Why yes! Yes we can, Timmy! Hey Blistur friends, fans, stalkers: I just received the official word from Tim Hall, owner of Jack Rabbits, that we will be performing this SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNNNNNN=DAYYYY at Freebird Live in Jacksonville Beach - 9PM. That would be October 19^th for those keeping a calendar. Other notable events on this date include:

October 19, 1781 – General Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown thus ending the Revolutionary War and giving birth to our official freedom to invent, purchase and learn to play musical instruments. This means that we have the right to rock this Sunday.

October 19, 1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his invention of electric light laying the groundwork to eventually amplify a guitar, bass and various other components critical to performing the aforementioned right to rock.

Do you see a pattern here? I mean there are more if you want me to keep going. But I'll just get to the meat and potatoes of things here and cordially invite you, your family and everyone you went to high school with to attend the "Battle for Planetfest Main Stage" event on Sunday night. It is a perfect time slot to play for Planet Radio 107.3 and with any luck – get to play the main stage at Planetfest.  A nice warm and cozy crowd would help our cause for sure. And again – those attending this show will receive their choice of a free Blistur CD or T-Shirt for attending. Whether we attain the main stage or not, we'll be playing at Planetfest 9 with the likes of Hinder, Shinedown, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Puddle of Mudd and Rehab this year – and we are very happy to have scored 95.44 out of a possible 100 points, which catapulted us to the 2 position out of 75 bands that competed. Now we play Freebird and try to jump to 1!

I'd like to rent a hall and have a good old fashioned keg party for all of you afterward. Maybe after Planetfest on November 8^th. But I don't even have time to think about such a thing right this minute. However – if you have a hall and a keg, well let me know.

 

*** TICKET INFO ***

Tickets for this show will be available at the door (no online pre-sale) on the night of the show. The capacity here is 700 and we'd like to fill it with all of you (and your family + everyone you went to high school with). If we run out of the free merchandise, we'll have to do a raincheck. Hit us up either well before – or just after we perform and we'll surrender the booty!

Freebird Live is located at 200 North 1^st Street in Jacksonville Beach right at the ocean. Atlantic Ocean that is. It's a great place to make some noise and owned by Judy Van Zandt of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame.

For once – if people ask us if we can play Freebird, we can respond with an emphatic "Yes!" But only this Sunday.

*** LAST MINUTE UPDATE ***

We'll be doing a biker thing this Thursday also at "The Rooster", which is a popular stop for those billions of bikers on their way to Daytona for "Biketoberfest". The Rooster closed a while back and has now re-opened under new management. For those in the North Florida area – the Rooster is located on US1 in Bayard, south of Jacksonville. Click the link there for more info. Most of you proabaly know where it is already. I believe the start time is 6 or 7pm.

*** THAT'LL DO IT ***

I reckon that's all I got to say about all that right now. We shall see you, your family, your high school, etc. this Sunday for the big event. We are looking forward to it for sure. Meanwhile – if you would like to join us before then at the Rooster or at the Roadhouse this weekend – please do so. You are welcome anytime of course.

Love you!

 

Blistur. Have a HAPPY period.

Bart, Neal, Chris

www.blistur.com

www.myspace.com/blistur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planetfest 9!

Greetings Blistur Nation,

To our extensive email list of fans who receive weekly updates, welcome to the Blistur Blog! I have sent you a link in this week's email to this page. Using this method will streamline things quite a bit and help me to make the time to get you your updates in a more timely fashion. However, the email list will be kept intact for special offers and insider stuff. You guys have been with us from the start and will always merit first consideration on anything cool and groovy we have going on in Camp Blistur.

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

I have officially counted our chickens before they hatched and there are nine. Planetfest 9 that is. It appears a certainty that we will be performing at this years Planetfest 9, featuring headliners Hinder, Puddle of Mudd, Shinedown, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus & Rehab. Tickets may be purchased online and at various outlets listed here: http://www.planetradio1073.com/pages/pftickets.html. Thanks to so many of you showing your love during the competition, we remain at the second highest slot for Planetfest 9. With about a dozen bands remaining to compete, nine of them would have to score between 95.44 and 100 in order to push us out of the top ten who will move on to play Freebird Live on October 19, 2008 to decide who gets the main stage with the headliners. So – we have decided to get the ball rolling on promoting the next hurdle and take a chance here that we will be in.

