I Know, It's Been a Minute...

Apologies for the long gap between updates. Been busy doing stuff I should’ve been updating you about like playing with Strand of Oaks, Robyn Hitchcock, Pernice Brothers (with a string quartet!) Toby Leaman, lotsa fun Cabinet of Wonders shows, recording sessions, buying more drums…. I promise it won’t be nearly two years until the next update.

The big news is that I have a new “home” studio. Like Ratt, I’m (finally) out of the cellar. First time in my life my drums haven’t been tucked away in the corner of a basement where my head scrapes the ceiling. I’ve set up shop in a new space in Philly (with a window!) and I’m really happy with the sounds I’ve been getting. Thank you to all my engineer friends for answering my many stupid questions about microphones, mic placement, etc. I have some holes in the calendar, so if you’ve got songs in need of drumming, please hit me up! Always down for in-person sessions too.

Re: remote recordings, there’s a couple of records I worked on I’d like to call your attention to. First is this beautiful EP from Nicolás Molina “Castillos Soho.” Nicolás is based in Uruguay, so it was by far the longest distance between Dropboxes my drums have traveled yet. I got to do two of my favorite things on this EP: Overdub handclaps and play like Larry Mullen, Jr. (“Auto y Caminoes” is the closest I’ve come yet to the Achtung Baby / Zooropa snare sound). 

Second is the forthcoming Pernice Brothers album, Who Will You Believe, the first new Pernice record to be released via New West Records. According to my files, we started pecking away on this nearly three years ago. Worked on it in fits & starts, sending files back & forth to Old Joe & Mike McKenzie in Toronto. Lotsa great, classic Pernice stuff on this record. There’s gorgeous string arrangements and even a choir. And, through the magic of technology, I got to play on a duet between Joe & Neko Case with none of us in the same place! The record is out April 5, but you can pre-order now.

What else? We’ve got six Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders shows on the books this year, including one in Tulsa in conjunction with the Bob Dylan Center on March 10. Real hot lineup on that one. Got some shows with Toby upcoming, a Philly Tom Petty Appreciation Band thing in the works for later in the year, and a few other things percolating. Gonna be a fun year of drumming.

It's time to play shows again!

Had to get a lot of drum sticks because I have a lot of gigs coming up. Quick rundown…

**Headed to Chicagoland this Sunday to play Space in Evanston with Wesley Stace and the English UK. Our friends Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor, and Dag Juhlin will join us for the “Late Style” show. Spoiler: I will be in a suit. And I’ll be playing two bossa novas — two more than I’d ever played in my life previous to last September when we began Late Stylin’.

**Strand of Oaks US tour starts next Saturday, May 7, in Indianapolis, wraps June 29 in Nashville. The Noble & Cooleys (aka “The Green Machine”) will make their maiden voyage around the lower 48. Tim, Finnerty, Casey back driving the train on bass, and me. We’re gonna drink a lot of coffee, rip some sweet jams, ask TM Bobby what the wi-fi password is, and listen to a lot of Eddie Trunk. I’m so psyched.

**In between legs of the Oaks tour Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders returns to City Winery in NYC on May 28 (lineup TBA) and I’ll be trying to re-learn all those Bonham licks I haven’t played in forever for Celebration Day: A Philly Tribute to Led Zeppelin, June 3 at Ardmore Music Hall. All lady singers. Sick.

**More deets in the SHOWS section of this website.

Taylor Hawkins: An appreciation

Watching Taylor Hawkins play the drums made you want to play the drums. It’s that simple. 

The sight of his arms and hair flailing as he blazed a frantic trail from his concert toms to his floor toms — reaching sky high every so often to hit that crash cymbal to his left (a rotator cuff injury waiting to happen, trust me on this) — made you want to find the nearest set of drums and attempt the halting rhythms of “All My Life,” or the syncopated, “Ticket to Ride”-on-’roids pattern to “Learn to Fly” for yourself. If a drum kit wasn’t available a steering wheel would do. 

That’s how infectious the energy and joy coming off the drum riser was when Hawkins was onstage with the Foo Fighters. You could feel Hawkins’ mile-wide smile resonating in his radical fills and stadium-shaking grooves. The alchemy of those chops, a precision that never flagged over the course of the Foos’ marathon shows, and his ‘I-wouldn’t-wanna-be-anywhere-else-on-the-planet-right-now-except behind these-drums’ vibe inspired countless others to pick up sticks and drive their parents, significant others, and neighbors crazy. In the same way that watching drummers like Roger Taylor from Queen, Rush’s Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland of the Police, Phil Collins, and Alex Van Halen lit the fuse in Hawkins as a kid. 

Hawkins didn’t inspire me to start drumming. My fuse was lit around the same time as his, and in similar fashion as I learned during two conversations we had — one for a now-defunct men’s magazine you’ve never heard of back in 2006, another for Modern Drummer in 2020. Having been born a month apart, we both spent our pre-teen years sitting through the same Rod Stewart and REO Speedwagon videos during MTV’s nascent days in hopes of seeing one of the early performance videos from the Police, Van Halen, Genesis, and Rush. The sight of those aforementioned drumming deities manning fortresses of octobans and concert toms and rototoms and splash cymbals and China cymbals and gongs, looking like they were working 10 times harder but having 10 times more fun than their bandmates (just like Hawkins always looked with the Foos) made drumming seem like it was the key to everything. Off we went, no turning back. 

