Billy Corgan

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/sns-bozo-withcorgan-jpg,1,12993.photo?coll=chi-nonmmxent-utl

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 3 June 2005 01:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 3 June 2005 01:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

Thanks John Justen. You are truely one of God's Great Warriors.

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Friday, 3 June 2005 01:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 3 June 2005 01:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

""May God bless and keep you always/ May your wishes all come true/ May you always do for others/ And let others do for you," Corgan sang as he glanced around the studio, eyeing the colorful props and sharing smiles with Wizzo the Wizard."

From our friends at MTV. Full article:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1444464/20010613/smashing_pumpkins.jhtml

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 3 June 2005 01:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 3 June 2005 02:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Friday, 3 June 2005 02:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

", Corgan sang as he glanced around the studio, eyeing the colorful props and sharing smiles with Wizzo the Wizard."

How can you not feel the love for this sentence-fragment? Embrace it, make it your own...

I'm a Speedbuggy man myself.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 3 June 2005 06:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 3 June 2005 06:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

― Narayan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 02:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Saturday, 4 June 2005 02:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

I really have to start to pay more attention to the new release charts...

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 4 June 2005 03:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

Anyway, as a long time Smashing Pumpkins/Corgan fan who tries not to let sucha fact cloud his judgement, I have to say that this album is thoroughly a hit and miss affair. It has IMO one really great song (The Camera Eye), four or five solid songs, with the rest being a mix of below average or absolutely atrocious. Right now I'd give it around a 6 or 7 out of 10, which may move up or down once I've given it more of a listen.

Anyway, it at least gives me hope that his next solo album could be great...actually ffs, REUNITE THE PUMPKINS, SLUT!!!

― Narayan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 04:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

The lowest rating I did so far.

I like Billy Baby but he's not good anymore. You feel me?

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Saturday, 4 June 2005 05:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

I saw a ridic pink racing car with two (2!) spoilers (one on top of the other), with a glittery SP heart logo on every window. On the back window, in old English lettering, it said "LADY CORGAN."

― fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 13 April 2009 21:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

Sounds about right.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 13 April 2009 21:56 (4 years ago) Permalink

Oh man, really? How so? I thought it was an unusual collision of worlds, but maybe I am not up on his fanbase.

― fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 13 April 2009 21:58 (4 years ago) Permalink

It's the goth thing from what I can tell.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 13 April 2009 22:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

Wait, was it Tila Tequila?

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Monday, 13 April 2009 22:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

hahaha jaymc

It looked like a chola car, Ned, not a gothics thing.

― fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 13 April 2009 22:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

Not that there isn't overlap, I guess. (I think the two combined use 70% of the nation's eyeliner.)

― fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 13 April 2009 22:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

Based on his various appearances at the Sky Saxon tribute show last night:

1) his Little Rascals/Jughead fashion sense is one of the smarter choices he's made (or is that Huntz Hall he's inspired by?)

2) did a lot of different things with ease -- led the Spirits in the Sky pickup group through three songs (full set on YouTube), appeared for a guitar solo on one Electric Prunes number, joined Djin Aquarian of YaHoWha13 to play bass and sung lead on "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" at the end of the night.

3) provided further evidence for my theory that's actually happiest on stage (and probably in general) when he's not struggling with his own expectations and/or ego. The three happiest and most relaxed times I've seen him perform were 2000 (earlier that day he announced the band's breakup and probably just felt he could take it easy), 2001 (the second Zwan show, just after the first and therefore beyond those expectations) and last night, where he was a featured performer but not the center of attention. So last night was a lot of humor, gawkiness, shy smiles, etc.

And the new song that he debuted with the Spirits in the Sky was pretty good!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 25 July 2009 21:11 (3 years ago) Permalink

not bad for a dead man

― velko, Saturday, 25 July 2009 21:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

Maybe it was a clone.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 25 July 2009 21:23 (3 years ago) Permalink

dudes!
billy corgan: puppeteer

― graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave architecture (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 20:11 (3 years ago) Permalink

Somehow not surprising.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 21:29 (3 years ago) Permalink

Can someone photoshop this into Being Billy Corgan?

― StanM, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 21:35 (3 years ago) Permalink

http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/09/jessica-simpson-the-great-pumpkin-connection/

― StanM, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 19:52 (3 years ago) Permalink

that pic looks like this cover by german band

― jaxon, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 20:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

The "I Think That I'm In Love with You" v.s. "Disarm" mash-up should be made any day now to celebrate this absurd pair.

