Check out the new Jason Bittner videos from his June 15 clinic at Daddy's Junky Music in Williston, Vermont.

Come to Just Drums in Midlothian, Virginia on Saturday, June 26 from 12:00pm to 5:00pm for MEINL DAY, as Meinl Cymbals joins Just Drums in hosting a great cymbal showcase.

Hundreds of cymbals from all of the Meinl series will be on hand to see, hear, and play. Classics, Mb8, Mb10, Sound Caster, Generation-X, Byzance, and Mb20 cymbals - it’ll all be there!

Meinl representatives will be on hand to demonstrate and answer any questions. Get free consultation from Just Drums and Meinl to find your perfect cymbal sound.

A live performance by Just Drums' Chris Thomas and Shane Fowlkes will be held at 4:00 pm to demonstrate the cymbals. Don’t miss it!

Check out Meinl Cymbal artist and Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos tonight on Lopez Tonight, as Ozzy is a special guest on the television show this evening. 

Show time is 11:00 Eastern Standard Time/10:00 Central Standard Time on the TBS network. 

Meinl Cymbal artist and Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos performed live with Ozzy yesterday on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. Check out the two videos of Tommy, Ozzy, and band performing the Ozzy classic Shot In the Dark and the new Ozzy single Let Me Hear You Scream. 

Check out Meinl Cymbal artist and Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live, as Ozzy is a special guest on the television show this evening. 

Show time is 12:05 Eastern Standard Time/11:05 Central Standard Time on the ABC network.

Meinl Cymbals recently caught up with Meinl Cymbal artist Brann Dailor of Mastodon in Memphis, TN.

During the second to last week of the band's most recent tour leg (a tour that has been going for over a year and a half!), Brann and Mastodon made a tour stop in Memphis, TN at Minglewood Hall. 

Meinl Cymbals was granted prime access to film Brann during Mastodon's set. Knowing just how killer the band's most recent album, the concept-based opus Crack the Skye really is, we decided to film Brann's complete performance of it, as the first set of each Mastodon show is Crack the Skye in its entirety. 

Yesterday we posted the first track. Today we have the second track, Divinations. Stay tuned every day of the work week, from today through next Tuesday, June 22, for a new video of a new song each day, to see Brann drum his way through Crack the Skye.  

Here is the last part of Dirk's studio report.

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Alright drummers! Time for me to give you the lowdown on five more days of recordings with the mighty Fredrik of MESHUGGAH here in Stockholm, Sweden!

Let’s begin with the sampling sessions. One of our scheduled tasks was to record each element of my kit for a future TOONTRACK release. For those of you who don’t yet know Superior Drummer, it’s the most advanced and amazing e-drum software out there, truly indispensable for any modern musician! Fredrik and I decided to sample not only my current kit- a TAMA Starclassic Performer- but also all the extra elements kindly provided by my endorsers. This included a host of killer MEINL cymbals such as the Generation X 12 Safari Hi-hat, Classics 8 Low Bell, Soundcaster Custom 14 Heavy Hi-hat and Byzance 10 Extra Dry Splash. We also tracked a massive 26x16 Starclassic Bubinga kick, four snare drums including the limited edition Stainless Steel Starphonic, and the new EVANS G Plus heads. Recording samples is quite time-consuming and we spent a good two days on it, but the result will certainly be well worth our efforts!

The rest of the week, we tracked as many improvisations as I could come up with, from fast double kick-and-blast-infused fury to slow pounding grooves and just about everything in between. Fredrik was mainly aiming for polyrhythms with space to breathe, and as the takes went on and I got more comfortable with my own experimenting (a.k.a. goofing around on the kit) our ideas really started locking in!

We also worked on a couple of cover songs by electronic artists Squarepusher and Autechre, and even had a killer inspirational jam session! Can you imagine Mr. Thordendal grooving away on his recently acquired seventies Ludwig with two 26 bass drums? Jaw-dropping stuff! I can’t remember exactly how many hours of drumming we recorded, but I know he’s gonna go slightly berserk sifting through millions of spastic beats!

This recording was an incredible experience for me, and hereby I wanna thank Fredrik & family for the fun times and for giving me this incredible opportunity! Many thanks also to Mattias Eklund and Nils Eriksson at TOONTRACK for making this possible, and to Norbert Saemann at MEINL, Per Burström at CRAFTON, everyone at TAMA and EVANS, and Tomas Haake of MESHUGGAH for their generous help. You all rock!!

Grinding greetz,
Dirk Verbeuren

Meinl Cymbals recently caught up with Meinl Cymbal artist Brann Dailor of Mastodon in Memphis, TN.

During the second to last week of the band's most recent tour leg (a tour that has been going for over a year and a half!), Brann and Mastodon made a tour stop in Memphis, TN at Minglewood Hall. 

