Smashing Pumpkins Reunion?

[EvanG]

8 minutes ago, Sydney Fan said:

I havnt been keeping myself updated bur is Darcy part of the lineup at all?. I know there was messages between darcy and billy that got alot of media attention. Just wondered if there has been an agreement struck with adding Darcy to the lineup?.

No, she pretty much threw that possibility out of the window when she published those personal messages. Shame, though.

[wasted]

This is a band that should never do a reunion, they’ve put out too many records and don’t have enough hits. 

[EvanG]

12 hours ago, wasted said:

This is a band that should never do a reunion, they’ve put out too many records and don’t have enough hits. 

Huh?

[wasted]

7 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Huh?

They just don’t seem like this big band of famous people with loads of hits everyone wanted to reform. I actually have more SP records than GNR records, but it just seems like more of a so what? I mean Billy writes all the songs and sings and plays lead? It wasn’t like the guitarist and main songwriters left? 

Still it’s all good fun. They can play those early albums. 

[EvanG]

2 minutes ago, wasted said:

They just don’t seem like this big band of famous people with loads of hits everyone wanted to reform. I actually have more SP records than GNR records, but it just seems like more of a so what? I mean Billy writes all the songs and sings and plays lead? It wasn’t like the guitarist and main songwriters left? 

Still it’s all good fun. They can play those early albums. 

True, the only person Billy needs to get that Smashing Pumpkins sound is Jimmy... not many people can drum like him and his unique drumming style was definitely part of their sound.

I don't really see this as a reunion anyway, because it's basically just James being back in the band.

But I still think it's cool what they are doing and it's nice seeing James up there, it does add something. I've seen quite a few youtube clips, and they sound amazing, Billy looks and plays guitar like he gives a shit again, and he's even singing well this time around. They are going to release new songs and even though B0lly hasn't released that much great stuff since 2000, I do like his solo album that he released last year, so maybe the new Pumpkins songs will be good too.

[wasted]

36 minutes ago, EvanG said:

True, the only person Billy needs to get that Smashing Pumpkins sound is Jimmy... not many people can drum like him and his unique drumming style was definitely part of their sound.

I don't really see this as a reunion anyway, because it's basically just James being back in the band.

But I still think it's cool what they are doing and it's nice seeing James up there, it does add something. I've seen quite a few youtube clips, and they sound amazing, Billy looks and plays guitar like he gives a shit again, and he's even singing well this time around. They are going to release new songs and even though B0lly hasn't released that much great stuff since 2000, I do like his solo album that he released last year, so maybe the new Pumpkins songs will be good too.

I liked Zeitjest and Oceania but they weren’t as catchy as early stuff. I liked Machina/Machines of God. 

Maybe a reunion is like an inspiration type thing. It brings back some old vibe you can’t get back to without getting the real people back. 

[EvanG]

1 minute ago, wasted said:

I liked Zeitjest and Oceania but they weren’t as catchy as early stuff. I liked Machina/Machines of God. 

Maybe a reunion is like an inspiration type thing. It brings back some old vibe you can’t get back to without getting the real people back. 

I liked Machina too but after that a lot became mediocre. I like some songs here and there from Zwan and what he released under the Pumpkins name. Zeitgeist didn't sound too inspiring but there are some cool songs on it. And from his later albums I like some of it too... One and All (We Are), Freak and Owata come to mind, but I'm sure there's more.

[wasted]

8 hours ago, EvanG said:

I liked Machina too but after that a lot became mediocre. I like some songs here and there from Zwan and what he released under the Pumpkins name. Zeitgeist didn't sound too inspiring but there are some cool songs on it. And from his later albums I like some of it too... One and All (We Are), Freak and Owata come to mind, but I'm sure there's more.

Doomsday Clock is rocking and United States is pretty epic. The Celestials has that catchiness and Oceania and of course my theme tune Wildflower. 

But all the albums are difficult, you have to listen to them a lot to get into them. 

Did you ever get Earphoria? The live album. It was horrific, like a someone raping a vacuum cleaner in a hurricane. Was that really the best live stuff they had. 

Edited August 1, 2018 by wasted

[EvanG]

4 hours ago, wasted said:

Doomsday Clock is rocking and United States is pretty epic. The Celestials has that catchiness and Oceania and of course my theme tune Wildflower. 

But all the albums are difficult, you have to listen to them a lot to get into them. 

Did you ever get Earphoria? The live album. It was horrific, like a someone raping a vacuum cleaner in a hurricane. Was that really the best live stuff they had. 

I tried to get into Oceania, but for some reason I never did. I liked Monuments to an Elegy more.

Never listened to Earphoria, I did watchVieuphoria. I always liked them as a live band, it's always great to hear Jimmy play drums, but they're a rock band, they're not without mistakes... Billy obviously isn't a great singer and often sang out of tune, but I do like those 90s gigs until Adore when they started having three extra people on stage. Machina tour seemed uninspiring too and you could see that the band was almost done. But in the early and mid 90s they were awesome.

This is one of my favourite concerts when Billy still seemded really into it, after the MCAIS tour it looked like he was phoning it in half of the time:

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by EvanG

[rocknroll41]

Show last night was excellent! And the arena was almost full!

great stage production, and billy sounded great! James also interacted with the crowd a lot, which was fun to see.

cant believe billy actually pulled it off. They played 31 songs and not once did his voice get cringey like it had in recent years. Crowd seemed really into it too. 

