Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com » Billy Corgan

Smashing Pumpkins Speak On Their New Little Drummer Boy: “Things Are Going Well”

Maura — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:00:12 +0000

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

Smashing Pumpkins’ (Alleged) New Drummer Was About A Year Old When “Gish” Came Out

Maura — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:00:40 +0000

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]

Billy Corgan’s Long, Slow Heel Turn Continues

Maura — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Billy Corgan has turned a snippet of the Smashing Pumpkins‘ alt-rock staple “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” into a spoken-word bit that will serve as the intro to this Sunday’s Total Nonstop Action Wrestling pay-per-view Lockdown, which will feature a bunch of matches confined to a six-sided cage. (Yes, the lyrics have been altered to fit the cage’s dimensions.) Honestly, the most surprising thing about this development is finding out that Kevin Nash is somehow still able to move around a wrestling ring, despite tearing his quads approximately 53 times over the course of his career. The promo—and a recut video for the song featuring wrestlers appearing in the PPV—after the jump.

Corgan and TNA have actually collaborated before, but I have to say, this little bit of promo-cutting makes me think that his heel turn of recent months will culminate in something that lures him into the ring on Sunday night. (NB: I am not going to shell out $30 to see if this happens.) Here’s the new music video!

Lockdown Promo With Billy Corgan [IGN; HT Hipsters United]

Mike Barthel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Look, I’m not going to try to explain Billy Corgan anymore. In his latest missive, he contemplates recording a 44-track album released one track at a time and accompanied by a film, justifies his continued use of the Pumpkins moniker for a solo project in terms a reality show contestant might use (”I committed myself 100 pct”), refers to himself as a “baby faced killa,” and expresses his hope that “from this day forward this group will represent nothing but love and light” without any plausible justification for doing so. Maybe he should take a couple of years off, you know? [MySpace]

Mike Barthel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Look, I’m not going to try to explain Billy Corgan anymore. In his latest missive, he contemplates recording a 44-track album released one track at a time and accompanied by a film, justifies his continued use of the Pumpkins moniker for a solo project in terms a reality show contestant might use (”I committed myself 100 pct”), refers to himself as a “baby faced killa,” and expresses his hope that “from this day forward this group will represent nothing but love and light” without any plausible justification for doing so. Maybe he should take a couple of years off, you know? [MySpace]

Mike Barthel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Look, I’m not going to try to explain Billy Corgan anymore. In his latest missive, he contemplates recording a 44-track album released one track at a time and accompanied by a film, justifies his continued use of the Pumpkins moniker for a solo project in terms a reality show contestant might use (”I committed myself 100 pct”), refers to himself as a “baby faced killa,” and expresses his hope that “from this day forward this group will represent nothing but love and light” without any plausible justification for doing so. Maybe he should take a couple of years off, you know? [MySpace]

Mike Barthel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Look, I’m not going to try to explain Billy Corgan anymore. In his latest missive, he contemplates recording a 44-track album released one track at a time and accompanied by a film, justifies his continued use of the Pumpkins moniker for a solo project in terms a reality show contestant might use (”I committed myself 100 pct”), refers to himself as a “baby faced killa,” and expresses his hope that “from this day forward this group will represent nothing but love and light” without any plausible justification for doing so. Maybe he should take a couple of years off, you know? [MySpace]

Mike Barthel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Look, I’m not going to try to explain Billy Corgan anymore. In his latest missive, he contemplates recording a 44-track album released one track at a time and accompanied by a film, justifies his continued use of the Pumpkins moniker for a solo project in terms a reality show contestant might use (”I committed myself 100 pct”), refers to himself as a “baby faced killa,” and expresses his hope that “from this day forward this group will represent nothing but love and light” without any plausible justification for doing so. Maybe he should take a couple of years off, you know? [MySpace]

Hey, Anybody Know If Tila Tequila Plays Drums?

Maura — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:30:00 +0000

From last night’s pseudo-est of all pseudo-events, the Bravo-sponsored A-List Awards, lone remaining Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan squires MySpace-made starlet Tila Tequila down the red carpet. You know, the more I see of Corgan these days, the more I am convinced that his wrestling appreciation has resulted in him putting on a Hollywood Hulk Hogan-style persona in an attempt to see just how a “heel turn” would work in a real-world application.

[Photo: Getty]
[HT: Dlisted]

Oh, This Should End Well

Maura — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Fresh from the inbox, an e-mail entitled SMASHING PUMPKINS UPDATE: “Auditions will be held Friday, April 10 in Los Angeles for drummers who are looking to play with THE SMASHING PUMPKINS. They should send their background info, photos and performance web links via e-mail only to pumpkinsdrummerATgmailDOTcom.”

In related news, lead Pumpkin Billy Corgan has been demoing some new songs that he says “sound like Spring.” although that isn’t pleasing the commenters over at SP fan site Hipsters United so much:

i see claritin commercials in the future of the pumpkins

WTF does spring sound like. Better sound like rage!!!

Hey, allergies can make anyone cranky!

Corgan “in a great mood,” demoing “new and fresh” material [Hipsters United]