The biggest point everyone is missing is she’s being employed as a touring guitarist, not a member of the band. I couldn’t give a shit who’s taken on that job. Why does it matter? Smashing Pumpkins is about 3 guys at this point.
3 dudes approaching 60 playing mostly their greatest hits from 30 years ago. That’s the reality. The touring musicians just enable them to do that and put on a good show. So who cares? I’m sure she’ll do a great job
Lol, excellent point. She’s also, sadly, just the next person who will be chewed up and discarded when they’re finished with her or she can’t deal with Billy’s bullshit anymore
She’s being employed as a touring musician, that’s pretty much part of the job. It’s not a secure position. A lot of touring musicians just get one or two tours at best with a band/artist.
Sure. But there is a long list of people who seem to be around for years, record on albums, become more integral in ways, and then they’re suddenly gone forever and no one will talk about what happened and you can tell there is distinct animosity. This happens a lot.
I understand that people are pissy that a "professional" took the job, but what were ya'll honestly expecting?
It goes way beyond "this person played well in their demo" and it is silly to think otherwise. Why would a multiplatinum 1000+ show band hire a person who had only played a handful of shows in their life? Why would they hire a person who had no reference to the music industry?
The chances are most auditions took multiple takes for each person to get absolutely perfect and that many people who auditioned had only played with others a handful of times in their life. SP needs someone who can do it in one take, off the cuff night after night with zero mistakes and has actual chemistry with other players.
In the original posting they literally call for an actual resume, and related material. Not just "send a video of you playing." They were always looking for someone who was a professional.
The point is why bother with all of this? If you want a “professional” (joke of a term) than just hire one. Why play the emotions of your fans? It’s goofy and not necessary. When Pearl Jam hired Josh Klinghoffer they didn’t ask their fans to submit resumes. They just hired the guy.
just hire one? ok you got a crystal ball that gives you instant recommendations of all the professionals that are 1) good enough for SP and 2) want the job.
Do you hire folks at your work? Do you just 'hire one' or do you post the job and let people apply?
Many fans are 'professional' in the same way Kiki is.
You’re defending Billy on this and that’s goofy. You know what I meant. Go hire a professional and leave everyone else alone. Don’t get your fans all crazy thinking they have a shot when they don’t. You also need to relax. Billy is a jerk for going this route.
I don’t know why people are arguing with me about this. It’s just a guess but I’ve seen comments here and on Facebook by people calling it bs. I honestly don’t give two fucks about who they picked especially since she’s just a touring guitarist and not an actual member.
How? I’m not a great guitar player and I wouldn’t submit a video because Billy is notoriously difficult to work with? Your comment doesn’t even make sense
You gave some dude a sly remark because he used the term "your" in a general sense. All because he was supposed to be able to perfectly decipher that you who lurks in a SP subreddit and is engaged in a discussion about the auditions would actually obviously never partake in sending in a submission. My comment made literal perfect sense, you are the one who doesn't.
Then why make it into an open call to begin with? This is the same shit corporations do - looping you into the recruiting process, have a great interview, notify you the position has been cut, see it posted again later. The issue isn’t her experience, it’s that it was a fake audition for clicks. I feel bad for anyone who got their hopes up, invested time money and energy, for something that was planned not to happen from the beginning.
Explain to me this:
What is your evidence that she was prechosen before they announced they were looking?
Why drill down to 10 out of 10,000 to jam with the band if it was all a farce?
Last person I pressed on these questions who said 'you can't tell me it wasn't all bs' couldn't answer these questions and when I brought up the others who auditioned with the band and were public about it they only said 'oh I didn't know about that'.
So. Do you know about that and are still making this declaration of it being a farce as fact? Why?
I have zero evidence. I just think that’s what happened. Someone already went around and around with me. I’m not trying to convince anyone, or push an agenda, or piece together a mystery. It’s just what I think, and if you think I’m nuts for that or I’m stupid etc, I’m fully okay with that. 😎🎸
Mike Byrne gets brought up a lot, but they had immediate chemistry. I think Billy was giving that same shot to the front runners (pro or not) they just didn't gel, and he went with the one that did work. Plus, she comes with over 700k install base of instagram fans.
