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Cymbal fever!

Tracked multiple takes of four songs yesterday and they may all be keepers!

So far I’ve used the following sets:

14″ HHX groove hats
20″ HH French (Crash/Ride)
21″ Hammer with 3 rivets (Bosphorus)
18″ AAX Ozone
18″ HHX Stage Crash

Or

14″ Mastersound hats
20″ HH French (Crash/Ride)
21″ signature Andre Ceccerelli ride
13″ AA Thin Crash
17″ Vault Crash

I also did a little Mastersound top (nice and thin) with the groove hat bottom (a little heavier) which worked really well.

Snare wise I’ve used the Ludwig twins (supra and black beauty) and also the Spaun 5.5 x 14 wood hoops with the snares off.

Drums have all been my Taye kit, rack and 14″ tuned up tight and the 16 and 22 tuned low and fat.

Can’t wait to get over there today for more tracking, these sessions are off to a great start!

(ooh and just got back to the studio and realized that I used this set up last:

14″ Mastersound top Groove bottom
20″ HH French (Crash/Ride)
21″ signature Andre Ceccerelli ride
18″ HHX Stage crash
17″ Vault Crash )

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Recording Time!

In the studio in Iowa City this week with the legendary Bo Ramsey (look him up he’s got Grammys all up in his jammies). Brought a whole mess of drums including the following:
20110901-103231.jpg

Taye StudioBirch 12, 14, 16, 22 (Autumn Red)
Ludwig 6.5 x 14 Black Beauty, 5 x 14 Supra with a SuperHoop
DW 4.75 x 14 Maple (Red Sparkle)
Gretsch 6.5 x 14 New Classic (Vintage Sparkle)
WFL 24 x 14 vintage Duco kick
Spaun 12 rack tom and 5.5 x 14 snare (birch with wooden hoops)

And a ton of cymbals that I’ll post soon!

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Summerfest and more

Once again, I had the pleasure of playing at Summerfest and once again it was a blast! We’re rounding out the rest of July with a double header in Green Bay and then a little swing out west to Wyoming for the Oyster Ridge Music Festival for two dates, and then Colorado and Kansas on the way back home.

Dates are available here: http://mikemangione.com/tour

Come on out and say hi!

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Thanks to @ThinkDrums and @PercUpLive for the RTs

I did a little tweeting today from the Cascio Interstate Music clinic featuring Todd Sucherman (Styx, Brian Wilson), Hannah Ford (Bellevue Suite) and Pearl Drums Corps’ Raymond Massey. Think Drums and Perc Up Live picked up on it and were kind enough to share it with all of their followers and I hope everyone enjoyed the snippets and pics.

AND as promised, here’s a video snippet of Todd doing a seriously cool reinterpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression.” I hope you like it!

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Big Thanks to WGN TV!

Full view of the WGN studio

WOW! It was so much fun playing on WGN TV and the folks there were amazing. Growing up in the Chicago area, WGN was THE TVchannel – Bozo, Ray Reiner, Frazier Thomas classics on the weekend, Lester Fisher from the Lincoln Park Zoo. Man, it was just great to walk through the studio and watch them do the news and then get a chance to play them in and out of the breaks. Plus a full song at the end of the hour which you can see here:

Mike Mangione & The Union: “Offering” on WGN TV

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Back from NAMM 2011

WOW. I had a blast. Got to hang out with some old friends and made some new ones too. For some reason, I spent a lot of time looking at stuf but not really taking many pics. I did upload a few to my flickr site (you can see the pics in the sidebar) and I uploaded a great set of videos from Stanton Moore demoing his new LP pandeiro and a “steam powered” drumset from Trick. Those are up at my YouTube site. Take a look and let me know what you think!

(Oh yeah, and I got to meet one of my favorite drummers of all time, Abe Laboriel Jr. He was the coolest guy and totally worth waiting in line to talk to!)

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Only One Day Away!!!!

Wow – 24 hours till I leave and I still have so much to do; packing alone will probably take all day.

I think the first day will be slightly overwhelming but I will have my earplugs and a plan of action for visiting all the people and vendors in some sensible way.

(who am I kidding? I’m gonna wander around with a permagrin like a kid in the worlds biggest candy store!)

See you there!

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NAMM Show!

NAMM show 2011

I am extremely excited to be going to the 2011 NAMM show this coming year in Anaheim. I am probably going to be completely overwhelmed by all the gear and meeting/catching up with all my drumigos (drummer pals) from around the country but I am going to try and post things as they happen. Lots of pics and short posts and then maybe a few bigger recaps.

Thanks so much to my friends at Taye drums and Sabian cymbals for their help in making this trip possible.

(only 29 days until the show woo hoo!)