It’s with excitement that I tell you that I’ve been doing more recording lately. Not that I don’t love playing live. I do. There can be magic in the air during a particular performance. The recent MANCIE show at Park Slope’s Rock Shop was like that. We were so loose….everything felt effortless to me. But what I love about recording is that it lasts. It’s a moment in time in the studio–but then you have a document of that moment. And the document lasts forever.

And, of course, others get to hear it too. That is why we play music. We want to be heard. So, my increased output on recordings is satisfying. And by the way, both albums were produced by the great Felix McTeigue, an amazing producer who I first met when he produced MANCIE’s “Only The Wanted.”

So, let me tell you about two upcoming releases. They’re at completely opposite ends of the musical spectrum.

Electric Black Horse is a glam metal band that reminds me of KISS and Queen. The band is theatrical and loud and the songs are about getting wasted, movie stars, and girls. The new release that is coming out (most likely in late November) includes my drumming on three tracks or so. I play aggressively and was hitting the drums pretty hard during the session–matched grip all the way while playing. It should be a fun album.

Meanwhile, David D’Alessio is a great singer and songwriter and his songs are a mixture of folk and pop but with the major leanings on the pop side. I’m also on three tracks on David’s album, and it’s coming out, I’m told, in late October. While I was trying to channel Anton Fig’s playing with Ace Frehley during the recording of the Electric Black Horse record, with David, I was thinking about Matt Chamberlain, Levon Helm and Steve Jordan. A different vibe….very laid back….slow tempos. Loose and lilting grooves, with introspective and haunting lyrics and melodies. Good stuff.

I hope you’ll check them out….more about them when they are released.

The albums I grew up on shaped me in many important ways. My heart belonged to rock, girls and drums, not necessarily in that order.

“Teen Vinyl” presents some of the albums (and drummers) that meant a lot to me–and still do.

I first heard Clem Burke on Blondie’s “Parallel Lines.” What an impact he had on me. His drum parts were always perfect. His playing was so crisp and clean. He played with aggression, but he never overplayed. His drums sounded huge, and he put his crashes in all the right places–many times in unexpected places. I recently started listening to this album again and it still holds up.

Some highlights…

“Heart of Glass” introduced me to disco infused rock. Clem’s opening and closing of the hi-hat on this track has definitely influenced me….you can hear me using these ideas with MANCIE on the track “Only The Wanted.”

I especially love Clem’s drum part on “One Way or Another.” Clem has a little four bar break leading into the guitar solo which is truly sublime. An example of simple perfection.

Here, check out. The four bar break occurs from around 1:44 to 1:50.

Here’s some more new stuff I’ve been shedding.

I began writing about this pattern on the BANG! The Drum School blog with the somewhat academically named Pattern Control For Drum Set: RLF as 32nd Notes. You’ll find a fairly exhaustive study on how to play the pattern RLF (meaning right hand, left hand, bass drum) as 32nd notes if you check out that worksheet.

But experimenting with that is only the first step. That step gives you some control over the idea you wish to express. The next step, the beginnings of which are presented in this article, is to apply the idea in a musically interesting and hopefully tasteful context.

That’s what I began doing in the practice room the other day.  The attached worksheet is the result of those experiments that I felt had some musical merit. I am continuing to work on these. What makes me feel that these are musical?  I like that these phrases experiment with putting backbeats in different places,  and I like that they allude to military/marching band patterns.  Of course, this is my musical taste, and just my opinion, so you should feel free to do as you please with these ideas.

Heres’ the PDF: Some Stuff I’m Working On 3

A few notes for clarity:

• Each exercise begins with a pick-up measure that is one eighth note long. After that, the full 4/4 measure should be repeated until it flows.
• The basic sticking is RLF, repeated, but you’ll see a note here and there when I thought the sticking was not obvious.
• Every Floor Tom note is played with the right hand, while every Hi Tom note is played with the left.
• Exercise 5A is the same as exercise 5 with the addition of a paradiddle on beat four.
• The tempo range where this sounds insanely good is at 96 bpms and above.

OK…off to the practice room!

You can’t see me, but you can hear me.

That’s OK, because the MANCIE video for the song is about Brooklyn, and it’s about our singer, Andrea Montgomery. And she is awesome, swaggering down the street with her bomber jacket and Gibson SG, visiting places in Williamsburg where MANCIE frequented back in the day when we had a rehearsal space in that neighborhood. And even though I’m not in the video visually, I’m proud of it because I helped conceive it.

The idea was simple: how do we make something interesting visually without a huge expense? That’s a typical question for artists or small businesses these days who want to use video as a tool. In our case, the answer was pretty simple. Just project images onto a screen behind Andrea while she is performing the song. We were able to use a lot of video that gave us the visuals we wanted but we didn’t have to have a big production to create them.

And of course, following Ms. Montgomery around Williamsburg while she sang the song was fairly easy to do.

It’s a cool video. And It’s debuting right now on Guitar Girl Magazine.

Here’s the video so you can check it out.

Do you want to understand the new world that we live in a little better?

Do you have a sense that there is more out there for you?

Make no mistake. We are going through a revolution! The Industrial Age has begun to cede to The Digital Age in a major way. And with this change, many notions that you have been led to believe all your life are now wrong. The rules have significantly changed. What you were told by your parents is safe is not safe any longer. The flip side is also true–what you have been led to believe is impossible is no longer that way. If I had told you ten years ago that a slightly overweight Korean singer in his late thirties would become a huge music star you would have laughed at me. But today it’s true, and it is because of the new world that exists.

Is it easy to get over in this new world? No, far from it. But things that were not possible now are possible. You have to be really good at what you do to be successful, and even if you are, there are no guarantees. BUT, working all your adult life in a job that is “secure” is no longer particularly safe.

