The Smashing Pumpkins

[Shadaloo]

MCIS & TAFH
SD & PI
MI&MII
Adore
Gish

[Pbgut]

The Smashing Pumpkins' Rarities & B-Sides collection is quite extensive. Picked up lossless of Qobuz. It's over 100 tracks. It's missing some stuff, but includes quite a bit.

The Mellon Collie and Aeroplane sets had a few shared tracks. The Dark Globe live CD that comes with the Aeroplane reissue is amazing. I do wish we got ALL of the Pastachio Medley tracks separated, even if they're just jams. But the boxsets are quite nice even though they left out some stuff. It does bug me. The Pumpkins have SO MUCH material though. During the releases of the reissue boxsets, there's been a bunch of stuff leaking that was not included. It's crazy how much material they got.

I hate when artists do reissues and ignore their b-sides. The electronic group Leftfield recently did a remastered reissue of their classic album Leftism with a bonus disc. But instead of remastering their amazing b-sides and alternate mixes, they included newly commissioned remixes from modern day producers. Such a shame because they have some amazing b-sides.

Yeah, that's a pretty comprehensive collection. I didn't know that existed outside of iTunes. I wasn't really paying attention to SP until the reissues and some early 30s nostalgia hit me, so I assumed that collection was iTunes Store only. I guess that definitely fills the void. SP seemed to have the most prolific output of any band of that era that I was aware of – they have almost four albums worth of B-sides and available out takes from 1991-2000 so it seemed like a shame to have them scattered all over the place after Aeroplane, but this is a good comp. Glad to know it exists in CD quality.

So I guess the main release we're missing is just Machina II. It's a pretty lo-fi record for a major label band (which I always liked!) so it's not a huge deal that we have vinyl rips as the only source but the couple of tracks on Greatest Hits did sound better so I hope we get to hear the rest.

The main reason I liked M2 better than M1 was because the very rough mix made it sound like it had the energy of "the band," which isn't something you got to hear very often with the group, due to the general use of like...40 guitar overdubs, even though some of the songs aren't as great. And there are about 4 songs on M1 that I really can't stand. The dirge-yness and the fat synths of some of the songs towards the end just really make it drag. I just wish it had been edited.

[Shadaloo]

Stream archive from today's Berlin performance.

[Shadaloo]

Processional
The Spaniards
Aeronaut
Half-Life of an Autodidact
Mandarynne
Antietam
If I Were a Carpenter (Tim Hardin)
To Sheila
Disarm
Muzzle
Drum + Fife
Try, Try, Try
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Tonight, Tonight

Encore:
Today
Cherry

[bobbie solo]

Jimmy is not a mortal man.

[neorev]

Jimmy is not a mortal man.

That Silverfuck performance is blistering

[Shadaloo]

Hearing dripping, cannot find tap

[imail724]

Hearing dripping, cannot find tap

Am I crazy or was this exact post posted a few days ago??

[Shadaloo]

Am I crazy or was this exact post posted a few days ago??

I had briefly but was not sure if source was legit or shitposting. Various vanished links corroborate the statement.

[Kodiak33]

It's streaming on NPR

http://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/554282...corgan-ogilala

[Shadaloo]

"Audio unavailable in your region, eat a bundle of razorcocks you fucking non US residents"

):

[armogi]

its not bad overall, very much an acoustic affair tho so miles away from TFE

[Shadaloo]

This absolutely shits all over everything he's done since 2007 barring maybe Oceania. Need more replays, but so far I'm loving this.

[sonic_discord]

I've gotta say, this is much better than I expected. I like it WAY more than TFE, but in my opinion, it doesn't come close to reaching the level of quality that Oceania achieved, though some of the songs remind me of tracks from that album. Zowie reminded me of A Song for a Son. The beginning of Processional reminded me a bit of the beginning of Pinwheels (my favorite track from Oceania). The piano in the beginning of Aeronaut is VERY reminiscent of the piano in Blank Page.

[Shadaloo]

Impressions after 2 days' listening:

Zowie is nice and simple. A sweet little tribute to Bowie. A shame about that bad Cain/Abel pun though, someone's been hanging out with Brian Warner too much. :P
Processional is a favorite of mine. James' guitar itself isn't much to write home about, it's just more notable that he's here, I guess. "It's a long way to get back home" is one of the album's most memorable lines IMO.
I still enjoy The Spaniards, but it doesn't hold up compared to most other tracks on here. Works well enough in the context of the album.
Same with Aeronaut. It's okay but it wore out its welcome quick.
The Long Goodbye's has a catchy enough verse. I think it's the grower for me.
Half-Life of an Autodidact is really, really great. It feels like someone lit a fire under his ass. Has a Residency 2007/IAGW feel. Honest and yearning. "I just got tired".
Amarinthe translated very well from the Plainsong performances to this album. Enjoyable.
Antietam's okay but a tad too repetitive.
Mandarynne's a good brooding piano number. A standout for me.
Shiloh is just kinda forgettable.
Archer...may be one of the best tracks he's done in two decades. It's worthy of SP1 at their heights. Reminds me of Echo and The Bunnymen. I can't love it enough. "I haven't given up, I'm just the archer for the sun"....I could write a fucking thesis on what that line might mean.

