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| Modern Drummer Blogs |  |
Jay Weinberg Of Madball
2010-09-03 
Hey, fellow Modern Drummer readers! My name is Jay Weinberg, and I’m on a three-week European tour with the New York hardcore band Madball. With this run, we’ve begun the touring cycle in support of our new record, Empire, which will be released on October 12. In fact, you can check out a video documenting the recording process of the drums for the album at Modern Drummer’s website (Shameless plug, I know, sorry.)
I joined Madball in mid-January, very shortly after the tour I had done with Bruce Springsteen & the E St. Band ended. We began touring two weeks after my audition, with the 2010 “Rebellion Tour” in Europe, as well as a handful of shows in the U.S. while we were home writing the new record. Empire was finished in early July, and we started this touring cycle about three weeks ago. After we get home this week, we’ll be doing a two-week Canadian tour, shortly followed by a three-week European trek with our NYHC brethren Sick Of It All. By that time, the record will be out, and we’ll be heading to even more foreign territories!
This tour has been great so far. Waking up in a different city, with new things to see and do every day, is one of my favorite things—and I sure get a lot of that out here! The shows have been excellent, and the crowds have been responding very well to the new material we’ve been playing. Most days on this tour have had a consistent schedule: Wake up (anywhere between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.), find the backstage, find out what the wireless Internet password is, have “breakfast” (yes, cereal at 5 p.m. counts as breakfast), do soundcheck, and then walk around town!
The sightseeing on this run has been top-notch. Many of the cities we’ve been playing have had amazing churches, memorial sites, and other sites where aesthetic beauty abounds. We had one day off on this tour, between a show in the Czech Republic and a show in Slovakia. We took the opportunity to stop in Poland to go to the concentration camp at Auschwitz—a very heavy and emotional experience to say the least—but a piece of history nonetheless; we were all really glad to have the chance to visit the site. I have no doubt everyone was seriously reflecting on it for the rest of the day that we spent in Krakow, Poland. The area in which we spent time was extremely gorgeous, by the way—one of my new favorite cities.
This touring cycle we’ve begun is great, because it’s chock full of great shows, with barely any days off. We’re able to make these trips worth it by playing almost every day for three weeks straight. In comparison to many other bands that tour seemingly thirty months out of the year, we’re all able to balance touring with our other duties that require time at home. I’m entering my junior year at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. All of the professors and deans (and my class of 2012 classmates!) at the school have really made my touring dreams a reality. Whether it has been with the E St. Band or Madball, they understand that these are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities—that are rooted in my passion for drumming—and have the potential to make this a thing I can do for a long time. With that said, there eventually comes a time when one misses their family, girlfriend, dogs, and friends at home—so these intense three-week runs with time at home/school in between are awesome!
Madball will be releasing video updates from the road (directed by yours truly!) on www.facebook.com/madballNYC every Thursday. Check out pre-order information for Empire on www.myspace.com/madball, and check out the tour dates to see when we’re hitting your town. See you in the pit!
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Ben Hansen of Street Beat
2010-09-01
Hey, MD readers! My name is Ben Hansen and I’m the founder and musical director of Street Beat, a high-energy urban drum and dance performing arts troupe merging African, Cuban, Latin, West African, and jazz concepts and utilizing junk, household items, and found objects for drums and percussion. We also feature modern “street” choreography, including break-dance, hip-hop, parkour, and tap.
Dancing and drumming are the most ancient art forms, and they are absolutely wedded together, two sides of the same thing. We are practicing this primal, tribal art and transplanting it to the modern urban landscape.
I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and started playing drums at the age of nine. I’ve studied with a lot of great teachers, learning many different musical styles and techniques, and also attended the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. I’ve been pounding on things almost since I came out of the womb. But Danes aren’t generally known for being boisterous and loud. They’re famous for being quiet…and melancholy. So, after disturbing the peace and taxing my neighbors’ patience for twenty-four years, I came to America, land of joyful noise.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2002, recording and performing with guys like Grammy winner Robert Reynolds of the Mavericks, guitarist Andy Walo from Junior Wells’ band, and Mitch Perry of Edgar Winter fame.
The genesis of Street Beat was initially as a student outreach project for the Los Angeles Unified School District, designed to teach kids self-reliance and teamwork through drumming. The challenge was that there was no money for drums at all. So how could I do this in a way that would still be fun and exciting for the students? And that’s how the teaching tool of Repurposed Percussion was born, based on the theory that one can make music with almost anything, which is exactly what we did.
The birth of Street Beat as a theatrical act commenced in 2007 when I expanded the troupe to its current ten-piece configuration and took it on the road, touring all over the U.S., including Alaska. We take our drumming cues from cultures worldwide and mix them all into a gumbo of our own. I believe art should inform, but it also ought to taste good. One critic described us as ‘an urbanized journey through percussion,’ which sounds about right, but we’re also a tribal journey through the urban age.
For more on Street Beat, go to www.streetbeattheshow.com or www.facebook.com/streetbeattheshow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsI1AQ9Q0Q
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J.R. Hardee Of Paper Tongues
2010-08-30
Hey, guys, this is J.R. Hardee from Paper Tongues! I’ve been playing with Paper Tongues for three years, but I’ve been tappin’ them old skins since I was three feet tall. I used to drag out all the pots and pans from my mom’s kitchen and make a drumset out of them. Now I play a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute kit, and it’s sweet because it actually sounds like drum tones instead of the annoying clanging of metal on metal. We all have to start somewhere, right?
I didn’t grow up taking lessons, but I had a natural sense of rhythm from my pops, Ricky Dean, the percussionist/BBQ god, and my poppy Gary, the fishing drummer. Poppy now plays steel guitar and is the proud songwriter of hits such as “Margarita Momma.”
Though I never took lessons, I always looked up to and studied the underground hip-hop community, Carter Beauford, and Jeff Buckley’s drummer, Matt Johnson. With all the amazing opportunities Paper Tongues are getting, I hope to truly inspire kids to play drums as much as these players inspired me.
I’m going to exit now due to the fact that I’m writing this on my iPhone and my thumb is getting tired. I’ll post more down the road. Thanks for reading and hopefully I’ll see you out at a show. Play with your heart and soul, stay in control, and rock ’n’ roll!
Photo by Brad Moore. For more on J.R. Hardee and Paper Tongues, go to www.papertongues.com.
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