Meinl Cymbals would like to extend a warm welcome to Ryan Yerdon, who has recently joined the company's family of cymbal artists.

Ryan slams the skins for the hit-making, multi-platinum rock and roll outfit Puddle of Mudd, and are currently on the road in support of their late 2009 release Volume 4: Songs In the Key of Love and Hate. 

Ever since the revamped POM hit the road in support of their industry-comeback album Famous, in 2007, and now with their support of Volume 4..., the band has seen gold album sales...not an easy thing to manage in this day and age of digital piracy.

Behind it all is Ryan, who brings a spirited, steady pulse to the tunes, lifting catchy-as-hell lyrics and melodies to the next level. 

The winners of the “Friends of Meinl Contest” are Ben Hammou Amine from Morocco, Germain Calsou from France, and Marcel Mizera from Germany.

Marcel won a set of Soundcaster Fusion cymbals, Ben a Generation X 19” China Crash, and Calsou a cymbal trolley.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks again to everyone who participated in the contest.

Hannes Grossmann, drummer of the extreme technical death metal band Obscura will be offering customized video online lessons on his website www.hannesgrossman.com. Hannes, who also played the drums on the critically acclaimed Necrophagist album 'Epitaph' offers the following statement:

"I want to give some insights in my playing and show young metal and also non-metal drummers new ways to increase their drumming skills and be able to practise efficiently. The practise methods I developed over the years allow me to learn anything that I want within a short time peridoe. When I joined Necrophagist in 2003 I managed to increase my single stroke hand speed from 200 bpm to 240 bpm in four month! No matter what you want to learn - may it be hand or foot technique, speed, odd time signatures, timing,  warmups or even songs from the bands I played with - you'll get the chance to learn it on my website!"
 
The lessons are also playable on iPod and iPhone. Watch the video for more information about available lessons and classes.   

Obscura started a four-week U.S. tour with The Black Dahlia Murder yesterday in Atlanta, GA. This is Obscura’s third U.S. tour since releasing their Relapse debut Cosmogenesis early last year.

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Jeff Ellis of Farewell to its family of cymbal artists.

Coming out of North Carolina, Jeff and Farewell’s members, most of whom had grown up playing in various punk and hardcore bands, came together in 2005 and quickly built a name for themselves, touring the Southeastern United States and crafting their upbeat pop-rock sound, all the while showcasing for labels across the country. They eventually caught the ear of the legendary punk rock label, Epitaph Records and its founder Brett Gurewitz, who signed the group in 2007. It was an ideal situation for the band; many of their influences were veteran Epitaph artists.

Since then, Jeff and Farewell have released two punk rock albums that have had them constantly on the road, earning them status as not only road dogs in general, but also as VANS Warped tour veterans, a veritable rite of passage in their genre.

Meinl Cymbal artists Benny Greb and Chris Coleman are confirmed artists for the 2010 Modern Drummer Festival. The festival will be held on Saturday, May 22 at Montclair State University Memorial Auditorium in Montclair, New Jersey.

Benny is one of the featured performers on the main stage and Chris will host one of two master-classes that will be held the morning of the festival.

For more information on the festival, click here.

From April 18th - 20th, Thomas Lang's Drumming Boot Camp will take place at the Drumtrainer School in Berlin, Germany for an intense practicing and drumming experience.

Check out thomaslangdrumcamp.com for more information.

You can also register online to be a part of the boot camp.

Thomas Lang is sharing his unique drumming concepts and his hardcore practicing approach with students in a radical new setting.
Thomas Lang’s Boot Camp is an ultra-intense drum camp where students will get the drumming workout  of their life!
Thomas will personally guide small classes  through 8-days of serious drumming -- putting students through their paces all day every day. Thomas will demonstrate exercises, play them for -and with the students and Thomas will check, correct and improve each student personally during these intense, albeit fun and inspiring lessons.
The bare-bones Drumming Boot Camp is all about hands-on playing for a minimum of 8 hours per day. This camp is all about REAL RESULTS. Students will see real improvements in their playing.
Students will leave the camp with refined skill, improved technique and with inspiration and useable information that will last for years to come. Thomas will share his the secrets to successful practice sessions and he will demonstrate and guide each student through the regime every single day of the course.
Thomas will notate, thoroughly explain, and play each exercise with the class.
Each student will receive a package with transcriptions, a CD with all tempo-maps, and a  goodie ba” at the end of the course.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE THOMAS LANG BOOT CAMP
You don’t have to be an advanced player -- you just have to be a determined player. This is a camp for drummers who are not afraid to break a sweat and get a few blisters. During teaching hours (9 am to 1pm and 3 to 7 pm) there are only a few short breaks and all the “hanging and chilling” will be done while working on your chops.
All students will be issued with standard snare and kick drum practice pads, a drum throne and a music stand.
Students are welcome to use their own double pedals but double pedals are also provided for all students. Students are required to bring their own sticks, and notepads but no other drum equipment.
For the duration of the course the students are playing on practice pads and Thomas will assess their technique, their progress and he will correct technical mistakes and eliminate all the little flaws from the student’s playing.
Each student undergoes a 30 minute assessment by Thomas on day 1. This half-hour session is also “prep time” for the student and important for the course’s success.
This camp is not about discussing sound, tuning, shiny sparkly drum sets and other gear talk, it is strictly about hands and feet.
The Thomas Lang Drum Camp is like a Drum Circle on steroids!

