Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

"This Time" on Machina is pretty nice....Big chunks of that album are pretty rewarding these days too...

I was about as Pumpkins obsessive as it gets back in high school, but around the time I went to college (zwan-era) I had a really embarrassing eureka moment concerning how much of a weener Corgan is and I sort of completely gave up on them. Now over 8 years later I'm finally going back and listening to them again and really pleasantly surprised by just how much I still love most of these songs. And I stand firmly in the "Adore is their best but everything's pretty fantastic" camp.

Aside the 'Adore' bit, I had a very similar journey.

never had time for the smashing pumpkins. they seemed like the wrong sort of thing at the time: bloated, melodramatic, intolerably "commercial" (this was the early 90s, remember). i was into low fi indie, old free jazz, glenn branca. and when i wanted something like what SP were offering, i'd just spin daydream nation or loveless again.

but i've been listening to siamese dream recently and liking it ok. the lyrics are wretched, but only occasionally so bad as to overpower the music, and the music is wonderful. or at least quite pleasant. probably helps that i know absolutely nothing about billy corgan the actual real life person.

mostly like them due to nostalgia of youth, but i'll go to the mat for the guitar solo in "soma" any day of the week.

Regrettably went out to the Austin show tonight, it was pretty dire. Got there a bit late, heard "Eye," "Bullet," "United States," "Stand Inside Yr Love," "Tarantula," "Zero," "Tonight," and about 4-5 new or unreleased tracks. Greatest hits on autopilot, not a thing from Gish or Siamese Dream.

The good news: Corgan's got a mean sense of humor in his old age...

"All of my songs fall into one of three categories: 1) Instant classics, 2) misunderstood gems, 3) ........................ suicidal themes."

^^ this is all coming from someone who saw the Pumpkins *twice* on the tour for Zeitgeist, and loved every second of it, btw.

The YouTube clips of this show are horrendous (as was most of the show) but this one's kinda great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPhFraxG9B8

"Eye" is one of their best songs imo...my best friend at the time was mad they ever used keyboards and wanted to re-record all their songs like "Eye" and off of "Adore" with guitars. I, OTOH, kind of wished Billy would turn into an agoraphobe who locked himself up with his synths only and sent out the occasional CD-R of tracks and a little Post-It telling the world "I'm still alive...for now." (He seems like the kind of guy to employ melodramatic ellipses.)

It would be better than ZEITGEIST anyway!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs343.ash2/62348_433022036221_502636221_5641007_3989670_n.jpg

Q: Do you see any reason for hope?

A: I just saw (former Pink Floyd leader) Roger Waters’ “The Wall” tour last night and it’s really beautiful. It had images of the war I Iraq and was updated to a modern context that made it timely. This guy is still out there and doing it. What the (expletive) are we doing? That’s what my heroes are supposed to do -- stick their boots up my (behind), and say: “What the (expletive) are you doing?

I have to figure out how to do it my own way. I don’t want to do it the way somebody else has. What’s an appropriate artistic response (to today’s problems)? Talk about an underwhelming generation. If you want to be really clear, once Kurt Cobain killed himself (in 1994), our generation has been lost trying to find anybody willing to be a point person. Who has stepped up from my generation and meant anything, to anybody other than themselves? I can’t think of anybody. I’ve tried many times but failed.

I’m not impressed with my generation. What started off like a good idea turned into a joke. At least I have enough pride to go out and make something.

But what the (expletive) happened? Sitting and watching “The Wall,” in hindsight, this appears to be a master work , especially when you see it staged. It has been 30 years since “The Wall” (debuted) and what has anybody done since then that’s been close to this as a cultural critique?

How about Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness a/k/a The Wall for Generation X? Dude has such a fricking Wall thing. What an awful album. I'm so glad his band doesn't sound anything like Pink Floyd.

I like The Wall!

The Wall is over admired, sure, but it still stands up as a pretty great album.

Sorry dudes. For me, the Wall is one of those double-albums that I could reduce to a maxi-single

A task made even more difficult because much of the best material is overplayed, e.g. Run Like Hell is an awesome song, but I have absolutely no need to hear it again, such has it been seared into my brain.

It has been 30 years since “The Wall” (debuted) and what has anybody done since then that’s been close to this as a cultural critique?

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Finally Pumpkins news I was curious about, reissue campaign starts later this year with unreleased stuff and continues through 2013. Most exciting parts - unreleased stuff from the vaults, hints at the last Metro show, remastered and (possibly) remixed Machina all as one big set, among other things.

Video here.

WARNING: Must sit through 4 minutes of Corgan talking at you.

Which is why I'm not clicking on that link.

Reasons to still enjoy the Smashing Pumpkins:
1. "Glynis"
2. "Home" from Machina 2
3. The enduringly lovely and heartfelt "Whir." I fell in love with this song at age 12, and am almost 28 now. Some of the verses only hit home now, and I guess that's natural. It perfectly captures the spirit that I suppose we associate with Generation X now...but it's really just a song about being scared about responsibility and growing up.

