Looks like Amazon keeps dropping the price of the Adore reissue. It's down to $85. IIRC it started out at $99.95. My initial order was for $95.
Looks like Amazon keeps dropping the price of the Adore reissue. It's down to $85. IIRC it started out at $99.95. My initial order was for $95.
great interview with Matt Walker about various things, mostly smashing pumpkins-related.
Unreleased Puff Daddy remix of 'Ava Adore'
Spoiler: It's not that great...or different, just some strings.
that remix is so bloody awful. no wonder it didn't get out.
(one less track to wade through on the reissue! more time for the good ones!)
*throws up*
In other news, there was a crackdown on Netphoria so any leaks are going to take just that much longer to show up. Le sad.
Last edited by nobies; 08-28-2014 at 11:18 PM.
Chicago Tribune's review of last night's Billy Corgan show.
Rolling Stone reviewThe rock star inside Billy Corgan refuses to be tamed, even at a solo show advertised as acoustic. Saturday at Ravinia, the Smashing Pumpkins leader began his first career-spanning concert unaccompanied before being joined by the group's guitarist, Jeff Schroeder, for the remainder of the 150-minute set. But even before a bizarre finale that witnessed Corgan invite dozens of personalities from his pro-wrestling league onstage, the duo ballooned into a sextet and succumbed to excess.
Not one to take the easy route, Corgan challenged himself and the audience. Performing a stone's throw from both his Highland Park home and Madame ZuZu's tea shop, the 47-year-old delved deep into his vast catalog, balancing familiar fare with material only ardent followers might recognize. The bold decision owed to Corgan's desire to move beyond his band's heyday—particularly, songs made between 1993 and 1998—and expose music he created since the quartet's original lineup broke up at the turn of the century.
Corgan's determination to prove his contemporary worth arrived in form of unreleased tunes ("Lonely Is the Name"), rarities ("The Rose March"), new epics ("Burnt Orange Black") and selections from his unissued "ChicagoSongs/ChicagoKid" project, including the lengthy "The World's Fair" during which the vocalist/guitarist ordered up a patience-testing stream of electronic blips and bleeps. Since none were mentioned by name, the obscure songs retained a mystique yet seemed devoid of relatable context. By contrast, the frontman explained the personal tension surrounding the grand "Methusela," which received its live debut with assistance from backing tracks.
Piped-in samples also boosted "Thirty-Three" and "1979," part of a suite of stripped-down "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" compositions that displayed Corgan's growth as a singer. Replacing volume with nuance and screaming with suggestiveness, he put the lyrics on equal footing with beautiful melodies. Focusing on such details, he drew out extra poignancy and vulnerability, particularly on the fragile note-interlaced twirl of "Galapogos" and piano-based confession "To Forgive."
Unfortunately, ambitiousness bested Corgan during the last third of the show. Unshackled from any instrument, he relied on industrial-tinged samples and struck dramatic poses for what came across as self-absorbed hellfire-and-brimstone preaching during "The Crying Tree of Mercury." Adding two members of Ex Cops and a rhythm section to the fray didn't help, as they often sent Corgan in dreadful new-age directions. By then, however, the singer already attained needed clarity.
"But now, I wonder who I was," he sang on "Perfect," before pausing and grinning, content to leave the past behind and brave the future on his own terms.
By Dan Hyman | August 31, 2014
For much of the early 2000s, Billy Corgan had trouble embracing his legacy as a grunge god: The Smashing Pumpkins frontman regularly railed against his own fans, tangled with the press and made no secret of his disdain for trotting out his old band's biggest hits. But in making 2012's Oceania, his views began to shift. "Something's happening," he told Rolling Stone at the time. "I've played a lot of shows and you know when it's going up and you know when it's going down and you know when it's going nowhere. It's definitely going up."
It was with this rejuvenated, lively spirit that the 47-year-old singer played a rare Saturday evening solo show at the Ravinia Festival in the leafy Chicago suburb of Highland Park – his only scheduled gig of 2014. Wearing a blazer and occasionally accompanied by Pumpkins' guitarist Jeff Schroeder – Corgan crossed his career with a 27-song set that included songs from Zwan, his solo years and that band he played in with Jeff.
Corgan, his voice solidly preserved, debuted a piano tribute to Chicago at the outset of the evening. Popular Siamese Dream fare like "Today" and "Disarm" were both re-imagined as gentle, tempered acoustic charmers, and solo records such as the arpeggio-laden "Prairie Song" and the Future Embrace cut "Now (And Then)" were played for the first time since 2005. Likewise, the thrashing Machina/The Machines of Gods cut "The Crying Tree of Mercury" was brought out for the first time since 1999, and "Burnt Orange Black," a fiery new solo track featuring a rare (and tasteful) guitar solo, had never been played at all.
The night's unquestioned centerpiece, though, was a nine-song suite dedicated exclusively to the Pumpkins' 1995 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. This portion of the show included never-before-performed Mellon Collie outtake "Methusela" – the ode to his father, Corgan explained, was once too personal to even demo for producers Alan Moulder and Flood – and reserved yet emotionally jarring acoustic takes on "Muzzle" and "Galapagos" and "Tonight Tonight." The gorgeous "1979," boosted by a backing drum track, felt tinny and flat by comparison
"You guys are too kind," Corgan told the crowd several times throughout the night, brimming with satisfaction and delight. For a man who moped his way through much of the Nineties and once seemed at risk of fading entirely from the spotlight, one couldn't help but appreciate Corgan's magnificent smile.
Last edited by allegro; 08-31-2014 at 03:56 PM.
