Number of Good Songs Had By the Smashing Pumkings

damn, didn't realize this was a poll about the Smashing Pumkings, the Kings of Pum.

ts: the smashing pumpkins vs the smashing pumkings vs just smashing pumpkins

everyone saying they only have 2.5 good songs has probably never heard Siva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzBVvD1vUvM

I have heard Siva. I have downloaded the "Mashed Potatoes" collection. I have experienced Viewphoria, Earphoria and Netphoria. I have heard the 'superior' mono mix of Adore, played on vinyl. I have at one point owned The Future Embrace.

The Passion Shopkins only have 2.5 good songs.

*Vieuphoria

ah well good then. imo the mono version of adore is not superior and billy was just being difficult when he said that

'blank page' tho

but really adore means they have at least 16 good songs, 15 if you want to be thorny about "ava adore"

all the boys think she's a spy
she's got smashy pumpkus eyes

i like anton webern

(xps) ...hence the quotes around superior.

Truth is Pisces Iscariot alone has more than 2.5 good songs.

Anyway, it's cool that you're into the Pumpkins. If you're receptive to further suggestions, may I recommend The Cure?

i like anton webern

Symphony is about as good as it gets. Will never part with Siamese Dream, though.

which is the one that goes "today is the greatest something something"?

http://sickhorses.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/billy-corgan.jpg

title track on the 'greatest something' ep

it's a crappy song

It has a sweet child o mine quality that is bad

works fine on the album, though

smashing pumkids

Today is the greatest crappy song I know

otm

but really adore means they have at least 16 good songs, 15 if you want to be thorny about "ava adore"

― lowercase (eric), Monday, February 19, 2018 7:49 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

now see this is my guy

In some alternative reality where they had done Gish, then finished the demos for Siamese Dream, before Billy Corgan tragically OD'ed, their legend would have slowly grown over the last few decades (like Neutral Milk Hotel or pre-Green Album Weezer), and the answer would be firmly in the double digits.

However, we live in a different strand of the multiverse which also has infowars and juvenile text message exchanges regarding reunion tours. Not to mention all that post-1993 output.

almost every song they released up until 1998 is good don't @ me

I like the drums and a lot of the guitar sound on the first album.

Prefer the gypsy pumkings tbh

Like many of the better alt rock bands of that era, they had a number of good songs which would have been amazing if they were instrumentals.

Like, how many bands were there in the '90s whose weakest link by far was the noise pollution coming from their frontman's facehole?

a lot

But yeah, if you're able to filter out Corgan's voice (which I'm seemingly able to do), basically this:

almost every song they released up until 1998 is good don't @ me

― Simon H., Tuesday, February 20, 2018 7:36 AM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, this.

I vividly remember when they debuted the first single off of Mellon Collie, and he started in with "The world is a vampire", and me thinking "he's can't seriously think that voice sounds good."
I was a pretty huge fan up until that moment, but I got off the bus in a hurry. The singing on the first 2 albums had very little hint of that adenoidal whine.

Pre-Bald Billy Punkins were okay, but the appearance of Nosferfat-u and the rat in a cage was the end of me ever wanting to listen to them voluntarily. Also, they were hot garbage at the Lollapalooza I saw them play. When a zitty Pavement fan thinks that your band can't "bring it" live, the whole enterprise is in trouble.

Counterpoint: they weren't good until he went bald

Mellon Collie is definitely where his voice begins to transition from weird to insufferable but I think it works well on "Bullet"

yeah that's a killer song. first time I heard it was a live broadcast and he really snarled that opening line. made the song. was a bit disappointed when i heard the recorded version but it's still a great song.

One of the many reasons Siamese Dream is their best record is that Butch Vig slathered enough reverb and processing onto his voice to make it tolerable, it's this barely human sounding wispy thing rather than this nasty weedly slimy thing.

you know, despite liking the Pumpkins through the nineties Siamese is the one that never really clicked too well with me. I like 'Soma' off that one.

In Spanish we refer to them as Smashing Pompis.

http://www.spanishdict.com/traductor/pompis

Corgan is pretty pompous ya

Pre-Bald Billy Punkins were okay, but the appearance of Nosferfat-u and the rat in a cage was the end of me ever wanting to listen to them voluntarily.

Technically Billy still had his hair in the "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" video, so there!

I find it funny that people are still arguing so vehemently about Corgan's voice in 2018, about 25 years after my classmates and I did the same thing during recess in 8th grade. I never thought it was that bad...

it would be a bit weird if he'd sounded like Sade

it's interesting how the 3/4 reunion announcement has made ppl talk about the Pumpkins and BC again for the first time in many years, IRL and on here it's mostly ppl that aren't fans or are casual fans. hence the voice discussion

and yea Billy sounds different on Gish and especially SD because Butch Vig made him do hundreds of takes, going so far as to comp individual syllables. on MCIS, not only did Billy record with a handheld mic w/o headphones, he didn't double track much, and Flood encouraged him to go for "passion rather than pitch," so... ymmv

I gave them 2.5 based on Gish alone, where I could 3, which were surely eroded to 2.5 by everything else they did.

which 3 tho

imo "good tracks" needs to be an integer. the line is set at 2.5 good tracks to set a clear threshold. so people claiming fractions of good tracks are misinformed rats in cages despite all their rages.

his voice is good, his commercial sell out songs from the mid-late 90s are awesome

that suggests he ever had any indie hangups about 'selling out' to begin with. are you talking about the soundtrack songs, "Eye" and "The End is the Beginning is the End"?

.5 is symbolic

it means i like a couple tracks but i don't buy their whole shtick

kinda like when you like one or two things in a song and then the singer messes it up

i didn't realize any of this wasn't symbolic. still, there are correct and incorrect ways to do things. going to flag your post, but note for the mods that it should only count as .5 a flag post. i disagree with the post's content, but i appreciate that you had the good sense to double space.

i would resist aligning their whole schtick with my music taste personally but think they certainly have more than 2.5 good songs, think billy corgan possibly had a deluded view of what he was good at but was nonetheless talented & applied his passion in ways that did result in good music, maybe semi-accidentally (or more accidentally than most artists) i almost feel like 'intent' for corgan couldn't possibly align with what makes him good, but at any rate, what symbolic answer is that? i voted 'a lot'

anyone saying 2.5 to me feels like they're really pushing against the grain of history or just have a distaste for their work idk