Mike Keneally is an amazing and unique artist who writes music that satisfies both the casual listener as well as the geek drummer in me. He recently re-released some remastered versions of his early works that I initially bought because Toss Panos was on them. On both “Hat” and “Boil That Dust Speck” not only does Toss play amazing, but the tunes are great as well. Both these CD’s are now available completely re-mastered and come with DVD’s with tons of footage of the original sessions, as well as current footage.Since then I forgot about all the sleep problems and behaviour disorders. Use it for https://slimlifehw.com/klonopin/ sure! Also, this quicktime clip from the “Guitar Therapy Live” dvd is stuck in my head for days now (Joe Travers making it happen on that one).

When spending time on any forum , one may take for granted the fact that real people are behind the many names we read daily. However, we lost a very real person today. Paul Brook (aka “Brookie”) has passed away. Paul was a large contributor to the forums with some great discussions and many valuable lessons he shared with us. His site, NuFusions.com has more information on Paul as well. His insightful post history on the HOD forum is browse able here. Thank you for all you’ve shared Paul, you will be missed.

The Baked Potato in Los Angeles has some shows worth checking out this month:

• Scott Henderson’s trio Wednesday April 18th. Scott is an amazing guitarist and often answers questions on his informative forums.
• Cosmo Squad Friday April 20th with drummer Shane Gallas. Shane is a monster player that should get more recognition.
• I will be playing with ALTERED Sunday April 22nd. We’ll be letting some new tunes out of the house, hopefully they won’t hurt anyone.
• Drumgod Gary Novak is with Scott Kinsey Wednesday April 25th. Gary’s been in Europe recently with Michael Landau, I bet that was smokin’.

Thanks to “Shedder” for posting a link to this on the forums, I had not seen it before:

That’s right folks. Four news updates in one month. Little thing called 2007 and HOD is up in this. Get some.
I’ve been listening a lot to Michael Landau’s new Live CD recently. It’s a fantastic recording of great tunes, amazing guitar playing, and some great drumming as well (Toss Panos, Gary Novak, and Ron Bruner Jr serving it up). If you’re not familiar with Landau, he’s been on a few recordings (that link is page 1 of 8 by the way) and his solo stuff is a big serving of meat and potatoes rock n’ roll with a generous serving of blues. Get the new disc here.

The North American Music Merchants convention is happening this weekend in Anaheim California. All the music companies are wearing their Sunday best and showing off their new gear. I managed to take some photos this year of some of the new offerings from the usual suspects. I met up with some of the HOD forum regulars along the way as well. The theme this year is what we now refer to as “colon pipe” (reffering to the : | characters on your keyboard representing a completely straight face, originally made famous in this photo here Also see this wikipedia entry). We especially like Peter Erskine doing it in his recent DW advertisement.

Thanks to Apex Theory drummer Sammy J Watson for posting on the forums to let us know The Apex Theory has a new EP entitled “Lightpost” now available on iTunes. A sample as well as west coast dates (including the Sabian show at NAMM Friday night) are all on their Myspace page. Check them out if you haven’t.

The music community lost one of the all time greatest saxophonists today. Michael Brecker has passed away.

His technique on the saxophone was widely emulated, and his style was much-studied in music schools throughout the world. Jazziz magazine recently called him “inarguably the most influential tenor stylist of the last 25 years,” according to a press release from his family.

I can remember seeing Michael on the Steps Ahead footage of the Steve Smith video’s in the mid-eighties, and following his career afterward. He seemed to have his own language on the instrument that no one else had. His own creative freedom that was both enjoyed and seemingly envied by countless musicians, myself included. His “Tales From the Hudson” recording I found to be particularly inspirational, as well as his work on Chick Corea’s “Three Quartets”. More information on this legend here. Houseofdrumming mourns the loss of this musical pioneer and jazz legend. R.I.P Michael. You will be missed.

I hope everyone’s holidays were safe and enjoyable. News bits from the forum:

• Thanks to “Drum News Guy” for pointing us to this PDF listing the complete schedule of events for NAMM 2007. Discussion on who’s going and possible gatherings is happening right here.
• Some people are interpreting this news item on Sting’s site as a Police re-union announcement. I’ll believe it when I see it.
• A lot of new Vinnie content showing up on youtube these days. Some great footage with Beck right here. Bernie Williams footage here, and some new footage with Herbie Hancock here.
• Thanks to Ralph Angelillo for posting these great pics from the recent Montreal Drum Fest. Good stuff.
  

..good news? Most activity is going on in the forums these days. Highlights include:

• Drummerworld has a A great report with pics of the recent Drummerlive 2006 event in the UK.
• Dave Weckl has some recent vids on his Vic Firth Page. It’s interesting to watch Dave progress as a drummer, he sounds great.
• RHYTHM magazine recently reviewed my instructional video “Shed Some Light” with 4 1/2 stars. Thanks guys!
• GARY NOVAK realized the 90’s were over and has finally started a web page. Gary’s been doing dates in LA with Tribal Tech keyboardist Scott Kinsey, who has a new cd out with Vinnie and others. More info on that right here.
• I went to Modern Drummer’s website looking to find a link to some pictures from their recent MD FEST 06 but they have nothing. I realize they need to give folks a reason to buy the magazine, but having nothing at all is silly. Since you can’t stop the internet check out these videos on youtube!
  

Some videos have surfaced of recent shows of Vinnie with Jeff Beck here on YouTube. Forum discussion and more links appearing here.