BDK Update

I have noticed a big jump in traffic in the last two weeks or so which is unfortunate timing since I am on the road without a laptop (I stepped on the screen when I was drunk, fyi) and am unable to really post any updates until I get back.

For anyone who has never been here before there is plenty of material to check out in the archive, for those who check every day religiously and want more updates, suck it up cupcake.

but that's not how you play the drums!

Today I set up 6 drum kits, and it got me thinking, remember when you would look through a SEARS catalog, or Zellers, and they always had economy line, barely playable drum kits in them?

Did you ever notice that whoever set them up had obviously never played drums?

Well now when I come across those photos I am going to post them here and make fun of them, because they deserve it.



I mean look at this guy.

He sure is having a good time playing on his brand new Prodigy drum kit. It doesn't matter that the snare is below his knees, his high hats are up to his chin and his rack toms are a foot in a half apart, this is the most fun he will ever have being a catalog model.

At least until that ski equipment shoot next week.

PS. This drum kit costs 429.99 plus tax. It is listed as a Prodigy 5 pc Drum kit with Power Toms. I guess the power costs extra. Do your kid a favor, spend the extra hundred and buy a decent used set of REAL drums.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?

Do I even have to write anything about Mitch Mitchell?

I don't think so.

He played drums for that guy with the fro.

You know. THAT guy.

Mitch Mitchell was just as good at drums as that guy was at guitar, lemmetellyou.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Fire, Purple Haze, Drum Solo.

Sleepless Nights - The Phone Booth Outside The Video Store

I think I've posted enough about other drummers on her that I can self promote without seeming like a jack-ass. The newest release from my band, Sleepless Nights is available for download at no charge on our website.

If anybody out there wants to download it and criticize my drumming, send me a review and I will post it (good or bad, I don't care).

Also, if you live in, or know anyone in the following cities, here are our upcoming tour dates.

01/28/2010 Gus' Pub Halifax NS - 10:30PM
w/ The Hamilton Trading Company & Doug Mason (CD Release!!)

01/29/2010 The Capital Fredericton NB - 10:30PM w/ The Hamilton Trading Company & Wooden Sky

01/30/2010 George's Sackville NB - 10:00PM w/ The Hamilton Trading Company & Wooden Sky

01/31/2010 The Blue Olive Saint John NB - 10:00PM w/ The Hamilton Trading Company & Wooden Sky

02/01/2010 Zaphods Ottawa ON - 10:00PM
w/ The Hamilton Trading Company

02/02/2010 The Mansion Kingston ON - 10:00PM w/ The Hamilton Trading Company

02/03/2010 Maxwell's Music House Waterloo ON 10:00PM w/ The Diableros

02/04/2010 Vinyl Guelph ON - 10:00PM
w/ The Diableros

02/05/2010 The Black Dog Bayfield ON - 10:00PM w/ The Diableros

02/06/2010 TBA Hamilton ON - 10:00PM
w/ The Diableros

02/07/2010 The Boat Toronto ON - 10:00PM w/ The Hamilton Trading Company (CD Release!)

02/09/2010 Green Room Montreal QC - 10:00PM w/ Hamilton Trading Company

Happy Apple - Happy Apple Back On Top

I'm not much of a Jazz-bo. I know the history and I know the classics but stuck up Jazz elitists are one of my top three worst groups of people ever, so its given me and the music a strained relationship. Apart from there being no real major developments in jazz style since the introduction of Avant-Garde and free jazz, it's hard to really make your mark as an innovator, and it's even harder for me to take it seriously, and that's why Dave King is so special.

Not only is King talented and creative, but his playing is just so weird sometimes that it can't go unnoticed. He has the rare ability to play out of time but maintain a steady melody and tone so that is doesn't feel so bombastic and jagged as other modern avant garde jazz players. With Happy Apple's latest album King plays various jazz styles, but he has these bursts of playing that are within structure but out of the comfort zone. It's this weird dance he does, mixing style and grace with zaniness and unpredictability and every twenty seconds I feel like hitting rewind just to try and figure out what the hell he is doing sometimes. Along with his other group, The Bad Plus, Dave King may be the only drummer really stepping outside of his instrument and bringing back pieces of everything in his playing.

