For those who think the Pumpkins chart moving chops were smashed after their '90s glory days, Corgan and co. have recruited a young and hip new band member to prove ‘em all wrong.
Portland native Mike Byrne has officially replaced Jimmy Chamberlin as the grunge band’s drummer, the Chicago Tribune reports. And he's only 19!
It’s a bold move on the Pumpkins’ part, hiring a band member who was probably in elementary school when Siamese Dream burned up the Q101.
After Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, a Chicago native, posted auditions for a new drummer in April, the band received feedback from more than 1,000 interested drummers. The band announced its decision to recruit Byrne Tuesday.
Many long-time fans are sad about the Byrne additoion, because a new face on stage means an old one is gone forever. Chamberlin, who joined the band shortly after it was created in Chicago in 1988, quit the Smashing Pumpkins in March.
“I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don’t fully possess,” Chamberlin said on his Web site. “I won’t pretend I’m into something I’m not. I won’t do it to myself, you the fan, or my former partner. I can’t just, ‘Cash the check’ so to speak.”
Of the five current band members, Corgan is the only remaining member of the original Smashing Pumpkins, one of Chicago’s most commercially successful bands.
Local
But the addition of Byrne is not the only card the Pumpkins have up their sleeves. Along with announcing thier teenage rhythym section the band promised a “major announcement” on the way next month regarding a new album, a band spokesman said Monday.
