Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

If Corgan had properly utilized Jimmy Chamberlain's talents instead of indulging his Depeche Mode fetish on the drum tracks, I believe Adore would easily rank as their best album. Unfortunately it remains a relic of that awkward stretch in the late-90s when everyone from Liz Phair to Eric Clapton attempted to stay hip by going trip-hop or hiring The Dust Brothers. File it along with From the Choirgirl Hotel and Kingsize in the "great album, but stop with the fucking breakbeats already" category.

Mostly, though, I think the Pumpkins were at their best before Corgan's ego was vindicated by global success & they were content to churn out first-class slabs of fuzzy dreampop like "Drown" & "Rhinoceros."

If Corgan had properly utilized Jimmy Chamberlain's talents instead of indulging his Depeche Mode fetish on the drum tracks, I believe Adore would easily rank as their best album.

Alternately, some of us love that album precisely BECAUSE he indulged that fetish.

Fair enough, Ned. I prefer to take my Depeche and my Pumpkins in separate doses. Corgan's Cure fetish, on the other hand, I have absolutely no problem with.

They (ie Billy Corgan and whoever else) are going to be playing at Harrah's Casino=fell the fuck off

If Corgan had properly utilized Jimmy Chamberlain's talents instead of indulging his Depeche Mode fetish on the drum tracks, I believe Adore would easily rank as their best album.

If Corgan had properly utilized Jimmy Chamberlain's talents instead of indulging his Depeche Mode fetish on the drum tracks If Chamberlain had properly utilized his own talents instead of indulging his heroin fetish on the Mellon Collie tour

btw Ned OTM

File it along with From the Choirgirl Hotel and Kingsize in the "great album, but stop with the fucking breakbeats already" category.

:-)

..instead of indulging his heroin fetish on the Mellon Collie tour

Yes. OK. hmmm.. I forgot about that. Did they have an official drummer at that time, or did Corgan opt for the post-Bill Berry REM strategy of rotating session guys?

?

http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/go_fug_yourself/2009/04/a_shot_at_fug_with_smashing_pu.html

Don't quite get why this is so crazy - what kind of women does Billy Corgan usually date?

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B00000638L.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

My mind isn't blown or anything but Tila Tequila does seem a bit different from Courtney Love or Chris Fabian.

not to mention Yelena Yemchuk...

i don't think dude is particularly ugly, but could do without the white suit

this thread has been bumped so i will post today's news as the try out are happening in Los Angeles on April 14.

So let's get down to business and talk about what the plans are ahead. First up is/are the drum tryouts on the 14th/April. We've received a staggering amount of submissions so far (over 1,000!), so let me say to everyone who has submitted thank you and God Bless you for having the courage to throw your name out there. The auditions on the 14th are just the first round of trying people out. There is no 'hurry' at the moment, as I'm not quite ready to record yet, and it's possible I may need more than one drummer for what my plans are. So for someone who may think they would never get a chance there is still time in the months ahead to keep trying. I view it as a process to find the right person(s) and it's important that the right consideration is given. Jeff and I will be holding the first round of auditions, with me on bass (lookout!).

I know it's a bit contradictory but Billy Corgan made me hate Smashing Pumpkins.

not contradictory at all. dude sings like cartman.

I mean, I used to like Smashing Pumpkins, but Billy Corgan's been such a douchebag that I really can't enjoy even Gish anymore.

^^^^^ this

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.

woozy reverb-y guitar in the background of "whir" is so classic

http://totalyellow.com/F/Thr/BillyCorganBozo.jpg

"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.