Bonuses:
The top-student from each camp will you win the chance to attend the next camp (at a date and location of your choice) for free!
Each camp graduate receives a certificate and souvenir-bag at the end of the course.
The hardest working students will be rewarded with an increase in skill, and an extra BONUS goodie-bag!

Meinl Cymbal artist Derek Roddy will host a clinic at Seminole Music and Sound in Seminole, Florida, USA. The clinic will be at 7pm on Thursday, February 25.

Don't miss it!

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Miles McPherson to its family of cymbal artists. 

Hailing from Houston, TX and currently residing in Nashville, TN, Miles is currently manning the skins for American Idol superstar and Grammy-award winning artist Kelly Clarkson, whose first four albums have sold over 10.4 million copies in the USA alone. 

Miles is a drummer whose motto might as well be "try anything and everything." His list of studio and live credits reflects that suggested credo well, as his chameleon-like drumming has shifted him from genre to genre.

With an up-beat and friendly demeanor that is infectious and inviting, Miles gets his gigs not only through his solid drumming, but also through just being who he is as a person.

Miles approached Meinl through a mutual friend who is also a Meinl artist. He heard the cymbals and thought, "wow!" Then when he borrowed his friend's Meinl cymbals and played them on a gig, he felt like crying at the thought of having to go back to his old pies...He knew that after playing cymbals that spoke to him that much musically, that there was no way he could go back. No problem. We're glad to have you on-board Miles!

Meinl Cymbal artist Thomas Lang is hosting a series of Drumming Boot Camps.

Thomas will teach small classes for 8 hours per day while sharing his unique drumming concepts and hardcore practicing approach. Every day, Thomas will demonstrate his most effective exercises. Working through out the 8-hour daily camp schedule, Thomas will play for and with each student as well as check, correct and improve each student personally during these intensive results-oriented lessons.

The next camp is Feb 26 - Feb 28 in the Greater Los Angeles area.

For more information on this and other boot camps, click here.

Meinl cymbals introduces a 10” Candela series percussion hihat along with an applicable Low Hat.

This extremely thin pair can be played with hands or lighter sticks and responds instantly. The applicable Low Hat can be mounted down to a minimum height of 27” (69 cm). Perfect for cajon players who need a warm and soft sounding hihat which mounts comfortably within reach of the player.

There are some good bands, and then there are some great bands. Every Time I Die is a great band...and their new drummer Ryan Leger has joined the Meinl Cymbal family.

The all out rock and roll assault from upstate New York known as Every Time I Die found themselves in need of a drummer that could shift gears flawlessly and rock out as hard as they do. Ryan fit the bill to the tee. Straight out of Canada, Ryan helped the band pick up where they left off without missing a beat.

Since Ryan knew he would be on the road forever with a hard living and hard touring band like ETID, he knew that he needed cymbals that made the band sound great and that held up to the rigors of show after show, as well as needing a company that took great care of him. So he picked up the phone and called Meinl.

Still out in support of their latest release New Junk Aesthetic, Ryan and ETID are touring the world. Don't miss them this summer when they hit the road as one of the favored attractions on the always hot Vans Warped Tour.

Meinl Cymbal artist Jason Bittner and Shadows Fall recently shot a video for their excellent cover of the Ozzy Osbourne classic 'Bark At the Moon.' The video is an extremely faithful replication of the original Ozzy video, all the way down to Jason's Carmine Appice moustache!

Click here.

Enjoy!

Meinl is pleased to welcome Kevin 'KJ' Sawka to its family of cymbal artists.

