JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

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fter years of private drum lessons and is very gracious.
"But I also think they didn't like the sound," he said.
hundreds of hours of practice, Michael
Gluckman was tired of playing alone in "When you are two floors up, it is lousy-sounding mu-
his basement. So, he began inviting a few sic at best."
The mix of the musicians' talent and ambition to make
friends who played other instruments
over to his parents' basement to jam. His the band succeed worked out so well that Mr. Gluck-
parents would conveniently leave the man and his friends adopted a group name and made
a crude demo tape. The Droogs, taken from the book
house, in part to avoid the loud music.
"Normally, with a lot of high-school bands, people A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, were born.
While the Droogs' story of grit and determination is
start out in the drummer's basement because he has a
lot of equipment to lug around," Mr. Gluckman said. inspiring, it is hardly unusual. While there is no reli-
"My parents made sure they were always gone, which able way of tracking how many of these basement or

garage bands exist, the evidence slowly leaks out each
time a marquee is changed and a newer, often stranger,
name appears.
Another indication of interest is the amount spent
annually on equipment and instruments. According
to the National Association of Music Merchants, the
United States boasts 62 million amateur musicians,
people who play instruments but derive most of their
income from other sources. Those individuals spent
$1.561 billion on acoustic and electric guitars and am-
plifiers in 1994, up from $920 million in 1988.
"The market in the United States has exploded and

