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Earlier this year, while visiting family in Houston, I noticed a toy that my little nephew Ian had. Three months later, I’m back in Houston, and took a closer look at it. It’s the Bee Bop Band Toy Set, and I’m told that Ian loves it. He was quick to join me in play upon my closer inspection. The coolest parts about it are the maraca, wacky looking sticks and the ability to store all its pieces inside the drum, which doubles as a carrying case. The whole set is bug themed. I’ve checked out all kinds of toy drums and percussion. This is the best one geared for babies, that I’ve seen. It’s high quality and affordable! You can find it at Target stores and Target online.

~r

This week I had the privilege of hearing Tyrone Wells and his band perform a private show at San Francisco’s KFOG. This was the result of calling in after hearing his own What are We Fighting For. When Tyrone and his band took walked into the small studio, I was initially struck by how young he and his band mates looked. Among the youngest and youngest looking is drummer Mark Chipello. During the one hour acoustic set, Mark played with the precision, restraint and grace of a true pro. His sound left nothing for the ear to desire. I gathered from a little research that Mark has had an interesting journey that covers new discoveries in hand percussion to playing a business management role for Wells. First and foremost, however, he’s an excellent drummer in a great band. See and hear more about Chipello in Modern Drummer and his MySpace.

I forced my wife to watch American Idol with me this week. (She can’t stand Simon.) Drummer Teddy Campbell really caught my ear during the performance of some Evanescence tune. This guys is phenomenal! His resume is almost a huge as his sound. You can see a great video of Teddy at DrummerWorld.com. Read up on the latest in Campbell’s world at Modern Drummer.com.

I had the great pleasure of catching Stewart Copeland on my hometown radio station KFOG. Just last week, Andy Summers was interviewed by the same station. To echo the sentiment of a KFOG personality, “what cool guy!” Copeland’s humble demeanor left me with a greater sense of admiration for the guy than I had in years past. For me, Copeland fits into a category of drummers that I consider to be the stylistically elite. The guys is a technically great drummer, but that quality is surpassed by his unique style. That said, I’m sure he was formally trained as a jazz drummer, however, it was the sound environment of The Police that helped his huge sense of style shine. In recent years, Copeland has been much more the film producer than pop drummer. Following a ten year hiatus from the drums, Copeland was coaxed back onto the kit in 2000 by Oysterhead cohorts Les Claypool and Trey Anastasio. As one might expect, Copeland exhibited a nice sense of humor during the call with the KFOG crew. I was a fan of The Police during the popularity and even became of fan of the Sting’s solo work. However, Sting’s ensuing public displays of eclecticism eventually put me off to such a high degree that I actually started to somewhat dislike The Police–guilty by association. Thank gods for guys like Copeland and Summers. I actually hope I get to see them on their upcoming tour. With so much more that can be written about Copeland, I’ll leave it at this: What a cool drummer!