I drew great inspiration from Hawkins because of what he represented. More than any other drummer to come along in the last 25 years, Hawkins was a direct link to what I consider the sweetest spot on the rock drumming timeline. In both sound and spirit, he was a torch bearer for that early 70s to early 80s period when drummers like Peart, Copeland, Collins, AVH, and Bill Buford (It should be noted that Hawkins was a massive prog rock fan, and had a huge affinity for Buford’s work with both Yes and King Crimson) picked up what the OG’s (Ringo, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, Ginger Baker) put down and took it further out. They made it artier, jazzier, faster, weirder, harder. Hawkins channeled that rhythmic energy, through his own child-of-MTV filter. At first glance, his playing on “The Pretender” or “Rope” might seem to have little in common with “YYZ” or “Roundabout.” Scratch the surface and you’ll find the DNA of the latter songs coursing throughout the former.  

I loved that Hawkins proudly flew the flag for an era when drummers were Drummers. Not faceless, stoic timekeepers, tethered to hard drives and click tracks onstage, supplemented by samples and loops, hermetically sealed behind plexiglass. Not social-first shredders, flashing every sick lick in their arsenal on Instagram Live, illuminated by a ring light and the hope that you’ll click on that LINK IN BIO. He flew the flag for Drummers. The actual living, breathing, speeding-up, slowing-down, counting-the-song-in, counting-the-song-out, taking-a-few-liberties-during-the-outro, only-one-allowed-to-wear-shorts (debatable) heartbeat of a band. Hawkins wasn’t doing it by himself hoping to attract followers. He was doing it where it counted: with other musicians, onstage and in the studio. His major concern live was breaking a snare head mid-song, not the Ableton rig crashing.

What was especially endearing to me about Hawkins was that based on our couple of conversations (about 60 minutes total) he struck me as absolutely, 1000%, the drum geek I figured he was. The dude with the image of a young Alex Van Halen or a handwritten CB 700 logo on his front kick drum head. The guy with oversized roto toms off to his right, exactly like Roger Taylor. Please enjoy this excerpt from our October 2020 conversation, which was for a special MD issue celebrating Alex Van Halen (who, incidentally, lived just up the road from Hawkins): 

Every once in a while I just sit down on the drums with an old album and play along to it. That’s how I learned to play drums. I thought recently, ‘I’m Gonna Play Women and Children First,’ because I know all the songs, basically. But I got to “Loss of Control” and I was like, ‘I don’t even know how the fuck he’s doing this.’ It’s so crazy, it’s so fast. And it’s moving, and pushing, and getting faster and faster near the end where they’re just doing crazy shit and turning beats upside down and I was just like ‘Holy fuck, this might be the most radical drum part ever.’ I mean, Alex has so many classic, amazing drum tracks. But that one’s outta control. “Loss of Control,” it’s aptly titled. I mean that in an awesome way. The drums, the vibe, it’s like those moments on Police records when Stewart Copeland is going so fucking crazy you just go ‘Holy fuck.’ Like “Demolition Man” or that last song on the second album (starts making noises like a rapid-fire sequence of snare rolls) “No Time This Time.” It gets so unbridled. It’s got that Tony Williams thing where the feel is there, 100 percent, but they let go of time to create a complete, utterly out of control experience. Like you’re driving a Porsche with no brakes. Man, Alex could go way out there into turn-the-beat-upside-down fusion land, then do speed metal, punk, whatever you want to call it. I also love “Sinner’s Swing” a lot. That’s such a sick-ass groove… I mean, I don’t ever need to hear “Jump” again, but it blew my mind when I was a kid. And even in that they turn the beat around, in the middle. They’re just orchestrating. I think Eddie and Alex would just do that shit on a whim. Like the intro to “Panama.” All the tom hits are on the upbeat against the riff that Eddie’s doing. I’ve asked Alex about “Panama,” I said ‘You guys don’t even start it that way live.’ He said, ‘No, we just did it once in the studio. We didn’t even know what the fuck we were doing.’”   

His enthusiasm going down the Alex Van Halen rabbit hole (with a quick detour into the Stewart Copeland rabbit hole) that afternoon was palpable and genuine. He spoke for drum geeks everywhere. Just like he played for drum geeks, and created future drum greeks. And of course I went and listened to VH’s Women and Children First and the Police’s Reggatta de Blanc the second our call ended. The dude could inspire.

Happy 20th anniversary to 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying'

20 years ago tonight I was on tour for the first time. I didn’t have a cell phone. We paid in cash and kept an eye out for Internet Cafes. We all carted around binders filled with compact discs. My day job was at CDNow. I had yet to start drinking coffee. (That love affair would begin a week later in New Orleans—thank you Jimmy Ford).

Things were different then.

The Bigger Lovers were in Richmond, Va. 20 years ago tonight, five dates into our first tour behind our first album, How I Learned to Stop Worrying, which had been released to absolutely no fanfare that very day. About a year after it was supposed to come out. But that’s another story. (Bret gives the Cliffs Notes version in the liner notes to the 10th anniversary vinyl reissue if you’re so inclined).

We did an in-store that afternoon at Plan 9 Music in front of four interested people (three of whom were dudes who worked at the store—dudes who worked in record stores were kind of “our demo”) and a gig that night with a friend’s band to about eight interested people, five of whom were our friend’s band. We sold two CDs, one of which was purchased by a girl who said she knew GWAR. A few people might’ve signed up for the email list. We considered the night a scorching-hot success.