Maybe I'm just such a jazz elitist that only the truly original and exciting music finds it's way to me. Or maybe I'm just a cranky old Sonny Rollins fan. Who knows.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Footage from the Happy Apple Back on T0p CD Release, Dave King Drum Solo

Russian Circles - Enter

The best part about Dave Turncrantz, drummer for instrumental metal (instrumetal?) band Russian Circles, is that he rarely sounds like a metal drummer. His dynamic playing gives the songs an ebb and flow that is more akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai. Is it heavy? Sure, it's really fucking heavy, but there is an underlying texture to it all, and that is nearly impossible to do.

The big part of his drumming that stands out for me is his cymbal playing. While most metal guys have two ways to hit a cymbal (the Lars smash or the Slayer ride tinkle) Turncratz can make his cymbals swell and decay within the time of the song, and he uses every section to get his desired effect. Side washes, cymbal chokes, triplets and swells are peppered throughout the entire record along with lots of toms and double kick flourishes. This is thinking-mans metal.

I first heard this record when I was on tour in a bar in Hamilton, setting up my drums. It was a nice vacation from the usual music that gets played when bar staff are setting up (which is usually a cross between Incubus and Incubus). That was over three years ago, and I still listen to this album constantly.

PS. The ending of Death Rides a Horse is probably one the best break down/kick ins ever.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Death Rides a Horse, Carpe (camera on drummer the whole time)

Blakroc - s/t

I could run through my iTunes library and try to come across an album to post here, but I've basically just been listening to Blakroc for the last two weeks. This collaboration between The Black Keys and various rappers is pretty impressive, and I'm not even much of a Black Keys fan. It's hard to describe Patrick Carney's drumming on this record, he's got some great hip hop beats and he rarely gets in fills, but when he does they riff off the vocals really well.

The best part of the drums on this album are the way they sound for each song. They always have a dirty, trashy sound to them, but it's always different. My favorite track, Telling Me Things has the kick drum and snare fairly low in the mix but the toms come through huge at the end of each bar. Coochie (which has an awesome ODB verse) is the opposite, the kick drum is fairly prominent and the snare is huge and snappy. Hip hop is as much about how the beats sound as it is about the actual beats. When you have Rap/Rock band collaborations that's the one thing that always gets ignored, but thankfully attention has been paid to the sounds.

Since this record has rappers from every aspect of Hip Hop there is a nice mix of smoother, laid back tracks (like the Mos Def ones) and then there is harder edged verses by guys like Billy Danze from MOP and the aforementioned ODB verse.

Finally I can say I listen to Rap Rock collaborations without people assuming I mean Limp Bizkit.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Hoochie Coo. Since there is only one video of them playing live so far, let's reminisce with some ODB videos. Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Baby I got Your Money.

Deep Purple - Machine Head

When I was 20 years old, I had just moved to Halifax and was starting to play in bands and try to get comfortable and develop my own style. When Ian Paice was 20 years old, he joined Deep Purple, and by the time he was 22 in 1970, Deep Purple was on it's way to being a massively important band. Finally, at age 24 (my current age) they released Machine Head, their most impressive and popular album to date (and no, it's not just because of Smoke On The Water). If I was to look at Ian's life in comparison to mine, I would probably pack it in, he had accomplished more by my age than I probably ever will. Hell, he only started to play the drums when he was fifteen, three years later than me. Things are not coming up in my favor.

Ian had a certain natural talent that takes drummers a step above the rest. Dave Grohl has it, ?uestlove has it, and Paice definitely has it. Listen to Highway Star and imagine being in that era. It's faster, denser, and way more powerful than any rock music that had come before it, and Paice is the driving force behind it. He starts Pictures Of Home with triplet tom/snare rolls, plays around with a straight rock beat in Space Truckin' (possibly the best song title of the 70's) and gets in a little jazzyness with Lazy.

Paice is now the only remaining original member left in Deep Purple, and that makes total sense to me. If I had written the parts to these songs I would want to keep playing them until I was dead.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Highway Star, Space Truckin, Lazy