Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

too bad the recording's SOOO bad.

Trust the recording, it was terrible.

The fact that Zwan was also supposed to "harken back to the glory days" suggests otherwise. :/

I think this is already happening. There's some sort of basic indie life cycle, where whatever alt-rock was doing when you were 13-18 is pretty aces, and then after that, when you discovered indie music in college and you swore off the radio, at that point the landscape changes. In the bands my age (25) or younger you're getting an increasing number of kids who will speak with sincere admiration for the kick-assness of radio fare like the Foo Fighters' first three albums, which if they came out today would be dismissed immediately. Anyway, all this pontificating aside, I hear the Pumpkins thing in an increasing number of things, and the mix of bombast and sensitivity will always sell pretty well. (I'll bet you dollars to donuts that tons of those emo-hit bands are namechecking the Pumpkins in interviews - wall of guitar, keening whine, no one understand me, what's not to love?) Bear in mind that I love Mellon Collie - see this thread, and love equally things that I hear today that feel like they're made out of the same ingredients - "The Zookeeper's Boy" by Mew pops into my mind....

but the writing on adore is really sharp. it helped them to shed the loud guitars for a spell.

oh, and i probably obsessed over siamese dream briefly in the mid-nineties. same as any kid.

Not to mention the fact that the My Chemical Romance guy really does LOOK a lot like Corgan!

Finally got around to hearing the "Quiet and Other Songs" Siamese Dream demo tape that just got leaked...

It's pretty fuzzy and wobbly... there's a great big rockin version of "set the ray to jerry" on it that makes me wish they had fully fleshed out a version like it later on (much as i love the released version)

it seems billy had only written 1/4 of the lyrics to these songs at this point... he mumbles all over the place..

I was really desperate to hear this back in high school, but hell if i know why... maybe i thought it would contain a little more of the supposed mbv influence billy was talking about back then...

how did this leak anyway? i thought the only copy was at the library of congress (where they'll whip the piss out of you if you try to copy anything)

Hmm, thank you for the tip...

Looks like it's been here since August or so:
http://www.thepumpkins.net/content/view/647/47/

Classic, even if only for Corgan appearing on ECW wrestling and taking someone out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3o2LY9uU6M

I like the guitar sound on Siamese Dream a lot. Hate his voice though, doesn't everyone.

"Smashing Pumpkins to release professional pre-Gish material; re-release Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie; Gish and Siamese Dream tour to follow in United States."

(This is from a friend who has a friend in the band. Not sure it's been announced yet, so you heard it here first.)

Billy suddenly realizing why people liked him in the first place, I see. Anyway, nice to hear that stuff like "Jennifer Ever" and "There It Goes" and all that will be getting released formally.

Ned, did you ever get around to hearing Zeitgeist, and if so...?

I think I heard enough to sigh and shrug at.

Wonder what, if any, bonus material they'd put on MCIS. Anything left that wouldn't be greeted with a shrug by the masses that already own the singles box from that album?

There's a number of completed songs that never made it (think everything that makes up "Pistachio Medley"). "Methuselah" would be a good choice.

True, didn't think of all those. Totally forgot about "Methuselah". The only boots I really have from that period are those instrumental demos of Billy's.

still waiting for the dozen essential live versions of silverfuck to come out

Good call. I think they need a Silverfucked in the vein of that Grateful Dead album that combines all the versions of "Dark Star".

I just noticed that the Pumpkins' song "Thirty-Three" sounds almost exactly the same as the song "Journey to the Past" from the 20th Century Fox movie, Anastasia.

Seriously, listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m2BBC5dwoE

Turns out the Pumpkins song came out in 1995, while Anastasia hit theaters in 1997. So we at least know the Pumpkins didn't rip off a kids' movie for the best single from Mellon Collie.

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...