frozen octopus

There is an old way to slightly dampen the ring of a drum using felt and a clip. You take a strong clip and clip a stack of felt to the rim. The stack is made up of strips. When you hit the drum, the felt flies up allowing the drum to sound like a drum. As the felt falls back down it gently cuts of the ring of the drum.

There are other ways to dampen a drum for sure like putting tape on the head or detuning one lug. Since I am using the house kit at clubs in Japan, it feels rude to get tape gunk on their heads or mess with the tunings.

Clipping on some felt from the local 100¥ store could be the solution to reduce some of the clanginess. It was also cool that when I went felt shopping, there was a wide range of color packs. The only things I am wondering about is which kind of clip is going to be able to stay on. Might have to go hunting for some tiny clamps.

On the way home from our show last night, I kept thinking about how punk bands in the eighties spray painted bedsheets with their logo on them. My first band made one and it was SOOOO important to us to have it behind us at every show.

I kinda want to make one for our next show but I already have to carry 1000 pounds of merch on the train.  ( ^ . ^ ) \m/