Earlier this week, speculation that the Smashing Pumpkins had found a brand-new, pretty young drummer–19-year-old Oregonian Mike Byrne of the mathy outfit Moses, Smell The Roses–made its way around the Internet, with a couple of errant Tweets and MySpace messages from Byrne and his Pacific Northwest associates fueling the flames. The band’s official site has decided to put rumor mill to rest, and let people know just why, exactly, Byrne has flown the coop to “pumpkin camp” for the next few weeks:

Speculation has been running rampant across the internet and airwaves today due to a few posts that have appeared online (HipstersUnited.com | SP.com) regarding the young drummer Mike Byrne.


SP.com can finally announce that Billy has been working with young (19) Mike Byrne on demos. Word from the studio is that Mike is an exceptionally talented and gifted drummer and things are going very well.


And that is that.

And here is a compilation of Byrne’s drumming on the very same site. Helpful!


some information regarding drummer mike byrne [smashingpumpkins.com]
Earlier: Smashing Pumpkins’ Alleged New Drummer Was About A Year Old When Gish Came Out