Modern Plastic Drumheads

Founder Remo Belli began drumming at the age of 12, becoming a professional at just 16. After serving in the US Navy during World War II he moved to California to continue with his music career, playing jazz and swing with artists such as Anita O'Day and Betty Hutton. As an offshoot of his passion for the drums Remo and fellow drummer Roy Harte opened a store, "Drum City" in 1952 on Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood.
During the mid 1950s, Remo came across a polyester film, "mylar", made by the DuPont company. Mylar had originally been developed during the war as a heat resistant film for night-time reconnaissance flights, but Remo saw other potential uses for it and quickly did a few experiments, lapping it over an old wooden drum hoop. This would have far reaching effects. The animal skin heads of that period sounded great when in the right temperate conditions, but if the atmosphere got damp or too hot the drums tuning could go haywire. Mylar, being weather resistant, would offer a much more consistent drumhead offering stable tuning in all conditions.
Remo teamed up with chemist Sam Muchnick who devised a way of attaching the mylar film to aluminium hoops. The Remo Factory was thus started in 1957. These drumheads were white opaque so they didn't look too different to the animal skins of the time, and were called "Weather King" (due to being weather proof), available in 3 thicknesses - Diplomat, Ambassador, and Emperor. The more conservative jazz drummers of the age took a bit of convincing that plastic could sound as good as calfskin, but the emerging rock and roll drummers welcomed these revolutionary new drumheads with open arms... they stayed in tune and were extremely durable and hard wearing, ideal for rock music.
Through the next few decades, Remo continued to experiment, looking for new sounds to suit drummers of all musical genres. Drum Kit players loved the weather king heads, and they began to find favour with orchestral and marching band percussionists too. Top drummers of the time such as Buddy Rich and Louis Bellson were favouring Remo drumheads. Remo developed new coatings and laminations for drumheads and released some very famous drumhead lines, such as the Remo Pinstripe (a double ply head offering a deeper, dampened tone), Controlled Sound (single ply with a black sound controlling dot in the centre of the head) and the incredible Remo FiberSkyn (a laminated head giving the appearance and warm tone of calfskin heads). He offered drumheads in different finishes, originally white and then clear, and in time black and even mirror chrome. The FiberSkyn head technology was also used to devise a series of heads for Congas, Bongos and other ethnic drums, thus giving these instruments the stability and tone that he had given drumset players back in the 1950s. The increase in popularity of these world-percussion instruments led Remo to develop a huge range of drums and percussion instruments, using his FiberSkyn and NuSkyn heads along with his Acousticon shells.
To the present day, Remo continue to be innovators of quality drumheads, drums, and percussion instruments, due to the huge amount of musical styles globally, each requiring its own sound. Renaissance heads for the orchestral Percussion market, Falams for the high tension drumcorps market, Emperor heads for the rock drummers etc, the list goes on and on. Remo have even teamed up with top tattoo artist Corey Miller to produce a series of Tattoo Skyns, drumheads with unique graphics. The Remo factory today is a 217,000 sq ft facility in Valencia, California, and they remain the largest supplier of drumheads in the world, as well as being the most popular heads among today's top drummers such as Travis Barker, Steve Gadd, Lars Ulrich, Dave Weckl etc.

Rockabilly's "Mystery Train" Helped Put Elvis On the Map, But Junior Parker Recorded It First

The song "Mystery Train" has become one of the most iconic classics of the rockabilly genre and in fact of all rock and roll. The song has it all: a great, mood-invoking vibe, wonderful driving slap-bass work by Bill Black, one of the most perfect guitar parts ever recorded courtesy of Scotty Moore, and of course Elvis' flawless, raw, powerful vocal delivery. And the song itself is one of those rare gems that stands strong on its own, separate from the performance. But though Elvis and the boys own this song with their amazing performance of it, Elvis didn't write it. So, where did it come from? Well, that gets to the roots of rockabilly!
Elvis recorded the song in late summer of 1955. He was already on the way up and rising fast. The song was recorded in the legendary Memphis Recording Service studios on Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. It was originally released on the equally legendary Sun Records label as the B-side to the song that really put Elvis on the map nationally: the number one country hit "I Forgot to Remember to Forget." Even as the B-side, "Mystery Train" reached number 11.
However, this wasn't the first release the song had seen. The song had been written in 1953 by the bluesman Junior Parker. Studio and Sun Record label owner Sam Phillips is credited as co writer, but it's often difficult to tell with songs written in those days whether anyone besides the musician who is credited really did help write the song or whether there were credited as part of the record deal or other arrangements. In any event, Parker's original recording was released--also on Sun Records--in 1953.
Parker's version is up tempo and in its own right just as great at Elvis'. In it you can really hear how the blues influenced the early rockabilly musicians. Elvis clearly borrowed heavily from these blues players as well as the rhythm and blues music he'd heard so much of growing up. He took that influence and mixed it in with his country roots to become the driving force behind rockabilly music and, for that matter, all of rock and roll.
In my opinion, Elvis' version of "Mystery Train" is the perfect embodiment of the Sun Records rockabilly sound. If someone needed the ultimate example of rockabilly, "Mystery Train" would be one of the songs I would point them too. It totally exemplifies the melding of blues and country music that morphed into rockabilly music. Although the country music world--by all outward appearances--seemed to have had the bigger impact on rockabilly music, this song proves that it would never have happened without great blues and rhythm and blues songs and artists.