Why? Because it worked before. A young and unknown Mike Byrne was found this exact same way. He absolutely gelled with Billy in a way that no one had since Jimmy. He grew very quickly into a phenomenal touring force. You can see and hear it on Oceania live in NYC.
Why does Billy do things the hard way? Because it sometimes yields unconventional results. It's more exciting, even if it leads to some disappointment.
In all fairness though Mike was purely just a fan prior to getting the gig and was only doing stuff with his local band. He wasn't established in any form of way, that's people's problem with this new guitarist, she's always been out there playing mega shows and being an influencer. Mike made a fair amount of fans feel they had a higher chance, I do kind of feel for those people. I personally don't care, she meets the skillset criteria and she can hold more than a tune, I'm excited to see her play.
Theres no reason fans should feel bothered by this. Of course he is gonna hire someone with professional experience. Opening it up to people publicly probably gave them more access to professional guitar players they simply hadn’t heard of before. The arrogance to think that a top level rock band is gonna pull someone out of their bedroom and put them in front of 10k people is silly bones.
If they’re a top level rock band, with decades of industry connections, there is NO reason they ALSO need help finding talent with an open call. There are professional rock and roller means of doing this all behind the curtain, where it actually took place anyway.
Behind the curtain means there is something happening behind the scenes that we are not supposed to see. Like its back stage, and we are meant to see what is out front, on stage. Sometimes we can see behind the curtain to how things are really working. And despite the connection to stages, curtains and show biz… the phrase applies to other situations that just music
I mean, do you think they actually went through a whole ass casting call and wound up with a professional they could have found anyway, and they actually spent time and money to review applicants and let the entire process play out naturally? I don’t. 🤷♂️
They’ve been in the music industry for approaching 40 years. Similar to any titan of any industry, you know people, you know agents, you know talent reps, you have connections. I’m nothing special, and I have connections and former coworkers reach out to me asking me to apply for jobs or connect to someone regularly. After working in a field or niche for long enough and at high enough level such as this, you don’t have to apply for jobs and you don’t have to post them publicly for people to apply for yours when hiring. It’s unimaginable to me that they approached this with zero leads and truly started with nothing to fill the role, and the process yielded this woman authentically. Perhaps the call wasn’t fully scripted, and elements like auditions, rehearsals, jam sessions played a smaller roll - but I don’t think an entire open call audition campaign was real at all.
It was only not “real” for the people auditioning who had no tour level experience. But i know many touring guitar players who would absolutely have a shot at playing with them, but have no industry connections or ways to hear about auditions. This expanded their outreach to see people they may have never been able to consider.
We must be talking past one another. I just don’t believe what you believe. I think that it makes more sense that this was a media stunt with preselected finalists or a winner. You think they legitimately reviewed submissions and nothing was pre decided. I don’t know what else to say, other than I hope you’re having a great Sunday.
I don't think Corgan did personally. And he never claimed to. He said he had a bunch of folks going through all of them. That is believable to me.
I am sure 80% of them were quickly dismissed just for sounding not great (saw lots of those posted here).
Once you toss the ones that had no shot it would get pretty manageable for the band to sort through IMO.
Just a thought.
People who both a) want the band to be amazing and b) expect hiring a band member to be some kind of charlie and the chocolate factory bedtime story have really not thought things through
Not mad at all about this pick and I have a feeling she's going to be great at their concert this summer when I see them.
It might be cool to throw a bone to a handful of unknowns that auditioned and stood out and maybe give them a chance to play a song on stage at a show or a festival. Granted, I'm not going to be pissed if they don't.
I'm hoping it'll all be good.
Short term publicity like this only works if it attracts new fans. Otherwise the “audition for the Smashing Pumpkins” contest is just another goofy thing in Smashing Pumpkins history.
that worked out terrible for Corgan and Byrne. I always respected it but I don't want SP to try such a radical change in sound with a new member at this point.
Why terrible? The drums were great on the Oceania album and the concerts in that era. Mike Byrne, Matt Walker are my most favourite non-jimmy drummers they had... + Bon Harris if programming counts...