Worrying was released by a tiny little label called Black Dog, based in the one stoplight town of Monticello, Miss. Black Dog did release Marah’s first record, so they had some cred in Philly at least. Plus the Black Dog dudes were nice dudes. Chris & Jeff. They “mastered” the record for free (a sonic wrong we righted on the reissue). Jeff even hooked us up with Big Star’s Jody Stephens for a tour of the legendary Ardent Studios when we hit Memphis. But barely two months after Worrying’s release, Black Dog had a falling out with the distributor (a New Orleans-based concern that specialized in Cajun and Zydeco, naturally) and our record was effectively out of print shortly after it had (finally) been released. Being glass-half-full types, we chose to look at Worrying not as prematurely out of print, but as an instant collector’s item.

I didn’t care about such setbacks. Just like I didn’t care when the indie radio promotion guy Black Dog hired bailed before we played in Athens, Ga. (Paraphrasing: “I gotta scoot, boys, because I’m gonna be up real early working the phones getting your record on all the right college stations… just wait until you see that next CMJ report!’), or when the van broke down in Missouri and we had to stay in some bumfuck town overnight because the local mechanic had already gone home for the night. I was just so proud of what we accomplished with Worrying. Still am. I was also shocked at how good the record sounded. A producer who seemed kind of ambivalent toward us, Daniel Presley, and a wunderkind engineer/whizbang multi-instrumentalist named Bradley Newsom made us sound 1,000 times better than we had any business sounding. If you witnessed some of our early shows, you know what I’m talking about.

Daniel and Bradley coaxed an amazing drum sound out of the hybrid 80s-era Tama/60s-era Ludwig kit I’d cobbled together, which was rounded out by a Pearl mini piccolo snare (that I know for a fact was used on one, possibly two songs), a mish-mash of cymbals and one or two other drums of indeterminate origin. I wasn’t terribly picky about gear in those days. But they had those drums BOOMING, like Dave Fridmann had gone back and remixed All Things Must Pass.

The songs were the thing though. Our collective influences resonated in just the right amounts throughout the 11 songs that made up Worrying: the Beach Boys (“I’m Here,” with Scott singing like Evil Mike Love), Big Star (“Casual Friday”), the Replacements (“Threadbare”), the dBs (“Catch and Release”) with touches of the British Invasion, psychedelia, garage rock, and country all in the mix.

We were all very pleased with what we’d accomplished. Other people seemed to like the record too. But as was the case with our subsequent two albums, most of the people who were fans of ours were the kind of folks who got records for free: writers, record store types, promoters, radio people. There was already no money in music prior to the streaming era. Trust me on this.

Still, we held out hope. A lot of the power pop ‘zines liked us. WXPN and Y100 in Philly were supporting us. There was gonna be a European release (with, um “different” cover art). We felt like we were one five star MOJO review, or one effusive testimonial from Ray Davies or Bob Pollard away from reaching “the next level” (i.e., the level where four dudes don’t have to share one motel room).

But we never got there. Bands like ours just weren’t meant to succeed in our own time. Or 20 years later, apparently.

We’d hoped to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Worrying with a show in Philadelphia tonight. That’ll have to wait until (hopefully) next year. When our debut album will be old enough to legally drink. That seems like a more appropriate cause for celebration, come to think of it.

Book the babysitter now.

P.B., 3/13/21

Getting in touch with my metal roots...

Allow me to explain: This is the soundtrack to Electric Jesus, a comedy about a small town Christian metal band in the 80s with aspirations of becoming the next Stryper. It's out today on Joyful Noise Records. My dear friend and collaborator Daniel C Smith wrote the music for the film and, knowing my appreciation for 80s metal, brought me in to play drums for the "bands" 316, Bloody Mass and Satan's Clutch.

This marks the first time I've ever played double-kick on record (thank you David Uosikkinen for the pedal!) and hit the bell of the ride cymbal with such vigor. I should add that Daniel has contributed some amazing new Danielson songs and instrumental pieces to the soundtrack as well. Look for the film (which stars Brian Baumgartner from The Office and Judd Nelson) somewhere soon.

Lastly, I want to dedicate my work on this album to the dude who slapped the soft serve ice cream cone from my hand on the floor of the Philadelphia Spectrum at an Iron Maiden/Yngwie J. Malmsteen show in January 1987 then screamed in my face "ICE CREAM ISN'T METAL, YOU PUSSY."

Who's metal now?

The Bigger Lovers’ second album, Honey in the Hive, turns 18 today

We released our sophomore album, Honey in the Hive on this very day 18 years ago: August 27, 2002. Back when records came out on Tuesday. Back when people bought records (not that many people bought ours). Back when “putting out a record” usually meant you were probably only putting out a compact disc. 

Honey was our first of two LPs for Yep Roc Records. We were on the same label as Nick Lowe for a few years. That blew our goddamn minds. Yep Roc liked the first record. And someone from the label saw us play to four people (including the Yep Roc staffer and his date) at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill, N.C. the previous summer and likely recognized the way we brought the same heat to an audience of four as we would have for our usual audience of seven. That’s just showbiz. 

Honey came out in the era of Interpol and the Strokes and the hundreds of bands that brazenly attempted to look and sound just like them. That was not our lane. So while we were largely ignored, Honey did put us on the guitar-pop/power-pop/record-geek-rock map in the tiniest of ways. Which basically meant we started to draw a dozen or so dudes everywhere we went. 

Always dudes. Always. Dudes.   