― Cunga, Thursday, 17 December 2009 18:37 (3 years ago) Permalink

ok that close up of corgan's face made me lol. "WHAT HAVE I DONE."

― tylerw, Thursday, 17 December 2009 18:39 (3 years ago) Permalink

"he's too old for her

looks more like he's stalking her than dating her"

lolol

― Cunga, Thursday, 17 December 2009 19:00 (3 years ago) Permalink

he looks more like billy drago with each passing year

― you are wrong I'm bone thugs in harmon (omar little), Thursday, 17 December 2009 19:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

― krampus activities (latebloomer), Friday, 18 December 2009 01:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

lol

The new Pumpkins song is actually not surprisingly not horrible. The drumming sucks, but thats to be expected when you replace Jimmy Chamberlain with a 19 year old. I really dig the guitar solo. So much better than the Zeitgeist stuff.

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 18 December 2009 01:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/23/smashing.pumpkins.ppl/index.html?iref=obinsite

oops

― jaymc won $5800 on day 1! (HI DERE), Monday, 26 July 2010 18:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

The Grunge Book? Photo of 'ol SP? HORRIBLE. You'd think we were unattractive trolls...coming off digging for truffles in shit.
about 3 hours ago via txt

Billy
Billy Corgan

― markers, Monday, 26 July 2010 18:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

confirming, in case there was any doubt, that it was NOT a stage move.

― call all destroyer, Monday, 26 July 2010 18:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

wow there is a decent chunk of crazy there

# Soon the governments in western nations will be changing the temperatures in your home over-riding your control, all in the name of green BS 7:47 AM Jul 24th via txt

# Don't believe me? Look up 'smart grid technology'. All new control boxes will have wireless technology by law. Why?Because U use 2 much NRG! 7:49 AM Jul 24th via txt

― jaymc won $5800 on day 1! (HI DERE), Monday, 26 July 2010 18:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

My parents (74 years old) live in northern CA, and my dad was ranting about this temp-control thing in their house.

― gato busca pleitos (Eazy), Monday, 26 July 2010 18:31 (2 years ago) Permalink

sorta wish that shit were true

― iatee, Monday, 26 July 2010 18:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

State Proposes to Take Control of Home Temps

― gato busca pleitos (Eazy), Monday, 26 July 2010 18:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

wow, waht a dick

http://origin.avclub.com/chicago/articles/billy-corgan-gets-in-a-nasty-internet-fight-with-a,60967/

― dougie instructor (jjjusten), Friday, 26 August 2011 23:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

ah crap i didnt see that somebody bumped a smashing pumpkins thread about this already

― dougie instructor (jjjusten), Friday, 26 August 2011 23:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

S'ok. But yeah, Corgan is an utter asshole, proven more and more every day.

Tempted to start a taking sides thread, T/S Billy Corgan vs. Morrissey: which is pissing away goodwill with his own fans faster?

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 26 August 2011 23:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah the funny thing is i have known a lot of people that have dealt with devi over the years, and she is kind of notoriously honest and nice for the boutique pedal world - so this is particularly offensive imo.

― dougie instructor (jjjusten), Friday, 26 August 2011 23:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

A couple of days and a harrowing plane flight later, the band makes it to a resort town called Surfer’s Paradise, which is more or less the Miami Beach of Australia, a skinny coastal town about an hour south of Brisbane, pounded by waves and plagued with jellyfish, crowded with high-rise hotels popular with Japanese honeymooners. Surfer’s Paradise is the jumping-off point for the Big Day Out tour, a sort of Australian Lollapalooza that Soundgarden will headline this year. In the lobby bar of one of the tallest hotels, Cornell and Thayil are settling back with a couple of beers when Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins wanders through, and decides to join them for a strawberry margarita. Corgan chatters about the pain of his life, the supposed incompetence of his band (everybody rolls their eyes), the lifesaving virtues of Jungian therapy, bands that suck. Cornell gets up to leave. Corgan tells Thayil how important Soundgarden used to be to him, and he baits him by saying that the Pumpkins sometimes do a cover of Soundgarden’s “Outshined” that segues into a Depeche Mode song or something.

“I’m thinking of making my next album really new wave,” Corgan says, “like ’83-’84 new wave, not like Berlin. I spend all my time doing things that may be a bit tangential, but I think I’m going to go back to the core, the heart music. Echo and the Bunnymen.”