We weren't sure what to expect. We are Ravinia members, we live about a mile up the street, and we get advance Pavilion seats if we want so we managed to get some pretty good seats, about 14th row center. We thought it would be 2 1/2 hours of acoustic and my husband was worried he'd lapse into a Billy Corgan coma, but it wasn't just acoustic and it was pretty interesting. It was separated into four vignettes, and each got a little more electric and a little louder (well, except for the last one, which went kinda all New Age), the 3rd vignette was probably the most interesting, with Billy shedding his guitar and going into his Rock God microphone-gripping stance which seemed odd at first since we'd expected this James-Taylor kinda thing all night long. But by the 2nd song of this 3rd vignette, this one chick kinda figured it all out, with this synth track pumping in the background, and she was the sole person standing and pumping her "number one" sign in the air, but nobody really "got" it except for her and this drunk groupie up front among the old typical Ravinia patrons, and she was standing and gyrating before Billy, and Billy was largely ignoring her, in true Rock God style. But Billy closed this vignette with "Ava Adore" and a REAL DRUMMER appeared and I stood up and turned around and said 'COME ON' and we all stood up and everybody started dancing, lol, and it was fun, the entire Pavilion was dancing, and by that time Corgan was smiling a lot. But then he started the final vignette with the 2 singers from the Ex Cops and with Sierra Swan and while somewhat compelling, it was rather anti-climactic. :-( For the encore, he came back out and started fiddling with the giant stack of his analogue synths and that was mostly confusing to people ("what's with R2D2?") and then he closed with a HUGE group from his wrestling TV show coming on stage and singing. I don't remember the song. The wrestling TV show crew was wandering around Ravinia Festival filming all night. That was weird because your "consent" to being on TV was a "sign" that was about 2 feet by 2 feet posted rather inconspicuously at the entrance that verbosely stated that there would be filming happening and if you didn't like that, you had to LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Even though you'd paid for a ticket. But, by staying, you were consenting. Which I think is technically not even legal. But whatever. Every time the film crew came near me, I flipped them off. I don't want to be on TV. Overall, it was a nice evening and Billy obviously put a lot of thought into it and we got our money's worth, for sure. Billy lives in the Ravinia neighborhood so this was kind of important to him.
Last edited by allegro; 09-01-2014 at 12:47 PM.
Methusela got played?!
This show sounds amazingly weird. I know this kind of show isn't ever going to be standard (and if it was it'd take anything special about it away), but wow, that all sounds incredibly out there and different a breath of fresh air. Congrats to anyone who went!
HERE IS THE FINAL ENCORE, SOMEBODY UPLOADED IT!
Consequence of Sound review plus some videos and pics
Setlist:
VIP rehearsal
The Killing Moon (Echo & The Bunnymen cover)
Purr Snickety (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Owata (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Main Set
Chicago
Today (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Disarm (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Lonely is the Name
As Time Draws Near
For Your Love (Zwan)
The Rose March (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Perfect (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Let Me Give the World to You (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Prairie Song (Zwan)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (The Smashing Pumpkins)
To Forgive (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Muzzle (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Tonight, Tonight (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Galapogos (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Methusela (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Thirty-Three (The Smashing Pumpkins)
1979 (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Now (And Then)
The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning (The Smashing Pumpkins)
The Crying Tree of Mercury (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Ava Adore (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Pinwheels (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Stand Inside Your Love (The Smashing Pumpkins)
Which Way You Goin’ Billy? (The Poppy Family cover)
Burnt Orange-Black
Encore:
The World’s Fair
Of a Broken Heart (Zwan song)
Ravinia Festival added photos to their Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9998077&type=1
Today, Disarm, 1979
The Rose March
Ava Adore
Last edited by allegro; 09-01-2014 at 12:43 AM.
I think I'd actually go and see that show. The setlist is really cool.
@allegro , you're my hero.
Was "Let Me Give The World To You" performed by Billy solo or did Jeff help out on that one?
the "real drummer" was matt walker.
Yeah that had been established way earlier in the thread because BC had announced it. But up until that point in the show, he was using the synth track for drums which was hardly at all. (I used the term "real drummer" since it seemed weird that a drum kit was up there on stage gathering dust for 3 hours and was used for, like, 2 songs.)
The funniest part of the evening was at the sushi restaurant in the Ravinia Business District before the show; we've been going to this restaurant for well over 15 years, since before the current owners took over. The owners, a brother and 2 sisters, are the nicest people, they treat my senior citizen mom like royalty; the sushi chef asks "HOW'S YOUR MOM?" every time I come in; seeing Smashing Pumpkins fans with purple hair and tattoos and odd band t-shirts filling the place and eating the Corgan Roll was priceless. I hope the owners at least got a lot of business out of this shindig.
Last edited by allegro; 09-01-2014 at 12:54 PM.
Burnt Orange-Black may be one of the best songs in a good long while. And I need to hear that Killing Moon cover, holy shit.
Track previews courtesy itunes. Cash Car Star is weird.
That Banjo "To Sheila" is AMAZING.
i think i hear D'arcy and James in the backing vocals too.
damn billy, your editing in you later half resulted in a ton of better b-sides than album tracks....
Last edited by dvdglss; 09-12-2014 at 10:14 AM. Reason: spelling
For those who missed some or all the leaks from this summer, the 9 song collection can now be found down by the bay for your listening pleasure.
I heard that the Adore extras have leaked, but I'm not 100% sure if true. I'm a member on Netphoria, an SP fan forum, and a bunch of folks are requesting PMs for them.
I am trying to see if I can get a copy if all is legit.
Anyone else hear anything?