I am extremely proud of the work we did on that record. Bret and Scott each came in armed with a handful of crushers, which we “fine-tuned” in late 2001 in our rehearsal space above the old Green St. For Pets consignment shop on Market St. in Olde City ($50 a month AND it came with a secret parking space out back). Ed played lots of tasty guitar throughout the record, and I was finally starting to figure out when it was appropriate to go bananas like Keith Moon and when to just stay outta the way and let the song have some space. We were four dudes who had a fair amount in common musically (Big Star, Beach Boys, Replacements, Robyn Hitchcock, the Kinks, Cheap Trick, Nick Lowe... you get the idea) and I think we got the synthesis just about right, with a lot of help from Brian McTear and Thom Monahan, who engineered and produced, respectively. Not too jangly, not too messy, not too pretty, always about the song. 

Two of my TBL faves are on that record: Scott’s “What Would it Take?” (which, inexplicably, I don’t think we played live but once or twice) and Bret’s “Bought Your Ghost.” Thinking back on those days, one particular line from “Bought Your Ghost” rings painfully true: “Little victories/And all the stunning disappointments.” 

To wit: 

We put out a record out on a REAL LABEL who sprung for the digipak packaging! We’re getting set to play a crazy hometown record release show at the Khyber before leaving for a tour later that week! Then the van gets totaled on 76 en route to the Khyber. 

We got a great review in Rolling Stone! One week later we’re performing before a handful of people in some shithole in Columbus, Ohio G.G. Allin would’ve thought twice about playing, and we got paid in a 12-pack of Miller High Life. The agent STILL wanted his 10 percent. (1 ½ beers?) 

We’re finally doing TV! A local show hosted by a meteorologist. We played in front of the doppler radar and they made us play quietly, a completely foreign concept to us back then. 

We landed a great opening slot that paid halfway decent touring with Los Straitjackets! The most enthusiastic reaction we got from their crowd was a dude in a wheelchair heckling us. 

You get the idea. 

The best of times. The not so best of times. A lot of violent hangovers. A lot of Red Roof Inns.   

But I’d give anything to be playing that shithole in Columbus right now for a case of Miller High Life.

P.B., 8/27/2020

New Pernice Brothers record in Sept., shows in October

I’m very excited to share the news that there’s going to be a new Pernice Brothers album and some shows.

The album is called Spread the Feeling and it will be available on red translucent vinyl and digitally thru Ashmont Records on Sept. 9. Joe (Pernice) has assembled some amazing songs on this record, and I’d say that even if I didn’t play on three of them. There’s a song featuring guest vocals from Neko Case called “Devil and the Jinn” that is one of the best things Joe’s ever written - and I don’t even play on it!

I’ll be joining Joe for five shows in October, marking the first full-band Pernice Brothers full-length shows since December 2006 - a good seven months before anyone owned an iPhone. You’re probably looking at the tour dates on that poster image (it’s the album cover art, more great work from Joe’s much better half Laura Stein) and wondering “Why aren’t you playing (insert town here)?” We’re kind of testing the waters right now. If everything goes well with these dates, we’d definitely like to do more. In moderation. I don’t want to speak for anyone, but I don’t think it’s very likely you’ll see the Pernice Brothers hopping in the van for a seven-week tour like we were doing from 2003-2006.

And if you’re wondering why there’s no overseas dates (London and Dublin in particular were always very good to us), that’s because there’s no European label or booking agent at the moment. Hopefully that gets sorted out at some point.

More soon…

P.B.

I am going to play some shows with Bird Streets

HOT NEWS: I’m headed out on a little tour with Bird Streets.

For the uninitiated, Bird Streets is the nom de rock of John Brodeur. John and I first met last year when he was a guest on a Cabinet of Wonders show, and I’ve been digging the self-titled Bird Streets debut LP (produced by Jason Falkner, another artist I hold in very high regard) ever since. If you’ve enjoyed the stuff I’ve done with folks like Pernice Brothers, Bigger Lovers, I Was a King and Cliff Hillis, there’s a good chance you’ll like Bird Streets a whole bunch. You can stream/purchase the album here.

We’ll be opening for Juliana Hatfield on all but one of the dates. I love Juliana’s stuff too, and have had the pleasure of playing with her at some Cabinet shows. Hoping Juliana plays some of those sweet Olivia Newton-John covers.

The tour starts in Philly (how convenient) June 19 and we visit Columbus, Ferndale (Detroit), Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, D.C., New York, and Jersey City. Tour dates/ticket info here.

Come on out if ya can!

I got to see where ALL the Zildjian cymbals get made

I’ve been a Zildjian artist for a few years now, but on a recent trip to Boston I finally got to visit HQ. In my mind, I’m still there. Big thanks to Eric Gross at Zildjian for hosting me. As someone who’s been playing Zildjian cymbals since I was 12, it still kinda blows my mind to be part of the Zildjian family.

That’s the last time I tell anyone I’m getting a new drum kit…

I LOVE my two drum kits: my circa mid-60s Ludwig Downbeats and my circa 1940s Slingerland Rolling Bombers. These kits have served me well and they’ll continue to serve me well. I just got to feeling like it was time for some brand new tools. New drums, new sizes, new sounds, new sweet spots to find, new head combinations to test out, new tuning puzzles to unravel. I love that stuff. It can take YEARS to figure it out. But it’s all good. I’ve got lots of time for that. That’s part of the joy of playing any instrument - the long-game of finding out what it’s capable of. 

