New Smashing Pumpkins Drummer Selected

No, it's not that gal from Hole. Or Zak Starkey, either.

By Fred Mills

Seems like it was just yesterday we brought you word about Smashing Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin quitting the band in a barely-concealed huff. And it literally WAS yesterday that we brought you word of Billy Corgan deciding to hold an open cattle call (via the internet) for prospective new drummers: send in your stats, and you might land an audition in L.A. on April 10.

But today, April 1, news leaked from the Pumpkins camp that a drummer has already been found, and internet message boards across the cyberverse have been abuzz all morning: the dude's an old man, er, a senior citizen, one whose previous musical experience was exclusively with big band and swing outfits back in the 40s.

That's right: 95-year old Chad "Chadmo" Moore has landed the kit job for the Pumpkins. In a brief but telling statement, Corgan praised the skinsman's "dexterity," adding, "And the fact that he plays with his oxygen tank already hooked up means he doesn't have to take a bunch of breaks like most of the losers I've worked with in the past."

Corgan indicated that he's come across Moore's credit on some old jazz albums he found at a Chicago thrift store last week, and upon Googling the drummer located a phone and address. A subsequent conversation between the two apparently went well, and after Corgan flew Moore in to jam on a few songs, the pair hit it off like gangbusters.

Watch for Moore to debut on the forthcoming Smashing Pumpkins digital EP Machina III/Frammin' On the Jim-Jam, due in August.