Hailing from Seattle, WA, Kevin Sawka is one of the most highly regarded drummers in the drum 'n' bass scene. Seeing Kevin Sawka on the drums is the only way to believe the hype. He can play the most complex of jungle, drum'n'bass and breakbeats utilizing no loops and no extended samples -only his two hands and two feet.  If you can catch him in the right moment –live, at a show, or in a studio session- you’ll witness him perform each and every 808 bass kick, snare slap, and compressed highhat tick himself, in real-time.

Says Kevin...“I’d like to be able to play like that all the time, however, live, I want to give the people the fully-produced, complex sound I’m envisioning, so I not only play the drums, but I manually trigger the basslines, melodies, riffs and now even the light show and projections with my drums –so it’s a lot harder to focus on playing every single little single sound with my sticks.  But it’s like I’m playing even more with my sticks lately, not less.”

Along with a continued involvement in band projects, Kevin has kept his own projects as KJ Sawka going full steam ahead. Sony Creative Software has released 'KJ Sawka Presents: Drum 'n' Bass and Beyond,' a software package of loops and samples - full of the most hardnosed beats and bass this side of the jungle. Syncopated rhythms flow like a shot of adrenaline over ripping synth patterns, while textured Rhodes chords and airy pads provide perfect melodic breaks between hailstorms of sine waves. With more than 650 megs of royalty-free, perfectly ACIDized .wav files, this is Sony's biggest and best drum 'n' bass title yet. Drum 'n' bass, dub-step, breakbeat and downtempo—Kevin left no stone unturned with this package.

As if that wasn't enough, Kevin has recently released KJ Sawka's 'Undefined Connectivity,' a digital release available on iTunes, Amazon,  and through many more outlets.

All this is to say that Kevin never quits. His passion for and dedication to his craft have left him on a tireless quest to constantly create. Keep your eye on this one, he's on to still bigger things...

Rob Zombie's new album, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2", featuring Meinl Cymbal artist Tommy Clufetos, sold 49,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at position No. 8 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Hellbilly Deluxe 2" hit stores on February 2 via Roadrunner Records' Loud & Proud imprint, and independent retail stores in the U.S. were offering a bonus FREE ROB ZOMBIE digital EP download with purchase of the album. The EP featured remixes of the tracks "Jesus Frankenstein", "What?," and "Sick Bubblegum."

Don't miss Tommy with Rob Zombie on the road this summer as co-headliner of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival!

Meinl Cymbals is extremely proud to announce the addition of Ramon Sampson to its family of cymbal artists.

On Friday, January 8, 2010, Ramon competed against a few other finalists in Los Angeles, CA in Guitar Center's Annual Drum Off National Championship...and won! His competition came from other parts of the US, all drummers who had won their respective regions and had come to take home the gold, as it were, for the 2009 National Championship. Judged by a panel of famous professional drummers, Ramon took first place.

At the young age of 19, Ramon displays skills that are rarely seen in even the most seasoned of industry veterans; his musicality and inimitable technique jaw-dropping and inspiring. Hailing from Johannesburg, South Africa, Ramon and his family moved to a suburb of Memphis, TN just three years ago, and already Ramon has been recognized on a national level for his drumming and his engaging personality. 

...and what cymbals does the hottest young talent in the US choose to play? Meinl Cymbals. Of course.

Welcome Ramon!

AWESOME Rock Re-Mix of Madonna's 'Celebration' by Meinl Cymbal artist Kevin Figueiredo online.

Meinl Cymbals is proud to welcome the Russian drummer Valery Efremov of legendary band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine) to their family of endorsing artists.
Valery plays Byzance brilliant series cymbals exclusively.

Check out his artist profile for more information.

Meinl Cymbal artist Art Cruz with Winds of Plague checks in with Meinl, backstage at the Muse in Nashville, TN to give a quick run-through of his Meinl Cymbal setup.

The Grammys took center stage last night in the music industry, and Meinl Cymbal artists won big!

Meinl Cymbal artist Marcie Chapa performed with solo artist and international R&B diva Beyonce, who went home with six grammys...a record for a female artist! Beyonce won in the categories of Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Contemporary R&B Album.

Meinl Cymbal artists Michael Bram and Toca Rivera perform with pop music maestro Jason Mraz, who won grammys for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

Meinl Cymbal artist Brad Morgan and his band the Drive By Truckers served as backing band and co-creators for the legendary Booker T. Jones, who won Best Pop Instrumental Album.

Congratulations to the Winners!