So my mind was made up - I was getting a new drum kit!!! It was high time. The last time I purchased a new kit was January 1991. A six-piece Tama Granstar. With a curved  hardware rack. And a piccolo snare. Things were different then. After talking it over (and over, and over) with a friend who works for Noble and Cooley (whose drums I played on a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tour in 2017 and fell in love with) we decided on the model, sizes, shells, finish, budget and all that good stuff. I was so excited. Maybe too excited.

Even though I was about six weeks out from making the first payment (you place the order, then they custom build the kit), I was so over the moon about the prospect of playing and owning NEW CUSTOM BUILT Noble and Cooley drums that I started telling people about them. And I’m not one who likes to count or talk about his chickens before they’re hatched.  And yet here I was clucking about these damn drums that didn’t even exist yet (again, they’re CUSTOM BUILT - you can see why I was so excited).

Now I’m not much for superstition but it’s worth pointing out that not long after I uncharacteristically started talking about my plans for something I didn’t have yet that a lot of stuff started going south financially. First my wife’s car needed a bunch of work. Then our dog, who’s getting older and is living with a treatable disease, required some pricey medical care and will continue to require some pricey meds. After that MY car needed some work. Then we realized we needed a new roof, and just after we realized we needed a new roof, we realized the chimney needed some repairs. Oh, and then last week I lost my full-time job of 12 years (and two weeks!). 

(Why do I feel like George Costanza pleading his case to the co-op board?)

Needless to say, after sustaining one financial kick to the nuts after another, the drums are on hold for now. That’s what I get for popping off about something I didn’t even have yet. Never again.

Hopefully losing my job (which was a great job for many reasons, not the least of which was that I was there for a long time so I could get a fair bit of time off to go play drums - because that’s a helluva lot more fun than a day job!) will be the end of this carnage. I’m not disclosing these financial hardships looking for sympathy. Our situation is certainly not unique. People deal with stuff like this all the time. It sucks. But I’m confident we’ll manage. I’ve got a few things lined up in the short term, and I’m looking longer term. If you think you might have work for me - drumming, writing, whatever.. hit me up!

In the meantime, I can assure you that never again will you hear me utter a word to anyone about my intentions for getting a new drum kit. You’ll just see me playing it one day.

And you WILL see me playing it one day. Hopefully in the not too distant future.

-pb, 2/12/19

This is what you get when you don't get a Grammy statue...

Suitable for framing. 

A long overdue update...

I know… I know; here it is May and I'm finally checking in with my first proper update of 2018. 

Up next: my Oscar picks!

Where to start? 

Well, a record I played on won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Nieces and nephews are finally showing me some damn respect. My mom thinks I won a Daytime Emmy.

I had a great time doing a Shaking Through session for Weathervane Music with Jesse Hale Moore, which was released last month. Jesse is one of the brightest among many bright lights on the Philadelphia music scene. You can check out the track we cut, "Enter, Light," and a little making-of documentary on the VIDEOS page.

We did some Clap Your Hands Say Yeah shows earlier in the year: a festival in Santiago, Chile, and a bunch of West Coast dates. All quite fun. I even met Dave Matthews in a Seattle barbershop. Totally chill guy. I’m headed over to Europe with Clap in July for some more shows (dates here). I also did a little knocking around with Alec in the basement recently on some song ideas. I think he's working toward a new album in the not-too-distant future.

Also earlier this year: I participated in an amazing Tom Petty tribute show with a mess of great folks. It was me and my pal and fellow Petty obsessive Pat Finnerty (he plays with Son Little), his cousin Mike Quinn, Todd Erk on bass (he also plays in Clap Your Hands), Zach Miller from Dr. Dog and an amazing guitarist named Justin Mazer. We called ourselves the Philadelphia Tom Petty Appreciation Band (rolls off the tongue, I know) and it looks like we'll be doing a New York City gig in October, along with another Philly date. Hits! Deep cuts! Unreleased stuff! Wilburys! So much fun. Details soonish.

What else??

For the first time in more than 12 years, I unexpectedly found myself recording drums for a Pernice Brothers record last month! I had hoped it would happen again someday, I just didn’t expect it to happen right now. I tracked drums remotely in Philly to a few new songs Joe has penned. It reminded me how much I missed playing Joe’s songs. At heart, I'm just a drummer that loves playing to great songs. And Joe’s one of the best songwriters I’ve ever worked with. One of the best of his generation, really (though I may be biased…) I’m not sure when/how/where the new stuff will be released. I just know that Joe is working toward releasing something. 

Another thing I hadn’t done in a while (since 2010, I believe) I found myself doing recently: recording with Daniel Smith of Danielson! It wasn’t for a Danielson project though… it was for a movie soundtrack very much in the wheelhouse of two dudes who grew up in South Jersey in the 80s such as us. More on that as the project develops and the film begins shooting. All I’ll divulge at this point is that I used a double-kick pedal and TWO rack toms. Very excessive, by my standards.

Last bust certainly not least: as I briefly posted about a couple of weeks back, I’ve joined a new band! It's called Corporal Quorum, and it features Wesley Stace of Wesley Stace (and the English U.K.)/John Wesley Harding fame, Kurt Bloch of Fastbacks/Young Fresh Fellows/Filthy Friends fame, Eddie Carlson of English U.K./Jon Langford/Poi Dog Pondering fame, and ME!!! Here’s the catch: We’re only playing two shows (for now). Think of us as a small-batch, artisanal sort of supergroup. The shows are June 2nd (the 10th Annual Dara’s Defense Benefit in Philly) and June 3rd (Rockwood Music Hall in NYC). Deets on the SHOWS page. We'll be playing selections from the Stace/Bloch catalogs, and covering a whole mess of obscurities from the 60s and 70s, plucked from all sections of the record store: prog, psych, chamber pop, new wave, pub, proto pub, and hard rock. It’ll be like a MOJO sampler come to life.

