Or listen to him play. One of the GOATs. Great at explaining, great teacher. Highest compliment I can ever pay a musician -- all it takes is one note and I can tell it's Chamberlin.
Why? He's one of the best & greatest rock drummers of the last 25 years & played in one of the 90s biggest and most prolific bands.Take a second before using the term "underrated".
@@dashwig true, it's just a bit confusing that nearly no one I know acknowledges or has even known of Chamberlain, instead they know Grohl, Bonham etc. In terms of popularity and being over/underrated, I would still definitely say he is underrated rather than overrated.
When you hear Jimmy and Billy speak about making music, talking about frequency range, how to make their instruments fill out the sound spectrum, it's crazy, I mean these guys are very insightful sound engineers and recording techs ON TOP of being great musicians.
Having Billy. Jimmy and Butch all having such an interest, prioritization and knowledge of music/sound production was critical to how successful their first two albums were
Back in the '90's as a teenager we all had our favourite bands & mine was the Pumpkins, but I flat out couldn't convince anyone just how good a drummer this guy was, they just couldn't hear it. I think a lot of it had to do with Jimmy always just playing what needed to be played, whatever needed to be played, flawlessly. You had to go through their entire catalogue to hear those stand out songs where you got to hear him really shine, & then once you did, all you could hear was this amazing drumming on every damn track of theirs you listened to! Incredibly underrated drummer, he is one of the very best. He's Bonham good. Grohl good. He really is.
jimmy's such a phenomenal drummer. there's few drummers you just watch 'em play and your jaw's completely dropped. jimmy's that type of drummer. what he laid down on all these pumpkins records are just amazing, if you've witnessed him live, you know he's the real deal. just a monstrous drummer with tons of dynamics, feel and articulation. one of my favourite drummers of all time.
Jon,JON LEE was definitely that way! He was a magician! With so much emotions & passions in his drumming ,not to mention his skills& techniques, music IQS, styles,melodicality& musicality & speed & power & ATHLETICISM!!! AND character & personalities, you could hear & feel in his drumming! And the tones of his drumming, the prettiest I've ever heard!There's nobody like him! Jimmy Chamberlin is pretty good ,a skillful drummer.
I love great drumming and for me my three favourites are Porcaro, Copeland and Chamberlain. All three really made the music (IMO) of their respective bands.
"And if you saw his rig back then, I'm sure I got some sort of radiation exposure from that thing." Hahaha, no shit. Billy's rack gear was out of control back in the 90s.
Hard to believe at one point, Jimmy was as low as one could get in life. A prodigious drummer ODing on heroin numerous times, getting fired from one of the most prolific bands of a generation...or ever To see him in this form now is amazing. Hopefully he stays clean and makes music for another 20 years.
He really hit the bottom, even being partly responsible for Jonathan Melvoin's overdose. It's great to see him back and so focused. He's one of the greatest drummers ever. His snare rolls and tone are immediately identifiable. He's always brought jazz sensibilities to his playing which always makes him stand out from many of his contemporaries. I'm not condoning his drug abuse but being in a touring band at that level with a control freak with an ego the size of Corgan's must've been challenging. He deserves to be respected as a musician and a man because it all could've been very different.
@@NotMyWar hey silly, he's super famous, and usually it's be the other way around to make a crack: "Billy? what are you, on a first name basis w him?" Sheesh
Joe Toe I agree I think is getting ridiculous how these guys overplay. You're listening to the verse of a song and a guy's having an orgasmic drum solo during a part that he should be laying in the groove or adding musical textures, it's like drumming has become sport instead of art and music!
I'll never forget the first time I heard Siamese Dream. It's a classic album with some of the greatest guitar fuzz and tone ever. I was 12 when it came out. Somehow, It wasn't until years later that i realized just how great Jimmy Chamberlin is. He was absolutely critical to the bands power. Superb drummer!
Kurt Garcia I believe his gish strat were all single coil but he started putting lace censers into then witch I believe are humbuckers the size of single coils
@Benjamin S dude, awesome background info on the lace sensor pickups and the guitars Billy used between Gish and SD..I didn't even know that about the pickups and I dig for anything available I can read for Billy's guitars and gear since the very beginning. What you shared here was like treasure. Thanks. :)
One of the most recognizable sounds of my life. For me, how I decide whether a musician is “good” (my definition of it) at what they do or less is if they have an identity no matter the skill level. And fuck he has both yet still servers the song to elevate it to an insane degree. It’s as if he’s writing melodies for his drums when he plays. I love him and the rest of the Pumpkins. One of the most perfectly in sync and heart filled lineups in music in my opinion. They’re one of the sounds of my life. Thank you all Pumpkins.
He's so relaxed but powerful at the same time. A sign he really knows his dynamic range & gives space to the rest of the band/mix. Very rare except in the most elite percussionists
"...And a C reel that had bass and other stuff that we had to have... I guess". True enough, bass was always a weakness in Smashing Pumpkins - until Nicole Fiorentino's brief stint. It takes a very special bass player to stand toe-to-toe with Corgan's guitars and Jimmy's drums in terms of creativity.
They're just simple basslines on gish, but pretty catchy. On Siamese Dream they're simple as well but theres so that guitar orchestra wall of sound was pretty dang low-end. All they needed to fill out the rest was a bit of simple bass. Their sound is about Guitars and drums.
"Let them discover that later", very wise way of looking at it. I certainly did discover that later with the drumming and guitar parts on MCAIS. There were the parts that were right up front and everyone got it right away. But then there was the parts for the musicians to pick up on over the years through listening to those records/tracks for the 500th time or picking up those parts you missed when you finally learn to play the song the right way rather than the "just hit the high points way" lol. I truly always have thought that it was the artists intention to add depth to the songs that werent immediately apparent. If everything was up front on the first listen the lure really wouldnt be there like it is with those classic albums. Very cool sit down reverb!
Im gald he has more opportunity to speak. I assumed he was super-shy for yrs b/c I couldnt find an interview with him. Loved this guy since Gish, his sound is phenominal. Awesome presence
I'm not a Yamaha fan boy. I've never owned a Yamaha kit. But I am very happy he went back to them. They sound amazing compared to the years he was with another company.
00:58 in the way humans perceive sound, tone matters so much more than level. ex: two sources, a chainsaw and a soft guitar played back at the same level and the chainsaw will be perceived as the louder of the two. that's why instruments such as moog synthesizer are such choices cause the tone of the audio cuts thru so well with minimal processing if any.
@@triffle69 no I don't think so. I know of a few drummers. Aside from the musical compositions and theory to learn from jazz , none of them went on to play jazz semi professionally, but rather rock or even metal. Look up Jimmy's history. His dad was a jazz drummer. And he grew up playing in a few jazz bands in his early 20's.
One of the great's not only from our generation but one of the greatest of all time ! Chamberlin is a musician through and through then he is a master drummer.
