Fifty Two Crows in a Field of Love

44 Smashing Pumpkins-related things we'd rather do than audition to be a Smashing Pumpkin

"6. Revisiting that one Jimmy Chamberlin Complex album. (No, really; it's good.)"

It's true.

So You’ve Decided to Join the Smashing Pumpkins...

They should add don't be fundamentally unhealthy to the list...

News is slow, ok.

"Here goes nothing" - Hawkins plays Chamberlin

Wanna catch Taylor Hawkins play [live] with Gannin Arnold and take on Chamberlin's part to the title track to Gannin's new album, "Not From Here"? If so, head on over to the Drum Channel right now.

Tune in from 60 minutes in to catch Taylor almost completely fluff the song by dropping his sticks... He must have known before-hand it might be a little challenging, 

"Here goes nothing...I'm going to have a lot of flounders on this one..." 

And he did.  But, aside from that track and Chamberlin's other part to the track "Get On With It", following "Not From Here", which he does mess up (!),

"...It's called jazz, or creativity... kids I'm trying to play fusion!"

he handles the rest of the tracks with aplomb.

But the whole show really is well worth a watch, really enjoyable, these guys are clearly having an awful lot of fun.  And the music ain't half bad to boot.  It's also got a very insightful pre-show interview led by Terry Bozzio. 

Musicians still need labels...

Just thought this was quite interesting; http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/investing_in_music.html

100

Well, Google's marvellous 'Analytics' tells me that we've hit 100 regularly returning visitors to the blog, so, hi there everybody. I guess it should get really interesting in the coming months with Chamberlin currently recording tracks for his band This.

I'll keep you posted with any news that I find scouring the blog -o- sphere and HU ;)

If there's anything anyone wants to see on the blog, drop us a line in the comments section or what not and I'll do my best.

Cheers.

Drevpile

Linda Strawberry comments on Chamberlin's "departure" from Smashing Pumpkins

Earlier today, Linda Strawberry (famed Corgan hanger-on and 'artist') thought it wise to join in the contentious discussion, on The Smashing Pumpkins' Official Message Board, following the publication of the exposé, Billy requested, in this months' Rolling Stone.  She then saw fit to remove her comments...  

However, living in this day in age, nothing is deleted from the internet;

She first posted

... [Jimmy] battles alot of demons. It was hard to be away from his gorgeous wife and kids. The 'dream' of what its like to tour and do all of that is nothing like the reality... I also think the 'road' makes it near impossible for you if you are battling old demons - so its probably not the best place to spend your time if you wanna stay sober...

Followed shortly by,

...if you just profile [Jimmy] = here's a guy who lived on the very outer edge for years - raced fast cars - has died and come back to life - overdosed - done everything imaginable - um.. of course he has a destructive streak! everyone knows that. the stories about jimmy are legendary on par with any other rock legend. its amazing he is still alive!... It's the hardest thing to go from that to sober, stable, married father. Of course he's going to face some major ups and downs.

What exactly the purpose of these comments were, seems somewhat unclear... There seems to be a leaning towards suggesting that Jimmy had or was relapsing?

Fired or not from the Smashing Pumpkins, one can only surmise that Jimmy is glad to be away from the kind of people who speculate & insinuate things about his personal life, so freely and thoughtlessly, in the public arena.

(Update 19:17 - 07/03/10)
Stawberry is back on the Smashing Pumpkins message board, and states ;

I was in no way implying Jimmy had relapsed leading up to him departing SP. 

So there.