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Billy Corgan

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Evan

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I Adore the Smashing Pumpkins.

Great joke! I'm assuming it was intentional :lol:

Adore is one of my favorite albums in fact.

Some of my favorite songs from Adore:

-To Sheila (beautiful poetry, amazing musical achievement)

-Pug

-Daphne Descends

-Once Upon a Time (reminds me of a modern minstrel song)

Gish has some cool songs on it and is a pretty raw album. Siamese Dream is an amazing album. Mellon Collie is huge and sort of a mixed bag in my opinion. Machina and Machina II weren't as impressive as their earlier works as Corgan tried to make a concept album lyrically with limited success :).

I do like some of the stuff from Machina...namely "Stand Inside your Love" and "raindrops+ sunshowers."

Unfortunately they are another band wrecked from inner turmoil.
There whole career was marked by turmoil. However, they made a pretty good go at it. If they reunite, I'm SO going to go see them. I hadn't gotten into The Smashing Pumpkins until right before they broke up so I never got to see them play live.

There is a strong possibility that they might reunite in 2006, so keep your fingers crossed.

For info on that check out this link and scroll to near the bottom of the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smashing_Pumpkins

How long before great artists realize that there is no loss when others are great (or at least good) too?

What are you referring to here? What do you think of Billy Corgan's solo work (I'm not talking about Zwan, but rather his REAL solo work that he put out this last summer called "The Future Embrace").

If you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend doing so:

www.myspace.com/billycorgan

I really like Mina Loy (there is a a live video of Corgan's Letterman performance on that Myspace page) and "To Love Somebody" (an old Bee Gee's cover) and "A100" (which isn't on that page).

In fact, A100 is a song that is one of my all time favorite songs by Billy Corgan. The song has an industrial feel (not industrial like Nine Inch Nails, but industrial like literal industry...think factories) and reminds me of Roark, Dominique, and the rock quarry.

If you check out any song from Billy Corgan's solo work, I recommend checking out that one. It is well worth the download if you have the spare 99 cents and the inclination.

-Evna

Edited by Evan
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At the risk of being Debbie Downer... Billy Corgan is the reason I can't stand The Smashing Pumpkins. I really just can't stand the sound of his voice.

Debbie Downer?

wow. That made me laugh for quite some time :lol:.

lol.

:) :) :)

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Elsewhere on this board, I've engaged in polemics against rock music in general, and heavy metal music in particular; but I have to say Smashing Pumpkins/Billy Corgan is one of the only rock groups that I really like, along with Led Zeppelin-- even though Corgan said his plan from the beginning was to mix the sound of My Bloody Valentine with heavy metal rhythms, and Led Zeppelin was by most accounts the first band to be called heavy metal (although LZ referred to their style "rift rock").

The reason I feel justified in this position is that there are no two other groups in music history which sound quite like either of those bands, with the vast majority of rock bands sounding exactly like their contemporaries, much different from SP and LZ, and each band worse than its countless predecessors.

With SP, I find many rich/lush harmonies, creative melodies and often a benevolent and uplifted mood, despite occasional adolescent fits of gratuitous nihilism. Also, Billy Corgan liked a lot of the same European 80's/90's dream-pop bands I do, like MBV, Cocteau Twins, and Lush; and I can spot those influences really obviously in some places, so I like it on those grounds (I wouldn't like it if it wasn't an original interpretation, which is why I hate bands like Slowdive, btw). Also, I like their videos-- they always tried to go for a kind of early 20th century look, although slightly more "gothic," but nonetheless stylish. I like the way a lot of their videos are shot, too.

As far as what I don't like? They, like the Beatles, let their interpersonal politics and personal impatience and cynicism obstruct the beauty of the art they really seemed to want to make, when they were at their peaks. Also like the Beatles, their lyrics are often senselessly negativistic and defeatist-- but luckily, the Pumpkins decided to stay out of politics for the most part; and when Corgan did make political statements, it was usually things like denouncing Eddie Veddar and Pearl Jam for making so much noise about "evil, capitalist, overpriced Ticketmaster," then starting their own ticket agency and realizing they couldn't even approach Ticketmaster's low price and subsequently becoming the most expensive rock band of their generation to try and see. [Edit: It was Pearl Jam that complained/started the ticket company, not SP. I wansn't sure if I was clear enough about that.] I thought that was funny and true. Corgan had an image of being more intellectual than other rock stars, but he was too mopey/grungey for his own good.

All I've heard off his new solo album is the hit single; "I want your soul," I think is the lyric. I like it! Nice video. And I never got to see them live either. They were still around for a few years after I was into them, but they always sold out!

Is anyone here a Smashing Pumpkins fan or a Billy Corgan fan?

Just curious because I am (a fan that is :( )

-E

Edited by Bold Standard
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I think that Siamese Dream is not only one of the greatest albums of the 1990's, but also one of the greatest rock albums ever.

Mellan Collie And The Infinite Sadness was ambitious, to be sure...but I somtimes think it would have been a superior albums as a single disc.

I agree 100%. Mellon Collie had some fluff on it and stuff that just wasn't that great. One disc of essentials from those 40+ songs would have better.

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