Chappers for the Pumpkins

Philly_Q

^^ @borntohang well found, I did try to find her actual YouTube channel but the first two pages of Google video searches were all Instagram and Facebook.

borntohang

Philly_Q said:

^^ @borntohang well found, I did try to find her actual YouTube channel but the first two pages of Google video searches were all Instagram and Facebook.

She's only actually got two vids up. The rest are just reposts of Reels/Tiktoks which is where she seems to live.

Her main band seems to be Vigil of War who are... not my thing. I'm being generous there. 

LionAquaLooper

CaseOfAce said:

RocknRollDave said:

topdog91 said:

Chappers, this is the level you needed to aspire to...

Almost unlistenable.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you there Dave ...
It's not necessarily the kind of guitar playing I listen to or play... but that whammy bar dive 2/3rds in is just ....stupidly good.... wow... she's got mad skills. There's no question she can handle the material.

Add looks (I'm not objectifying anyone here), image, social media presence and ability (I assume she'll be blogging, tik-tok-ing (or whatever's en vogue these day) on tour).
She's asian right? so that ties in with James Iha - not to mention the far east market appeal.
You can be damn sure all the above was going thru Billy's mind AND his management's.

So there you have it - if I'd have walked in along with 100s of other guitarists and Chappers and seen her audition I'd have promptly put my guitar in the case, attempted to shake Corgan's hand while he disdainfully scowled at me and taken the next Greyhound to LAX. Pronto.

Well not just far east. More like "any man with a decent amount of testosterone appeal".

It's obvious this signing was to add female sex appeal eye to the Pumpkins which is standard Corgan, and to connect to the young insta tiktok kids who have no clue who the Pumpkins are. Her musical style probably came second in priority when Corgan shortlisted her, so no point nitpicking whether she fits with the Pumpkins. Adding eye candy to a band does work most of the time. 

Nothing wrong with that approach. Its a business.  And lets face it, the Pumpkins have been dying a slow death for a while now. Speaking as a fading Pumpkins fan though, it's gonna take a lot more than eye candy to bring me back on side. 

OilCityPickups

LionAquaLooper said:

CaseOfAce said:

RocknRollDave said:

topdog91 said:

Chappers, this is the level you needed to aspire to...

Almost unlistenable.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you there Dave ...
It's not necessarily the kind of guitar playing I listen to or play... but that whammy bar dive 2/3rds in is just ....stupidly good.... wow... she's got mad skills. There's no question she can handle the material.

Add looks (I'm not objectifying anyone here), image, social media presence and ability (I assume she'll be blogging, tik-tok-ing (or whatever's en vogue these day) on tour).
She's asian right? so that ties in with James Iha - not to mention the far east market appeal.
You can be damn sure all the above was going thru Billy's mind AND his management's.

So there you have it - if I'd have walked in along with 100s of other guitarists and Chappers and seen her audition I'd have promptly put my guitar in the case, attempted to shake Corgan's hand while he disdainfully scowled at me and taken the next Greyhound to LAX. Pronto.

Well not just far east. More like "any man with a decent amount of testosterone appeal".

It's obvious this signing was to add female sex appeal eye to the Pumpkins which is standard Corgan, and to connect to the young insta tiktok kids who have no clue who the Pumpkins are. Her musical style probably came second in priority when Corgan shortlisted her, so no point nitpicking whether she fits with the Pumpkins. Adding eye candy to a band does work most of the time. 

Nothing wrong with that approach. Its a business.  And lets face it, the Pumpkins have been dying a slow death for a while now. Speaking as a fading Pumpkins fan though, it's gonna take a lot more than eye candy to bring me back on side. 

I think we are skirting very close to the sexism this form was criticised for publicly a while ago. This is a guitarist who clearly has very high technical ability - and the way she looks is down to her ... exactly as it was for Kane Roberts in this pic 
Describing someone as 'eye candy' was probably alright in Roberts' time and back in the 70s ... but the world has moved on.

TeleMaster

I agree. Old dudes on the Internet being needlessly critical of a young woman who's just had some success, and diminishing her achievements, achievements that might I add, make nearly all of us look like talentless hacks to just being about eye candy is not a good look.

Good luck to her. I look forward to seeing her silence her critics in Dublin in June. 

DrCornelius

TeleMaster said:

I agree. Old dudes on the Internet being needlessly critical of a young woman who's just had some success, and diminishing her achievements, achievements that might I add, make nearly all of us look like talentless hacks is not a good look.

Good luck to her. I look forward to seeing her in Dublin in June. 

Its equality , the thread was started to have a go at Chappers (male), when the gig went to someone else (female) , footage of her coming across as shallow and annoying (imho) was criticised.

