April 2019 Issue – Volume 43 • Number 4
On 01st Apr 2019
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Articles in April 2019
Big Brother and the Holding Company’s “Piece of My Heart”
San Francisco circa 1967/68 was home to some of the most successful and forward-thinking rock bands of the time, including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring singer Janis Joplin.…
Long Live Rock!
For years, we rock ’n’ roll fans have had to put up with endless proclamations that the music we love is on the outs. Sure, the charts make it clear that dance and pop music commands the masses’ attention these…
The Hollywood Custom and Vintage Drum Show
The Hollywood Custom and Vintage Drum Show Classic and Modern Drumming Dazzles at the Latest Edition of the Perennial Festival Since its inception nearly two decades ago, the Hollywood Custom and Vintage Drum Show has built up a reputation as…
Ty Segall and GØGGS’ Charles Moothart
There are endless crazy things that happen out there,” Charles Moothart muses while attempting to recall a tour tale suitable for sharing with the general public. “I think the better story is how all these events build up to those rare,…
The Transformer
This creative yet compact setup comes to us from Westminster, California’s Jimmy Tran, and it marks the second time that one of the drummer’s kits has appeared in MD’s featured spotlight. Tran, who plays regularly at the Disneyland Resort in…
Five-A-Diddles
Exploring Paradiddles in Quintuplet Groupings Throughout their careers, great drummers such as Zigaboo Modeliste, David Garibaldi, and Dave Weckl have opened our imaginations to the possibilities of paradiddles and their inversions. Is there anything this rudiment can’t do? I’d describe…
New Gear from Vic Firth, Tama, Mapex, CruzTools, Los Cabos, Vater, LP, Gretsch, and more.
Vic Firth VicKick Bass Drum Beater This beater, developed in collaboration with jazz great Peter Erskine, is designed for drumset and cajon players. A large maple shaft and smaller 1.75" felt ball create an even distribution of weight from top…
Porter & Davies BC-X Bass Drum Monitoring System
An ultra-compact yet powerful tactile throne kicker for everyday use in clubs, on tour, or in the studio. Porter & Davies is a U.K.-based company that manufactures a range of high-quality tactile monitoring systems, including the flagship BC2, the rack-mountable…
British Drum Company - Lounge Series Drumset
The latest in a long line of English drum builders, offering distinctive drums since 2015. Several personalities from the English drumming community came together to launch the British Drum Company. Head drum builder Keith Keough, who helmed KD Drums between…
Oh Sees’ Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon
Even greater than the sum of their considerable parts, the drumming duo helps define one of the most prolific and mercurial rock bands of our time. Scanning the history of the band known as Oh Sees can leave you questioning…
Protocol's Simon Phillips
While in Los Angeles, Simon Phillips uses this Tama Star kit, which is one of three setups he keeps in rotation. “I use whatever is available,” he says. “It’s all down to logistics. I’ll ship them out to various places,…
New Releases by Phil Stewart, Henry Conerway, Jeff Berlin, Rudy Royston and more.
RECORDINGS Phil Stewart Melodious Drum A drummer and percussionist shines on his professional recording debut. Whereas much modern jazz opts to explore dissonant or chaotic sonic spaces, Phil Stewart’s first album, Melodious Drum, is a swinging expression of melancholy-tinged joy.…
What's Your Favorite Charlie Watts Performance?
When we first took to social media to ask which performances you’d recommend from the seminal Rolling Stones drummer, a bevy of diverse responses flooded in. It’s easy to understand the range in choices; Charlie’s signature drum sound, unique grooves,…
NickyMoon Custom Cymbals
One hundred percent handcrafted instruments for a truly one-of-a-kind experience. NickyMoon is a New Jersey-based one-man custom shop owned and operated by traditionally trained cymbalsmith Nicholas Margarite. In the “about” section at nickymoon.com, Margarite explains why he decided to take…
Music As A Game
Finding Unique Concepts in Unlikely Places In his book Effortless Mastery, jazz pianist, composer, and author Kenny Werner wrote, “Don’t forget: Music is something we just made up. It doesn’t actually exist as anything but a game for us.” If…
The 2019 Modern Drummer Readers Poll Results
The Foo Fighters’ tandem drummers had another huge year in 2018, with Taylor Hawkins powering the band throughout its Concrete and Gold world tour and Dave Grohl reminding the world of his own remarkable kit skills on his twenty-three-minute…
Morgan Ågren Of The Mats/Morgan Band
His work with Frank Zappa, the Crimson ProjeKCt, Fredrik Thordendal, Bill Laswell, and the way forward-looking Mats/Morgan duo has been blowing us away for a couple decades now. Yet all that time, he’s never been predictable, never repeated himself, never…
Amanda Shires’ Jerry Pentecost
The Hardest Working Man When Modern Drummer reached out to catch up with Jerry Pentecost, the drummer filled us in on his impressive performing schedule and concluded, “I’m really just a dude looking for donuts.” Ah! Perhaps the metaphorical donut?…
Sean Lennon on the Claypool Lennon Delirium’s South of Reality
The multitalent embraces oddness on the superduo’s latest psychedelic trip, channeling his iconic father’s unique approach to rhythm. On February 22 the Claypool Lennon Delirium—an alternative psychedelic group that consists of Primus frontman Les Claypool and multi-instrumentalist/drummer Sean Ono…
Rogers USA Dyna-Sonic Snares
A faithful reproduction of one of the most legendary drums of all time. Rogers Drums is an American manufacturer that was founded in the mid-nineteenth century. The company gained notoriety in the 1950s and ’60s for its cutting-edge innovations,…
Paris_Monster's Josh Dion
He’s the first to admit that playing drums while singing and working a keyboard can be looked upon as shticky. But take one listen. In no time you’ll realize that his drumming (and singing, and keyboard playing) is the real…
Eights And Sixes
In this lesson we’re going to build upon the Eights and Sixes exercise that I introduced in Part 1 of this series by adding double strokes and rimshots into the routine. Focusing on the 8th-note offbeats within double-stroke sextuplets can…
Kyle Crane with Neko Case
The ever-busy sticksman backs the seasoned indie songwriter on her latest international tour. The Los Angeles–based touring and session drummer Kyle Crane has steadily built a busy and successful career working with producer and songwriter Daniel Lanois, M. Ward (She…
