Most of the house kits here in Nashville are Mapex. I've never been impressed with the drums or the hardware (to be fair, I think these are mid/entry level kits), BUT I have a 5 1/2 inch hand hammered Black Panther that is fucking awesome. That is my Mapex 2 cents.

New Snare Drum: "Here's my new signature snare drum that I spent a long time developing with Sonor Drums. Actually it's a matched pair of snare drums. 14"x5.25" and 12"x5". Released today at NAMM. I'll be there Saturday & Sunday on the Sonor booth. Sonor will release al...

I started getting tired of my normal practice of putting the ipod on shuffle and playing along with whatever pops up. The great thing about it is that I have such a vast array of music, that you're constantly switching styles and touch, but I have so much weirdo music on there that I don't often lis...

Scofield is similar to Miles Davis for me. Miles wasn't my favorite trumpet player, as Sco isn't my favorite guitarist (though I do quite like both of those guys), but you know for sure that their bands were/are always going to be killing. Particularly drum-wise. Scofield is one of the few artists w...

That's the shit right there! And those cymbals sound great, too. Wonder if Bosphorus is interested in giving me free cymbals.

I saw them here in Nashville recently and really enjoyed it. Nate played double drums with Keith on some stuff, while wearing and playing his bass at the same time. That was pretty remarkable. Keith's bass drum sounded awesome, but I wasn't blown away by the toms. I'm generally a fan of Carlock's pl...

Great job Steve! Really insightful, entertaining, and funny. As has already been said, you should do more of these if you're able. Get that Modern Drummer money.

Haha that didn't help the case Paul! "At the age of 10, he went on to study at UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Summer Program and continued his studies there for 7 more years." That just screams super wealthy. His playing is great, but let's call a spade a spade. Highly supportive family si...

I play rim shots pretty much every time I am hitting a backbeat, unless it's a super quiet gig, or if recording, the guys behind the glass ask me not to do so for a specific sound they're going for. I just personally like the way it FEELS to crack rim shots, and think it sounds better than regularly...

That floor Tom sounds amazing!