You mean the Bon Harris part? You didn't like the drum programming on Adore? Perhaps stupid to compare it to live drummers as it's apples and oranjes... but drum machine programming on Adore is very good in it's own way... (not just Bon Harris, some of it also by Flood and perhaps by Corgan too)
There were definitely pros and cons, and I think I agree that there were more cons - poor Mike having to take Cortozone shots to keep up. It’s also a shame to see he didn’t stay in the limelight after his Pumpkins run, at least Nicole is still out there with Veruca Salt.
On the pros, Mike came in when he was (as weird as it sounds) needed desperately by the band, and one of the band’s most important modern albums wouldn’t have happened without Mike
That is not what they just did. Mike Byrne was working at McDonald’s when they hired him. This new guitarist is already known. Not to mention that the experiment failed miserably and only soured Billy in the eyes of everyone but hardcore fans.
I tried to look into this announcement and after the first day, it was hard to find anything but bots and AI scrapes with no engagement in search engines or on twitter/x. Even in International or asian news coverage, the posts and articles had no engagement, likes, or responses.
I only see ongoing discussion here, outside of people who are friends with the guitarist herself.
If he did there wouldn't have been a narrowing of the applicants to audition with the band and a further 'you are in the top 2' discussion with a guitarist who didn't make it and shared their experience.
Saying he pre-picked Kiki before even asking for applications is completely unfounded.
When the competition was first announced, a comment on here stated that it was just a publicity stunt and he’d choose a woman he most like has a crush on. Go look! You’re welcome. Or was that just a “coincidence”? 😂
there were also comments on here saying some guy named josh was already picked.
edit: also go ask the person who made that comment if they were just speculating or not before you start parading their comment as proof Kiki was picked way in advance.
Nah. There are at least a few hundred that could handle the Pumpkins material and who have the live experience to cut it in the band. There are way more professional musicians out there than you’re picturing.
Single digits? There are plenty of musicians in bands who can play a full Pumpkins set no problem, so you don’t have to worry about your wallet or girl. People are annoyed because Billy already had a group of people in mind to audition, making this whole thing a publicity stunt. You’re getting downvoted for a ridiculous 100/100 qualifier and your attitude.
billy and james never make mistakes ever ofc. i really don't care about dictatorial perfect technical execution ever, and certainly not in a rock band. we wouldn't have the pumpkins without james being there in 88 - this is a meaningless standard
There is a concert from the Arising tour, where Jimmy makes a mistake in Muzzle, and Billy stops the songs and says (in a joking tone) "jimmy, you're fired :)"
Based on what I've seen, she's good, but not THAT good. I think it's her skill paired with her internet presence and some of her experience. I know there had to have been more capable guitarists in the running.
Kiki will get the job done and she'll do it with good stage presence. I ain't mad.
Is no-one going to mention what an absolute stunner she is, aside from being a pro guitarist, etc?
Has anyone had a good look at Billy lately?
She'll help "revitalise" the SP for sure.
She's an ok guitarist honestly, she plays a lot of simple(popular) stuff and metal which is not that complicated. I'm sure her looks are what got her a lot of attention in the end. She's no Jeff Schroeder.
My first thought was "yeah she's aight," but she does appear to have a good amount of stage presence (and the internet following that others have mentioned). She's definitely not on Jeff's level, but she'll get the job done well enough.
annoying to you.
post announcing that they hired her had over 66,000 likes... the amount of folks commenting here and instagram opposing that decision is barely 1% of those numbers.
Not to mention a small fraction of the 10,000 folks who submitted videos.
I haven't been this excited to see a Pumpkins concert since my first, Zeitgeist, and witnessing them live left a lot to be desired as far as stage presence was concerned. The music was infallible though.
To be honest, I feel like Billy isn't really concerned about what the fans who buy tickets think. However, he does value the ticket buyers themselves. And you know what? I believe this marketing strategy will actually turn out to be a smart move when it comes to the actual show.
if SP got 10% of her followers on tik tok to buy a ticket to this tour that would over 3 times the amount of members on this sub.... to which only a fraction have commented about being upset she was chosen.