I lied, there's one more thing. Two, really. As in I'm playing on two great DIY records that have just been released. I worked with a band from Pittsburgh called The Local on their new EP Reverie which you can check out here. And I play on a new record called What Happened to You? from Philly's Backyard Collective which you can check out here. Reppin' both ends of the state, I am!

I think that’s all I’ve got…

P.B. 5/14/18

I've joined a new band!

It's called Corporal Quorum, and it features Wesley Stace of Wesley Stace (and the English U.K.)/John Wesley Harding fame, Kurt Bloch of Fastbacks/Young Fresh Fellows/Filthy Friends fame, Eddie Carlson of English U.K./Jon Langford/Poi Dog Pondering fame, and ME!!! 

Here's the thing: WE'RE ONLY PLAYING 2 SHOWS (for now).

June 2 – 10th Annual Dara's Defense Benefit, Philadelphia, Pa. Tix/info here
June 3 - Rockwood Music Hall, NYC... Tix/info here

We'll be playing selections from the Stace/Bloch catalogs, and covering a whole mess of obscurities from the 60s and 70s, plucked from all sections of the record store: prog, psych, chamber pop, new wave, pub, proto pub, and hard rock.  

The backstory on my new, old drums

Photo: John Ryan/Weathervane Music

I'm so psyched to finally have a kit of Slingerland Rolling Bombers (minus a snare) up and running. Been trying to piece one together for years. Below are some pix taken by John Ryan for Weathervane Music during a Jess Hale Moore Shaking Through session we did recently (the results of which should be available soon) And here’s the backstory on the kit….

About 10 years ago I did a little story about Jay Bellerose for Modern Drummer. Jay's an incredible drummer who's played with lots of folks (Ray Lamontagne, Beck, B.B. King, Allen Toussaint, Sam Phillips and many others), and he’s also a vintage drum enthusiast. At the time he was playing with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss for the Raising Sand album and tour. I loved the way the drums sounded on that record – so rattle-y and boom-y with a warm resonance. We got to talking shop and he broke down the finer points of the circa 1940s Slingerland Rolling Bomber kit he used for the sessions – drums I knew nothing about. The drums had rosewood lugs, hoops and snare strainers due to a metal ration the U.S. Government imposed during World War II. It was fascinating to me that a war and a subsequent government mandate would lead to the production of such amazing drums. 

Photo: John Ryan/Weathervane Music

I saw the Plant/Krauss show with Jay on drums when it came through Atlantic City a few months later and I was blown away at how beautiful his Rolling Bomber tubs looked and sounded. All that extra wood where there would normally be metal on the shells really contributed to the warmth of the drums. I had to get my hands on a set. Much easier said than done, I learned. These drums were in short, short supply as I began to find out after scouring the Internet.

Weirdly, I lucked into a 26" Rolling Bomber kick pretty quickly. In the summer of 2008, a friend's wife found one in decent shape at a yard sale (??!!), and traded it to me for a sealed copy of the Soft Boys' Underwater Moonlight Matador reissue (??!!). Master craftsman Matt Gaither cut the bearing edges and replaced a couple wonky lugs and tension rods for me and it was in fine working order. I've never played out with that drum, but I've used it on some sessions, most notably, the last Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record, The Tourist. It sounds like a beast.

Photo: John Ryan/Weathervane Music

Years went by and I couldn't track down any other pieces. I talked to hardcore collectors like Bun E. Carlos and Steve Maxwell, scoured eBay, Craigslist, Reverb and the back of Modern Drummer with regularity, but nothing. Then in May, my buddy Jose Medeles at Revival Drum Shop in Portland got some Rolling Bombers in, including a 13" rack. SOLD! A few weeks later, my pal Freddy Berman (a great drummer who's been with Amos Lee forever) was over one night and said he had a 16” Bomber floor tom he was willing to part with. It needed some love, but it was salvageable. Swapped him a cymbal for it in the back room of the Dawson Street Pub in Manayunk, and finally, my Rolling Bomber kit was coming together. 

Matt worked a little more bearing edge and lug replacement magic (we needed new hoops all around, too - the old ones were pretty warped), I got some Aquarian American Vintage heads for the toms (they're just the tiniest bit oversized - perfect for old, slightly out-of-round old drums like this), and my buddy Rob Walbourne (with whom I split the drumming in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) got me a mounting kit for the floor tom (which had no legs or sleeves for legs to speak of) from his day gig at Noble & Cooley. Got some DW kick drum legs from Philadelphia Drum and Percussion, and after about 10 years in the making, I finally had 75 percent of a Slingerland Rolling bomber four-piece kit. 

Hopefully it won’t take me another ten years to score the snare.

P.B., 12/18/17  

Photo: John Ryan/Weathervane Music

Photo: John Ryan/Weathervane Music

Inside view of Bomber floor tom

After-market floating floor tom mount from Noble & Cooley - just like they had in the 1940s!!!!

A record I play drums on has been nominated for a GRAMMY award!

Here's something I don't get to say every day: A record I play drums on, The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding has been nominated for a GRAMMY award in the Best Rock Album category. 

(I don't know who calculates the percentage of "playing time of new rock, hard rock or metal recordings," but that sounds like a pretty kickass job!)

The recognition is an honor but I say with all sincerity that the real reward is getting to make music with these dudes. They are the real deal and extremely deserving of all the good stuff that has come their way. They've been putting in the work for a long, long time.

