If you're only going to have one original member of Smashing Pumpkins left, at least we've got the right man for the job. Yes, Jimmy Chamberlin is an amazing drummer, and he strikes me as a really lovely guy too based on spending some time interviewing him in recent years. Yet let's all face the facts: more than most groups, Smashing Pumpkins is -- and always has been -- first and foremost the fantastically tense creative playground of one wildly talented singer-songwriter and musician named Billy Corgan.
Now truth be told, I was not the biggest Pumpkinshead during their initial run -- I was more of an aging Nirvana-man, frankly. But over the past decade, I've come to really admire Corgan for his talent and his strong commitment to following his own muse rather than simply taking the standard issue rocky path of least resistance. Like Pete Townshend before him, Corgan seems like a man who takes the responsibility of being a rock star profoundly and even painfully seriously, grappling intellectually with the gig rather than just cashing in at every turn. As a result, Corgan may not always make things easy on his fans -- or on himself -- but he's always interesting. In an age of premature nostalgia, Corgan clearly wants his music to matter in the present tense. Not that he's a complete purist, as demonstrated by the recent use of the Pumpkins' classic "Today" on a Visa commercial.
But I choose to embrace Corgan in all his contradictions. And despite his apparent problems working and playing well with others in a band context, I have to report that I have found him to be incredibly bright, witty and honest on a personal level. To see some of the qualities on display, tune in April 2nd when Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin make what now looks like it will be their last shared TV appearance with the current Pumpkins lineup on the Chris Isaak Hour, a new show on the Bio Channel that I really love even if I am a producer on it.
Until then, don't give into Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness just yet -- and please, leave that Smashing Pumpkin alone, bitches.
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He tours under the name Smashing Pumpkins, he wants Smashing Pumpkins fame/money
With Jimmy Chamberlin gone, it's a joke to continue under the Smashing Pumpkins name. He bitches about people who show up to Pumpkins shows expecting to hear the big radio hits, yet he's insistent on billing these shows as Smashing Pumpkins.
If he retired the Pumpkins name and toured under as a solo act with a backing band, he would jusitifiab
If you haven't noticed, SP setlists consist of lots of B-sides, unreleased tracks, soundtrack songs, and cuts from Machina II (no retail release), and other EP/single cuts. Billy should realize that many people fell in love with the 90s Smashing Pumpkins band that had FM radio success. When people pay $60+ for a ticket to an SP show, they're going to expect to hear a few hits.
Billy, if you're the only original member, and you don't want to play the radio hits, maybe you should tour as a solo artist with a backing band.
Billy should follow Trent Reznor's lead, he plays for 2+ hours a night with a great mix of hits, new songs, and usually a couple deep cuts from old albums.
What is up with all you haters?
If you want to talk about a musician that has always "followed his own muse", to the tune of sticking with the indie label that has done him well -- you should be talking about Stephen Malkmus.
I hate to make these heavy claims when I'm limited to 250 words by this form, but what rock songwriter tells a story better than Stephen Malkmus? Over the last 20 years, since Malkmus launched a career from a perfectly noisy, feedback-l
For the '90's, if Kurt Cobain is John Lennon, and you say Corgan is Pete Townshend, then Stephen Malkmus is McCartney plus Dylan, only a much more creative guitar player.
Excuse me, but isn't this the same Billy Corgan who testified to Congress that he thinks the Live Nation/Tic
But you should ask him?
He clearly has not taken the path of least resistance
As I see it, the most obvious way he's "making things quite difficult for himself" in this scenario is that he's risking losing the respect of everyone who formerly held him in any kind of regard.
Just curious, why do you find curious about the Townshend reference?
DW
I do think the band name has a power -- to others and to Billy himself.
DW
I know the nostalgia thing is overdone. Still, the feeling I got watching the SP videos in the nineties was almost poetic. They were beautiful in their own weird way...and he had hair!!!!
He had hair -- yet they were not a hair band.