DIY, Music, and Sharing

Today the music industry is changing. Most forms of media are changing and with change comes new ways of connecting with people. But we are here to talk about music. Music is now easier to make yourself. To distribute, produce, and to market. A lot of people though, don't know how to do any of that. Instead they use a lot of old school ways that have their purpose but aren't as necessary as they used to be.
Punk rock. The classic example of the do-it-yourself or DIY ethic that is now more than ever easier and more feasible to do. It used to be that punk rock bands did everything by themselves, not relying on any outside influence on how their music was made or marketed. It was harder back then because of the technology but now you can use that same mindset to do things that they could only dream of.
Lets say that you have created an album. Now you want to record it. Well computer programs like Garageband you can. You don't need to have the most expensive recording equipment to record a fantastic record. As long as you have a clear vision of what you want to sound like you can attain that. It all has to do with researching techniques and tricks to get that perfect sound. There are lots of resources out there where fellow artists can show you the ropes without actually being there. When it comes to music fellow musicians are very friendly.
Now that you have your album done you want to get it out there to anyone who has an ear. Services like Bandcamp offer a digital distribution service. You can upload your music to their site and people can go and purchase your songs for free or for a fee. You can use Bandcamp like a store for your music. People who don't even know who you are can preview your album for free and then even possibly buy it.
These are just some of the many ways that you can get your music finished and out there for the masses. Even though music is easier to make and produce that doesn't mean that you should be lazy. A work ethic is important to have. Especially if you want to be successful. This article is made to get you to start thinking about different ways to make music. There are tons more of sites and services that can aid you in your quest to playing stadiums. You aren't just limited to the things I mentioned in this article. I mean some albums that I am in total love with don't use the things that typical musicians use. They think outside the box to create something that people will relate to and you should to.

Wedding and Function Bands Are Changing

There was a time when every wedding band was strictly over 40 years of age, wore ill-fitting tuxedo's with balding heads to suit. Now don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against balding men over 40, in fact one day I''ll be a balding man over 40. In fact let's put a stop to this now, bald men are quite often bloody great musicians! Back to the point, it seems like not so long ago that every wedding band looked the same, but something has definitely changed over the last 5 years or so.
I think it's safe to say that the internet is responsible. Years ago, entertainment agency's would get complacent working with their favourite 4-5 local bands and nobody else could get their foot in the door. Cold calling to other agencies would prove difficult and so fresh young wedding bands were few and far between.
In 2007, the Myspace and social networking phenomenon gave birth to thousands of new indie bands with the promise of DIY stardom and careers in music, but what what happened 2 or 3 years down the line when that failed to materialise? We suddenly get a load of great musicians subsidising their originals bands with live function work. With Facebook and everything else, there's a platform to promote their music, an easy way to pitch to agencies and Youtube to show clients their live performances. And so wedding bands look cooler, younger and are more in touch with the current music scene.
Starting a Function Band
If I was a new band starting out on the function what would I do?
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
It's pretty easy to have a band rehearsal, add a few covers and think you're nearly there but in reality, if a client is booking you for their wedding, birthday or company do, they're going to wait you to be a polished and rehearsed function band, not the indie band they watch at the local pub.
Set list
You've got 2 hours of performance to fill so choose your songs wisely. If you can't imagine people dancing like crazy to a song, don't put it in. Mix it up, from 50's rock n roll to modern hits, you're going to want to appeal to people of all ages. Keep it current, always add a couple of summer hits to your set list, you don't want to look dated.
Invest in yourself
Any money that comes into the band should be reinvested to improve your act. High quality PA is vital, lighting is almost always a requirement and a decent suit isn't a bad idea either. Before you're 4 bars into your first song, the crowd will judge you on your poor sound quality, even if you're the best band in the world.
Demo's
Just like an originals band, the demo is everything. You're going to need 4 high quality, studio demo's. A client may also ask to here you live which is rarely an option for a band who only play private events. Taking this into account, some live demo's would also be good to have for safe keeping.
Image is everything
With 10 bands on every Google result for function bands, a good studio photo is vital. Live shots are great for the gallery but will inevitably be glanced over so make sure you get at least one studio shot of the band.
Gig
All's you need to do now is get yourself out there. Get a Facebook page, MySpace page or website, contact an agency or two, you are officially a band for hire!

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