We will be holding a drawing in the next day or so for two free tickets to Planetfest 9, to be held this year at Metropolitan Park on November 9^th. The drawing will be held among the attendees of our show at Jack Rabbits and therefore were automatically signed up. The winner will be posted here at the Blistur Blog!

 

*** MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE FARM***

So – as I was saying earlier – the top ten bands from the "Battle for Planetfest" will perform at Freebird Live on Sunday October 19, 2008 for judges from Planet Radio 107.3. After all ten bands play, Planet Radio will decide who gets the main stage. WE'D LOVE TO SEE AS MANY OF YOU OUT AS POSSIBLE. SO AS SPECIAL INCENTIVE FOR ATTENDING THIS PHASE, WE WILL BE GIVING AWAY YOUR CHOICE OF A BLISTUR T-SHIRT (WHILE SUPPLIES LAST) OR A COPY OF OUR GREATEST HITS VOL II CD JUST FOR COMING OUT. So – really there is nothing to lose. Tickets are $10 for the show and you'll get a shirt or CD – a $15.00 value! NOW who's your daddy?

There is no Jaguar game on this date (it is their bye week) – so no interference there. You'll have nothing to do except come to Freebird Live for a great show. We'll be throwing in a couple of new wrinkles to keep it interesting. We promise to make it worth your while and will be amped to put on a helluva show. Because to get main stage would be… well… it would be ever so awesome. Help out some starving artists, will ya? Bring a friend under each arm. The show is age 12 and up according to the Freebird Live website so you can bring the kids as well. Click the image below to order your tickets today:

 

*** THE OTHER COOL THING ABOUT LINKING TO THE BLOG ***

 

Now I don't have to type out the schedule every week! It is here on the webpage! Plus, you can keep up with the site as Chris builds and improves upon it.

 

*** SUM IT UP ***

 

That should get you up to speed for now. We'll let you know any new news that crops up. For now, we hope as many of you as possible will make plans to join us at Freebird for the big show before the big show. And might we say, you look fantastic this week! Have you lost weight?

 

Blistur. When you care enough to send the very best.

Neal, Bart, Chris

www.blistur.com

www.myspace.com/blistur

Greetings Blistur Nation,

f'Real frozen milkshakes have partnered up with Blistur and will be placing a special message under the lid of some of their frozen treats, found in many convenience stores throughout the USA. This message will refer to your own personal rock band, Blistur. Be one of the first hundred to find this lid and mail it in to us, and get a free autographed CD from the band! Take a look at our profile page for more details on this.

Also - we would love you forever if you are able to make some requests for the band at some of the radio outlets listed on the left side of our myspace page. Details on the stations who have our CD are listed there, along with request info for each station. Including Sirius Satellite Radio.

Also - look for the link to 'breakthrough radio' where we are receiving airplay on DJ Darkside's show.

Love and affection!

Chris, Neal, Bart

This week, Blistur will be one of the featured artists at New York's "Breakthru Radio". DJ Darkside will be debuting Blistur on his metal show and featuring tracks from our album such as "The End". Give this great sounding station a listen http://www. breakthruradio. com/index. php?show=3828

    

Ok - The method we will use to tune your drums here is derived from one I read about years ago called "Timbre Pitching" or "Pitching the Shell". However - the method was too generic and hard to get when I read it, so I kept modifying it until it worked for me.

Starting with the toms, and with the materials handy from part I, let's begin:

First - and most importantly - you need a QUIET, open room and no distractions like television, kids, dog, neighbor's weedeater, etc. Once you have this, remove both heads from your first - or smallest - tom, leaving only the shell and attached hardware. Using a knife, cut a small slit into the tennis ball. Push the tip of a stick into the opening to create a crude (but effective for our purposes here) mallet. At this point we are going to determine the natural tone of your drum by either mounting the shell on a suspension mount - or holding the drum by the mount so that it can sustain fully - and tapping the inside of the shell with your tennis ball mallet. You are going to hear a short tone. Listen for the tone after the mallet hits. It will be a short sustain. This is the note that the shell vibrates at naturally. It is WHERE your drum WANTS to go when you tune it. Whatever note the shell rings at you will want to find on the guitar or keyboard. If you don't really have the ears for it, solicit the help of a friend who plays guitar, keys, etc.

