Steve Jordan is one of those guys you’ve probably heard play on a hundred recordings, but just didn’t know it. You just knew you liked it.

The first recording of Jordan I ever heard goes back a few decades. My parents purchased Briefcase Full of Blues by the Blues Brothers. (This is, by the way, a terrific live blues album if you’re ever looking for one.) I remember, even way back then, thinking “Who is that guy on the drums. That groove is so sweet!”

Jordan’s had an illustrious career to be sure, joining Stevie Wonder’s band when he was just a teenager, playing with Paul Shaffer in both the Saturday Night Live band as well as the original incarnation of The World’s Most Dangerous Band in the early days of Late Night With David Letterman. He’s also performed and recorded with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys, Sonny Rollins, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Neil Young and the John Meyer Trio.

It is from this last project that I’m pleased to present you with this week’s Friday Drum Launch. This live recording from the John Meyer Trio is a giant grooving pile of guitar and drumming deliciousness. Notice how Jordan’s actually got two kits merged into one so he can completely change his sound depending on the needs of the song.

Featured in this video are two of my favorites from this group, Who Did You Think I Was and their cover of Hendrix’s Wait Until Tomorrow, and the subject of a tutorial I wrote last year on Jordan’s playing with JMT. Check this out and then tell me you don’t want to go and jam on your kit for a few hours.

I found out this week that a band I performed and recorded with a couple years ago, the Meteor Pilots, finished their debut CD last week and I finally got my hands on a few copies today. Even though I don’t play with that band anymore, it did cause me to pause and think on the accomplishment.

Many of you reading this have probably recorded and seen your name on the inside sleeve of a CD before, so this is old news for you. But this is the first time its happened to me, and even though it’s with a small indie band, it’s something that I’ve wanted to accomplish since I was eight years old. Seeing as it took me thirty years to get here, it feels good to check that one off the list of things I wanted to accomplish before I die:

Fall in love and start a family. Check.
Visit the Taj Mahal. Check.
Work in the software business and end up at Microsoft. Check.
Record and wind up a credited musician on an album. Check!

And I’m hoping it doesn’t take another thirty years to do it again! Trust me, I’m working hard to make sure it doesn’t take that long again.

The name of the album is Kiss My Asteroid and you can order a copy from the Meteor Pilots’ web site or, in a few weeks, on cdbaby.com. Have a look at their web site and you can stream some of the tunes to your computer.

I’m all with Lake 32 right now, but I really had a lot of fun playing for the Pilots and wish those guys the best of luck in selling their album and getting their music out there live for audiences to hear and enjoy.

July is shaping up to be a busy month for Lake 32 with three performances scheduled over the next three weeks in the St. Louis area. Here’s a quick rundown on the dates, places and times:

Frankster’s Birthday Bash: We’re playing a birthday party in Warrenton for a good friend of the band and everybody’s welcome to come. Bullshed will be joining us in the celebration. Here are the details:

Backstreet Blues and Jazz Club:  In a new foray into original music, Backstreet has invited us to play on a Thursday night in Westport plaza. This is a big opportunity as there are very few clubs in St. Louis country that offer original bands a place to play, so we would love to see a big turnout in the hopes that we can do this again at Backstreet in the future. Update: Well be playing with Red Card Royale, also out of St. Louis:

Cicero’s:  Our debut at St. Louis’ Central West End premier original music club. We’ll be sharing the stage with Morgan Nusbaum. Yeah, it’s another Thursday night show, but it’s the Central West End. Come out and have some fun:

Help keep live, original music in St. Louis alive and kicking. Come check out one of these shows. We appreciate your support!

I hadn’t really heard of MiGGS until my band, Lake 32, opened for them on their tour stop in St. Louis a few months back. They played right after us in the evening’s line-up, so I was able to sit back with a cold beer and listen to their set. As I did, I found myself wondering why the hell more people haven’t heard of these guys.

Put simply, MiGGS, made up of front man and guitarist Don Miggs, Bassist Michael Lombardo and drummer Ryan Scarbrough, is a fantastic band with some extremely solid songs. And what’s more, they’re three of the nicest guys you’ll ever want to meet and I’m glad we’ve been able to stay in touch with them as they’ve toured the country. In fact, Ryan and I had a great, in-depth conversation about drumming after their set that night and I hope to get the chance to talk with him again sometime.

If you want to checkout MiGGS, you’ll have your chance tomorrow morning on ABC’s Good Morning America when they perform “I Believe” from their new album, Unraveled. This will be a pre-recorded clip as the guy were supposed to be on live last Tuesday, but got bumped because of the seemingly ubiquitous MJ coverage. GMA will broadcast their performance tomorrow morning at around 8:00 AM. If you’d like a sneak peak, ABC has already posted the performance on their website—you can check it out here.

Unraveled is available on iTunes and Zune Marketplace. I highly recommend the whole album and encourage you to go pick it up and give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

The bass player in my band Lake 32, Jeff Laird, introduced me to Tool about twelve years ago. At the time, I’d heard Sober plenty of times, but hadn’t really kept up with what the band had done after their breakthrough album, Undertow. Jeff lent me AEnema and that was it, I was a Danny Carey fan boy.

I’ve spent countless hours studying Carey’s playing and believe him to be one of the most skilled musicians working today. He is truly one of the most musical drummers I’ve ever had the privilege to listen to. Let’s face it, drummers tend to be relegated to carbon-based metronomes, keeping the time of a song for the guitar player and lead singer. Carey is able to fulfill that role and simultaneously add significantly to the music. There isn’t a single song that Tool has ever recorded that would sound the same with another drummer at the helm. This is because there are few drummers who could think as musically as Carey does behind his kit and deliver on in the playing department.

And thus, I offer you Danny Carey to kick-off your drumming weekend. This is one of my favorite clips of Carey playing the conclusion of the title track of Tool’s 2001 release, Lateralis. Two things to watch for in this sadly short clip:  The double crash cymbal hit on the right side of the kit and the gong hit right in the middle without missing a beat. Carey is one of the best. Enjoy!

Wow, where does the time go?

One weekend last summer, while sitting around banging away on my practice pad, I discovered something about playing about which I thought it would be cool to write an article and share with my drumming brethren. But alas, I’m not a writer for Modern Drummer, nor had I received any invitations from other popular online drumming forums to contribute.

So I decided to start DrummBlog.com, and today it turns one.

I’d like to thank all of you who faithfully read my posts here and for all the great feedback you’ve given me over the past three hundred sixty-five days. I’ve enjoyed our conversations and the new contacts I’ve made along the way. It has been fantastic trading information and ideas about playing with you and I’m looking forward to another year of the same.

To celebrate, I’m happy to present, for the first time anywhere, the new DrummBlog logo. It will adorn the site from this day forward.

As I’ve said all along, I consider this an interactive forum, so please feel free to send ideas and suggestions along via the comments section or the email link above. I’m always glad to hear from you and will incorporate your ideas into the site whenever possible.

Again, thanks for reading.