was a 14" or 16" deep kick drum. So the lesson learned here is to keep an open mind and be prepared to drop your preconceived notions about what works and what doesn't. Sooner or later you will be humbled by the truth.

Louie Bellson 1924-2009

One of the all-time great drummers Louie Bellson passed away on February 14. He will be missed by his many fans and friends in the drumming community. Anybody who ever met Louie was touched by his positive and generous spirit and his willingness to help his fellow musicians. To offer your condolences to the Bellson family send cards and contributions to:

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

What? More Links?!!!?

We got more drum links than Trump's got towers!

1) Bill Bruford retires from public performance!

2) Keith Moon is to be honoured with a blue plaque at the site of The Who's early gigs

3) New Led Zeppelin book.

4) Blink-182 is Back.. sort of.

5) Drummer's freak death by anthrax.

6) Blondie's Clem Burke to research benefits of playing drumming video games.

Happy 80th Birthday Hal Blaine!!!

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree and the world's most recorded musician Hal Blaine celebrated his 80th birthday with a big party at L.A.'s Baked Potato thrown by his daughter Michelle and fellow Wrecking Crew member Don Randi. Proceeds from the soiree went to help create a scholarship fund at the Berklee College Of Music in Hal's name.

If you're reading this blog and don't know who Hal is, shame on you! Google his name and prepare for your jaw to drop. Hal played on more hit records than any other drummer in history and his tasteful, inventive playing have influenced many generations of musicians, including your humble blogmaster.

I've know Hal for quite a few years and there isn't a more generous, down to earth, and downright hilarious musical "legend" around. So happy birthday Hal, and many, many happy returns of the day!

You can make donations to the scholarship by sending a check to:

Hal Blaine Scholarship
c/o Michelle Blaine
80398 Denton Drive
Indio, CA 92203

Make checks payable to “Berklee College of Music”
Make sure to write in “Hal Blaine Scholarship” in the memo field.

Be sure to include your return address (or that the address on your check is current). Michelle will be mailing checks in bulk to Berklee each month and they will mail out formal recognition receipts with tax deduction information.

Link-a-Delic

I'm just getting back into the swing of things after having knee replacement surgery at the end of November. I played a couple gigs last week and the new knee works just fine. Thought I'd celebrate with a smattering of drum related links, cause that's how I single-stroke roll...

1) Wink at the President and lose your drumming gig!

2) Unique art exhibit celebrates the world's iconic drummers in works by 50 artists

3) Buddy Holly played the drums for Dion on "The Day The Music Died".

4) Buffalo Springfield Drummer Dewey Martin 1941-2009