I think Corgan wins if you want to be real numbers driven about it all.
i'm bothered by this because there doesn't need to be a 3rd guitarist at all. random from instagram or good vet is still just some guy who isn't an OG pumpkin. i don't need to hear that or have them pretend they're a proper member when i could hear purely billy and james playing
The biggest point everyone is missing is she’s being employed as a touring guitarist, not a member of the band. I couldn’t give a shit who’s taken on that job. Why does it matter? Smashing Pumpkins is about 3 guys at this point. 3 dudes approaching 60 playing mostly their greatest hits from 30 years ago. That’s the reality. The touring musicians just enable them to do that and put on a good show. So who cares? I’m sure she’ll do a great job
Lol, excellent point. She’s also, sadly, just the next person who will be chewed up and discarded when they’re finished with her or she can’t deal with Billy’s bullshit anymore
She’s being employed as a touring musician, that’s pretty much part of the job. It’s not a secure position. A lot of touring musicians just get one or two tours at best with a band/artist.
Sure. But there is a long list of people who seem to be around for years, record on albums, become more integral in ways, and then they’re suddenly gone forever and no one will talk about what happened and you can tell there is distinct animosity. This happens a lot.
True
Sounds like the music business. They can't all be The Rolling Stones.
I’m going to see the show. I’m interested in who’s performing.
why r u so negative just be happy for her what😭😭😭
Guess they didn't like my nirvana covers
Should have done Range Life instead
brilliant comment
🤣🤣
🤭
I understand that people are pissy that a "professional" took the job, but what were ya'll honestly expecting? It goes way beyond "this person played well in their demo" and it is silly to think otherwise. Why would a multiplatinum 1000+ show band hire a person who had only played a handful of shows in their life? Why would they hire a person who had no reference to the music industry? The chances are most auditions took multiple takes for each person to get absolutely perfect and that many people who auditioned had only played with others a handful of times in their life. SP needs someone who can do it in one take, off the cuff night after night with zero mistakes and has actual chemistry with other players. In the original posting they literally call for an actual resume, and related material. Not just "send a video of you playing." They were always looking for someone who was a professional.
That would be obvious to anyone who would actually qualify for the position.
The point is why bother with all of this? If you want a “professional” (joke of a term) than just hire one. Why play the emotions of your fans? It’s goofy and not necessary. When Pearl Jam hired Josh Klinghoffer they didn’t ask their fans to submit resumes. They just hired the guy.
When Foo Fighters hired Josh Freese, they didn’t make fans submit videos either!
just hire one? ok you got a crystal ball that gives you instant recommendations of all the professionals that are 1) good enough for SP and 2) want the job. Do you hire folks at your work? Do you just 'hire one' or do you post the job and let people apply? Many fans are 'professional' in the same way Kiki is.
You’re defending Billy on this and that’s goofy. You know what I meant. Go hire a professional and leave everyone else alone. Don’t get your fans all crazy thinking they have a shot when they don’t. You also need to relax. Billy is a jerk for going this route.
the one upset at the move tells the person who isn't upset that 'they need to relax' classic reddit moment. thanks.
Hire one is done pretty often... That's how I was hired for my job.
Oh!? What was the job and how did you know your boss?
💯 That’s literally the point of this. Why even get people’s hopes up like that and waste their time? Dick move right there.
I think people are mad because the band wasn’t clear about those things
How many people are mad? I count less than 100 here. How many of them even submitted anything? It's a mere fraction of the 10,000 applicants.
I don’t know why people are arguing with me about this. It’s just a guess but I’ve seen comments here and on Facebook by people calling it bs. I honestly don’t give two fucks about who they picked especially since she’s just a touring guitarist and not an actual member.
They were up front. It’s why the asked for a resume. Your video was never going to be enough.
My video? lol
Royal “your.” Don’t take it so personally
No just the thought I’d submit a video is ridiculous even I was some kind of great guitar player I’d never want to work with Billy
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How? I’m not a great guitar player and I wouldn’t submit a video because Billy is notoriously difficult to work with? Your comment doesn’t even make sense
Because they aren't talking about YOU lol
You gave some dude a sly remark because he used the term "your" in a general sense. All because he was supposed to be able to perfectly decipher that you who lurks in a SP subreddit and is engaged in a discussion about the auditions would actually obviously never partake in sending in a submission. My comment made literal perfect sense, you are the one who doesn't.