This is exciting news, to be sure. And a reason to watch the 60th annual GRAMMY Awards LIVE on CBS, Sunday, January 28th at 8 p.m. EST. 

I am playing 6 shows in 4 days this week!

Hi. It's 17-year-old me, here to tell you that I'm playing six shows in four days this week. (And hoping like f**k this week is better than the last week).

Playing Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders at Helsinki in Hudson NY on Weds. Many great guests: Tracy Bonham, Charles Bock, Juliana Hatfield, Dave Hill, Daniel Mendelsohn, Stephin Merritt, Suzzy Roche. 

Playing a Wesley Stace and the English UK/Juliana Hatfield show at Ardmore Music Hall on Thursday. A Wes set, then a Juliana set during which we'll back Juliana up for some tunes.

Playing Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders at City Winery in NYC on Friday. More great guests: Suzzy Roche, Eric Andersen, Juliana Hatfield, Dave Hill, Stephin Merritt, Eugene Mirman, David Myles, Aparna Nancherla, Annalee Newitz.

Then 3 shows in Philly on Saturday: Sets with Kenn Kweder (11:30 am) and Cliff Hillis (1:30 pm) at the Manayunk Harvest Festival, then a private event that night near Rittenhouse Square. If you hear my drums in the area between 7:30 and 11:00, feel free to crash. 

Tix/more info on all shows here.

R.I.P.T.P.

-pb

Thank you for EVERYTHING Tom Petty...

For being my 'Beatles on Ed Sullivan' moment (SNL, March 1980 - "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee"). I'm a middle-aged man still obsessed with and playing rock and roll because of you and the Heartbreakers.

For writing the greatest opening line in the history of song ('Honey don't walk out I'm too drunk to follow').

For Echo.

For doing it all with integrity.

For the middle eights in "The Waiting," "Southern Accents," "Refugee," and "Don't Do Me Like That" (NO ONE wrote middle eights like Tom Petty).

For always bringing along killer opening acts - 'Til Tuesday, Del Fuegos, Georgia Satellites, Replacements, Lenny Kravitz, Chris Whitley, Jayhawks, Lucinda, Jackson Browne, Allmans, Black Crowes, Buddy Guy, Peter Wolf.

For turning me on to Bob Dylan, the Byrds, J.J. Cale, the Zombies, Johnny Cash, Marty Stuart, Chuck Berry, the Animals, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, and so much more great music through your covers, collaborations and radio show.

For continuing to write so many beautiful songs so late in the game ("Square One," "Running Man's Bible," "Full Grown Boy," "All You Can Carry," "Hungry No More.").

For getting Mudcrutch back together and bringing the band to Philly in 2016.

For non-LP B-sides that were better than most people's A-sides ("Girl on LSD," "Don't Treat Me Like a Stranger," "Trailer").

For the Beacon shows.

For looking up at me when I called your name as you were lighting a smoke and walking to the bus in back of the Wells Fargo Center in July 2010 (the benefits of leaving during "American Girl" to beat the traffic).

For sharing Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch, Mike Campbell, Ron Blair, Howie Epstein, Scott Thurston and Steve Ferrone with the world. An untouchable band.

For EVERYTHING. R.I.P., T.P.

What’s with that plastic snare I used on the new War on Drugs album?

Seven or eight people have asked me about the snare drum I used on "Clean Living," one of two new War on Drugs tracks I have the honor of playing on. So here's the story...

It's a Mastro drum, a plastic snare made in the 1960s, which you can still find at a fair price on eBay and Reverb. Not So Modern Drummer has a brief background on the Mastro here. 

Though it's made of plastic, I'd hardly call it a toy. It's a pretty well-assembled drum. The shell, lugs and rims are plastic. The head seemed kind of plastic-y. The snare wire and tension rods (which you tune with a flat-head screwdriver) were the only metal parts. 

It was one of a half-dozen or so snares they had on hand at Boulevard Recording in Hollywood where we were tracking. Clay Blair, the studio owner, recommended trying to work it into the mix. And once Clay told me Jim Keltner uses a Mastro regularly (and apparently has several in his arsenal, using them sometimes as toms) that was all I needed to hear.

The trick with the Mastro (as per Clay) is to play it with a SUPER light touch. The lighter you hit it, the bigger it sounds on tape/hard drive. That made it a perfect choice for “Clean Living.” I played traditional grip and just kind of let the stick in my left hand drop from between my thumb and index finger so it barely grazed the head. Couple the light touch with Shawn Everett's mic placement (I believe there was a Moongel involved, too) and we got a dense, deep, spooky snare sound that suited the tune perfectly (as did my 22” K Constantinople Medium Thin Low Ride w/sizzles – the quick decay of the eighth notes linger nicely in the wide open spaces of the song, I think). 

So that's the story with the Mastro. Adam loved the sound of it so much he bought one for himself. I gotta get around to doing that... but right now I'm too caught up in trying to assemble a Slingerland Rolling Bomber kit. More on that soon...

P.B., 9/1/17

Dispatches from the home office: Winter edition (or, The new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record is almost here)

This time last year, we had just started work on a batch of new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah recordings in Dr. Dog's drafty but well-equipped recording/rehearsal/storage facility in Delaware County (the birthplace of Wawa), just south of Philadelphia (the birthplace of liberty, arguably).

