Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

I’ve been in this business for 25 years and there is nobody in it who believes this is a three-star record. Nobody!

Agreed. I'm not going to listen to it, ever, so I guess by default that makes it a no-star album.

I’ve talked to, like, 500 people in the last fucking four months about the record!

But aren’t they likely to say that to your face?

Oh fuck off! Seriously now … that’s a stupid thing to say. Seriously. You’re basically saying that I’m willing to be coddled. Do I seem like someone who wants to be coddled?

...

An open letter to a wrestling manager, asking him to stop singing his own praises in interviews

I'd be down if he talked about himself exclusively in the third person. "Billy Corgan is tired of this shit! Billy Corgan demands you get in the ring! Billy Corgan will take you down, mister! You don't mess with Billy Corgan unless you want Billy Corgan to make a mess of you!"

http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2012-03-15/etc_opener12__01__630x420.jpg

His nom de ring could be "Billy Corgan." His KO move would be smashing a pumpkin on someone's head.

I was watching a Die Antwoord live performance the other day and at one point Ninja’s on the mic and he goes, “Fuck the system, we’re going to build our own fucking system!” And that’s how I feel, and that’s why he’s a fucking prophet.

"Or was that Alec Empire, I don't know"

there's a little third person in the interview. "If young Billy had gotten the credit he deserved, when he deserved it, then things might have been different. Bands might have lasted longer, more tickets might have been sold."

there's a little third person in the interview. "If young Billy had gotten the credit he deserved, when he deserved it, then things might have been different. Bands might have lasted longer, more tickets might have been sold."

― christmas with the canks (some dude), Thursday, December 18, 2014 3:48 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jesus christ, that part of the interview! You can always trust Corgan to come up with some imagined alternate universe in which Corgan is the fuckin' Jesus of music and manages to singlehandedly save rock for future generations to enjoy. I'd be more outraged of the audacity of this nonsense if I didn't realise it was merely business as usual for Corgan... and I say that as a fan.

*of=at

Also:

Why not make an EDM record?

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.
You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart.

It's like...he's been...HURT...iNNNNNN...I...I can't say it.

the core, the electronic dance music

Xxp Tbf Turrican, it did say [laughs] after that.

This is a perfect Corgan-being-Corgan interview and I wouldn't want it any other way.

pure gold, this one

I still haven't heard the new Pumpkins record yet, but I do wish he'd held onto the Oceania line-up.

The new record is even better than Oceania. I give it three stars!

love the interview.
much more fun to read than the usual.
so, in honour of billy caring and sharing, i have dug out 'the future embrace' for the first time in years.
i give it three stars !

Tommy Lee >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mike Byrne

Oceania had better high points and I liked some of the guitar epics on there, but this is most definitely a consistently better record. But I wish he'd hold on to a lineup long enough to let them gel a little.

At this point, I'm just hoping that he delves into more bizarre collabs - Buck Dharma on guitars and Mike Portnoy on drums for the next record.

yeah i feel like Corgan is a spent force as an auteur but he could still do good stuff in a more collaborative environment. Zwan probably spooked him off from ever doing another supergroup or anything like that again, though.

Tommy Lee >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mike Byrne

otm, drumming on the new record is so tasteful

Zwan probably spooked him off from ever doing another supergroup or anything like that again, though.

agree.
and its a shame, cos take all the personal crap/history etc out, and its not that bad an album.

The Zwan album is a great power pop record.

Zwan's single best moment imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQEZx9PqSo

the unrecorded/unreleased zwan material is pretty much 100 percent better than what made the record but of course it is

there was one song on the Zwan album i really loved but skimming it now i can't even figure out what it was or if i still like it

Wasn't most of Zwans live material written by various members of the band? The album is basically (completely?) Corgan penned tunes.

jesus, i/mary star of the sea is iirc written by the whole band

I’m not on trial here, OK? I’m not on trial.

the people's corgan

brilliant.
glad to see zwan is getting some love given the shyte that the album attracted.
it's a gorgeous summer glam/power pop groove.
and yes, i suspect i am in a crowd of one, i watched the dvd film that came with it (watchable after a few glasses - could be interesting watching it when sober !), and still have the sticker set that was hidden in the cd sleeve.

and yes, i suspect i am in a crowd of one, i watched the dvd film that came with it (watchable after a few glasses - could be interesting watching it when sober !), and still have the sticker set that was hidden in the cd sleeve.

crowd of two. always found jimmy the funniest

but yeah there are a bunch of snippets of great songs on that dvd that are just never gonna see the light of day

crowd of three. I really loved the whole Zwan period.

blimey - this is an unexpected outcome.
i seem to recall an outpouring of hate on ilm re that whole album/period.
just dropped the zwan album on the playlist, and i would say it still sounds good.
i suspect they all fell out and now hate each other, but i care not, as it sounds lovely, and there are some cracking songs.
whereas 'the future embrace' i got bored with quite quickly. such a cold disconnected album.
then again, its probably the way he wanted it to come across.
after all, the cover art implies a total alien disconnection groove a la his best mates release : 'mechanical animal'.

'Lyric' and 'Ride a Black Swan' are my two big favourites from the Zwan record.

Yeah, was always good with Zwan -- saw their second ever show, before Paz joined, and generally loved most of what I heard. Not that I think it'll ever happen or could but if a reissue series somehow resulted in a comprehensive Zwan box I'd get it.

"glorious' and "chrysanthemum" are great songs and seem to like be linear progression from machina etc.

I recall a friend who saw em live at the time telling me that their set was mainly songs that (a) weren't on Mary Star.. and (b) were better than the songs on Mary Star...

Yeah, I heard similar reports from friends who saw the pre-release Zwan shows. I also remember that the Djali Zwan, the acoustic incarnation that also had Ana Lenchantin on cello, put on some tremendous shows. I have a few bootlegs lying around somewhere. The blues numbers that Pajo and Sweeney really got into were p cool, iirc. The True Poets of Zwan, the guitar epic version, was more where the album ended up.

Lyric, Settle Down and Honestly are probably the best songs Corgan wrote after 'Adore'. The Zwan album was a four stars album imho.

All downhill after that though, and fast. New record is yet another "I reinvented myself! Oh no wait I am a parody of myself'-record. Three stars is too much.

no it's pretty good imo! not a reinvention just the most explicitly he's been synth rock since the solo record. i'm a big fan of "anti-hero"

Anyone who says this is a three star record lacks the brilliance to recognize its brilliance. Four stars or bust. Unless it is a five-star scale, in which case, five stars. Because four would scan too much as as three. Or just to be safe, let's call it an A+. Though of course, that implies anyone other than Corgan is qualified to even review this, let alone canonize it, so best to just defer to his taste and judgement and give the Smashing Pumpkins en tot A+/five-stars. Except Zwan, which gets A++/six stars, because it was underrated even more than more of his perfect stuff, with the exception of "TheFutureEmbrace," which failed to payoff on the promise of the single from "Lost HIghway" ('Eye?"). Unless that made it to the album, in which case, A++/five-stars!

Xp

Really? I'm willing to give it another spin based on that BradNelson, but what I heard first time round didn't bode well. Still, I will probably never drop this freak. He's meant too much to me in the lol teenage years.

same!

I think I prefer Oceania to the Zwan album. There, I said it.

i never really got over how the opener of oceania is a false "cherub rock"

Oh, 'Quasar' (the opener) is one of my least favourite tracks on Oceania without a doubt. But the album more than makes up for it with 'Panopticon', which fucking rules.