Local Startup Offers Drummers a Home

While lead singers and center stage guitarists tend to stick to the ribs of our collective show-going subconscious more easily, drummers are a poscript (did you see the drummer's hair?). Every frontman winking to a gal in the audience or enjoying a particularly dramatic solo / facial expression combo is supported by the guy or girl who all too often becomes a side note: a good drummer.

Good drummers support the songs, great drummers demand our attention by making them better. This is not too startling a statement, because if you've played music, assembled an ensemble or ever witnessed a really fantastic drummer lead a rhythm section, you already know it's true. That's the easy part. The hard part is finding a good drummer - especially if you know you need someone who can clean up your messy act.

Well Austinites, you can relax. Local startup Drummer Hunter is here to make things easy. By utilizing the friend networking style of sites like MySpace and Virb, it plays matchmaker to bands looking for drummers by sorting preferences, styles of playing and even tour availability to make the search easier. You can even upload videos, intimate your smoking and drinking preferences and provide mp3s of your playing. This kind of rock star love connection network will no doubt benefit percussionists too, as it give them an opportunity to know what kind of group they're auditioning for before loading an entire kit into their car. It can also enable drummers to shop around, and find bands that they're excited about playing with on their own, as a side project or in genre they aren't as schooled in.

The site only launched this week, but we already found one guy who is into Shiner and wants to practice on weekends. The word is spreading, too: Wired profiled the site and gave it a thumbs up.