If you don’t enjoy Rick Beato‘s videos there must be something wrong with you! This What Makes This Song Great is particularly good. Smells Like Teen Spirit is an awesome song and a beautiful sounding record. Watch this:
I grew up listening to olden days blues, rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters. My dad’s record collection included LPs and singles from the late fifties and early sixties and that was my food and drink for most of my childhood. I must have listened to After School Session a thousand times. Chuck Berry died and here’s After School Session. Everything swings!
I got an email from a chap called Cameron at cheaptheatretickets.com who wanted me to let you all know that after two very successful years, Sunny Afternoon, the Kinks musical, is closing. If you’d like to see it before it closes, you can get half-price tickets by following this link – www.cheaptheatretickets.com/sunny-afternoon/. If you like musicals and the Kinks in particular, this looks like a great deal. See my review here -?joethedrummer.com/i-saw-the-kinks-musical-sunny-afternoon/
The greatest British band ever, The Blockheads, are the subject of a documentary called – The Blockheads: Beyond the Call of Dury. The film makers are raising money via Kickstarter to finish the production of what will hopefully be a brilliant documentary telling the story of this legendary band. Quoth the Kickstarter page: The story of how the band came to back Ian Dury is quite amazing and the career that each member has had is quite frankly unbelievable. What… Read More »The Blockheads: Beyond the Call of Dury
I really enjoyed the recent post on Steve Goold’s blog with “drum cam” footage from a recent performance and thought I’d post a few videos showing drummers at work including one of myself, for good measure. There’s a huge amount of indulgent stuff being shown by drummers in their practice rooms, and it’s great fun to watch but to see our colleagues working up close during a live performance is something else. The following videos all show drummers of a… Read More »Videos of Drummers In Action
Wow, this is brilliant. Someone’s posted alternate footage of the Last Waltz concert which shows the real performance before all the overdubs that Levon talks about so disparagingly in his book. The Band is one of my favourite rock music combos and Levon Helm is truly a master drummer. I love the movie and have watched it countless times but there is nothing to beat a real performance. Wonderful! First bit: Next bit: Last bit:
Who’d have thought it? My good friend and associate, Frank from JPF Amplification, drew my attention to this fascinating article. According to this article, which must be true, drummers with solid time are smarter and their smartness is infectious via the medium of groove. Sounds cool. The ability to create rhythms is linked to the ability to think and solve problems and this problem solving ability can infect others when they’re exposed to a tight rhythmic pattern. Read all about… Read More »The Science Is In – Drummers are Smarter
A student of mine mentioned Snarky Puppy to me, a modern fusion outfit playing sell-out shows all over the place. “Fusion” is not normally a term that excites me seeing as I can’t afford the cuisine and in a musical context, I don’t need to be reminded of traumatic experiences listening to Jaco’s solos or Garibaldi’s mullet, not to mention Brecker and his EWI. But… Watch this, it’s amazing! Apparently, they do all their records live with no overdubs and,… Read More »Snarky Puppy – Quite The Musos
Kudos to my fellow bloggers who manage to post great content week in and week out. I seem to produce stuff in spurts. Meanwhile, here is something fab from Steve Earle who I dig.
This is sage advice but not so easy to follow. As a nouveau jazzer, I find myself thinking about everything too much. I get pages of Riley flashing through my head mid-performance. I’m playing in a restaurant so I am thinking about keeping the volume down and thinking about whether the next thing I do will be too loud. I think about tensions arising in different body parts, my posture, what drum-striking implements I need in the next song. I… Read More »Don’t Think!