This is standard stuff to anybody who has read even a single Billy Corgan profile, the basic curriculum of Pumpkins 101. But Thayil isn’t buying. He’s sore.

“Don’t you see,” Thayil says, “you’re this incredibly talented guy. People like your music. You have a good band. You sell a lot of records. You don’t need all this…stuff.”

“What sign are you?” Corgan asks.

“What do you mean, what sign am I?” Thayil says. “What difference could that possibly make?”

“C’mon,” wheedles Corgan, “when is your birthday?”

“All right, goddamn it: September 4th.”

“Aha!” Corgan says. “A Virgo. You’re argumentative.”

“Damn right, I’m argumentative,” Thayil says, and takes a long, angry pulll at his beer, “which you should know because I’ve been arguing with you for half an hour, not because of any sign.”

“I’m a Pisces,” Corgan replies. “We pick up on those things.”

A minute later, Corgan, still probing, finally finds the key to Thayil’s heart: “I hate how in magazine pictures, they always stick me somewhere in the back.”

Thayil explodes: “What do you mean? You write all the songs, and you do all the interviews. You play the instruments on the album. You control the band to the extent that most people think of Smashing Pumpkins as the Billy Corgan Experience, and all you care about is some photograph?”

“But I hate it,” Corgan says, “it means they don’t think I’m the cute one.”

“Ooh,” Thayil says a little too loudly as Corgan walks away, “I’ll bet he’s going to call his therapist in Chicago, wake her up at four in the morning, and tell her about that big, mean bear who made fun of him.”

The next day at the Big Day Out festival, Thayil is talking to Kim and Kelley Deal in the Breeders’ dressing room when Corgan walks past wearing a long-sleeved Superman T-shirt like the one your four-year-old nephew probably owns.

“You hurt me deeply,” Corgan says, touching the giant S on his chest and pouting. “You hurt me deeply in my heart.” The Pumpkins go on to play the best set anybody has ever heard them play, their usual passiveness and precision overlaid with an unfamiliar scrim of anger that throws their music into brilliant relief.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 27 August 2011 01:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

wait i thought slash fic was supposed to end with corgan and thayil boning

― dougie instructor (jjjusten), Saturday, 27 August 2011 06:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

Billy is fucked up and wrong here, obviously, but I could only make it about 3 minutes into Ever's response video. Sorry, that person is insufferable.

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 27 August 2011 12:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

I met a guy who said he was a "fan" of Save Ferris the other day!

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 March 2012 00:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Its kinda hard for me to believe that Smashing Pumpkins existed in the same universe as Emperor in the 90's. or Eyehategod!

― scott seward, Friday, 16 March 2012 00:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

as far as sprawling uncompromising major label alternadork double rock records i'll take the downward spiral every time. that album was cool!

― scott seward, Friday, 16 March 2012 00:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

Eyehategod!

this looks like a Pumpkins song tbh

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 March 2012 00:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

― sarahell, Friday, 16 March 2012 00:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

imagine if we'd seen the Corgandog in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Imagine the horror!

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 March 2012 00:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ha, Billy Corgi.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 16 March 2012 01:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

idgi

― tylerw, Friday, 16 March 2012 02:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

jeez I forgot they headlined the only Lollapalooza I went to as well

(also Nick Cave & Geo Clinton)

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

I just saw a Solis-Corgan interview clip that I can't find now, and Corgan was sort of incoherent for part of it but also made some pretty valid and lucid points. He was basically arguing that social media is a losing game for most musicians but one they have to play anyway. He said that today's landscape means non-stop competition just to hold someone's attention, which is not conducive to a musician building himself as an "Artist" (in the most admittedly cynical, commodified sense), and that the need to constantly beg fans to do stuff and look at stuff and share stuff on social media is pretty much antithetical to the traditional image of grandiose, mysterious capital A Artists, which is ultimately the kind of image you need to hold fans interest for longer periods of time.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 18:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

That's not a bad point, but it's an interesting one to see coming from someone who sprays so much verbal diarrhea in interviews and who has often engaged in projects like a series of EPs every few months that seem to be partially engineered to constantly hold fans' attention.