Should you have trouble hearing the note that rings out after the mallet strikes the inside of the shell - move to the most reflective area of your house or practice space - a tiled foyer, garage, bathroom, shower, etc. You should be able to grab the note out of the drum. When you do - write down the tom size and the note that it rings at. In my case - I had two drums that rang at "F". One was an octave higher. So - another tip that might help you is to make note of the exact 'octave' where you matched the note to the guitar or other reference instrument. In my case, I listed the 10" tom as a shell note of "F" (d-string, 3rd fret) and the 14" tom as a shell note of "F" (e-string - first fret). Those additional details help me avoid confusion when putting new heads on - so I don't try to match the drum to the wrong octave. If none of this makes sense, ask your guitar player - he'll know.

Follow this method through each of your toms, removing the rims and heads and finding the drum's natural tone and writing it down - this is the only time you will have to expend all this effort - unless you lose that piece of paper!

The next step is to put on the heads. I like to mount the toms upside down and work with the bottom heads only (preferably new heads). With your guitar, keyboard, pitch pipe, etc. handy - place the head on the bottom of the drum and finger tighten the lug bolts. I also like to begin with the tom that is the most "home base" among the toms. I have three rack toms and one floor. 8", 10", 12" & 14" floor. The 10" tom is where I start tuning and it is easier to have it mounted and tuned - then compare the 8" and 12" toms later to that tom, which sits above the snare and tends to get hit the most. 

 *** VERY IMPORTANT ***

It took me a long time to figure this out - but when tuning the drums with a key, make very, very small turns on the lug bolts once you get the head tightened enough to produce it's lowest tone. Just as a guitarist makes very tiny adjustments when tweaking a tuning key - that is a lesson it took me a while to get. I'd make half turns on the lug bolt and go past the point I should have been. This lead to cursing, pitching a fit and overall mass frustration trying to find the perfect sound.

That said, tighten the bottom head down evenly. If the head is new - go ahead and tune it up pretty tight and even... tighter than you plan on the drum being normally. Don't worry about making tiny turns at this stage, go ahead and tweak them up with full turns. Place the drum on the floor with the new head facing you and push into the center with the palm of your hand - like you're giving it CPR. You may hear some cracking sounds and stretching sounds. This is a good thing. We are stretching the new head out - like a guitarist will do with new strings - so that it will stay in tune better. Now, loosen the head all the way back down to floppy and finger tighten the lug bolts evenly around the rim. At first, I use the "star pattern" when moving around the lugs - like a six lug drum I would 'draw' a six pointed "Star of David" sign ( a right side up triangle, then upside down triangle pattern) to keep the tension even around the rim. Or think of it like a clock and tighten at 7, 12, and 4 o'clock - then 10,2, and 6 o'clock positions. Once I get the tension up a little to where there is a ringing, lowest tone I can get - I tend to switch into just moving clockwise around the bolts in very, very small increments.

Now strike the note on the guitar where the drum shell rang at with the tennis ball mallet. Let's say it is a "C". Bring the head up SLOWLY by tightening the lug bolts in very small increments and tapping lightly in the center of the head with a drumstick. Keep striking that note on guitar and let it ring out, singing with it if you need to. You should hear the head coming from a lower note up to the note you are singing or hearing from the guitar. Remember to tap lightly with a stick in the center of the head. The drum will really hit its stride close to that fundamental pitch you determined. Due to the inconsistency of wood - your shell may ring at "C" where you tapped it and "C" on the other side where you did not. The point is to get close to that note you are striking on the guitar and LISTEN. Just get it in the neighborhood and listen as you tap the drum and make very slight turns of the key. Soon you will hear a very pure note from the drum without a bunch of wobbly overtones. And it will sing at pretty much the same note as the guitar.

So now you know the rest of the story. Set up the next tom in line, mount it upside down and repeat this process - keeping your original tom in place for pitch comparison. Continue with any smaller toms and the floor tom. When finished with the bottom heads, your toms should be mounted as if you were ready to play your kit normally, only upside down.

Next, turn your first tom over and place a new head on the top. Tune it the same way by tightening the head down tight using a star pattern at first, then seating the head and stretching it out by performing "CPR" in the center of the head with the drum placed on the floor. Remount the tom to a suspension mount, loosen the head down to zero resonance, and bring it up again - periodically striking the note you are searching for on guitar and singing the note as you tune. This is another reason you'll want to be alone. Not only to have the concentration and silence needed to find the right pitch in each of your drum shells - but also because you'll look like a moron singing this note out loud with people around.