Meinl Cymbals was granted prime access to film Brann during Mastodon's set. Knowing just how killer the band's most recent album, the concept-based opus Crack the Skye really is, we decided to film Brann's complete performance of it, as the first set of each Mastodon show is Crack the Skye in its entirety. 

So here you have the first track, Oblivion. Stay tuned every day of the work week, from today through next Tuesday, June 22, for a new video of a new song each day, to see Brann drum his way through Crack the Skye. 

Meinl Cymbal artist Andrew Stricko and his band Faber Drive are kicking all kinds of a** up in Canada right now. Here's an update from Andrew himself - 

"just wanted to drop you a line to let you know about a few things going on for the band and i at the moment!

 firstly, we just finished our 40+ date tour which was divided up into an arena run with canadian bands hedley, stereos and fefe dobson, as well as our own headlining tour which spanned 30 something dates coast to coast and had only a handful of shows that weren't sold out. i've been across canada twice in past 3 months and it's about to happen all over again for festival season!

we'll be hitting the festivals hard this summer with bands like hedley, lmfao, matt good, finger eleven, our lady peace, three days grace, david wilcox, stereos, marianas trench and more! we seemed to have scored every major canadian festival this summer, haha!

also, we just released our 3rd single from 'can't keep a secret' called 'you and i tonight'  both to radio and video! the 2 previous singles both reached #1 on much music's top 30 video countdown!

speaking of much music, we're nomiated for 'pop video of the year' at this year's much music video awards. on top of the nomination we'll be presenting an award as well! not a bad way to top co-hosting a full hour of much on demand earlier this week!"

Cheers Andrew!

Meinl Cymbal artist Daniel Williams from the band The Devil Wears Prada is hitting drum shops around the US on select dates of the band’s North American Rockstar Energy Drink “Back To The Roots” Tour. 

Daniel will be making appearances at some of the finest drum shops across the nation, signing autographs and saying hello for any and all fans of Daniel and the band for an hour at each location. There will be swag and giveaways from Meinl Cymbals.  For times and updates, please check myspace.com/tdwp.

Dates are as follows:

 June 19 - Cordova, TN  - Memphis Drum Shop - 878 South Cooper St., Memphis, TN 38104

June 30 - Chicago, IL - Sam Ash Music - 1305 W. Dundee Rd., Buffalo Grove, IL 60089

July 11 - Buffalo, NY - Buffalo Drum Outlet - 5872 Transit Rd., Depew, NY 14043

July 28 - San Diego, CA - Guitar Center  - 8825 Murray Dr., La Mesa, CA 91942

Aug 02 - Dallas, TX - Guitar Center - 721 Ryan Plaza Drive, Arlington, TX 76011

Aug 03 - Austin, TX - Strait Music – 2428 West Ben White Blvd, Austin, TX 78704

Aug 11 - Tampa, FL - All Pro Percussion - 10101 East Adamo Drive., Tampa, FL 33619 

Aug 13 - Orlando, FL - Drums 2 Go - 204 South Semoran Boulevard., Orlando, FL 32807

Aug 15 - Atlanta, GA - Guitar Center - 1901 Terrell Mill Road Southeast, Marietta, GA 30067

Aug 17 - Raleigh, NC - Indoor Storm - 2300 Westinghouse Blvd #110, Raleigh, NC 27604

Aug 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Sam Ash Music -139 W. Dekalb Pike, King Of Prussia, PA 19406

Aug 22 - New York, NY - Sam Ash Music - 160 West 48th Street, New York, NY 10036

The detailed running order of all performances and masterclasses at the Meinl Drum Festival on June 26th is now online.

Click here to have a look at the timetable.

Here is an interesting article about the Meinl Company which has been published in the business section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on June 08th. Reinhold Meinl himself tells about his company and shares his views on other current economical topics.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is one of Germany's most respected national daily newspapers.

Click here to read the article in pdf format. It's in german language only.

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Will Carroll to its family of cymbal artists.

Will is manning the drum chair for the Bay Area thrash legends known as Death Angel.

With a career that has spanned the late 80's until now, Will has been a non-stop road dog, traveling the world for metal. Recently, Will finished tracking drums for his debut recorded performance with Death Angel. Recorded by world famous metal producer Jason Suecof, Will and the band will drop the new record very, very soon! In the meantime, don't miss the upcoming tour with Soilwork (w/ fellow Meinl Cymbal artist Dirk Verbeuren).

Welcome Will!

Meinl artist and Soilwork drummer Dirk Verbeuren is currently recording Fredrik Thordendal's second solo album at the Fear and Loathing Studios in Sweden. He shares his experiences in an exclusive Studio Report which he writes for Meinl.

