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August 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 8

Roger Hawkins—one of music history’s most recorded drummers—died peacefully at his home in Sheffield, Alabama, after a few years of declining health. He was 75 years old. Hawkins has been called an architect of the Muscle Shoals sound. He was a member of the house band at producer Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, that consisted of keyboardist Barry Beckett, guitarist Jimmy Johnson, and bassist David Hood. What came to be known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section can be heard on numerous number ones and top-ten hits, including Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and Aretha Franklin tracks such as “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I Love You,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Think,” and “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You).” That’s also Hawkins on Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally,” Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock” […]
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Articles in August 2021

Terry Bozzio

Modern Drummer, July 1994 “Even though I’ve got that humongous drum kit sitting there, I’ve learned I don’t have to use it all at once. Igor Stravinsky thought nothing of having five solo cellos play a section in the middle…

Modern Drummer
Aug 31, 2021

Donn Bennett’s Drum Vault

Glen Sobel’s 2015 Green Snakeskin Mapex Kit Virtually any musician can tell you about the early influences they idolized, imitated, and obsessed about. The names change, but the story is usually pretty much the same: You listened to their recordings…

By Donn Bennett
Aug 31, 2021

Peter Criss

Excerpted from the February 1999 Cover Story Peter Criss—born Peter George Criscuola—is a true rock ‘n’ roll survivor. The Brooklyn-bred drummer, whose affinity for jazz prompted him to seek out Gene Krupa as a youth, ran an ad in Rolling…

By Robyn Flans
Aug 31, 2021

EAROS

EAROS ONE Decades of standing in front of guitar amps, drums, and mixing consoles has “rewarded” me with tinnitus, difficulty hearing some frequencies clearly, and if you’re sitting a few chairs away from me in a loud, ambient restaurant, you’ll…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021

Low Boy

Custom Lightweight Bass Drum Beater Customizing stuff is one of my guilty pleasures—I’m always “building” cars on manufacturer websites that I have no intention of actually buying—so the opportunity to design my own beater was what initially attracted me to…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021
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The Healing Power of Silence

The center of a musician’s world is often thought to be within their love for sound, melody, and rhythm. Most of you reading this article will be big fans of sound in general—creating sound, appreciating sound, and listening to sound.…

By Lauren Monroe
Aug 31, 2021

16th-Note Accents

Excepted from Accent Control Accents add color and dynamic variation to our drumming, and they’re an extremely essential aspect of every drummer’s technique. The 16th-note accent patterns that follow should be practiced using the four stickings shown: (a) alternate sticking…

By Ron Spagnardi
Aug 31, 2021

Eric Kretz

Stone Temple Pilots Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop with a Deluxe Box Set If one were to characterize Stone Temple Pilots, you might say melodic songs, killer riffs, dynamic delivery, and deep grooves.…

By Rich Scannella
Aug 31, 2021

8 Affordable Home Recording Tools

There certainly hasn’t been a bucketload of good about pandemic lockdowns, but when you have ambitious and creative musicians stuck at home, they tend to figure out ways to get their music out there. Many creators upgraded their home studios,…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021

Bobby Bond

The Beat Goes On As time marches on, and we lose more and more of the rock-and-roll hitmakers of the 1960s, those stars still soldiering on via ‘60 rock cruises and package tours have become living embodiments of the era…

By Michael Molenda • Photos by Jeff Gerew
Aug 31, 2021

Dynamics Mechanics

Excerpted from Rhythm & Chops Builders I believe that a drummer should be able to pick up sticks and make music on any sound source. The two biggest keys to doing this are having extensive rhythmic and rudimental vocabulary and…

By Bill Bachman
Aug 31, 2021
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Killing the Mud Monster

There are tons of things that can kill your home-studio project. A nuclear error is recording a crappy song to start with. But you also need to beware of signal-chain distortion, really awful gear (mics, preamps, etc.), format futz-ups, bad…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021

Eric Boudreault’s Treetop Percussion

Just about every pit gig and live-performance for a multimedia theatrical production can be tough. Negotiating myriad cues, charts, conductors, actors, and other elements can stress out even the most skilled professional. But is your gig, 23-feet-in-the-air-atop-a-tree tough? That is…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021

Yamaha Super Rack System, April 1990

When SimCity—a video game that allowed players to conceptualize and build simulated metropolises—debuted to the public in 1989, it became a phenomenon. Given the massive architecture of the 1990 Super Rack System, it appears a few folks in the Yamaha…

Modern Drummer
Aug 31, 2021

Judy Cocuzza

The Return of Betty Blowtorch Betty Blowtorch was one of the most ferocious, hard-rocking, and riotously in-your-face all-female rock bands to ever tread onstage. From 1998-2001, drummer Judy Cocuzza, guitarists Sharon Needles and Blare N. Bitch, and bassist/vocalist Bianca Halstead…

By Clementine Moss
Aug 31, 2021

Funky Shuffles

Music has changed a lot, but it’s important to see where the shuffle evolved from, because it really has a lot to do with all of the other rhythms that you play. For example, when I was playing “Kissing my…

By James Gadson
Aug 31, 2021

NEW GEAR - August 2021

Status Audio Between Pro Wireless Earbuds I have to dig that Status Audio was founded by a drummer, New York’s James Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi’s company was recently crowdfunded to the tune of $1 million (a very good sign, indeed), and he…

Modern Drummer
Aug 31, 2021

Justice James on Swingin’ Surf

It seemed like a pretty normal surf show until it wasn’t. The Young Barons were onstage performing their edgy, modern-primitive style of surf music. Suddenly, the drums exploded like Buddy Rich torturing the squares at a 1940s swing dance with…

By Michael Molenda
Aug 31, 2021
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Audix

DP7 Drum Mic Pack For any pro- or home-studio engineer, live-sound mixer, or weekend tone miner, the goal is to get the sound crisp, clean, and just right. A lot of the gig is having ears, knowing the ins and…

By Rob Coen and Cory J. Keith
Aug 31, 2021

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