The "Lucky" 13 - SMASHING PUMPKINS ARCHIVE UPDATE

"Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins has commissioned an intermediary team for the purpose of recommending upcoming Smashing Pumpkins Record Club (SPRC) releases. In conjunction with fan input, “The Lucky 13” team will review archival material, identify possible pricing models, and propose methods and formats of distribution for selected audio and video releases.

The scope of archival material currently under consideration includes professionally taped or filmed live shows, soundboard recordings, unreleased songs, demos and alternate takes.
Fan input is essential to this project. Here are three ways fans can contribute:

1. Email recommendations to TheLucky13Team@gmail.com
2. Share suggestions on your preferred Smashing Pumpkins messageboard. Members of the team will be monitoring designated “The Lucky 13” threads to gather fan input
3. “Like” the “The Lucky 13” Facebook page and leave comments"

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Well, despite not believing this will make a shred of difference, here's my two penneths worth

• 1) Rename 'The Lucky 13' immediately. It already feels non-inclusive
• 2) Be transparent; reveal who this team are. If people get even the faintest whiff of a rat, this isn't going to work
• 3) Score an early win - release the damn Metro Show
• 4) [a] Consult the fans who know, who really know, the history and availability of current bootlegs/material
• 4) [b] DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE EXCLUDE Netphoria or any other long standing message board; speak to at least CoolAsIceCream, 34, Redbull, Spaldz and PistolPete
• 5) [a] Do not, DO NOT, bandy about pricing, release models, packaging or anything else for a product which does not exist. Seriously, I repeat, do not do this again
• 5) [b] If a real archivist has been at work, seriously, if you had a real archivist on this project - listen carefully and; release the catalogue for the fans to understand what the base library actually is. Make it easy for them to understand; apportion said library into sections by era and media. Then rate, with examples, quality of said media in it's raw format.
• 5 [c] Define your objectives (is this about releasing quality or quantity). This will help inform said fans what sort of pricing structure they may wish to consider for said material
• 6 Stop being vague. Stop it. Seriously
• 7) [a]Thus, again, create Samples
• 7) [b] and create direct feedback model against said samples ie; polls
• 8) Do not release anything post 2008
• 9) Do not listen to ANYONE who touts GM Palace 1997 as there favourite boot
• 10) Do not listen to ANYONE who touts post 2008 material as superior, in any shape or form, to any previous work. Even Blinking with Fists
• 11) Know your demographic: Listen very carefully, to this; your fans are not, in the main, idiots. Please stop treating us as such with running such an amateur outfit. You have already, once again, opened the flood gates for people to be disappointed that you haven't considered their own absolutely ground-breaking idea;  there is no way on this planet that you are going to be able to aggregate the multitude of vague recommendations / demands / ideas which will inevitably pop-up; the way in which you have [re-booted] this venture is, in my humble personal & professional opinion, a disaster. So start again, again. Make clear you vision and your values for the project, explain how and what you want to deliver and then and then open it up to consultation
•  13) GET. IT. DONE. 

Anyway what say you JC fans? I'm sure I've missed a point or ten...

Jimmy Chamberlin's 'Penny' Prototype Kit

The kit Jimmy decided to order has a custom "prototype" Copper Lacquer Specialty with Chrome Hardware. Jimmy actually sent in a penny that we used as a color match. The Shells are a ply combination of VLT Maple and Mahogany with no reinforcement hoops. The kick drum hoops are Solid Black Lacquer. Sizes: 5x8, 7x10, 8x13, 10x14 rack toms, 14x14, 16x16 floor toms, and 16x22 kick, with a matching 5.5x14 snare and a stainless steel 6.5x14 snare.

So, check it out > 

Exploration of Music - Jimmy Chamberlin from Brendan Baldwin on Vimeo.

Buy - MCIS Triple Platinum Award, Signed by JC

http://www.charitybuzz.com/categories/29/catalog_items/295647

Starting at $750 ...

Jimmy Chamberlin Re-Joins Smashing Pumpkins

(Again, Again, Again)

Just got word that Jimmy Chamberlin has re-joined Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins.  Sources close to the band report that following a serendipitous invite to the true-fan only ‘Amazon Listening Party’ for the Smashing Pumpkin’s forthcoming album,  Oceania, Chamberlin was so awestruck by the quality of the recording that he reached out to former bandmaster Corgan and tabled a deal to re-join the outfit.   

Sources reveal that Chamberlin privately cited many reasons for his return to fold; “it’s been too long… it’s totally driven by a desire to not sound anything like ‘classic pumpkins’ and to explore totally new ground… It’s all about the cash… I just love wrestling and tea and so does Billy…my shaman told me to do it… Teargarden has been an unmitigated success so far – it's the best release method ever”.

However, the official announcement, announced over at Smashing Pumpkins.com states Chamberlin’s true motivation:

"I want Corgan’s dreams, his songs and his band back together..."   

"...I have waved any creative input and final say on everything, it will be, and rightly so, all Billy's. This is a make or break year for the band and only securing the best marketing deal will ensure the bands future, not the music.”

When asked by the "gatekeepers" of Smashing Pumpkins fandom, oddly comment disabled site Crestfallen.com, about the specific moment he realised he wished to reconcile his musical ideology with Billy’s own, Chamberlin explains;

“It was about 7 or 8 tracks into the new record. In each track I heard the drums doing things I have done in other songs or pretty much would do - given the chance.  I kept thinking, this in an odd bastardisation of my originality as an Artist and if Billy wanted to just get someone in to play like me, why not pick, say Matt Walker.  He actually did it OK”.  He continues “I figured that; if they’ve got a new guy in and he’s just going to approximate what I’d do, but so incredibly poorly I can’t really comprehend it, I should probably just do it myself”.  

Chamberlin continues, “I was quietly optimistic that Billy would move forward in new musical directions, as he always used to try and one of the reasons I used to love the band, but now my priorities have changed & it’s why I’m back in; I am all about living in the past now. I am the difference, I am the 97%.  I realised that touring on ‘Rat in a Cage’ into my 60’s, is my real dream future”, gushes Chamberlin.

Talking about the future, for the handful of you out there wondering about the prospects of drumming tyke Mike Bryne, unfortunately the one and only music pundit who was in the slightest bit bothered by his dismissal, didn't have much hope;

“Even if my life depended on it, and I had Bonham, Moon and Rich as my phone-a-friends, I couldn’t pick this guys style out of a line-up of 5 ‘mathrock’ drummers."

Bryne, tweeted his disappointment at his inevitable dismissal; “shit. I dun goofed #imitationnotnecessarilythesincerestformofflattery”. 

Chamberlin Talks Korg

Right Here

Nothing really news worthy per-se, but will be interesting to hear kind of track what he incorporates this drum into next...