Within the guidelines I mentioned here you'd find that you do not have to tune to that exact note for your toms to sound good. You may prefer a different sound than where your drum's shell resonates. The good news is that I have found that notes that are 'in key' with your shell's pitch will work also. If you have a big rack tom that rings at a "C" when you tap the shell, and tuning the heads to this note is too high for what you want - Try tuning it to a note such as "G" or "F". Just like a chord on the guitar combines several notes to make one, your shell will work in several tuning ranges that are in key with its fundamental pitch. I prefer to tune top and bottom heads to the shell's note though.

Another note I should mention: After a while your ears can get burned when tuning. Walk away for 15 minutes or so and come back fresh. It really makes a difference. Also - don't be afraid to try a new kind of head. If you are using pinstripes or other thick heads on a small drum and are still not quite satisfied with the sound you are getting, I recommend that you try something different to get more attack and tone out of the drum. Like an Evans G2 clear, Remo Ambassador or Remo Emperor clear on top and a thin resonant head on bottom. Coated versions of these heads will produce a warmer, rounder tone. Clear heads tend to have a more explosive attack to them.

When you are finished, you should be able to go across the toms in an explosive roar of sound. The next time you change heads all you will need is your piece of paper with your shell pitches and your reference instrument. You may use the tennis ball as a gift to your dog at this point. Let me know if you try this method and have any questions. I'll be happy to help in any way that I can for you. My email is: neal@blistur.com. Good luck and rock HARD!

I must say that I get a lot of compliments on my drum sound, especially from drummers. I derive a great deal of satisfaction from that because like many, tuning drums has been a difficult task to master for me. I wouldn't even call myself a master – but more like a journeyman, who has spent so much time experimenting and evaluating results that I got better at it naturally. Especially what I think is the most overlooked element of the drumkit: The toms. I'll get to the kick drum and snare later. The toms are first and can make you a better drummer if you get a better sound.

Years ago I used to play live gigs with a 70's era Slingerland kit. The drums were big. A 24" kick, two 14" x 10" deep rack toms and an 18x18 floor tom. They were old and beat up when I purchased them for only $200. At the time I loved the sound of them. The previous drummer who owned them had glued some weather stripping type foam under the heads with silicone and it helped reduce some of the large amount of resonance in the drums. I was happy with the sound for a long time because it was fairly low maintenance – albeit fairly muffled. But as I gigged relentlessly with them, some of the hardware on them began to break. I was a kid at the time and there was no Ebay to find old parts to drums that were not being made anymore (Slingerland was out of business at that time). SO I began trying out new drumkits. I deserved it after all those gigs I was playing and all the extra money I was earning. And so – while I limped along with my old Slingerland kit from gig to gig, holding it together with hose clamps and duct tape, I dropped by all the regional music stores and began test-driving new drums. All the brands I read about in Modern Drummer..[if !supportEmptyParas]--> magazine. Pearl, Tama, Premier, DW, Sonor, Mapex, Ludwig, Yamaha and more. I kept an open mind and did not want to buy a drumset just because my favorite drummer played them. So far, Premier was winning until I tried the Yamaha Maple Customs. That was it for me. Yamaha had everything - Great sound, hardware, finish, ease of setup and teardown, etc. I bought them on the spot for $3,000 and brought them to a gig that night. It was New Years Eve and we were playing at a biker dump. I set the drums up and let the band notice that something was way different. Gone were the duct taped, nicotine stained, hose clamped jalopies they were used to seeing and in its place were the shiny new Harleys. One thing I noticed right away was since I had purchased smaller toms that my sound was now completely different. I loved them in the store – and I loved them on stage too – but now the tone was so explosive. And the dark thud I was so used to when I hit the tom above the snare had been replaced by a high pitched 'singing' sound. And it rang out for a long time, causing feedback in the PA system. But even with the out-of-the-box tuning, the band members and some of our regular fans were approaching me on the set break to comment on how great the new drums sounded – and that I was playing better. They thought I was inspired to play harder by the new drums when in fact they were merely HEARING what I had been playing all along. Suddenly those big toms fills that used to sound muddy on my old kit were now an explosion of thunder and lightning when I performed the same fill on the new ones. Bottom line: I became a much better drummer that night in the ears of the audience. The band sounded better as well. Why? The toms.

