Smashing Pumpkins’ (Alleged) New Drummer Was About A Year Old When “Gish” Came Out
Billy Corgan’s Internet-wide search for a new drummer has apparently ended, and according to Smashing Pumpkins fan blog Hipsters United a (pretty) young man has emerged victorious: Mike Byrne, the 19-year-old drummer/”demoralizer” for the Oregon band Moses, Smell The Roses. There’s been no formal announcement yet, but Byrne did say that he was “off for another couple of weeks at pumpkin camp” on his MySpace page yesterday, and Moses collaborator Ben Spees referred to him as the “drummer of the future” on Twitter. That’s practically a confirmation, right? Judging by the tracks posted to the Moses MySpace page, Byrne certainly has the rapidfire chops to keep up with Corgan’s rhythmic twists and turns; the band’s got a sort of garage-prog thing going on, and it cites bands like Battles and the Octopus Project among its influences (alongside Keyboard Cat). Oh, and Animal Collective! This will do wonders for the Pumpkins’ bloggability, I can already tell. Smashing Pumpkins, The Next Generation?: 19-year-old Mike Byrne in position to succeed Chamberlin as band’s drummer [Hipsters United]