― some dude, Friday, 4 May 2012 19:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

i was actually just wondering whether any artist whose appearance on the scene came anytime in the recent past could ever really become a "legend" on the level of a Keith Richards or John Lennon (or even a Billy Corgan), just because of the changes in the dynamics of the industry and the music-consuming public.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 19:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

no. A contemporary legend is that teenager who was singing "Friday" last year.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

The number of artists fully formed in the internet era that have lasted more than a couple of years does seem pretty small in my mind, but maybe I'm not thinking of some people. I guess Kanye and Lady Gaga are the first things that spring to mind as purely 21st century "legends." Pretty sure they don't do the kinds of record sales that equivalent stars would have done 20 years ago.

The other thing Corgan said that I thought was maybe obvious but needs to be said more is that consumers' willingness to pay anything at all for recorded music has been kind of irreversibly eroded, and that the result is kind of a net loss of revenue.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

It's probably going to have to keep eroding to the point where a lot of artists either hang it up altogether or switch to some sort of diffuse patronage model. I think the message being sent is less that music has literally no monetary value to people than it is that a business model largely favoring the music labels is no longer sustainable.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

I mean, a-doy. But still. Needs to be said more and all that.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

well, also recorded music literally has no monetary value to people

― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think the message being sent is less that music has literally no monetary value to people than it is that a business model largely favoring the music labels is no longer sustainable.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, May 4, 2012 3:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IDK this just sounds like the same pat line we keep hearing and it doesn't seem to have proven true. Big labels are sustainable, artists are not.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

xpost

Yeah, at this juncture that's true, but I'm positing a point in the not-too-distant future where music largely stops being recorded and subsequently sold because the market can no longer sustain it. At that point, recorded music may find a niche where it does have monetary value to a (probably much smaller but likely also more fanatical) number of people.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

basically, the volume of musical choices available to us as any given time has come to a point where there's far, far more supply than demand, creating a buyer's market whose magnitude has previously never existed. music is a commodity at this point.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 19:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

xpost

I.e. welcome to the world enjoyed by much of the rest of the arts, Music.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

well, also recorded music literally has no monetary value to people

^^^^^

hate how this gets elided all the time

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think a better way to put it is not that it has no value, but rather that something has to prove its value to a consumer first, and it's really hard for anything to do that given the glut of alternatives people have just one click away not only in the realm of music, but any kind of entertainment.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 19:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

how does a product "prove its value"

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 4 May 2012 19:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

by being good, making a positive impression, creating a sense that someone may want to revisit it, etc

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 19:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don't think even that happens. I have albums that I've gotten for free that are great and I have not gone back and paid for them after the fact.

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 4 May 2012 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Because you actually got the tracks in your possession, instead of just getting a taste of them. It might be different if you heard them on the radio, or in a video game, or in a commercial. For example, I bet that Fun song that was shoved down our throats for the past few months racked up a ton of sales.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 20:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

In the future, recorded music will be subsidized by wealthy patrons and you will only be able to listen to it while in some sort of museum.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 20:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don't think there's any reason to think that "recorded music" will become less available, just that it will be less monetizable.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 20:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

not looking forward to the 'fourth wave of ska' wing at the moma

― Philip Nunez, Friday, 4 May 2012 20:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

but it's an interesting one to see coming from someone who sprays so much verbal diarrhea in interviews and who has often engaged in projects like a series of EPs every few months that seem to be partially engineered to constantly hold fans' attention.

maybe that's Corgan's partial answer to why he is so bad and hated these days

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Friday, 4 May 2012 20:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

ha true

― some dude, Friday, 4 May 2012 20:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

he actually even made some reference to his being bad and hated in the interview, a kind of awkward metaphor about how he's the nba player who everyone hates but grabs a lot of rebounds

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 20:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don't think there's any reason to think that "recorded music" will become less available, just that it will be less monetizable.

