The Smashing Pumpkins Have A New Lineup
Billy Corgan’s ever-evolving Smashing Pumpkins lineup just reached its latest iteration. Blabbermouth reports that after playing some gigs with Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk and Killers bassist Mark Stoermer — an arrangement that was always billed as temporary — the Pumpkins will now tour with Robin Diaz on drums and Katie Cole on bass.
Cole, an Australian singer-songwriter who opened for Corgan last year, will be the opening act on the Pumpkins’ upcoming acoustic tour. She’s the fourth woman to play bass for the band following D’Arcy Wretzky, Melissa Auf Der Maur, and Nicole Fiorentino, the last of whom was kicked out of the Pumpkins last year along with former drummer Mike Byrne. Diaz has drummed for everyone from Chris Cornell and Courtney Love to Britney Spears and One Direction; I thought Corgan believed rockers needed to stop cozying up to pop? Jeff Schroeder remains the Pumpkins’ guitarist.
The eight-city acoustic tour begins this Monday, 6/15 in Buffalo and will be followed by a co-headlining tour with Marilyn Manson beginning 7/7 in Concord, California.