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Billy Corgan possibly reforming the Smashing Pumpkins (for real this time)

Started by Spiteface, August 14, 2016, 02:51:15 PM

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Clownbaby

I can't bear the sound of Billy Corgan's voice now. People have always said he's got a very grating voice but I like it in their older stuff. Recent Billy Corgan sounds really off

QDRPHNC

YouTube coughed up Mayonaise right after Solara.

It's remarkable how sharp and steep Corgan's creative decline has been. It's painful to listen to this new stuff and know that this is the same band that made Siamese Dream. He's the poster boy for... something. Believing your own press? Rampant ego? Putting ideology ahead of the music?

Sebastian Cobb

You don't really need anything more than Gish, Siamese abd Mellon Collie.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 06, 2018, 07:11:42 PM
You don't really need anything more than Gish, Siamese abd Mellon Collie.

I think even the last one is debatable. It's got some great stuff, but just as much dreck.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: QDRPHNC on July 06, 2018, 07:16:48 PM
I think even the last one is debatable. It's got some great stuff, but just as much dreck.

Yeah, but you've got to see it in context; it could've been trimmed down to a single lp, but this was a time when mudhoney and nirvana were releasing things that made punk sound overproduced, a double album of absolute self-indulgence was exactly what the SP's needed to do.

Hecate

What about Pisces Iscariot? I remember really liking that at the time.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 06, 2018, 07:26:52 PM
Yeah, but you've got to see it in context; it could've been trimmed down to a single lp, but this was a time when mudhoney and nirvana were releasing things that made punk sound overproduced, a double album of absolute self-indulgence was exactly what the SP's needed to do.

I agree with that. I loved Mellon Collie when it came out. But now, looking back over their releases, Gish, Siamese Dream and maybe, as Hecate said, Pisces Iscariot (coming from those early sessions) are essential.



Enzo


JohnnyCouncil

Especially Machina II.

Basically the original run was something special, whether Melvoin, Melissa, Matt Walker or whoever were around. It's not just as simple as the original 4.

VelourSpirit

The Pumpkins' output in the 90s was crazy. Have you seen that Mellon Collie deluxe version? It was already basically deluxe!

Quote from: QDRPHNC on July 06, 2018, 07:16:48 PM
I think even the last one is debatable. It's got some great stuff, but just as much dreck.

A lot of people say this but I don't think I'd cut a single track. Which ones do you not like?

the ouch cube

'Thru The Eyes Of Ruby' rambles around but I don't hate it.

'Tales Of A Scorched Earth' is ridiculous and could have been written by Weird Al parodying Corgan, but...I still don't hate it.

I love about 95% of Mellon Collie. So it's all gold up to that point for me. Loved most of Adore too.

QDRPHNC

I don't mean to say that there haven't been any high points since there first 2 or 3 albums - there are many. But personally, I just find the SD era had a certain something - a tension and inventiveness that felt like a band in some kind of perfect synchronicity. As band members departed and changed, as Corgan's desire to shoehorn his spiritual beliefs (whatever they may be) into the songs increased, the work began to feel flatter and flatter, and we end up with Solara, a song that's not bad exactly, just really pretty bland and forgettable.

This is just me though, and I'm sure nostalgia and "being there" at a particular time in my life plays a big role in this. And having said all that, I thought Ogilala was really excellent, understated and evocative that for me define the band at their best. It's clear that Corgan's still got it, he just seems to find it harder to pull that it out of himself as consistently and as well-formed as he used to.

VelourSpirit

Quote from: the ouch cube on July 08, 2018, 05:39:24 PM
'Thru The Eyes Of Ruby' rambles around but I don't hate it.

'Tales Of A Scorched Earth' is ridiculous and could have been written by Weird Al parodying Corgan, but...I still don't hate it.

Funny, I had a look to see if I really did dislike any of the tracks and those were the ones I questioned. Agreed though about both. Wouldn't want the album without the beginning and end of Ruby. I used to hate Scorched Earth, especially since it comes straight after one of the best songs of the 90s and ruins the mood for me, so I could do without that one actually. Maybe I'll try that original vinyl track listing so Beautiful comes after 1979 instead.

Clownbaby

Where The Boys Fear to Tread might be my favourite song off Mellon Collie. I love that riff, it's so snakey. That's how I would describe the best Smashing Pumpkins songs. Snakey.

Spiteface

New album announced:

https://www.alternativenation.net/smashing-pumpkins-make-big-new-album-announcement-return-1994/

So, James Iha's back in the fold and a new album being compared to PISCES FUCKING ISCARIOT???

I like this very much.

Paaaaul

Quote from: Spiteface on August 29, 2018, 09:05:12 PM
New album announced:

https://www.alternativenation.net/smashing-pumpkins-make-big-new-album-announcement-return-1994/

So, James Iha's back in the fold and a new album being compared to PISCES FUCKING ISCARIOT???

I like this very much.

It's compared to Pisces Iscariot because it's unfocused, not because it's going to be any good.

VelourSpirit

New single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSb9YSr38u8
The production makes it painful to listen to but I don't know if the song is even that good anyway. I like it more than Solara I suppose. I thought Solara was lacking some kind of sweetness in the melody that I would always find even in the harsh Smashing Pumpkins songs. I don't think they'll recapture what they had before (not that there isn't already enough great Corgan material from the 90s.)

Spiteface

Billy Corgan gets his 1974 strat back.

For those who don't know their Pumpkins gear, this was his main guitar for recording and touring Gish, up until its theft in 1992.



Kinda funky how it pops up again now, though.

ToneLa

Quote from: Spiteface on February 07, 2019, 08:25:36 PM
Billy Corgan gets his 1974 strat back.

For those who don't know their Pumpkins gear, this was his main guitar for recording and touring Gish, up until its theft in 1992.



Kinda funky how it pops up again now, though.



Hopefully it still has a few songs of that vintage to rattle out of it.

Spiteface

He still has his original Marshall JCM800 "SOUL" head as well:



http://glittercop.blogspot.com/2009/10/body-and-soul-behind-guitar-sounds-of.html

He's got to use that setup at least once for the next Pumpkins album, now.

Pancake

So apparently the Machina rerelease is happening this year finally????

Pancake

Quote from: Clownbaby on July 09, 2018, 10:57:02 AM
Where The Boys Fear to Tread might be my favourite song off Mellon Collie. I love that riff, it's so snakey. That's how I would describe the best Smashing Pumpkins songs. Snakey.

Think the run of songs that goes Take Me Down > Where Boys > Bodies might be one of my favourites, from disgustingly saccharine to mean and brooding to incendiary and relentless

Pancake

Quote from: Pancake on June 26, 2020, 02:41:01 PM
So apparently the Machina rerelease is happening this year finally????

So apparently this is happening this year????