I think that’s progress - not calling that out would be sexist and patronising :-)

CaseOfAce

I'm assuming the bone of contention here was the phrase eye candy being used rather than mentioning her looks being a factor in her getting the high profile gig?

Kurtis

You come for the guitar talk, but you stay for threads like this 

Philly_Q

One or two comments aside, I don't think the thread has suddenly descended into rampant sexism or snarky suggestions about why she got the job.  For me it was just a question of how her image fits with theirs... I suspect she will have a different look when she appears on stage with the Pumpkins.

elstoof

So you’re Billy Corgan, you open an audition but only two players turn up, chappers and Mary spender. Who do you pick?

Philly_Q

elstoof said:

So you’re Billy Corgan, you open an audition but only two players turn up, chappers and Mary spender. Who do you pick?

Neither.  I'd tell James Iha he'd have to work harder.

Musicman20

Philly_Q said:

elstoof said:

So you’re Billy Corgan, you open an audition but only two players turn up, chappers and Mary spender. Who do you pick?

Neither.  I'd tell James Iha he'd have to work harder.

This.

TeleMaster

Philly_Q said:

elstoof said:

So you’re Billy Corgan, you open an audition but only two players turn up, chappers and Mary spender. Who do you pick?

Neither.  I'd tell James Iha he'd have to work harder.

Being in the band with Billy is probably harder work than any of us realise. He needs those extra guitarists just to deal with the headache of it.  

Seziertisch

TeleMaster said:

I agree. Old dudes on the Internet being needlessly critical of a young woman who's just had some success, and diminishing her achievements, achievements that might I add, make nearly all of us look like talentless hacks to just being about eye candy is not a good look.

Good luck to her. I look forward to seeing her silence her critics in Dublin in June. 

I’m at that gig, too, I’m trepidatious …

Looking at live footage from back in the day , they were a force of nature. More recent footage, less so.

Sonically they are now truer to recreating the sounds on their various records, though something has been lost. 

TeleMaster

Seziertisch said:

TeleMaster said:

I agree. Old dudes on the Internet being needlessly critical of a young woman who's just had some success, and diminishing her achievements, achievements that might I add, make nearly all of us look like talentless hacks to just being about eye candy is not a good look.

Good luck to her. I look forward to seeing her silence her critics in Dublin in June. 

I’m at that gig, too, I’m trepidatious …

Looking at live footage from back in the day , they were a force of nature. More recent footage, less so.

Sonically they are now truer to recreating the sounds on their various records, though something has been lost. 

Nice!!!

Hardly any band is the same as when they were in their youth. I saw them in 2000 or so and they weren't the same as the live videos I had seen from the Siamese Dream days, which was only a few years earlier really. They were much more static, more uniform and less energetic. 

DrCornelius

TeleMaster said:

Seziertisch said:

TeleMaster said:

I agree. Old dudes on the Internet being needlessly critical of a young woman who's just had some success, and diminishing her achievements, achievements that might I add, make nearly all of us look like talentless hacks to just being about eye candy is not a good look.

Good luck to her. I look forward to seeing her silence her critics in Dublin in June. 

I’m at that gig, too, I’m trepidatious …

Looking at live footage from back in the day , they were a force of nature. More recent footage, less so.

Sonically they are now truer to recreating the sounds on their various records, though something has been lost. 

Nice!!!

Hardly any band is the same as when they were in their youth. I saw them in 2000 or so and they weren't the same as the live videos I had seen from the Siamese Dream days, which was only a few years earlier really. They were much more static, more uniform and less energetic. 

I was a huge fan of Siamese Dream and took the Mrs to see them at Madison Square Garden in about ‘96. We were expecting an amazing night but came away very disappointed- sonically quite muddy and no energy on stage at all

DefaultM

I’ve watched a load of her YouTube shorts this evening and she’s really good at playing, but I don’t enjoy the videos themselves. All the body language(?) is over exaggerated and it turns it in to a bit of a parody for me. 

My wife says that style is probably aimed at young people and will be a known way to get noticed on short form social media like YouTube shorts and TikTok. She’s got nearly a million followers so she’s probably right.

I haven’t listened to any Billy Corgan post Zwan so I don’t know what they’ve been up to recently. He must think her style is going to fit in whatever they’ve got going on.

TeleMaster

DefaultM said:

My wife says that style is probably aimed at young people and will be a known way to get noticed on short form social media like YouTube shorts and TikTok. She’s got nearly a million followers so she’s probably right.

Yea I think she probably is. It's probably akin to an actor playing a role. The online persona is cultivated for clicks and views, but she's probably more reserved and different in real life. 

Kurtis

I'm sure she'll tone down her image a bit after she reads this thread. 

Musicman20

Whatever our thoughts, it’s better than a middle aged guy who clearly isn’t THAT into alternative punk/grunge….no room for dad blues and millions of pointless solos.