Wednesday 23 May 2012

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I know this is old, but I forgot about it until it popped back up in a feed;

"...so [for Oceania] I had to learn the ticks of the trade and make it sound articulate like Jimmy... - Mike Byrne.
For someone who purports to be a fan, he doesn't seem to get that he's going against everything Chamberlin has stood for over the past 20 years?

15 comments:

  1. "I wanna buy that guy a turkey dinner...."
    That line has been in my head since i heard the first time, and have been looking for people to but that dinner for who sounds like themselves ever since. JC's puts this concept so well....

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  2. Mike is younger than Jimmy was when he came into the band. He is entering a band that is established and has a reputation for incredible drumming. Jimmy to me is the best ever, but don't we owe it to Mike to allow him the opportunity to grow into becoming Mike Byrne? I think in ten years Mike isn't going to be copying Jimmy any more, and will have a distinctive body of his own work. He might still play Cherub Rock, and do so in a Jimmy-esque way that honors the song, but I am willing to bet there will be songs that bare his own voice. If you wanna know the kid now your an ass-clown.

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  3. knock the kid, sorry

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  4. ^ Also, "you're", not "your".

    I'm not interested in waiting "ten years" for Mikey to grow into his own. It's a huge step backward for, as you said, an established band with a reputation for incredible drumming.

    The kid constantly tries to compensate by bashing away at the cymbals like a caveman. It really is disappointing.

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  5. Mike has been in the band Smashing Pumpkins for three years now or round about. That is a long time to be in a pro band like them. But he still makes basic errors in live shows. You can see he has had shown a improvement in playing some of Jimmy old parts accurately. But in this time most drummers would have expected to start hearing something of his own style, surely, something that is at least beyond simply playing hard, fast and loud - speaking of which he butchered the feel of Neverlost at the Rio gig if you ask me?

    But there's just nothing that you could say about his style at this point other than he sounds like Jimmy. And that's super lame. He's almost at the point of no return [[[like Jimmy says - 'too far down someonelses trip']] if he continues to absorb any more of Jimmy's parts and style and sound he will only be known forever as the guy who sounds like Jimmy Chamberlin. I think it a shame for Smashing Pumpkins to have stepped back. I would rather have had another Adore even if drumming wasn't bombastic as what I would like, what is happening now.

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    1. His style is partially going to be dictated by the band. It's not like he can come in and start playing something that doesn't fit the bands character. If you listen to some the stuff from his Bearcubbin project you get the sense that he does have his own style. It's a fine line I agree, but isn't part of the reason JImmy left was because he wanted to try and do something different. So that must mean that even he recognizes there is a certain way to play within the Pumpkins.

      Also most drummers don't have the talent Mike has. He might not be Jimmy, but he is incredibly talented. He's 22! If we are going to bash him isn't it fair that we at least wait till Oceania comes out to judge? You want to replace him? fine, I'll play that game. Who would you like to replace him with?

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    2. What is similar style between SP and bearcybbin ? Loud? It sound like 2 completely different drummers to me..

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  6. I'm the biggest mike hater there is, but to be fair I think you took this quote a bit out of context. But your point is still well articulated.

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  7. Possibly, slightly. Yes. Point still stands though I would suggest.....

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  8. Saw this comment online and thought it made a lot of sense:


    In short, people were wary of Matt Walker, but he ended up proving himself over time. A much shorter time. Matt Walker wasn't Jimmy, no, but he also didn't make the old songs sound significantly worse. There was less enthusiasm for Kenny Aronoff. The guy is a renown drummer, but his style did not mesh very well. I wouldn't consider Joey Waronker's contributions to the Pumpkins as significant.

    I'm pretty sure there are already very specific examples either in this thread, or others about this concert, about where Mike blows (specifically about the way he plays Cherub Rock). Since Billy fellators conveniently ignore opinions they're incapable of processing or disagree with, I don't know why I'm bothering, but here are some more examples.

    Take the Everlasting Gaze outro from this show. Mike plays the pattern with offbeat accents on the ride, which is where Jimmy *starts* with the outro, but fails to slowly ratchet up the intensity and throw in extra snare, tom, and open hi-hat hits. It sounds really flat and robotic.

    The intro to Today is a good example where he's way too busy (i.e. he hits too many fucking notes) and hits the drums way too hard. Also the way he plays the fill leading from the verse to the chorus (and between bars of the chorus) is hamfisted and lacks the ghost strokes of the original.

    In the outro of X.Y.U., he plays the same shitty triplet snare roll over and over and it sounds out of place every single time.

    How about the noise solo of BWBW? If you can't hear how wimpy and sloppy the fills are here, you're not paying attention. And that's really the bottom line. If you don't understand why people don't like Mike, you probably don't care about drums in the first place.

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  9. LOL at "tricks of the trade"...

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  10. I'm not a fan of Mike on the Jimmy songs; however, I am looking forward to the new stuff where he hopefully asserts himself to having his own voice. The TGBK tracks to me don't count.

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  11. Mike's work on Oceania turned out to be a hell of a lot more impressive than the online tracks released so far. At 22 he's going to be influenced by Jimmy enormously, he's going to be influenced by being in a band where the songwriter is pretty much attuned to a particular style of drumming for decades. He's come on leaps and bounds. Give the kid a break, seriously.

    Jimmy is one of the most individual drummers of all time. Even with the greats there are few that stand out as cutting their own path as clearly as Jimmy and still, if you know his influences, cast your mind back to early Chamberlin sounds and he's taken his influences and wholesale stolen blocks of their work (as any good learning artist does).

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  12. Everyone on this page needs to shut up and let the kid do what he fucking wants. He is a young guy who is entering an enormously annoying cult following of 35 year olds who cant let go. And he wants to do what is right for smashing pumpkins songs. And if he did his own thing, you assholes would have some other complaint. So shut up, the band is only entertainment at this point anyway, nothing of value can come from them.

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  13. If he wanted to do what is right for Smashing Pumpkins songs, the old ones at least, he wouldn't be [attempting] to play them.

    The new songs he can do what the hell he wants as the band has turned into a joke - so yeah, agreed; nothing of value can come from them or by proxy him.

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