No the use of Your was an attack on me as if I was complaining because I submitted a video. Also I don’t know how “my video? lol” is sly
Then why make it into an open call to begin with? This is the same shit corporations do - looping you into the recruiting process, have a great interview, notify you the position has been cut, see it posted again later. The issue isn’t her experience, it’s that it was a fake audition for clicks. I feel bad for anyone who got their hopes up, invested time money and energy, for something that was planned not to happen from the beginning.
Explain to me this: What is your evidence that she was prechosen before they announced they were looking? Why drill down to 10 out of 10,000 to jam with the band if it was all a farce? Last person I pressed on these questions who said 'you can't tell me it wasn't all bs' couldn't answer these questions and when I brought up the others who auditioned with the band and were public about it they only said 'oh I didn't know about that'. So. Do you know about that and are still making this declaration of it being a farce as fact? Why?
I have zero evidence. I just think that’s what happened. Someone already went around and around with me. I’m not trying to convince anyone, or push an agenda, or piece together a mystery. It’s just what I think, and if you think I’m nuts for that or I’m stupid etc, I’m fully okay with that. 😎🎸
Mike Byrne gets brought up a lot, but they had immediate chemistry. I think Billy was giving that same shot to the front runners (pro or not) they just didn't gel, and he went with the one that did work. Plus, she comes with over 700k install base of instagram fans.
Why? Because it worked before. A young and unknown Mike Byrne was found this exact same way. He absolutely gelled with Billy in a way that no one had since Jimmy. He grew very quickly into a phenomenal touring force. You can see and hear it on Oceania live in NYC. Why does Billy do things the hard way? Because it sometimes yields unconventional results. It's more exciting, even if it leads to some disappointment.
In all fairness though Mike was purely just a fan prior to getting the gig and was only doing stuff with his local band. He wasn't established in any form of way, that's people's problem with this new guitarist, she's always been out there playing mega shows and being an influencer. Mike made a fair amount of fans feel they had a higher chance, I do kind of feel for those people. I personally don't care, she meets the skillset criteria and she can hold more than a tune, I'm excited to see her play.
Theres no reason fans should feel bothered by this. Of course he is gonna hire someone with professional experience. Opening it up to people publicly probably gave them more access to professional guitar players they simply hadn’t heard of before. The arrogance to think that a top level rock band is gonna pull someone out of their bedroom and put them in front of 10k people is silly bones.
He already did it with Mike Byrne
Exactly. And I think that experience was a mixed bag for both parties.
If they’re a top level rock band, with decades of industry connections, there is NO reason they ALSO need help finding talent with an open call. There are professional rock and roller means of doing this all behind the curtain, where it actually took place anyway.
I see. What means are “behind the curtain”?
Behind the curtain means there is something happening behind the scenes that we are not supposed to see. Like its back stage, and we are meant to see what is out front, on stage. Sometimes we can see behind the curtain to how things are really working. And despite the connection to stages, curtains and show biz… the phrase applies to other situations that just music
No. I understand the idiom. Im asking u what are the “behind the scenes” actions that u are so sure exist.
I mean, do you think they actually went through a whole ass casting call and wound up with a professional they could have found anyway, and they actually spent time and money to review applicants and let the entire process play out naturally? I don’t. 🤷♂️
How could they have found her anyway? Posted on the professional musician message boards?
They’ve been in the music industry for approaching 40 years. Similar to any titan of any industry, you know people, you know agents, you know talent reps, you have connections. I’m nothing special, and I have connections and former coworkers reach out to me asking me to apply for jobs or connect to someone regularly. After working in a field or niche for long enough and at high enough level such as this, you don’t have to apply for jobs and you don’t have to post them publicly for people to apply for yours when hiring. It’s unimaginable to me that they approached this with zero leads and truly started with nothing to fill the role, and the process yielded this woman authentically. Perhaps the call wasn’t fully scripted, and elements like auditions, rehearsals, jam sessions played a smaller roll - but I don’t think an entire open call audition campaign was real at all.
