Weekly Newsbites August 17-22

By Radim McCue Published August 23, 2009

Great Gigs: What's it like to design drumming products? We visited Alesis engineering's southern California lab to find out.
New blog: We send photog Leslie Hampton out to capture drummers live at San Francisco Bay Area arenas, clubs and house concerts. Click here.
Big Beat Crazy Drum vendors have signed up to give away free prizes this year's Big Beat Event, which aims to set a world record for the number of drummers playing simultaneously. Bring your kit....
Heavy Hitter: Steve White of the Style Council and Paul Weller now lends his expertise to Mapex….
All Miley: SJC has also announced new endorsers including Stacy Jones, the drummer and band leader for Miley Cyrus....
Best Yet: Montreal Drum Fest has opened a new web site. The festival, which takes place October 24 and 25, promises this is their most ambitious year yet. You should check it out….
New Stores: Tired of your dirty old drum shop? Avalon Music in Wenatchee, Washington has opened a jaw-dropping new showroom. Apparently, it's not to be missed….Ditto for has San Jose Pro Drum, not far from our office. The shop, owned by Jimmy DeGrasso and Paul Batres, includes some cool new teaching rooms and a spiffy corner location….
Quick Read: Top New York clinician John Favicchia was recently interviewed by Hudson Music regarding his career and teaching methods. Good stuff….
Garibaldi Pod: Hudson also has a David Garibaldi podcast worth watching, so go get your funk on….
Spy On The Wall: Harry McCarthy, the legendary drum tech for Max Weinberg spent the day Friday at Zildjian with Artist Relations VP John DeChristopher. No doubt Harry and Max, who played Saturday with Springsteen in Boston, left town with some of Zildjian's finest pies.…
We're still remembering Allen Shellenberger, Rashied Ali, Jeffrey A. Phillips, and Les Paul. R.I.P....
Last but not least you can see a calendar of clinics and drumming events in our LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT newsletter. Sign up here.