Weekly Round-Up

Corgan Announces Plans to Finish Teagarden

Today Billy Corgan announced that his recent announcement about the forthcoming Smashing Pumpkin (version 4) albums will put the Teagarden era out of its misery.   Corgan explains that  “The whole concept of Teargarden seemed like a good idea at the time but when I didn’t get a rapturous response to what I even stated were, C-Pile (at best) songs - I realised this was the fault of the fans who were living in the pass. So, I’m going to wrap-up the era with the absolute opposite of the original conceit (releasing 1 song every 2-3 weeks to stand on their own merit) by producing two more “traditional (in the absolutely ground-breaking sense obviously) self-contained albums”. He went on to explain that the recent rumours that he had fired Mike Byrne were, in fact, true;   “[I] made the same misjudgement as I did with Matt Walker, I tried to make Byrne play like Jimmy Chamberlin. Well, turns out he can. Just not very well. But let me be clear here - It’s not that I was wrong about how good he was, it’s just my shaman told me to do it.” Byrne has been replaced by original Smashing Pumpkins drummer, Yamaha RY30.

Update: “Teargarden:  The Tears Burnz” will be delayed until 2017.



Byrne Announces New Musical Venture

Following his recent spilt from Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Byrne has announce a series of musical concerts based on a critically lauded animated series of films by acclaimed director Kirk De Micco. Following Art tea-House (re: art-school-student-esque) performances of Siddhartha by Billy Krogan and an upcoming live musical performance of the Battleship Potemkin by Jimmy Chamberlain, Burn stated in an interview that “yeah, man, although like I’ve been in Pumpkins and stuff like that, I’m not really that content with only having copied the drum style of Chamberlin.  What I’m really keen on doing is reproducing his and Billy’s other artistic ideas also; to that end I’ve designed a series of 7 concert suites around what I think is widely considered as one of the greatest animated films of all time, Space Chimps 2”

We were told by Byrne’s publicist that he was unable to commend on the spilt from Smashing Pumpkins due to “contractual obligations” but sources close to Mikey reportid that when the subject is broached “he just goes into a bit of a daze, repeating the phrase ‘empty party afternoons’ over and over”.

Battleship Chamberlin...

Sorry for the headline and apologies that there's not been much happening here of late.  I'm afraid that ain't going to change any-time soon.   Anyway, to cut a long story shot - I might take the blog to a weekly round up kind of format rather than try and post stuff "as it happens", I just ain't really got the time to search for stuff on a regular basis anymore.

So I know in the last couple of weeks, Jimmy actually seems to have been doing some relatively cool stuff with drums again and we have 2 new albums to look forward to coming out later this year that feature his licks.

So that's where we are. 

And this is what Jimmy has lined up next;

On May 2nd, Scott Lucas will team up with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin (formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins) and bassist Matt Ulery under the band name Mary Shelley for a unique live performance during CIMM (Chicago International Music & Movies Fest). The trio will score Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film masterpiece “Battleship Potemkin” at 1st Ward (2033 W. North Ave.). More information about CIMM here: http://cimmfest.org/cimmfest-2014-initial-line-up-announcement/. Lucas, a film buff who also writes about movies for Chicagoist (see his work here:  http://chicagoist.com/profile/Scott_lucas), jumped at the chance to combine two of his biggest passions.

http://www.alternativenation.net/?p=45106

This is rather intriguing.  Should be cool to hear.

Here's them playing at some charity do at the Metro last year

Anyway, that's all for now.

Catch you later.

Cheers.

Live Review and Cherub Rock

FULL REVIEW GO

Howard Reich, from the Chicago Tribune writes;

...Chamberlin's playing encouraged the softer, subtler side of Catalano's music, the drummer crafting taut swing rhythm via thoroughly economical means. Chamberlin's less-is-more approach eminently suited the somewhat more controlled, more measured facets of Catalano's playing and showed a real sensitivity to jazz aesthetics... The soulfulness and blues-based phrase-making of Catalano's solos stood out, Chamberlin's delicate brush work enriching the music...

In addition to the live shows with Frank Catalano, following the set on Saturday night Chamberlin sat in with Umphrey's McGee - playing a version of Cherub Rock  > Listen (in part) to it here

Moar News

"Drum virtuoso and long time Smashing Pumpkin, Jimmy Chamberlin, joins forces with platinum selling saxophone powerhouse, Frank Catalano to headline the 3rd Annual Deer Park Jazz Patio and Wine Festival on August 9, 2014."

http://www.triplecrownagency.com/catalano-champerlin-headline-2014-deer-park-wine-jazz-festival/

Jimmy Chamberlin NEWS

Yes, it's true.

We actually have some actual news

1: Chamberlin will playing some more shows with Frank Catalano, in support of their forthcoming album

2: We asked Tyson Meade for an update on his album (feat Jimmy) and he delivered.  Intriguingly, the most recent* addition to Belly Corgan's persona non grata list, Bongo-Master and 'studiodog' Kerry Brown, is producing the record;

From the Kickstarter update: "The good news is that I go to LA next week to finish mixing the record with my pal Kerry Brown who just worked on the upcoming Afghan Whigs record.  The release date is April 22nd. Jimmy Chamberlain contributed three drum tracks to the record. To say that I got emotional when i heard the tracks he contributed is an understatement. They are GODLIKE! Hail all to Jimmy..."

*no official word that the current hiatus of the Smashing Pumpkins represents the addition to the list we're all hoping for.  But here we remain eternally optimistic that it's indicative that Corgan has finally come to his senses and fired Byrne.