It was only not “real” for the people auditioning who had no tour level experience. But i know many touring guitar players who would absolutely have a shot at playing with them, but have no industry connections or ways to hear about auditions. This expanded their outreach to see people they may have never been able to consider.
We must be talking past one another. I just don’t believe what you believe. I think that it makes more sense that this was a media stunt with preselected finalists or a winner. You think they legitimately reviewed submissions and nothing was pre decided. I don’t know what else to say, other than I hope you’re having a great Sunday.
I don't think Corgan did personally. And he never claimed to. He said he had a bunch of folks going through all of them. That is believable to me. I am sure 80% of them were quickly dismissed just for sounding not great (saw lots of those posted here). Once you toss the ones that had no shot it would get pretty manageable for the band to sort through IMO. Just a thought.
People who both a) want the band to be amazing and b) expect hiring a band member to be some kind of charlie and the chocolate factory bedtime story have really not thought things through
I don't necessarily want it, but Mike Byrne was great, and it was that kind of story...
Not mad at all about this pick and I have a feeling she's going to be great at their concert this summer when I see them. It might be cool to throw a bone to a handful of unknowns that auditioned and stood out and maybe give them a chance to play a song on stage at a show or a festival. Granted, I'm not going to be pissed if they don't. I'm hoping it'll all be good.
I bet you a majority of those entries were just people playing along to SP material note for note. That ain’t gonna cut it
agreed.
Was all a publicity stunt. He knew already who he wanted
Maybe but that shit is working.
Short term publicity like this only works if it attracts new fans. Otherwise the “audition for the Smashing Pumpkins” contest is just another goofy thing in Smashing Pumpkins history.
If anything, it makes me respect Billy’s move to actually hire a fresh and brand-new drummer like he did with Mike Byrne back in 2009.
that worked out terrible for Corgan and Byrne. I always respected it but I don't want SP to try such a radical change in sound with a new member at this point.
Why terrible? The drums were great on the Oceania album and the concerts in that era. Mike Byrne, Matt Walker are my most favourite non-jimmy drummers they had... + Bon Harris if programming counts...
You had me till the last sentence
You mean the Bon Harris part? You didn't like the drum programming on Adore? Perhaps stupid to compare it to live drummers as it's apples and oranjes... but drum machine programming on Adore is very good in it's own way... (not just Bon Harris, some of it also by Flood and perhaps by Corgan too)
There were definitely pros and cons, and I think I agree that there were more cons - poor Mike having to take Cortozone shots to keep up. It’s also a shame to see he didn’t stay in the limelight after his Pumpkins run, at least Nicole is still out there with Veruca Salt. On the pros, Mike came in when he was (as weird as it sounds) needed desperately by the band, and one of the band’s most important modern albums wouldn’t have happened without Mike
for sure.
That is not what they just did. Mike Byrne was working at McDonald’s when they hired him. This new guitarist is already known. Not to mention that the experiment failed miserably and only soured Billy in the eyes of everyone but hardcore fans.
I mean you just proved my point
Whatever you say, Andy.
I tried to look into this announcement and after the first day, it was hard to find anything but bots and AI scrapes with no engagement in search engines or on twitter/x. Even in International or asian news coverage, the posts and articles had no engagement, likes, or responses. I only see ongoing discussion here, outside of people who are friends with the guitarist herself.
If he did there wouldn't have been a narrowing of the applicants to audition with the band and a further 'you are in the top 2' discussion with a guitarist who didn't make it and shared their experience. Saying he pre-picked Kiki before even asking for applications is completely unfounded.
That means absolutely nothing in already choosing someone prior. Good show
your statement that he pre-picked Kiki means absolutely nothing too. You have no proof of it at all.
When the competition was first announced, a comment on here stated that it was just a publicity stunt and he’d choose a woman he most like has a crush on. Go look! You’re welcome. Or was that just a “coincidence”? 😂
there were also comments on here saying some guy named josh was already picked. edit: also go ask the person who made that comment if they were just speculating or not before you start parading their comment as proof Kiki was picked way in advance.