Here is part one with more to come shortly.

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Hey everyone, this is Dirk writing straight from Fear and Loathing a.k.a. the MESHUGGAH/CLAWFINGER rehearsal and recording studio in Stockholm, Sweden. Today was my first day tracking drums for the one and only Fredrik Thordendal’s second solo album… And it was quite an unusual experience to say the least!

As I mentioned before, Fredrik’s approach to this recording is different in the sense that he asked Morgan Agren and myself to record drums without any pre-recorded guitar tracks. Everything we’re playing is based purely on improvisation, with a rhythmic idea or even just our own “vibe of the moment” as a starting point. To give you a clearer vision of how this works, I’ll try to explain what we did so far.

After getting the right tones and experimenting with a bunch of different drums, heads and cymbals, Fredrik and I discussed using the most basic pattern of the MESHUGGAH song Bleed as a guideline. I then recorded about an hour of continuous improvisations where I tried to use that pattern in as many different ways as I could come possibly up with. We listened to the result, discussed some options that I hadn’t explored in my first take, and did another 45 minutes of the same thing until we were both happy. I then recorded a couple of weird rhythms I had written down in the plane on my way to Sweden. After some rest, we changed most of the cymbals on my kit to incorporate some different sounds such as the MEINL Byzance 18 Dark China, Byzance 22 Dark Stadium Ride, Generation X 12 Jingle Filter China, Generation X 6/8 Attack Stack, and so forth. I ended the day playing whatever I wanted to, which resulted in another hour of recorded grooves, basically one long drum solo.

For someone who isn’t experienced in playing drum solos, let alone recording them, this was quite the trip I must say! No boundaries, hardly any preconceived ideas to follow… Just playing as tastefully and as creatively as possible! Fredrik’s open-minded, positive attitude towards this project- and towards music in general- is extremely inspiring for me. I’m so impatient to hear what he will come up with and how he will use these beats, but I know for a fact the result will be unique and awesome!

Grinding greetz,
Dirk Verbeuren

The following prizes will be given away among all participants of the Meinl Drum Festival on June 26:

1. Prize
A Meinl Byzance Vintage Series Benny Greb Sand Ride and Sand Hat with a Meinl Cymbal Case

2. Prize
A Meinl Soundcaster Fusion Series 16" and 18" Trash Crash and a 6" Practice Pad with a Meinl Cymbal Backpack

3. Prize
A Meinl Designer Series Cajon including a cajon bag.


The give away of the three prices will take place on June 26 at 7pm on the main stage of the festival. Qualified participants for the give-away are all who bought a festival ticket. Guest-tickets and guest-list-attendees are excluded from the give away.

Meinl Cymbal artist Derek Roddy will host a clinic on June 16, presented by Resurrection Drums. 

The clinic will be held at Bienes Center for the Arts at 2801 SW 12th St. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL at 7pm.

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Chris Lovejoy to its family of cymbal artists.

Chris is currently on the road with Los Angeles artist AM. While backing up AM, Chris is playing a hybrid percussion setup that essentially functions as a drumkit. Chris and AM have been hitting the road as direct support for the ethereal French pop group AIR, touring the US and getting ready to head over seas.

Chris is a multi-faceted rhyth-matist, handling drum-set and percussion with ease. Born in New York City and raised in Texas, Chris attended music programs in both Florida and North Texas before relocating back to New York City where he studied with percussion masters Mino Cinelu and Bashiri Johnson. Not long after moving, he landed a gig touring and recording with Gee St./Island Records artists, New Kingdom. Soon after, he worked on projects with the band Family Of God, and with producers Teo Macero (known for his work with Miles Davis) and Scott Harding (known for his work with Medeski Martin and Wood, and Prince Paul).

Chris was a member of Charlie Hunter's band for two years and can be heard on Hunter's Blue Note Records release, Songs From The Analog Playground, featuring Mos Def and Norah Jones. More recently Lovejoy collaborated with drummer Stephen Chopek to record the CD entitled Brain Trust. Although he is now based out of Los Angeles, Lovejoy is often touring with various artists when his schedule permits as he is also in high demand as both a studio and live performance musician throughout the LA area. Amongst others, Chris performs and records with AM (a KCRW favorite), Bonnie McKee, David Ryan Harris, Tom Freund, Clarence Bucaro, Paper Sun, Wally Ingram, Rhythm Roots Allstars, Anya Marina, Garrison Starr, Tristan Prettyman, Chris Pierce and yes, American Idol's William Hung. He has also appeared on "The Tonight Show," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Jimmy Kimmel Show," and MTV's "Advance Warning." He has recently been on the road with Tristan Prettyman and Chris Pierce.

Welcome Chris!