Smashing Pumpkins try, try, try again
Long time followers of The Hit List already know I'm a bit of a Smashing Pumpkins freak. This probably makes me the least cool music blogger around. Perhaps I need to grow a beard, wear stubbies and singlets and start listening to bands that don't even exist yet.
Would that be cool? Yikes ... I don't even know what cool is anymore.
But too bad, this is my blog, so you're all going to have to suffer through another post about Billy Corgan and his ever-changing lifetime-long project that he still refers to as the Smashing Pumpkins.
Here's a quick update for fans still flip-flopping about the band: Since the release of the average Zeitgeist in 2007, original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain has left the band once again, and Corgan is now recording with 19-year-old stickman Mike Byrne. Corgan is still tall, bald and alienesque.
And the Pumpkins have just released a new single. It's called A Song for a Son and it's from a planned 44-track album consisting of four EPs that Corgan is going to release for free, song-by-song, over the next 18 months. It's called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. You can download the first track for free here.
I've only got one thing to say to Corgan: Pretentious, much?
But the Pumpkins have always been at their best when they're being ridiculously over-the-top - their best songs, in my opinion, are nine-minute prog-rock monsters like Silverf**k from Siamese Dream, Starla from Pisces Iscariot, United States from Zeitgeist and last year's unreleased tracks Gossamer and Superchrist. If you only click on one of those links, make it the last one. Whoa.
But let's be honest here, A Song for a Son isn't a great start to such a grand undertaking - Rolling Stone described it as a Stairway to Heaven ripoff, so that gives you some idea of what to expect. I have a bone to pick with the lyrics, and Siamese Dream fans probably won't care for it one jot.
Will you be downloading the songs for free? Or will you wait and buy the whole lot at once? Will you wait and see if Corgan can recapture some of that Pumpkins magic?
Or are the Smashing Pumpkins dead to you now?
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Old Billy is hot. I'll be downloading.
I've only ever liked Bullet with Butterfly Wings never liked any of thier other stuff and tthier last single was pretty average and hadn't heard from them in ages so assumed Corgan finally gave up.
Siamese Dream is my favourite Pumpkins album, so I'm not looking forward to this new material at all. Post Siamese Dream I really lost interest in the Smashing Pumpkins. I like Bullet With Butterfly Wings and 1979 quite a lot, but most of Mellon Collie leaves me cold and ditto for the rest of the later stuff. I think I'd have to be very, very stoned to listen to Melon Collie or Zeitgeist all the way through, and that's not a good thing.
I want to like it. I really do. I'm not sure I dislike it cause it does sound like a blatant ripoff of stairway or cause I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from seeing the Pumpkins live...
They used to be soo good!
Gish, Siamese Dream and to a lesser extent Adore are fantastic albums. Siamese Dream is in my top 5 albums of all time. A rare album I caan play all the way through and enjoy. I don't want to ruin my memories by playing this new weird s**t.
Billy Corgan and Jessica Simpson.....eww
The Pumpkins have been one of my favourite bands for years and years. But lately (and I mean since the reform and the Zeitgeist episode)Billy just seems disparate to recapture the magic and success they experienced in the 90s.
I don't think Jimmy was really anything special, as evident from the Zeitgeist album, so leaving wouldn't really harm the Pumpkins now. I think Billy really needs James Iha back.
I don't really have any faith in this new project, and have been largely unimpressed with Zeitgeist and American Gothic. I sometimes think some bands should just stay broken up, and not try to recapture what they had. At least this way they don't ruin their legacy.
I think it's a good song but the way it was recorded is a bit disappointing. When they were first playing it live it had lots of promise. Plus the drums on the track sound terrible! Jimmy will definitely be missed.
I think it's a cool concept for an album - keeps the fans interested over a long period and you can see how the album evolves song by song.
mmmm... and kinda struggling to see any Stairway to Heaven similarities personally.
Massive Smashing Pumpkins fan but wow i've lost a lot of respect for Billy. Why would anybody date Jessica Simpson? Seriously!! What is the world coming to!!
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It really IS a Stairway ripoff.
I've wanted to like the Pumpkins' newer stuff, but aside from a few tracks here and there (Superchrist, United States, G.L.O.W. and one or two others) the reality is it just isn't as good as their classic material.
Now that Jimmy has left (again) I really have my doubts too - I've always felt he was crucial to the Pumpkins' sound.
I think I'll check out the tracks as they come and then decide whether or not to buy the physical release.