Feeling like the owner of a new Ferrari without an owner's manual, I began tinkering with them to try and tame them and keep the soundman happy when we put microphones on them live.  I took the heads off, put them back on, painted myself in a corner where I couldn't get it right & burned my ears to the point that I couldn't tell what sounded good anymore. Since I did not have internet at the time, I began looking through drum catalogs and back issues of Modern Drummer magazine. Ended up buying an instructional video from Dave Weckl just because he played the same brand. When I watched and listened to the video – I noticed he did not muffle anything on the toms and they sounded simply awesome. I still had to resort to at least a little duct tape with my new kit. Although Dave's drums on the video were birch shells (usually quieter than Maple) I began to believe that the perfect sound was in my kit, I just had to learn how to find it. And so through many videos and magazine articles on drum tuning, and years of trial and error I have settled on a method of tuning that works for me and garners compliments from the band, the audience and other musicians. Not to mention bringing our music to another level. Think about a good guitar player with a bad tone. It ruins everything. Same goes for kick drum and snare as well – of course. But I'm starting with the toms!

This method of tuning is by no means an invention of mine (although I have modified and expanded upon it). I read about it a long time ago and a few years later I decided to try it. It is time consuming the first time you do it, but when you find that sweet spot you'll be happy you put in the effort. Here are the ingredients you will need:

A tom tom – of course!

2 new heads (1 top/ 1 bottom)

A tennis ball

A knife (anything sharp… steak knife, box cutter, etc)

A pair of sticks

A drum tuning key (or two)

A stand to mount the tom on.

A guitar or keyboard

A blank piece of paper and a pen

A quiet, open room with some ambience to it and no background noise (TV, radio, wife)

Confused? Good! I like to mess with people's heads! Before I continue, I want to say that many things affect your ability to get the best sound you can. These include:

The quality of the drum shell material
The shape the drum is in
The mounting system
The difference in diameter from tom to tom
The lug casings
The hoops

The shell material is important. It's not that you can't get a great sound from composite materials such as falkata/mahogany plies. Just in my experience – and to my ear – the best sound and most easy to get a great sound comes from the high-end shells like 100% maple or birch. I admit that I have not heard some of the other high-end kits with more rare hardwoods such as cherry, African bubinga, oak and more. Perhaps they are awesome. In any case, the high-end stuff is usually more money for a reason. So if you get the chance to purchase some – even used – give it a shot. Also – an out of round drum, or one with cracks in the wood or damaged reinforcement rings are never going to sound wonderful.

The way the drums mount is equally important. R.I.M.S. suspension (Yamaha has one called Y.E.S.S. which stands for 'Yamaha Enhanced Suspension System'. They are less bulky than others and I love the simplicity of the design) mounts were developed in the early 90's and made a huge impact on tom sound from the start. All the big name drummers seemed to switch. Why? Because they let the drums ring out. Before that, you might tune the tom and have it sounding great while holding it under the rim with one hand and striking it with a stick, but then it would sound choked when you mounted it on a stand. This is because many of the old methods (and still today on entry level kits) for mounting included a pipe that went inside the drum. When the drum was secured down with a wing nut it sounded choked in comparison to holding it under the rim. Suspension mounts fixed that.

I've also been completely baffled over the years at why a standard 5-piece drumkit includes tom diameters of typically 12", 13" and 16" drums. The difference between the diameters of the two rack toms is only one inch and it makes it difficult to tune at reasonable pitch intervals. Even my high end Yamaha kit came with 10", 12", 13" & 14" toms. Eventually I bought an 8" and the 13" is an extra that decorates my office. So now my tom diameters are: 8, 10, 12 and 14 inches and I get great pitch separation from them.

Lug casings can affect your ability to use this method of tuning as well. Some of them rattle and will hamper your ability to hear what you need to hear. Higher end lugs tend to have a design that eliminates buzzing and rattling. If yours rattle when you try to tune, you can try to ignore it – or you can remove the lug casings from the shell and place a small piece of cotton in between the spring and the inside wall of the casing. Or better yet – a small patch of cloth or heavy fiber paper such as the kind used for gun cleaning. This should help.

Finally we must discuss the hoops. Die cast are better than triple flanged. These are the two most common. Tripled flanged are fine and you can tune fine with them. Die cast are more true round and easier to tune with. Again: Die cast = more expensive. There is usually a good reason for something costing more. Usually. In any case, either hoop is workable.

OK! Are you intrigued? Well plan a day on your calendar where you will have plenty of time and no interruptions. Then come back and lets get started!