Ed Breckenfeld’s  Off The Record:
Inside The Playing Of Today’s Top Drummers
By Jillian Locke, Music Editor

Attention all drummers! Follow the masters and hone your skills with this solid supplement to help you play like the greats!

What started off as a monthly column in Modern Drummer Magazine in June of 2001, Off The Record, written by famed Midwest master drummer, instructor, and columnist Ed Breckenfeld, has evolved into a book filled with glimpses into the style and mechanics of yesterday’s and today’s percussion masters.

Focusing his expertise in the areas of transcription and technique, Breckenfeld opens the book by stating that “Any drummer who can read music can transcribe. The most important necessity is a thorough knowledge of drum technique.” Breckendfeld spotlights another point of emphasis, perhaps one of the most important: “You’ll need to develop your ears.” Just like when I play some crazy-ass metal for metal-virgins ears, and they have no idea what the lyrics are or can’t pick out certain musical elements, I tell them, “You just need to develop your metal ear.” The same idea applies. Off The Record is certainly not for the beginner drummer; it’s better suited for the experienced drummer who wants to improve and tighten his or her skills and continue to climb the ladder of percussive greatness.

Complete with tabs and an accompanying CD of more than 175 examples of the tunes listed in the book, Off The Record covers some of music’s greatest and most influential drummers. The book is broken up into six chapters and the drummers that defined an era or genre over the last 40 years:

Modern Rockers: Chad Butler (Switchfoot), Ray Luzier (Army of Anyone), Myles Heskett (Wolfmother), Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam), Matt Sorum (Velvet Revolver), Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), Scott Underwood (Train), Rob Bourdon (Linkin Park), Aaron Montgomery (Trapt).

Heroes of Punk: Patrick Wilson (Weezer), Zach Lind (Jimmy Eat World), Adam Carson (AFI), Fab Moretti (The Strokes), Travis Barker (Box Car Racer), Stevo 32 (Sum 41), Adrian Young (No Doubt), Ronnie Vannucci (The Killers), Dave Grohl (Nirvana).

Metal Masters: Joey Jordison (Slipknot), John Dolmayan (System of a Down), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Wuv (P.O.D.), Raymond Herrera (Fear Factory), Matt McDonough (Mudvayne), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), The Rev (Avenged Sevenfold), Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad), Dave McCain (Machine Head).

Funk’s Finest: Lenny Kravitz, Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band), Stevie Wonder, Questlove, Steve Jordan (Johh Mayer Trio), Dennis Chambers (Boston T Party), Tim Alexander (Primus), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Alan Evans (Soulive).

Wizards of Prog: Neil Pert (Rush), Danny Carey (Tool), Dominic Howard (Muse), Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta), Tomas Haake (Meshuggah), Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle), Bill Bruford (Yes), Jose Pasillas (Incubus), Phil Collins (Genesis)

Classic Rock Greats: Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Cozy Powell, Keith Moon (The Who), Alex Van Halen (Van Halen), Levon Helm (The Band), The Drummers of Steely Dan, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Ringo Starr (The Beatles).

Pick up Off the Record and awaken the master drummer within you!

edbreckenfeld.com
myspace.com/edbreckenfeld

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Matthew Cory’s Snarky Responses to Yahoo! Answers
By Annette Cinelli

Nine times out of ten, pulling a book out at a party will be labeled an Epic Fail, but not if the book is local author Matthew Cory’s Snarky Responses to Yahoo! Answers. Just last week when I had some friends over, I opened the book and read some of the more hilarious questions and answers aloud. The title pretty much says it all: Cory goes through some of the most ridiculous Yahoo! Answers questions (“Is having an F in a college class bad?” “Who is McDonalds’ target customer?”) and gives snarky responses (“Yes, an F stands for failure and looks bad…maybe you should…enroll in ‘What Grades Stand for 101.’” “Clowns, Burglars, Mayors, Large Purple Blobs”).

It began innocently enough when Cory did a search to find the answer to a question that had been bugging him: “Was it true that the name Madison for a girl wasn’t popularized ‘til Daryl Hannah played a character with that name?” One of the first things to pop up in his search was a question on Yahoo! answers about if Madison were a good name for a baby girl. He clicked it and was amazed by all the people answering “Yes”, “Great”, and “Go for it!”

“Am I the only one who thinks it’s overdone?” he wondered. So he replied to the thread and got so many negative responses to that and other answers that someone actually reported his account and he was temporarily banned! His response? “If I’m going to get banned for this, I might as well go all out!” He then begin to deliberately answer questions with funny, sarcastic, and snarky responses. All of a sudden, instead of getting thumbs down and being banned, he was getting thumbs up and gaining a following. That’s when it hit him: “I could make a book out of this.”

He picked the best and funniest response for his book, but ones that didn’t make the cut (and some new ones!) can be found on his website www.snarkyanswers.com. The website is also a good way to check out Cory’s style, and see if, as he explains it, “…my type of humor is what you like.” And if it is, there’s a link right on the site to www.lulu.com, where you can purchase his book in paperback form or as a downloadable e-book, a format that’s become very popular. He’s also going to work this summer to get the book into local bookstores. Snarky Responses to Yahoo! Answers is great to laugh about with friends, flip through at the beach or on an airplane, and according to Cory it’s also “the perfect bathroom book! You can start anywhere, read as long as you want, and put it down whenever!”

Be sure to keep your eye on this local funny man who, when he’s not being snarky, enjoys community theatre, basketball at the Greendale YMCA, and exchanging trivia with his wife. In addition to Snarky Responses to Yahoo! Answers, Cory has also written a kids’ musical (“Professor Smellbottom and the P.U. Patrol”), sketches for a comedy show, and a Comedy CD. Next up? A snarky sequel, of course!