Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Smashing Pumpkins original drummer returns

Smashing Pumpkins' original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain is back with the band for the upcoming tour.

Chamberlain was a member of Smashing Pumpkins right through the 90s and left when the band broke-up in December 2000. Billy Corgan formed a new but short-lived band called Zwan and Chamberlain was recruited as drummer. Zwan only had one album.

Chamberlain then went solo, forming the jazz project 'Jimmy Chamberlain Complex'.

Chamberlain and Corgan reunited again in 2007 as Smashing Pumpkins but without the other original members Jimmy Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky. They released a new Pumpkins album 'Zeitgeist'. Chamberlain once again left Smashing Pumpkins in 2009 and went into private enterprise running the company LiveOne out of Chicago.

Speaking with USA Today Corgan said, 'You can't just grab somebody and say, 'Play drums on this Smashing Pumpkins song. Jimmy's drum parts are so incredibly technical and nuanced that it's a very rare class of people that can step in and play.'

Jimmy Chamberlain will rejoin Smashing Pumpkins for the next show in Concord, California on July 7.