Well, this was inevitable I guess. Jimmy Chamerlin has quit The Smashing Pumpkins. No reason was given but here's the statement posted on Smashing Pumpkins' website.The Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member Billy Corgan has announced that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has left the group. Chamberlin joined the band Corgan founded in Chicago in 1988 and played on all their albums except Adore (1998). Corgan will continue to write and record as Smashing Pumpkins with plans to head into the studio this spring.At least Chamerlain quit this time as opposed to when he was kicked out for his heroine overdose in 1996 that left touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin dead.
So who will replace Chamberlain? His unique jazz-infused drumming style has been an integral part of the Pumpkins' sound since 1988, minus those years after Mellon Collie when he was kicked out.
Zeigeist was already pretty bad, so this would seem to be the nail in the Pumpkins' coffin. I guess we'll have to wait and see how long Corgan continues to capitalize on the name. The statement does say that he plans to start recording new music using the band name sometime during the spring.
Oh, and Corgan supports the LiveNation and Ticketmaster merger. He recently sent a letter to Congress expressing his support (which you can read here). I guess he's more concerned with his and his manager Irving Azoff (who also happens to be Ticketmaster's CEO) bottom line than he is about his fans being ravaged with unreasonably high ticket fees.
Corgan is slowly turnin into Lars Ulrich, circa 2000. Ulrich may have been a douche about the Napster thing, but at least he was technically right about stealing music being wrong. Corgan doesn't have that on his side.
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