Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

Why do they want to know so much about Mike? Well, I've got this bit I can run by them again...

is it possible that monuments to an elegy is their best release since mellon collie?

i've liked all of the new songs to varying degrees of like.

still, no

it's really good and easily the best of Pumpkins 2.0 but, no, let's not get crazy

I had such low low expectations for this, but it turns out that Corgan limiting himself to 3-4 minute pop song format + more synths + Tommy Lee on drums = surprisingly, a good result

“Now, he and I didn’t necessarily get along. But I like to sing his praises, because he really was that talented. I like to think the world with him would have been a better place, and I like to think a lot of the crap music that followed wouldn’t have existed if he had been around to criticise it. Because he had the moral standing to slay generations with a strike of the pen.” Although they didn’t get on, did Corgan, then, look up to Cobain?

“No. In the purest sense of the word, we were competitors. He and I were the top two scribes, and everybody else was a distant third.”

Everyone else.

Everybody.

Kinda pathetic how wedded this guy is to the 90s angst rock dream, for all the big ideas he seems so narrow in focus in other ways

It's easy enough to get in physical trouble with tools as it is.

The problem is the guy is all about big, and not enough about ideas.

having heard the new record

1) man is it better than oceania (which was SO BORING)
2) man is it his best record since thefutureembrace (hi ned)
3) this is coming from a dude who felt he could make a pretty decent ep out of the zeitgeist stuff so ymmv

yeah, p low bars there (tho I do remember liking some of thefutureembrace)

part of why i feel so charitable toward the record is 9 songs in 32 minutes is maybe the most concise billy's ever been

also it's sort of astounding how much "one and all" sounds like a top-tier mellon collie b-side

I'm suspicious of the short runtime/lack of epics, feel like it's a headfake in advance of a ludicrous three-hour guitarphonic splooge

sure but he'll never finish it

also it's sort of astounding how much "one and all" sounds like a top-tier mellon collie b-side

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, December 6, 2014 9:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's because it basically is, billy bastardized the riff from "The Viper" and made it worse lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edEM4MmSrnQ

ah well that wouldn't be the first time he's done that in pumpkins mk ii

I thought Quasar was pretty cool - that was like a pastiche of Cherub Rock, Frail & Bedazzled, Jellybelly, and Siva. my favorite song on Oceania is "The Celestials," would've been perfect on the new one.

but Monuments = Best Since Mellon Collie? ....ADORE???

I haven't heard this yet, but the fact that people are saying it's better than Oceania is definitely getting me excited. I still listen to Oceania on a regular basis and rate it highly. I loathe Zeitgeist.

MTAE only sold 17k in its first week....yikes

I have no idea if that's good or bad anymore.

I've just finished catching up on that RedditAMA that Corgan did, and found myself chuckling at the reactions to Corgan's... uh... Corgan-like way of answering questions.

2) man is it his best record since thefutureembrace (hi ned)

Noted. But I'm in a non-rush to hear this.

Future Embrace doesn't get enough respect at all, from anyone.

Do you think you’ve suffered from false narratives throughout your career?

I think that’s obvious. I’m laughing because I thought for sure I would get really strong reviews for our new album [Monuments to an Elegy], based on all the feedback I was getting. But I’m getting the same reviews I got back in the day, these kind of middling, muddling reviews that just won’t fucking say: “This is a fucking brilliant album from a brilliant artist.”

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/18/billy-corgan-smashing-pumpkins-interview

nice.

MTAE only sold 17k in its first week....yikes

― ET sippin the wig (spazzmatazz), Thursday, December 11, 2014 3:46 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have no idea if that's good or bad anymore.

― DavidLeeRoth, Thursday, December 11, 2014 8:20 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's about 1/3rd of what Oceania did the first week, and that wasn't exactly a blockbuster either, so yeah

This Guardian interview is amazing.

Dear Billy Corgan, if you make it seem like what you do is easy, then people will think it's easy. If you churn out material like it means nothing to you, then people will think you churn out music like it means nothing to you. If you keep hiring and firing musicians, then people will think they mean nothing, too. If you keep saying stupid things, then people will think you are stupid. If you think that no one understands your brilliance like you do, then you are not brilliant.

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!