Because game drumming simply isn’t silly enough (and that’s coming from someone who totally digs it), you can now wield a pair of illuminated sticks, The Ant Commandos. They’re made of plastic, come with AA batteries, and will set you back 19 bucks. Best of all, the LEDs actually get brighter as you play harder.

Super cheesy. In the good way.

…is up and running and fairly chock-full of tambourine videos. C’mon, you know you’ve always wanted to learn how to do a one-minute thumb role.

Ludwig has posted a lengthy interview with longtime endorser Frankie Banali, who chats a bit about his new projects, the success of Quiet Riot, and the death last year of Kevin DuBrow. And never fear: Banali also throws in some details about his current Ludwig setup. Of course.

Rock Band 2 is officially out today, and the lucky thumpers over at IGN got their sticks all over an Ion premium kit. It’ll cost you over $200 more than the standard Rock Band drums, but if you’re even remotely interested in having the most realistic drumming experience possible, the Ion appears to be the best off-the-shelf bet. From the review:

At the end of the day, the Ion Drum Kit is a fun peripheral to play with. It almost never misses a note when played properly (even when the pad is completely missed and only the rim of the pad is struck), and the cymbals certainly add a dynamic feature on its own. Even the pads themselves are leaps and bounds ahead of Rock Band’s standard kit. Not only are they incredibly quiet (great for those of us who live in an apartment), but they have the feel of practice drum pads that snare players and drummers learning their rudiments will be familiar with. This allows real rolls to be executed (although they are seldom used in Rock Band 2), giving the set a much more realistic feel than the standard Rock Band 2 kit.

John Blackwell will be joining Hudson’s Master Series DVDs. So sayeth the press release:

No word on a release date or when our review copy will be arriving.

One of the members over at Drummer Connection is selling four tickets to this year’s MD Fest, two for the show on Saturday (September 20) and two for the show on Sunday (September 21). Here are the details:

I have 4 tickets available for the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival in NY. My wife got them for me for our anniversary, but we are about to close on a new home so we decided it wouldn’t be a good financial decision to fly from Colo to NY and hotel and all. There are 4 and I will let them go for $300 obo. Go to http://www.artscenter.org/_downloads/ConcertHallSeats.pdf for seat locations. Saturday seats are Orch LFT E 41 & 42 (5th row). Sunday seats are Orch LFT C 36 & 37 (3rd row) plus 2 vouchers for free souvenirs and Festival T-Shirts. [email protected]

If you do manage to scrape together the bucks to attend, be sure to sneak us some pics!

…was seeing a little more of Travis Barker playing with DJ AM. In the video below, the dudes are performing with Lupe Fiasco on his song “Superstar.” What do you think about Trav’s cross-armed, ride cymbal beat in the intro? It would be easier to play by leading with the left-hand on the hi-hat…but it definitely wouldn’t look as cool.

We wrote about Alesis’s new Surge cymbals way back in March, and now it looks they’re finally shipping….with a DM5 Pro no less. Or maybe it’s the other way around….

Whatever the case, Alesis’s flagship electronic kit comes outfitted with the venerable DM5 sound module, which features more than 500 studio-grade sounds and 21 programmable drum sets recorded at 48kHz in stereo with ambient effects. 800 bucks also gets you a dual-zone snare pad, three tom pads, and a kick pad with 8″ mylar, tension-adjustable drumheads and 2.3mm triple-flanged counterhoops. Surge cymbals are made of brass cymbal alloy and feature built-in triggers; a 12″ hi-hat, 13″ crash, and a 16″ dual-zone ride are included. Pretty damn sweet.