Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

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.

I mean, 'Panopticon' basically pushes all the same buttons for me as any classic Pumpkins track does... also, when the guitars come crashing in on 'Pinwheels', and the instrumental at the end of the title track.

zwan is his best stuff since siamese imo. interviewed him for that album and he was a total needless douche, rest of band were really very cool and nice. new album is... quite dull? I mean, its fine, it sort of sounds like classic pumpkins, but i can't remember any of the tunes now, and i listened to it a bunch to review it.

i gave it 3 stars. obviously. probably deserved 2 and a half though.

My friends' 3yo daughter this morning while listening to Smashing Pumpkins: "We need to take good care of these songs because they are old-fashioned."

?!?!? Amazing.

Hang on, this interview is done by the same guy who did that NME piece on Morrissey, isn't it?

Well, they're playing live on the BBC red button now. The rhythm section is Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine on drums and Mark Stoermer from The Killers on bass. Yeah.

Having heard the latest album, I don't think it's good as Oceania.

Another day, another interview, another "dude, no" moment:

Q. Sure, but at least some portion of the audience is going to be there to hear the records they liked 15 or 20 years ago. How do you feel about that?

A. I don't care. That's a nostalgia-sentimentality-based business that I am not a part of. It's like saying because one movie company makes cartoons and another company makes movies, I'm in the cartoon business. I feel like people lump me into the cartoon business, and I don't want to be in the cartoon business. It's very simple: You've got two great artists, two great histories, still making great music. We are going to go out and kick ass as good or better than somebody in their twenties or thirties or whatever. Either believe it or don't – but if you don't, then you will miss something that you rarely see, which in this case will be three hours of really powerful music. I mean, there is a point where you can't apologize for that, or you can't really explain it to someone who's got their head up their ass with a selfie stick.

Q. That's quite an image.

A. Thank you. I am a published poet. (Laughs)

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/billy-corgan-on-touring-with-marilyn-manson-and-battling-nostalgia-20150605

The man hasn't aged well and his obsession with wrestling just weirds me out. SP was my favourite band from the age of 12 to 19 (when they broke up), but since then it has become really hard. Odd becomes some of his new music I really like. "The Chimera" from Oceania, for example, is a really good song. Somehow it would be easier to put up with him if the band got back together, but I really doubt that'll ever happen. What a shame.

(Funny how he says he's not part of a "nostalgia-sentimentality-based business" when he just re-issued all of his 20-year-old albums.)

He's really the definition of middlebrow. He'd be more interesting if he was, you know, more interesting. Stop writing songs, start making soundscapes. Stop trying to make hits, start trying to make music that challenges. Stop singing, start ... I dunno, just stop singing, Stop singing, stop talking, stop being a poet, stop everything and start over again, for real. Stop the Smashing Pumpkins and do something else.

I would buy an album from this guy if it was 40 minutes of the most atmospheric/ambient parts from 90s SP with no recycled riffs or singing

I would buy an album from this guy if I lived in a totalitarian state where the leader was really into Smashing Pumpkins and there was a general expectation that you would buy at least one album from this guy or face some real-life consequences

I've already bought several albums from this guy!

Somehow it would be easier to put up with him if the band got back together, but I really doubt that'll ever happen. What a shame.

D'Arcy is seriously mentally ill/burnt out on drugs. Not sure why he can't work with Iha & Chamberlin anymore though.

Because neither of them seem to want to is the answer to that one!

I would buy an album from this guy if it was 40 minutes of the most atmospheric/ambient parts from 90s SP with no recycled riffs or singing

that would actually be p awesome. smashing pumpkins never bettered Drown.

there was some moment in the 90s when one of the station IDs on the alt-rock station played like a tiny blurt of some song, still unknown to me, which i suspect had to be sonic youth or MBV, but which i, with my limited knowledge, could only guess was smashing pumpkins. in hindsight, the better fanbase-shedding, career-shedding move, cred-wise would have been to totally swing in this direction, worry less about hooks, choruses, singing, and just really go in for the wash of guitars: soaring, crashing, murmuring, trembling. the endlessly overdubbed guitars on siamese dream are so expressive and suggestive, much moreso than billy's lyrics (especially post-adore) which tended so much towards the obvious and melodramatic that it got hard to feel anything listening to the records.

By the way, the band will no doubt get voted into the Rock and Roll HOF next year. I assume we can expect Billy will want to play with the current line-up (whatever it is at the time) and freeze out the original members. Let's not forget he has recently dubbed James a "piece of s---" and Jimmy a "f---ing liar." Charming.

However, it would be awesome to see the four of them get along and play a couple old tunes.

ooh, good point. Chamberlain in particular is such a crucial component of their success, it'd be a bummer if Billy freezes him out like that.

Wow, I had no idea how messed up D'Arcy had gotten over the years. Sad.

Billy and Jimmy have long since made peace. Lots of rumors that he's drumming on the new SP record. I think Matt Walker is more likely, but if SP is inducted next year, Billy will go with Jimmy or alone. James hurt Billy deeply in his heart by not saying goodbye after the last Metro show in 2000. Billy will do everything he can to keep James out of it, as if James has any interest. Billy would take the stage with D'arcy if she was capable. Mellon Colle and the Infinite Sadness indeed!

James hurt Billy deeply in his heart

still funny

I saw some scary photos recently, but where have y'all gotten your D'arcy news?

i'm friends with her on facebook

Say what you will, but she spun a nasty Twister wheel back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPMdvnC6ldc

(I love how Kurt volunteers at around 1:10.)

Chamberlain rejoining the band (even if he's not yet committed beyond their current dates) has seriously reinvigorated my interest in the band over the last couple of weeks.

Sounding great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpDHl1BlpBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zch5JVN1uFg

show in camden was great. JC is joining the house band on Seth Meyers' show tonight, dunno for how long. he tweeted that there might be a "pumpkin gem" in the set. i think he means Ruby

https://scontent.fman1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/12108956_10153620687506397_5401487902949253546_n.jpg?oh=b6069b84c461a6a2b01c29cd12aa5810&oe=56C491DD

There was the same headline in a free recipe book with my veggie box delivery last week.

http://www.avclub.com/article/mellon-collie-foretold-both-glory-and-doom-smashin-226274

"Porcelina" is a high point of the record, if you ask me, but oh well. And the cover of the album....I guess it's an iconic image at this point twenty years on, but man it is gorgeous.

i didnt notice the angel was masturbating until a couple years ago