{"id":1798,"date":"2007-06-11T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-11T12:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/?p=1798"},"modified":"2013-05-04T01:51:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T01:51:30","slug":"i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/","title":{"rendered":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Smashing Pumpkins<\/a> were getting ready to tour in support of their album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, they placed an ad in the Chicago Reader<\/a> looking for a keyboardist.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t that familiar with their music — I knew a couple people who were really into the Pumpkins in college, but at that point from what had I heard of their music I didn’t strongly like or dislike them.<\/p>\n

I thought it might be cool to play keyboards on a large tour with an established band, so I (like probably hundreds of other aspiring musicians) gave it a shot.<\/p>\n

The instructions in the ad were to submit a demo cassette to an address, so I went through some tapes of practices with a couple bands I played keyboards for, picked out the best parts, and assembled them into twenty minutes of material.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to make my tape pop out at them, I asked my brother, who is a very good cartoonist, to make up a cover for me. He graciously did this, and off the tape went into the mail.<\/p>\n

Well, no call ever came. I was scanning the local papers for progress of the ongoing keyboardist search. I believe I saw a brief interview with guitarist James Iha who said that they received a lot of crappy tapes. He was kind of an a**hole about it, if I remember correctly.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t presume to say that my audition tape was the best tape submitted, or that I was the most talented keyboardist to try getting on this tour. However, I certainly think I would have had no problem filling their keyboardist slot. I don’t need to argue my position here, though.<\/p>\n

The Pumpkins ended up filling the spot with Jonathan Melvoin<\/a>, who in the middle of the Melon Collie tour promptly overdosed on heroin and died while hanging out with fellow drug user and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. <\/p>\n

As a result of Melvoin’s death, Chamberlin was fired from the Pumpkins (though later on Billy Corgan rehired him, and he is currently the only other original member in the newly-reformed band).<\/p>\n

There are a few conclusions I am going to draw from this sequence of events:<\/p>\n

1.<\/span> The Pumpkins probably didn’t hear my cassette tape.
2.<\/span> If they did hear the audition tape, they probably made fun of it.
3.<\/span> Jonathan Melvoin, an already established professional musician, probably did not submit an audition tape.
4.<\/span> Jonathan Melvoin was probably not a good choice of a keyboardist to bring on tour, unless you want a tour that involves a drug O.D. and firing 1\/4 of your band.<\/p>\n

If I, through some freak circumstance, was instead the person picked to tour with the Pumpkins, the biggest trouble I would probably have gotten into would be to eat too many cheese waffle fries. And how bad is that, honestly?<\/p>\n

Someone I work with overheard a recent conversation with Corgan and a fan at a restaurant. Apparently there is a new album coming out in July of this year. <\/p>\n

Now that the Pumpkins are revving up again, I feel like it’s an appropriate time for to me ask.<\/p>\n

Can I get my audition tape back now?<\/p>\n

Please?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Smashing Pumpkins were getting ready to tour in support of their album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, they placed an ad in the Chicago Reader looking for a keyboardist. I wasn’t that familiar with their music — I knew a couple people who were really into the Pumpkins in college, but at … Continue reading I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rock-n-roll"],"yoast_head":"\nI Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the Smashing Pumpkins were getting ready to tour in support of their album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, they placed an ad in the Chicago Reader looking for a keyboardist. I wasn’t that familiar with their music — I knew a couple people who were really into the Pumpkins in college, but at … Continue reading I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SPLOTCHY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":4,\"articleSection\":[\"rock 'n roll\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/\",\"name\":\"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/06\\\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"SPLOTCHY\",\"description\":\"jung vf fcybgpul?\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/isplotchy.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY","og_description":"When the Smashing Pumpkins were getting ready to tour in support of their album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, they placed an ad in the Chicago Reader looking for a keyboardist. I wasn’t that familiar with their music — I knew a couple people who were really into the Pumpkins in college, but at … Continue reading I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please →","og_url":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/","og_site_name":"SPLOTCHY","article_published_time":"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please","datePublished":"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/"},"wordCount":550,"commentCount":4,"articleSection":["rock 'n roll"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/","url":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/","name":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please - SPLOTCHY","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-06-11T12:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-04T01:51:30+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/i-would-like-my-audition-tape-back-please\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I Would Like My Audition Tape Back, Please"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/","name":"SPLOTCHY","description":"jung vf fcybgpul?","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3gWlt-t0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isplotchy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}