― Sam Weller

Yes on "Glynis" and "Whir" they're one of the best things they ever did. Haven't heard "home" yet... I kind of lost interest by then. I'd add "set the ray to jerry" and several parts of the gish album on this list.

v v v glad to see Whir get so much love; I always feel like it gets overlooked or unfairly bashed, but I def think it's one of their best...I'd probably add Shame, Obscured, and Mayonnaise to the list

also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebJN-4qnLw

You know, this is almost par for the course now.

Whoa, Kareem Abdul Jabar is 64 already?!

if i could get kareem abdul jabaar to promote something i did, i would! WE ALL WOULD. billy is just living our dreams.

This is mad long and disjointed and repetitive, but I'm happy to count this as one more reason to illegally download Corgan's music if I feel that I need it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhVpCARW1iI&feature=player_embedded

Hmmm. I've happily not given Corgan any money since Zeitgeist despite being a huge, huge Pumpkins fan from about 1992-2000. It would be very easy to continue, but these upcoming reissues are super tempting. I'm really tired of his asshattery though and wish he would just retire for good.

I stopped with the solo album (which I liked v. much, of course!). But then he revived the name and I thought, "Yeah, that was dumb."

That said the clip kkvgz linked to is another reason to let him wander off into the wilderness.

Some further context here, via A/V Club. What an asshole.

See, I still don't have the complete back catalog from the good years and they're actually a band that I like well enough to listen to their records from time to time.

huh

I've said yes to photographing the Smashing Pumpkins gig in Glasgow tonight - I'm hoping that they can do some kind of justice to my teenage love of them.

That Corgan is an almost insufferable ass is a given, but, if they can still deliver musically, then I may walk away happy. What is the line-up nowadays even? Anyone seen them live recently?

I'd shake your hopes of them doing justice to your teenage love tbh, I think you'll be bitterly disappointed. It's not the Smashing Pumpkins anymore, it's the Billy Corgan show.

Not seen them recently. Was a huge fan up until Adore, still cherish all those albums, but everything after that is a bag of self-indulgent shite. Expect nothing and you might get something out of it :)

Wise words.

I saw them in 2008 or so, whenever Chamberlin was back on board for a while, and actually really enjoyed it, at least the older songs.

it bears reposting:

http://i53.tinypic.com/30il5z4.jpg

Haha!

when i saw them last year, it was a decent show, with Billy on his best behavior and a handful of peak era songs ("Hummer" sounded great that night), but that new kid on drums is just not up to filling Jimmy's shoes. i was just talking to a friend who saw them more recently and it sounded like a bit more of a drag, only like three big singles from the old days.

Recent setlists look pretty good: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-smashing-pumpkins/2011/o2-apollo-manchester-manchester-england-53d18721.html

I'm well up for hearing old but non-singles tracks like Frail & Bedazzled, Silverfuck, Thru The Eyes Of Ruby and such.

yeah holy shit that setlist looks great

I actually have to agree when I start thinking about those older songs. I was so pleased with the older album tracks & oddities that they played in 2008. I remember Drown being rather great.

yeah i heard "Drown" on the radio yesterday and i never get tired of that song

actually looking at the setlist from the show my friend saw they are playing a lot of great oldies, he just doesn't know their albums well enough to recognize all of them.

still, listening to their new drummer try to play stuff like "Cherub Rock" is just kinda sad.

Apparently the sets are >2hrs, so hoping for some good jamming on Silverfuck et al.

Manchester videos sound decent - tagging the 'I Am One' riff onto the end of 'Thru The Eyes Of Ruby' is cool...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynaaopfBdzI

OK banter at the start of the encore even, though apparently it was literally the only time anyone spoke at all... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bjvbLJ2w1U

locutus of corg was very chatty at the show i saw, like he was really trying to prove he had a sense of humor

Those first three Pumpkins albums are absolutely superb, IMO. I can't take 'Adore' and 'MACHINA' in one sitting, but there's more than a handful of songs that I love on each. I haven't heard anything that Corgan has done since resurrecting the Pumpkins name, though - the Zwan album was the last thing he was responsible for that I purchased, which I thought had its moments but very rarely gets dug out for a spin.

It was actually really great! I had a brilliant time!

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p883719806-3.jpg

Great! :)

http://images.skem1.com/client_id_5138/Web.jpg

EMI Label Services/Caroline Distribution has announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Martha’s Music to release the highly anticipated album from THE SMASHING PUMPKINS entitled OCEANIA on June 19th, 2012. The agreement covers the world excluding Canada, Brazil and Australia.

Produced by THE SMASHING PUMPKINS’ frontman Billy Corgan, OCEANIA is an intense and dynamic offering that will appeal to new and existing fans of THE SMASHING PUMPKINS alike. OCEANIA, the band’s 7th studio record, is “an album within an album,” part of their 44-song work-in-progress TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE.

Peter Katsis, manager of SMASHING PUMPKINS for Prospect Park, added: “The Smashing Pumpkins created Oceania as an album experience, and it is intended for the process of the release to follow a path of inclusion, so that best efforts are made for all the fans hear it at the same time as press or radio. We were excited to find partners in EMI Label Services that were equally passionate about the plan for the album release as well as being huge fans of the Pumpkins.”

in other words, this is likely a steaming pile of shit and we don't want to let reviews come out ahead of release date