Tag Archives: Jill’s Blather

Love me some drum fills

Reading Andrew’s post this morning about The Art of the Fill reminded me of a neat thing that happened a few weeks ago. I thought I’d share.

I wrote this on April 30th, 2010, so forgive the present verb tenses:

I had to go to the Claymont post office today to mail some stuff. As I was walking out, I heard some music blasting from someone’s car stereo. I walked through the parking lot towards my car, and I saw a mid-20s guy with long hair sitting in his beater with the windows down, unabashedly rocking out to In the Air Tonight. He was waiting for the big drum fill of awesomeness, and he was singing along in full voice, shamelessly.

I smiled to myself at his I-don’t-care-who’s-watching groove, and I walked to my car. But then I thought hmmmm… wait a minute.

I turned on my heels walked over to his open drivers side window about 35 seconds before the big drum fill (Well I remember…and I remember don’t worry…), and as he looked up at me I said, “Dude, I just need to hear the drum fill.” He gave me that 100% acceptance nod because he totally knew that this was a necessity. It wasn’t weird at all; no pretense. It just was two people about to ROCK.

And then… “The hurt doesn’t show; but the pain still grows / It’s no stranger to you or me!

DUD-DAT, DUD-DAT, DUD-DAT, DUD-DAT, DJAT! DJAT! / DOOM dugga djat-jat etc. etc…

I played some delicious air drums! He banged on the steering wheel!

And after a few seconds of the chorus had passed, I said “Thank you!” and he said, “Right on!” and I walked to my car to drive away, both of us wearing doofy grins of pure happy.

By the time I got my car started and my seatbelt on, the guy had gotten out of his car and walked over to mine to wave goodbye.

That was it.

I love people.

So with that said, what are your favorite drum fills? You know, the ones where you can’t turn off the song until you’re basking in the drumfill afterglow? These don’t have to be epic “quaalude thunder” fills; I also wanna know about the delicate pizzelles of drum fills.

  • So the obvious one is In The Air Tonight. Duh.
  • Durkin’s post mentions D’yer Mak’er by Led Zepplin… also fabulous.
  • Neil Peart’s killer fill in the intro to 2112
  • Misunderstood by Dream Theater — the fill from 5:31 to 5:40 is awesome.
  • But I’m also a fan of the gloriously simple fill that consists only of two simple quarter notes in Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot, about 47 seconds from the end of the tune. (Yes, Gordon Lightfoot. I love him.)

What else?
Talk to me!

Moustache Mania

Tany Ling here. I’ve recently returned from a quick work trip to Florida to record some vocals for the new Trans-Siberian Orchestra album “Nightcastle”, due out later this year. It was fantastic to see some of the gang again, even though I was bonkers due to insomnia and all that time-traveling.

Anyhow, this Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon downtown attending L.A.’s first Renegade Craft Fair. I was expecting to catch the roving rabble-rousers Killsonic, which sometimes features IJG’s very own Daniel Rosenboom, but, alas, I was off by one day, as they’ll be stirring it up this Sunday at 3pm.

Yet, I was not disappointed with the offerings off the day. Notably, there was a plethora of moustaches all about this craft parade. I was particularly tickled by these plush ‘staches from Fuzzy Ink:
colorful_staches giant_stache
And, yes, I did enter the drawing to win the Monster ‘Stache.

Fuzzy-Ink also served up this graphic on a t-shirt

Also of note were these wearable ‘staches (below left), though you wouldn’t want to wear them on your face, unless you’re already pierced there:
staches_on_bag beards
No, the IJG hasn’t gone bearded as of yet, but those (above right), from I Made You A Beard were too fun to exclude.

So, what’s with all the moustaches? From the multiple artists here to the dudes from that United video, to the well-‘stached guy at the craft fair wearing the red sweater who I was too shy to ask for a photo op, I felt like I was a member of a popular taste-maker’s club. Because, you see, I, too have been ‘stached. All of us in the IJG, in fact, know the moustache well. As do our fans, as evidenced here:
IJGmoustaches2629

Soon, thanks to our new-ish tune “Theme For A Cable News Show”, all you lucky folks who’ll be able to catch us on our October 2009 tour (with many more dates/locations soon to be posted) throughout the North East will know the power of the moustache. Is there, perhaps, one lying in bed next to you right now?

Jill is beaten with a Clue Bat

Every singer knows the old adage “When you pee clear, you sing clear.” (Grammar be damned.) This requires copious water-drinking, which poses a challenge when I’d rather have a delicious cup of coffee with a metric ton of cream and sugar.

(When my mentor Eugene Thomas saw me fix up a cup o’ coffee many years ago, he said, “So you don’t really like the taste of coffee, do you?” I digress.)

Even now in the middle of summer, I’d still choose a cup of hot coffee (even crappy coffee) over water. This isn’t a good thing, especially as I get a little older (perish the thought!) where the ol’ pipes require a little more care than they used to.

So here’s my revelation:
Whenever I go for a massage or some kind of spa visit (which isn’t very often, sadly), they always have big glass pitchers full of cool water with lemon slices or cucumber slices floating in there. Is there anything tastier or more refreshing in the world than that? NO THERE IS NOT. When I’m there, I drink 27655 glasses of this stuff because it’s just so damn tasty. And hey, what do you know: I’m suddenly hydrated. Weird, that.

If I spent more time in spas, this wouldn’t be a problem. But alas, my throngs of adoring fans do not buy me spa treatments I’m cheap and I always have something else going on. (and really: Does it make sense to pay $150 just to drink some water in a bathrobe?)

So I solved this dehydration quandary by doing something insane: I bought a dang lemon. And now I can’t stop drinking water. I don’t know why it’s taken me 30-plus years to figure this out.

You know, I’m really good at figuring out pretty complex problems; but the obvious occasionally escapes me.

Thank you, drive through.

East Coast Tour in October ’09!

Holy cow, it’s been a long time since we’ve toured the east coast (January ’07, to be exact). We’ve got one anchor date secured in mid-October in Massachusetts, and a whole bunch o’ states to explore.

Who wants to name some IJG-friendly cities and venues?
Would you consider being on our street team for your city?

Comment here, or drop a line to jill atttttt industrial jazz group ( no spaces) dot die spammer com.

Yay!