Thommy Price Defeats Neil Peart in Drum Battle
Sep21

Thommy Price Defeats Neil Peart in Drum Battle

The headline of this article is 50% meant for effect. Thommy Price and Neil Peart have never, to my knowledge, set their drums up face-to-face and had it out. If you’re a Rush fan (and I am, being a both a drummer and a Canadian), I apologize for shocking your system with such a bold statement. But we’re going to put some things into perspective with this one. Thommy Price is as rock solid a drummer as there is. Give a listen to just a few of his drum parts from the massive catalog of hits that he’s played on – including Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and Joan Jett hits galore – and you’ll soon realize that the Thommy Price rock groove is in our DNA. The Thommy Price groove was designed to shake asses. It doesn’t require complex time signatures and roto toms. It’s solid four-on-the-floor, tom fills, pocket, all swing. And shake asses it does. And this is the point. If the aforementioned drum battle is only played for those who can appreciate Rush, then half the population is excluded from the vote. Sorry, no girls like Rush. And, not all guys like Rush. I do, but I’m only one vote. And don’t ask me to choose. I’m trying to be an impartial referee here. And let’s add another factor to the Thommy column: he plays for Joan Jett. Now, this article is about Thommy, but let’s really put this into perspective. Joan Jett isn’t  just a girl in a band. She’s definitely not just “a female musician”. Joan Jett is the SOURCE of women in rock. She is ground-zero. Joan Jett is as ROCK as Keith Richards. She IS rock. And as musicians and fans know, there is no great band without a great drummer. So if Joan Jett IS rock, then Thommy Price is the backbone of rock. Do the math. You’ll see I’m right. The Best Drummer In The World: I’ve heard that you’ve been on the road since you were 15 years old. How did your career get rolling? Tommy Price: I started on the road at 15 or 16 in cover bands on the Jersey Shore, and then once I got out of high school I actually went on the road for months at a time. As in “out of New York City.” I was in a band at 17 years old on RCA Records that was produced by Jimmy Iovine called Flame. That was my first real big thing. We did a full record for RCA, and that opened a lot of doors for me. Later on I joined Mink Deville and started going...

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The (New) Best Drummer In The World
Sep15

The (New) Best Drummer In The World

Welcome to the relaunch of The Best Drummer In The World! We hope you like the new look and feel of the site. And when I say we, I mean we’re now a WE. For the entire time I’ve had this site (almost 10 years, now in its 4th major phase), it’s been me fumbling my way through programming and reading and trying to figure out how to make it look cool and work in some way that makes sense. But it’s all been done by me and I think I suck at computer stuff. It would take me weeks to edit stuff. It never looked right, etc. I can’t tell you the number of times I would spend weeks rebuilding a new version of the site only to upload it and have it erase all my files and a million nightmares that I never dreamt of when I decided I wanted a website called The Best Drummer In The World. Well, I met this amazing dude named Nick. He’s an amazing photographer.(Check out his photography site here http://www.nicoletavenue.com/ ) Created a super successful video game. Built an iPhone app! And, he’s a drummer. I feel that I’ve found a missing link in this project and I feel the look and feel of the new site which you’re now looking at is the result. He rebuilt it in a week and with a couple of backend tweaks moved the site up to page 1 in Google search rankings. He rules and I’m so thankful to have found a kindred spirt who loves all things drums and drumming. With Nick now handing all the backend stuff and working together on the look, feel, and functionality of the site, it is allowing me to get out and do more interviews, review shows and recordings, and do all of the million things I had envisioned for the site. We really hope you enjoy the new era of the site and we hope you continue to use us as a resource for all things related to cool drum stuff. The editors (Ian and...

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Jim Macpherson is a Rock Icon
Sep13

Jim Macpherson is a Rock Icon

Jim Macpherson is a rock icon. To me. And he should be to you, too. I’m going to try to put something into context here. Do you know that by the end of 1993, there were only 623 websites in existence? Literally, the Internet was a novelty. MTV “VJ” Adam Curry registered MTV.com and ran it himself as an unofficial side project. And a band from Dayton, Ohio called the Breeders (a side project for Kim Deal of the Pixies) released a record called Last Splash. 20 years have passed by since this happened. Drummer Jim Macpherson did not respond to an ad on Craigslist to join the Breeders. Joining the Breeders  “I was playing in this band with my friend Nick and he said he knew where Kim deal of the Pixies lived. We could go put flyers in her mailbox for every show we had to see if we could get her to come. Kim saw us, asked Nick if he wanted to do some demos. He said ‘yeah’ and she said ‘well, can we get your drummer too’ and that’s how it all started.” “I was doing demos for Last Splash… Kim asked me, ‘Hey, you wanna see how you do with Josephine (Wiggs)? We got asked to do some shows and we’re going to need a drummer, and we’re going to make a new record. You want to see if it’ll work out?’ I said ‘yeah’.” “Kim kept telling me, ‘You’d have to be doin’ this to really play music because you realize there’s not a whole lot of money in this,’ which was true.” “I asked what were some of the shows and she said, ‘Well, Nirvana asked us to open for them in Ireland on the Nevermind tour.’  I just played Canal Street Tavern for 150 kids and my first show with the Breeders is in Dublin, Ireland in front of 15,000 people, opening for Nirvana.” “That was before we even recorded… talk about getting thrown in…” Recording Last Splash With the calculated pseudo-perfection of 80’s hair metal a couple of years in the grave, people were using this word grunge all of the time. Mostly because record labels, corporations, and media need to label things. So in January 1993, the Breeders came to San Francisco to record what would become their classic album Last Splash. “We had most of the tracks written and a good foundation down.” “One day me and Josephine would go in and lay down our tracks and then they (Kim and Kelley) would want to lay down their parts right away. So it was recorded on a song...

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