I'd say this is a much much more cohesive effort than I'm used to seeing from him, better than I was expecting nowadays. It really feels like the testament of a guy meditating about where he is in his life at fifty, meditating on successes and failures. Laying his fears bare but not dramatically pounding the walls over them. Some of his better vocals in a good long while, still a lot of vibrato everywhere but not so much it drags me out of the moment. It's mature. Almost easy-listening, but not quite. A good album for a rainy day, or a quiet drive. Very very enjoyable. Don't expect him to be baring fangs - it's a reflective work from a guy who wears healing crystals and runs a tea shop, but Billy Corgan is still in there.

I think it's a solid 7/10. Very possibly the strongest work he's put out since Machina, definitely the most earnest.

[valiantsteed]

This was such a pleasant listen. At a time when I kind of needed it.

Something about Billy just stripped down, pounding it out on the keys I found to be very authentic and refreshing. It still came from a relatively happy place, but wasn't afraid to go into some sad corners either.

This is an artist that has been pretty beaten up, torn down, frustrated and unable to find his place in the music world the last decade, and it's like he finally stopped caring about defining that and just approached this as this organic outlet for being ok with where he is now.

I'm not going to sit here and say its anything transcendent, or that it's a wild ride of variation you come to expect with most of his work, but it was an honest, coherent, and genuinely lovely effort that stands up there with the best post reunion work like American Gothic, the residency cuts, and the best of Oceania.

I very much look forward to catching him on this tour.

Wherever he and the SP name go after this, Ogilala is a worthy detour on WPC's path to get back home again. He might be closer than ever.

[Shadaloo]

For the curious, he's mentioned again in a Billboard interview when asked about the Zwan box, that he "would want to put out Machina I and II" before that happened. So that's not forgotten and maybe Zwan's not off the table. Says he's also written another record for maybe next year, doesn't discount new Pumpkins music next year concurrent with all the rumors, etc. Says jokingly that everybody as Spin's on cocaine.

After a week of listening I'm still enjoying the hell out of this.

[Shadaloo]

Recent interview links.

He's saying all sorts of really intriguing stuff about how he looks back on Oceania as good, not great, talking about how he's re-examining what he did with the original band versus 2.0 and afterward. Has had a lot of positive feedback on the new album, it seems.

-“I just feel like we’ve reached a point where – and I’m saying collectively ‘we’, whoever is still interested, and me on the other side – the generational memory of the band obliterates the reality of the band. And only the band can change that. I can’t change that. I’m not powerful enough to change it. I tried, I failed. Only the band’s alchemy can change that formula."

-Quote from D'Arcy while Billy was apologizing to her recently: "Billy. You wrote so many great songs, we never would've done that without you being that way. We were lazy, we were misguided. You had to be that way."

And the first shows of this tour have some fucking serious surprises:



Cannot fucking WAIT for the Toronto show Friday. I'm flabbergasted. It's starting to be a good time to be an SP fan again I think.

[rampface]

Gossamer is my favorite post-Machina song

[eversonpoe]

controversial opinion - "glass and the ghost children" is my favorite SP song, and may be the best song billy ever wrote.

[sonic_discord]

Controversial opinion: The Pumpkins were my favorite band for many years, but I've never cared much for the second half of Machina or most of Machina II. I honestly like Oceania better than Machina II. I loved nearly every song they released from Gish to Adore, though.

[neorev]

Man, why was this track never released? Get the original,band back and record this fucker right here...

[Shadaloo]

Controversial opinion:
TheFutureEmbrace is an extremely underrated album that has a fair amount of really good tunes.

[Amaro]

Jimmy is not a mortal man.

Ain't no coincidence his initials are JC. My Lord and Savior!!

Maybe my first drumming influence, back in 1996, before I even began drumming.

[Shadaloo]

So the absolute horror shitshow that has been the world of Marilyn Manson over the past few days blindsided me, but I'll report in now and say that I had a really, really fucking good time in Toronto the other night. Billy started out kind of crabby, and all but dismissed one guy up front who yelled up that the lights were too blinding (he was right). But he was in mostly good form, his mood improved as the night went on. No Gossamer, but we got two Machina tunes so I was more than happy. Someone kept shouting out Spaceboy, and he made cracks about having a toy monkey wind-up latch on his back, but he eventually acquiesced. When the crowd started really chanting his name - Billy, not William - he had a great big grin on his face. Last song of the night, Farewell and Goodnight, he had to restart a few times as audience comments had him laughing.

And he covered Miley Cyrus so that's all over youtube now and it was amazing:



What a great show.

[sonic_discord]

I expected the Miley cover to be cringe-worthy at best, but it surprisingly worked much better than I expected and lends itself to his singing style pretty well.

[october_midnight]

He did it for Fallon as well:

[Shadaloo]

Over the last few nights, BC's broken out a few unreleased solo numbers: Come Undone, Columbus, and last night, Chicago. There's also been a number called Full Sail which was one of the ones he brought up on the SP nexus for DFN

But dig this:

JC, Teamrock interview:

""We’re talking about maybe recording next year with the Pumpkins and I want to make sure [if that happens] that I bring some really different stuff to the table."

*Happy smile, hyperventilating through nose*

[october_midnight]

Billy covering Neil Young.

[october_midnight]