That 'music museums' idea kinda glosses over some of the steps in my logical leap. To clarify my argument, I'm talking about recorded popular music (i.e. not stuff like classical which already has a form of patronage in place). Major labels will, at a point, tire of pouring money down the recorded music drain, and once they realize that suing potential customers only nets them a fraction of the revenue they've historically made, they'll cut way back on something. Whether that 'something' is marketing or artists' pay or the number of artists on their roster, the amount and influence of recorded output from major labels will probably diminish significantly (if not disappear altogether) in our lifetimes. To the extent that the majors cease to be much of a viable option (i.e. the extent to which musicians can basically forget about livin' like a pimp), you'll see a lot of people who don't really give a shit pulling out of the game altogether, while the people who do give a shit and/or who have a solid fanbase that does value their recorded output monetarily to some extent will continue on via other routes (e.g. Kickstarter, Bandcamp, etc.). This will basically be the 'folk/outsider' branch of tomorrow's recorded music, with the majors' increasingly-meager output forming a second branch. The likely third branch (to the extent that musicians secure forward-thinking managers and arts patrons see a dying creative industry that will need financial assistance to become more) will be the 'fine arts' branch. If incessant touring becomes the only other option for musicians to make a buck, I can see a lot of musical acts going in a sort of 'more accessible Laurie Anderson' direction (multimedia, performance-based work that caters to a gallery or pseudo-museum setting), even if only to appeal to an audience with deeper pockets who will keep them fed. I mean, I don't know how accurate my predicting will be, but sustaining a music career in the future is definitely gonna be all about sussing out alternative business models.

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 21:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

On the flipside, sort of, I've often wondered what it takes to knock a band down a few notches after they've hit it big. Like, will Gotye ever play a small venue again? Phoenix? MGMT? Interpol? Whomever? How many crappy albums would it take to do so? Because I can't think of any band in recent memory that has been demoted, though I can think of several whose ascent has been pretty fast.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 4 May 2012 21:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

in the future? it's already like that

xp

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 4 May 2012 21:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah i remember making a similar observation a while back, when MGMT made that album people really seemed to dislike but their career didn't suffer at all for it. i can't remember the last serious 'sophomore slump' in rock/alternative circles where the act really seemed to lose half their audience or whatever.

― some dude, Friday, 4 May 2012 21:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

what size venues does mgmt usually play to begin with though?

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 21:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

in the future? it's already like that

Man, Yauch and the major labels all on the same day...

― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 4 May 2012 21:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

i can't remember the last serious 'sophomore slump' in rock/alternative circles where the act really seemed to lose half their audience or whatever.

that's because bands and albums are not the currency of relevancy anymore; it's songs. And as long as those songs are in circulation (ipods, video games, commercials, etc.) they have currency. there are more venues for songs to be in circulation now than ever before, and the more share they have of these venues, the more currency they have. bands per se are almost irrelevant.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 21:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

That's an interesting point.

One band that kind of sprung to mind while I was listening to Corgan talk about social media and the net not panning out so well for artists was Ok Go -- a band that I don't particularly like, but that seems to be able to keep making money from a brand built not, I don't think, on albums at all, but on a stream of clever individual videos and clever live shows that dovetail with the videos. And people will keep going to see that band, at least for a while, because it's kind of more like going to see Blue Man Group or Stomp! or something, although I don't doubt that their fans actually like their music too.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Friday, 4 May 2012 21:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

And that band is a great example. I don't think anyone who watches those videos, whether it be fans or casual viewers, give a flying fuck who is in that band. Probably the entire band could be replaced and no one would care. They know the band as OK GO and that's about it. They're there for the spectacle and the entertainment, and if anyone's watching it, it's because at that particular moment, the spectacle is better than some other spectacle available at that moment.

― Poliopolice, Friday, 4 May 2012 21:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

cannot think the words "the world is a vampire" unless recited in corgan's snarl. absolutely cannot.

― kelpolaris, Friday, 4 May 2012 22:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

Do you find yourself thinking those words in other contexts?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 May 2012 22:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

Everytime I see Billy Corgan, I'm reminded of the video he did for his band Hexen, probably years before the Pumpkins. It's hard to hate him after that, even as pompous as he often comes across.

James Iha is still what made that band tick.

― Matt M., Friday, 4 May 2012 23:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

James Iha is still what made that band tick tolerable.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 5 May 2012 13:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

I said that as a guy who is most distinctly not a fan of the band.

― Matt M., Saturday, 5 May 2012 15:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

that's because bands and albums are not the currency of relevancy anymore; it's songs. And as long as those songs are in circulation (ipods, video games, commercials, etc.) they have currency.

So it's like the 60's all over again, where a band could have one or two hit singles and tour the oldies circuit more or less indefinitely. If that's the case then I really don't have a problem with it, FWIW.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 5 May 2012 18:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

recorded music is still absolutely monetizable but the money is, always has been, always will be in the carrier.

― yo just a couple (Matt P), Saturday, 5 May 2012 18:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

or controlling the carrier, more accurately.

― yo just a couple (Matt P), Saturday, 5 May 2012 18:41 (1 year ago) Permalink