Beginning Friday, ten of those recordings will be commercially available on the fifth Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album, ‘The Tourist’ – my first with the band after several seasons of touring.  I may be biased, but I think ‘The Tourist’ is a high quality endeavor. Alec (Ounsworth) brought with him some great songs and arrangements (and re-arrangements and re-re-arrangements); Matt Wong (with an assist from Tom Hughes) played his usual bedrock bass; Nick Krill got all Nick Krill on guitar and keys AND engineered his ass off; and Dave Fridmann did a typically mind-blowing turn at the mixing desk just like he’s done on some of your favorite records. 

I provided the drums and percussion. If you’re scoring at home, I mostly used a 26” Slingerland Rolling Bomber kick, an old Slingerland 12” rack and 16” floor tom of Nick’s, my 6.5” x 14” Black Beauty and 5” x 14” chrome Supraphonic Ludwig snares, an old 8” Ludwig concert tom belonging to Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick, an assortment of Zildjian cymbals, and some hand percussion. And, yes, I am totally – and proudly – ripping off Pete Thomas, Stewart Copeland and Dennis Davis in certain spots.

The "A rig" for much of 'The Tourist' sessions: Rolling Bomber kick, Black Beauty snare, Slingerland toms, Zildjian cymbals

The set-up used on the song "Fireproof": Slick's old Ludwig concert tom, the Rolling Bomber kick, and a metal maraca purchased (with a gift card) at Ten Thousand Villages in my neighborhood.  

We’ll be performing a good many of these songs on upcoming tours of North America and Europe. As we’ve done previously, I’ll be sharing the drumming duties on tour with my good friend Rob Walbourne. Rob will be behind the kit for the first U.S. leg, which kicks off March 2 in Philly. I’ll join up for the 2nd leg which starts April 18 in Phoenix, and then I’ll be on board for the European shows in September.  Tour dates at cyhsy.com/news/tour-dates/.  If you’re on the fence about buying tickets, I’ll just let you know that the drum rig will include a China boy cymbal and a Rototom. Possibly two Rototoms. That should definitely sway you one way or the other. 

Be good to each other and hope to see you out there…

P.B., 2/21/17

"Live a Little," at 10

"Live a Little,” my second studio album (third overall) as a member of the Pernice Brothers, was released 10 years ago today – October 3, 2006. Back when records came out on Tuesdays.

IMO, 'LAL' is the Pernice-Pernice-Pinkerton-Walbourne-Berkery incarnation of the Pernice Brothers at the peak of our powers. We'd been touring together for a couple years at that point and were good & salty as a unit, as Joe liked to say. And we’d already cut an album together, 2005's "Discover a Lovelier You," which had great songs (“Amazing Glow” and “There Goes the Sun” in particular), but the performances and the sounds felt canned to my ears (a word of advice, fellow drummers: NEVER agree to play AN ENTIRE ALBUM on an electronic drum kit, even if you're the new guy in the band).

We found the sweet spot on LAL, though. Everyone plays their ass off on the record. Just a few of many highlights: Peyton's easy-like-Sunday-morning solo on "Grudge F*** (2006)" and his Honeyman-Scott-ian work on "Conscience Clean"; Bob's sweet guitar licks during the long fade on "Zero Refills"; and James's burner of a solo that caps "Somerville."

We got awesome sounds laying everything to fat, two-inch tape with Mike Deming (known for great work with the Lilys, Beachwood Sparks and on the first Pernice album, 1998's “Overcome by Happiness”) behind the desk at Studio .45 in Enfield, Conn . Mike also did a lovely job arranging and conducting the horns and strings heard throughout the album. (Side note: I’d hear Mike could be a little intense, but he and I got along great. I’d like to think it’s because I’m a very efficient worker in the studio, but I think it was mostly because he’s from Pittsburgh and he really respected me for knowing that Yinzer rocker Donnie Iris was a member of both the Jaggerz and Wild Cherry before finding success on his own).

Most importantly Joe had written some AMAZING songs for LAL. Of all the songs I’ve ever played on, "Somerville" might be my favorite- and I swear I'm not just saying that because a guitar lick I suggested made it into James' solo at the end. Every damn thing about that song is perfect to my ears (though the snare – my Ludwig 5 x 14 Supraphonic, which I still have - could TOTALLY be louder in the mix. There’s always the reissue… ). "Zero Refills,” “PCH One,” “High as a Kite,” and “How Can I Compare” are all right behind “Somerville.” LAL was STACKED. 

And I have very fond memories of making this record. We layered everything so I cut my tracks first. Just Joe, Deming and I camped out for a week in the dead of the Connecticut winter in January 2006. Joe and I stayed downstairs from the studio, falling asleep to ESPN while keeping a close eye on the percolating Hot Stove (I believe the Josh Beckett-for-Hanley Ramirez swap was consummated during these sessions). In the morning we’d hang out drinking coffee for a couple hours at a local Dunkin’ Donuts (Joe: “Don’t worry, Gavone, this is good practice for when we’re old men.”) waiting for Deming to rise. Peyton came by a few nights and made AMAZING meals.  Dude can COOK, ya know.

And I got to play drums to Joe’s incredible songs in the big, beautiful live room at .45. I can still hear the sound in my head. My Ludwigs have never sounded as sweet as they did in that room.  And I can still see Deming in the control room, pumping one fist in the air in approval (pretty certain he was holding a lit bowl with the other fist) as I was playing those crazy fills at the end of “Zero Refills.”

Those were seriously good times making great music. Go put "Live a Little" on now. I might be biased, but I think it holds up in a very big way.

-PB, 10/3/1