Billy to reunite the Pumpkins (maybe)

Lucky us.

This is actually true, according to a source I know close to Corgan.

As for not being able to get the other members besides Jimmy back.....I can't imagine that D'Arcy is doing anything worth($)while these days, and James always seemed like an agreeable fellow to me.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/19/music.corgan.reut/.%20

The word "unsolicited" springs immediately to mind.

Smashing Pumpkins To Reunite?

By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan's solo debut, "TheFutureEmbrace," hits stores today (June 21). But fans in his hometown of Chicago were greeted with a full-page ad in this morning's Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times announcing the artist's intentions to "renew and revive" the Pumpkins, more than four years after the seminal alternative rock act's final show.

"I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams," Corgan wrote, but revealed no further details about which, if any, original members would be involved.

The Pumpkins -- Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky (who was eventually replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur) and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin -- split after a Dec. 2, 2000, show at Chicago's Metro. The band issued five studio albums that spawned such enduring rock radio staples as "Disarm," "Today," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and "1979."

But the Pumpkins' power struggles frequently threatened its survival, as Corgan was reported to have erased his bandmates' parts during the sessions for the 1993 album "Siamese Dream" in favor of re-recording them on his own.

Throughout the Pumpkins' career, Corgan's giant ambition proved a mixed blessing. Although the band's sprawling 1995 double-album "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and sold 4.7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the 1996 tour in support of the project nearly signaled the Pumpkins' death knell.

On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin was found dead of a heroin overdose after shooting up with Chamberlin. Chamberlin was quickly fired from the group and replaced onstage and in the studio by a host of skinsmen, including Filter's Matt Walker and Kenny Aronoff of John Mellencamp's band.

After the frosty reception to 1998's atmospheric, largely electronic "Adore," the Pumpkins welcomed Chamberlin back into the band on a spring 1999 club tour. Corgan publicly asserted that the band's next album would return to the aggressive rock of albums past, and although 2000's "MACHINA/the machines of god" more or less made good on his claim, the set stiffed at retail, selling just 583,000 copies to date. Prior to its release, Wretzky exited the band to pursue an acting career.

In early 2004, Corgan took to his official Web site to speak candidly about the band's split, admitting he regretted initially blaming the breakup on "fighting the good fight against the Britneys of the world."

"By saying that, I was seen as someone who was crying foul, taking his ball and going home, which was sad, 'cause it wasn't true at all," he said. "The truth of the matter is that James Iha broke up the Smashing Pumpkins. Not me, not Jimmy, but James. Did it help that D'arcy was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict, who refused to get help? No, that didn't help keep the band together, not at all."

The artist said he would have liked to press on with the Pumpkins, which he described as "essentially my entire life... a dream I still believe in. Many friends at the time suggested letting James leave, so Jimmy and I could continue on under the name. But I was too loyal to the man I had started the whole thing with, and so I protected him until the very end."

Corgan was particularly saddened after Iha left the band's final show "without saying goodbye to the two people he had won and lost and traveled the world with. So, I won't be protecting him anymore and I won't be protecting a whole lot of other people anymore."

Corgan formed Zwan in 2001 with Chamberlin, ex-Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeney, guitarist David Pajo (Slint, Papa M) and bassist Paz Lenchantin, but that group also fell apart following the release of its lone album, "Mary Star of the Sea." Corgan has repeatedly bashed the other group members in recent interviews, telling the Tribune, "I got snookered in by really bad people."

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), June 21st, 2005 11:10 AM. (jaymc)

get ready for "I Am One/Mina Loy" medleys something fierce

I really can't blame an ego-driven guy for missing the enthusiasm that would have met anything he did under the old name. He just came to the realization that people want The Smashing Pumpkins, and he's the only one on earth who can give them it. Good on him for coming to this very reasonable conclusion.

only saw them once, at Lolla '93. they sucked. still like the first 2 records though.

'94. And his voice never toured well.

my sentiments to the letter. one of the worst live shows I ever saw (detailed on some other thread)

that's because he has a truly horrible voice

But, yeah, pretty uneven live.

great. that's it.he blew it.

that said, i'll go see Jimmy+billy+X+X (melissa again?)

but, only if they promise NOT to do any of Adore.
unless they did it like the Arising versions...

once we all agree upon a 'final' arrangement, we play together until one of 3 things happens: we get the take all playing together, we don't get the take all playing together, or Jimmy complains to me that James and D'arcy's playing is throwing him off and asks me to remove them from playing along at all...there are various incarnations of the third option, which could be Jimmy asking Butch to town them down in the headphones, or asking me to lose James but keep D'arcy or the other way around...because this is a new album and a fresh opportunity, there is a sense in the air that this time around the recording and the associated processes will be different...any variation in the beginning of the album of the 'let's all do it together' concept causes immediate tension, and Butch is squarely placed in the middle...this is something I bristle at, but at the same time realize that it is possibly a means to an end...James has a very good memory, and the recording issues with him normally center around timing and tightness...D'arcy on the other hand commonly gets completely lost, which throws off Jimmy's concentration, blowing the take...in addition, he hates her sense of timing, and the way it makes his drum takes fly all over (we know as we record that we will not keep anything that the 3 of us record, we are simply there to assist Jimmy to play with the right 'feel')...I try to keep the peace, but quickly realize that the old way, which is essentially me and Jimmy, is still the easiest way across...I privately express to Jimmy that I understand his growing frustration, but to pace himself because it is going to be a long recording process...

(granted I'm obsessed with "Muzzle" this week, but still, God bless Kim Thayil)

Billy himself?

Because he knows that there are tons of people who love the Smashing Pumpkins and are very intense about that, but they will never feel the same way about his solo stuff or Zwan or anything like that. Names bring a certain kind of magic - no matter what, The Future Embrace would sell better if it was labelled the Smashing Pumpkins. He'd be playing venues twice the size of where he's playing now if he was The Smashing Pumpkins. Billy is an ego-driven guy, and he (quite understandably) hates the idea of going the rest of his life without people caring about the things that he does.

Well, that's probably when it will happen. He's committed to working this record through the end of 2005, and it will probably take at least a full year for him to get the Pumpkins stuff together.

But it's gotta be the full, original line-up or I'm not biting.

-- Matthew C Perpetua (perpetu...), June 22nd, 2005 2:16 PM. (inca)

You mean Zwan?

http://www.hardwarewhore.com/images/funnay/care-o-meter.jpe

-- Fetchboy (wangchungvsah...) (webmail

I am a loyal plastic robot for a society that doesn't care