Pere Ubu - Modern Drummer music instrument blog

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Pere Ubu - Modern Drummer music instrument blog

Pere Ubu¹s Steve Mehlman

2008-03-17

Hi. Steve Mehlman reporting from Cleveland. I¹ve been playing drums forŠa

long time. I¹ve played a million shows with a ton of different bands, like

Pere Ubu, Rocket From the Tombs, and yes, even some cover bands‹they pay.

I¹m on a bunch of releases‹most recently the Pere Ubu album Why I Hate Women

and the last Rocket From The Tombs album, Rocket Redux (both out on

smogveil.com) ‹plus a slew of albums that you couldn¹t find if you wanted to.

I¹m not what you¹d call a real technical drummer. I took lessons for a

couple years way back in the day, and what I took from that was mostly how

to read drum music for school‹orchestra, wind ensemble, marching band, and

all that.

I¹m told that I¹m a basherŠ andŠwell, I do prefer to beat the f*** out of my

drums. Most of my swings start behind my head, and I aim for the floor,

shaft on the edge of cymbals that are mounted too tight so that they don¹t

flop around too much when I¹m playing fast. I bend way the hell over and

lean into every hit (well, depending on which band we¹re talking about), and

I sometimes refer to myself as a Cro-Magnon drummer. You¹ve seen the

evolutionary-chain picture where it goes from monkey to man in like six easy

steps? I figure I¹m somewhere around the third or fourth step. You know, a

little primal. BUT, I can mix it up.

I don¹t really like to talk shop (really kinda can¹t stand it), but I know

what I like‹my gear and nothing else will quite do. But whatever, I get

stuck with a lot of rental gear. I never spent a lot of time practicing

(which is why there are twelve-year-olds who just crush me). Rudiments?

Blech. Hate it. Wish I liked doing it, but no.

Tuning? That¹s for drum techsŠGod, I wish I had a drum tech. So, yeah, learn

to tune your drums, so you can get a job as a drum tech.

And I can¹t even guess how many times my eighteen-year-old kit has been

toppled‹singer over the top, kicked thru plexi-glass shields, dropped down

stairs, rained on, fell out of the truck, slammed to the ground in fits of

rage, etc.‹but it¹d be easy to tell you how many times I¹ve cleaned them:

I¹m pretty sure there¹s some eighteen-year-old spit, sweat, and beer on

there. Ugh. I think I might go clean my drums.

I ain¹t one of those guys who can talk endlessly about all the greats of

drumming and their attributes, and who¹s better than who, and why, and

blah-f***ing-blah. I¹m not what you¹d call a history buff. I don¹t think

John Bonham was the best drummer in the world; that¹s Stewart Copeland.

Well, sure, I suppose there are better guys, but I loves me some Stewart

Copeland. There¹s a huge list of people who make Neil Peart and Keith Moon

look like chumps‹I ain¹t sayin¹ I¹m one of ¹em, I¹m just sayin¹. But so

what? Most famous drummer in the world? Nowadays, that¹s probably the lovely

Meg White. So, like whomever you want, but there¹s always some little kid

who¹s better than your heroes.

Anyway, all my opinions aside‹time to pimp my wares. I have a Yamaha Rock

Tour Custom four-piece kit‹22" kick, 6×14 (or 61/2" or 51/2"), 12" rack

(sometimes 13" instead), and 16" floor (sometimes my 18" CB700 instead). I

generally only play Zildjian cymbals, but I¹ll use anything I find that¹s

heavy and sounds good. I use a 14" Quick Beat bottom with a bottom New Beat

on top for my hats, a 20" A Custom medium ride (sometimes as the crash,

though they all get crashed), and a 20" K Custom Hybrid ride. (Love the

sound, but it¹s not that heavy.) Black leather Pork Pie throne‹love it.

Finally got some DW5000 pedals. Mostly Tama hardware. LOW Ludwig snare

stand. Pro-Mark 808 sticks. Heads are generally Remo Pinstripes or Evans

Hydraulics, but sometimes Aquarians. I try to try new stuff, but that gets

kind of expensive.

Go see Pere Ubu (the band I¹ve been in for like a dozen years, often

described as old, weird, fat, scary, annoying, mean, etc.‹wait, did I say

awesome?). My singer tells me that we are the greatest rock band in the

world. Here are some upcoming dates:

Saturday, March 22, Pour Haus, Louisville, KY

Sunday, March 23, Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

Monday, March 24, Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC‹live film underscore

Tuesday, March 25, Plaza Theatre, Atlanta, GA‹live film underscore

AND

Pere Ubu performs a musical adaptation of Alfred Jarry¹s Ubu Roi on

Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Um, and go see Roué (compare to, say, Sonic Youth and The Jesus

Lizard‹pounding and pretty, and sometimes pretty ugly, oh, and really loud)

and Liquid (kinda power-poppy, heavy rock-ish, with hugeŠeverything). Come

say hi. And while I¹m pimping my bands, I don¹t do MySpace, but Roué

(www.myspace.com/roue) and Liquid (www.myspace.com/liquidsuperstars and

www.myspace.com/myhitmachine) do. And Pere Ubu¹s got a Web site, too:

www.ubuprojex.net.

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