History
The band had a large following in south Florida fronted by Alonso Brito, then known as Dennis Britt and opened and headlined large venues as well as weekly engagements at various local clubs. Watchdog was recorded and mixed by Ron and Howard Albert, known collectively as the Albert Brothers at Criteria Studios in Miami. He was one of the first drummers in that area who used electronic drums along with samples and a drum machine, specifically the Linn 9000, E-mu SP-1200, Emulator II, and Simmons Drums SDS-7 and Simmons SDS-V . Due to the incredible demand of electronic drums at this point, he managed to find a great deal of session and tour work with bands and individuals including The Isolator, Miami Sound Machine, Perfect Strangers, Jimi Fiano, Gordon Hart, Henk Milne, Paris Maria, Ann Monaco, Randy Rush, as well as many calls for television and radio work.
China Shop, Gentleman Farmers, and the 80's
After two years in Florida, he moved back to his native New York City and found himself working with Naux, from Richard Hell and the Voidoids in a band called China Shop, recording two records. Prior to China Shop was a band with Naux, Jennifer Smith, and Larry Heinemann called Gentleman Farmers, who never released anything yet recorded with Mike McMackin. As well as a steady schedule of live and studio work, Fell recorded, toured, played with many bands and individuals, including Mercurial Line, Joan Jett, Rope, The Loveless, Jorma Kaukonen, Bankie Banx, Polio Ponies, Joe Walsh, and many others.
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The drummer typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks or special wire or nylon brushes; and uses their feet to operate hi-hat and bass drum pedals.
Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr. is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band U2. A member of the band since its inception, he has recorded 15 studio albums with U2. Mullen's distinctive, almost military drumming style developed from his playing martial beats in childhood marching bands.
James Joseph Chamberlin is an American drummer and record producer. Described as "one of the most powerful drummers in rock," he is best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. Following the 2000 breakup of the band, Chamberlin joined Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan in the supergroup Zwan and also formed his own current group, the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex.
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success during the 1970s, the group's current lineup consists of founding members Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons, alongside Michael McDonald and John McFee, and touring musicians including John Cowan, Marc Russo (saxophones), Ed Toth (drums), and Marc Quiñones.
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term pipes and drums, used by military pipe bands is also common.
A fife and drum corps is a musical ensemble consisting of fifes and drums. In the United States of America, fife and drum corps specializing in colonial period impressions using fifes, rope tension snare drums and rope tension bass drums are known as Ancient Fife and Drum Corps. Many of these ensembles originated from a type of military field music.
FireHouse is an American hard rock band that formed in 1984 in Richmond, Virginia, and then moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they were signed to Epic Records in 1989. The band reached stardom during the early 1990s with charting singles like "Reach for the Sky", "Don't Treat Me Bad" and "All She Wrote", as well as their signature power ballads "I Live My Life for You", "Love of a Lifetime" and "When I Look into Your Eyes". At the 1992 American Music Awards, FireHouse won the award for "Favorite New Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist".
A tenor drum is a membranophone without a snare. There are several types of tenor drums.
Stephen Kendall Gadd is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1984. Gadd's performances on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (1976) and "Late in the Evening", Herbie Mann's "Hi-jack" (1975) and Steely Dan's "Aja" (1977) are examples of his style. He has worked with other popular musicians from many genres including Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, Eric Clapton and Michel Petrucciani.
Norman Westberg is a guitarist from Detroit best known for his work with Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album Filth (1983) and appeared on every album through 1991's White Light from the Mouth of Infinity. Westberg became a full-time Swans member once again when Michael Gira reactivated the group in 2010.
Abraham Laboriel Jr. is an American session musician best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of Paul McCartney's touring band since 2001. He is the son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel, nephew of Mexican rock musician Johnny Laboriel, and brother of record producer, songwriter and film composer Mateo Laboriel.
Simmons is an electronic drum brand, which originally was a pioneering British manufacturer of electronic drums. Founded in 1978 by Dave Simmons, it supplied electronic kits from 1980 to 1998. The drums' distinctive, electronic sound can be found on countless albums from the 1980s. The company closed in 1999 and the Simmons name is currently owned by Guitar Center.
The Simmons SDS 5, SDSV, or Simmons Drum Synthesizer was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons, manufactured initially by Musicaid in Hatfield, UK, and commercially released in 1981. After Musicaid went bankrupt, Simmons set up a new manufacturing company under his name, Simmons.
The Heroine Sheiks was an American Noise Rock band based in New York. It began in 1999, as a collaboration of Shannon Selberg, George Porfiris, Norman Westberg and John Fell. Selberg emerged as a major songwriter in the complete history of the band whose sound was darker and more sinister than his previous work in The Cows. With several references to the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, the band explored a thematic quality of black comedy.
Dennis Leeflang is a Dutch rock drummer, currently living in Los Angeles. He is best known for his work with Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal
A Screw is a single by the New York City experimental rock group Swans. The single's three songs were later appended as bonus tracks to the CD release of Holy Money.
Siamese Pipe is the second album by The Heroine Sheiks. It was released on October 1, 2002, by Rubric Records.
The Scottish tenor drum is a musical instrument used within Scottish pipe bands. It is a double-headed membranophone that is held vertically with one head up, one head down, and played with soft mallets on the top head only. Common sizes of drums are 15, 16, 18, or 20 inch in diameter, with 12, 14, or 16 inch depth. The playing style of the Scottish tenor drum has varied throughout the years, but there is typically a variation of the combination of swings and rhythmic accompaniment to the Scottish snare drum and the Great Highland Bagpipes. It is similar to the more common marching band style tenor drum.
David Moreno is an American musician, singer, audio engineer, songwriter and producer, best known for his role as the drummer in the American rock band Puddle of Mudd.