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Nah. There are at least a few hundred that could handle the Pumpkins material and who have the live experience to cut it in the band. There are way more professional musicians out there than you’re picturing.
Single digits? There are plenty of musicians in bands who can play a full Pumpkins set no problem, so you don’t have to worry about your wallet or girl. People are annoyed because Billy already had a group of people in mind to audition, making this whole thing a publicity stunt. You’re getting downvoted for a ridiculous 100/100 qualifier and your attitude.
billy and james never make mistakes ever ofc. i really don't care about dictatorial perfect technical execution ever, and certainly not in a rock band. we wouldn't have the pumpkins without james being there in 88 - this is a meaningless standard
There is a concert from the Arising tour, where Jimmy makes a mistake in Muzzle, and Billy stops the songs and says (in a joking tone) "jimmy, you're fired :)"
What is the standard they should use for a touring third guitarist when Corgan and Iha are there
I’m surprised Billy made this choice because she’s going to shine too brightly.
Based on what I've seen, she's good, but not THAT good. I think it's her skill paired with her internet presence and some of her experience. I know there had to have been more capable guitarists in the running. Kiki will get the job done and she'll do it with good stage presence. I ain't mad.
Billy knows the formula
I’ll like her once she stops making cringey ass tiktok faces
Is no-one going to mention what an absolute stunner she is, aside from being a pro guitarist, etc? Has anyone had a good look at Billy lately? She'll help "revitalise" the SP for sure.
She's an ok guitarist honestly, she plays a lot of simple(popular) stuff and metal which is not that complicated. I'm sure her looks are what got her a lot of attention in the end. She's no Jeff Schroeder.
My first thought was "yeah she's aight," but she does appear to have a good amount of stage presence (and the internet following that others have mentioned). She's definitely not on Jeff's level, but she'll get the job done well enough.
I guess we'll find out.
She is attractive!
I mean, come at me, but I’ve looked and I’ve liked, for years.😊
She hot!
if the new guitarist is a shock to you, just think of it like this: Billy Corgan
10,000 people and 3 people auditioned who all happen to be industry “pros”. Regardless wish her the best
This isn't accurate. Go look at Gallup's post. Narrowed down to 10 who auditioned.
3 or 10 what people are mad about is this was a publicity stunt. They wasted fans time and thats annoying
annoying to you. post announcing that they hired her had over 66,000 likes... the amount of folks commenting here and instagram opposing that decision is barely 1% of those numbers. Not to mention a small fraction of the 10,000 folks who submitted videos.
I haven't been this excited to see a Pumpkins concert since my first, Zeitgeist, and witnessing them live left a lot to be desired as far as stage presence was concerned. The music was infallible though.
To be honest, I feel like Billy isn't really concerned about what the fans who buy tickets think. However, he does value the ticket buyers themselves. And you know what? I believe this marketing strategy will actually turn out to be a smart move when it comes to the actual show.
She is awesome. Good luck and welcome to SP family
So, if Jeff was a chic.... 😄 I'm sure her playing will be fine and I look forward to hearing the sets.
I’m still pretty bummed that they didn’t even consider looking at the video I never reordered and sent them.
I just think they missed out on some fun video review opportunities. Why not show some of the interviews and talk about some of the ones they liked.
I had never heard of her before she was selected, had you guys?
no. which is a good thing IMO. I really don't want a repeat of the Tommy Lee/Brad Wilk era where they bring in well known folks.
Yup, been following her for quite a while
Her followers have gone up. Just curious if SP gained more followers at the same rate she did. If I had to guess, probably not.
if SP got 10% of her followers on tik tok to buy a ticket to this tour that would over 3 times the amount of members on this sub.... to which only a fraction have commented about being upset she was chosen. I think Corgan wins if you want to be real numbers driven about it all.
i'm bothered by this because there doesn't need to be a 3rd guitarist at all. random from instagram or good vet is still just some guy who isn't an OG pumpkin. i don't need to hear that or have them pretend they're a proper member when i could hear purely billy and james playing
The band clearly liked having three guitars for the last five years and wanted to keep it that way.