There is great possibility in our midst if you have the courage to embrace it.

All of these notions and more are explored in Seth Godin’s book, The Icarus Deception. If you are ready to think, dream and possibly shake things up, you should read the book.

Oh, and what does the title refer to? Icarus is a Greek mythological figure who used wings that were created from feathers and wax to fly. His father, Daedalus, warned him not to fly too close to the sun, or the wax would melt, causing the wings to fall apart. Of course, Icarus ignored his father, flew too high, and fell to his death into the sea below. The deception is that this myth does not hold true today. You’ve been warned by your parents not to fly too high. Just get a good stable job and you’ll be fine.

Well guess what? The sun that melted Icarus’ wings has been destroyed by our new, connected economy. So fly as high as you like.

Get inspired. Read this book.

I’ve been researching stick tricks lately. Yesterday, I stumbled upon this very short video of Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper), from a drum clinic in 2010. The clip shows a stick twirl that I’ve been doing for a long long time, but the revelation is that he spins the stick in the opposite direction from the way I’ve been doing it for years.

First check out the video:

The reason this is revelatory for me is that with the stick moving in the “backwards” direction, you can use the trick on any stroke on the drums that you choose, and this allows the trick to be used much more while you are actually playing. Glen demonstrates this very clearly at the end of the clip. That being said, keep in mind that you don’t want to look like a show-off douche bag, so I plan on having this trick “in my pocket” and using it sparingly.

I am now re-learning this move using the “backwards” stick direction so I can incorporate it into my playing. It is going to be a lot of work. But did you see how cool it looked when Glen played that simple drum beat and incorporated the twirls? It looks magical!

By the way, Glen is an unbelievably great drummer. I am going to have to look more deeply into his playing. I think it will be worth delving into…

Ask any drummer who is serious about playing and they will tell you: messing around with sticks, pedals, heads, tuning etc, is a big deal. In fact, all great musicians focus on the details of their gear regardless of their ax. Why? Because the really great ones have a SOUND. And these details help you achieve the sound you desire.

That being said, I think I’m switching sticks.

I’ve been using the “Buddy Rich” Signature model by Vic Firth for about 7 years now, but my new love are these new Carlock sticks. I don’t really know how they did it, but there is something about the small bead and the way the stick is tapered and weighted that makes it BOUNCE LIKE CRAZY. If you know Keith’s playing you know that he, perhaps even more than many drummers with great technique, is ALL ABOUT the bounce. His strokes are so open and loose that it is just gorgeous to watch and listen to.

Clearly, I’m into Keith’s playing. And he loves double strokes. So do I.

I figured that if Keith worked with Vic Firth to develop a stick that would highlight the technical strengths of his playing (ie double strokes), then that stick would work for me because I rely heavily on doubles as well. The good news is that I was right!

I used these sticks on a pop gig this past weekend and they just felt great. My strokes felt more effortless. I’ve been practicing with them too and I really notice something about the bounce. The stick just wants to jump out of my hand. The other difference is that the sounds I’m getting out of my hi-hat and ride cymbals are crisper, cleaner and more defined. That makes sense based on the small bead.

Anyway, I am going to roll with these for a while (ha ha).

Here is a link to the sticks on the Vic Firth site: Vic Firth Keith Carlock Sticks

My New Faves: Onitsuka Tiger Tai Chi LE Sneakers by Asics.

I am very particular about my footwear as it relates to my drumming.

These are the characteristics of shoes/sneakers that allow me to feel the pedals under my feet. And feeling the pedals in this way makes me comfortable. And comfort is the name of the game. Then I can play without being distracted

Given these criteria, sneakers have usually been my drumming footwear choice. In the ’80s, however, I admit that Capezio dancing shoes worked pretty well (I saw Weckl wearing them). I’ve tried Converse All-Stars Hi-Tops too (I saw Colaiuta wearing them). Not bad, but not my first choice.

The sneakers that usually work for me are track shoes. For the last several years, I have been wearing Puma’s H-Street Running Sneakers. You can read my article on them HERE. But as I wore holes through my most recent pair, I started keeping my eyes peeled for my next footwear victims.

And now, I’ve found them. Made by Asics, the Onitsuka Tiger Tai Chi LE sneaks I stumbled upon at DSW are the perfect drumming shoes.

They set me back $85, are comfortable and meet all of my criteria for drumming footwear. They are also made of leather, not mesh, like the Pumas I was wearing, which hopefully means they will last longer.

Of course, they have to look cool. And they do. Uma Thurman wore them in “Kill Bill.” It’s hard to get much cooler than that. Check out the photo up top. Hers have blood on them.

They come in Yellow, White and Black. I’m sporting the Yellows now, like Uma.

Check out the Onitsuka Tiger website here: Onitsuka Tiger Website.

Just a friendly reminder that MANCIE is rocking The Delancey on the lower east side soon.

Come by and rock out, and don’t forget to come say “hello” to me.

We’re going to debut our new video for “Hey Brooklyn,” so don’t miss it. The photo above is a still taken from the video….just a little teaser…. 🙂

Anyone who has been regularly reading the blog over at BANG! The Drum School, knows that I have been spending time working on Clave Independence. But NOT left foot clave. I have to leave that to Antonio Sanchez and Horacio Hernandez. How could I compete with them?

Instead, I’ve been focusing on playing clave with my right hand, and freeing up my other limbs to play whatever I want simultaneously.

In that pursuit, I’ve begun to make up some of my own exercises.

With this set of four exercises, I’m trying out some patterns that go over the barline. Exercise #2 is exciting to me—it combines clave and double bass, which is a new one for me.

I’ll let you know how these turn out. If you try them, let me know how they turn out for you.

Here’s the PDF: Some Stuff I’m Working On #1