Never thought I'd get to see Corgan and Iha together again. Definitely one of my top five favorite shows that I've been to, for sure!

[wasted]

9 hours ago, EvanG said:

I tried to get into Oceania, but for some reason I never did. I liked Monuments to an Elegy more.

Never listened to Earphoria, I did watchVieuphoria. I always liked them as a live band, it's always great to hear Jimmy play drums, but they're a rock band, they're not without mistakes... Billy obviously isn't a great singer and often sang out of tune, but I do like those 90s gigs until Adore when they started having three extra people on stage. Machina tour seemed uninspiring too and you could see that the band was almost done. But in the early and mid 90s they were awesome.

This is one of my favourite concerts when Billy still seemded really into it, after the MCAIS tour it looked like he was phoning it in half of the time:

 

I remember Siamese Dream then tuned out on Melancholy, then was back for Machina then out until Zeitjest. I’ve never really followed them other than the Uncle Fester interviews. 

[EvanG]

35 minutes ago, wasted said:

I remember Siamese Dream then tuned out on Melancholy, then was back for Machina then out until Zeitjest. I’ve never really followed them other than the Uncle Fester interviews. 

I remember getting MCAIS in 1995. It took me a while to get into the album, because it's such a diverse record, but then it quickly became one of my favourites. This record represents everything I like about them... aggressive metal-like songs, standard rock songs, more experimental stuff, long weird songs, and acoustic-piano based pop songs. Plus, it was more of a band effort... everyone knew that Gish and Siamese Dream were mainly Billy and Jimmy, but this record was their most functional period as a band.

[wasted]

9 hours ago, EvanG said:

I remember getting MCAIS in 1995. It took me a while to get into the album, because it's such a diverse record, but then it quickly became one of my favourites. This record represents everything I like about them... aggressive metal-like songs, standard rock songs, more experimental stuff, long weird songs, and acoustic-piano based pop songs. Plus, it was more of a band effort... everyone knew that Gish and Siamese Dream were mainly Billy and Jimmy, but this record was their most functional period as a band.

It was their creative peak with huge art videos too. It did have variety with Tonight Tonight and 1979? It might have been out in Brit pop, post-rock times. I remember buying Machina and NIN Fragile with Live Era. So I was late. 

[EvanG]

4 hours ago, wasted said:

It was their creative peak with huge art videos too. It did have variety with Tonight Tonight and 1979? It might have been out in Brit pop, post-rock times. I remember buying Machina and NIN Fragile with Live Era. So I was late. 

I think that they were the biggest band in the world for a brief moment in time by 1995/1996. Nirvana were over, so were GnR, Pearl Jam were releasing experimental records and busy suing ticketmaster, Metallica and the RHCP were losing popularity by the mid 90s. You had bands like Oasis, Green Day and the Offspring taking over the world but they were all relatively new to the mainstream by 1995, so this was really their time. Then they released Adore in 1998, which was a beautiful album but a lot of fans didn't like it because it wasn't rock enough, so by then their popularity decreased and also with Machina they didn't manage get back to the popularity of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie.

Edited August 2, 2018 by EvanG

[Black Sabbath]

Saw the show at Madison Square Garden last night and it was great.

Pretty surreal to see the Pumpkins in a sold out MSG. Not something I would have ever thought I'd see, considering the first time I saw them was Rams Head Live (1,500 capacity) in Baltimore 8 years ago.

I initially thought the arena tour was a little ambitious for them in this day and age, reunion or not, but so far they've pulled it off and are doing it well.

[wasted]

4 hours ago, EvanG said:

I think that they were the biggest band in the world for a brief moment in time by 1995/1996. Nirvana were over, so were GnR, Pearl Jam were releasing experimental records and busy suing ticketmaster, Metallica and the RHCP were losing popularity by the mid 90s. You had bands like Oasis, Green Day and the Offspring taking over the world but they were all relatively new to the mainstream by 1995, so this was really their time. Then they released Adore in 1998, which was a beautiful album but a lot of fans didn't like it because it wasn't rock enough, so by then their popularity decreased and also with Machina they didn't manage get back to the popularity of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie.

Machina is like a more rock The Fragile. In a weird way has similar production to CD. 

[EvanG]

10 minutes ago, wasted said:

Machina is like a more rock The Fragile. In a weird way has similar production to CD. 

I don't know that record. But I liked Machina because it represented their more electronic sound of the late 90s but also their more traditional rock sound of the early and mid 90s. It could have used a bit more guitar solos though.

That's why I was disappointed with Zeitgeist as well. Billy said that the band would continue where Machina had left off, but Zeitgeist sounded like a heavy rock album, just not very inspiring. I love their heavy rock sound most of all, but it felt like they were pleasing their fans by making this heavy rock album instead of continuing with experimenting like they did on Adore and Machina.

Edited August 2, 2018 by EvanG

[wasted]

1 hour ago, EvanG said:

I don't know that record. But I liked Machina because it represented their more electronic sound of the late 90s but also their more traditional rock sound of the early and mid 90s. It could have used a bit more guitar solos though.

That's why I was disappointed with Zeitgeist as well. Billy said that the band would continue where Machina had left off, but Zeitgeist sounded like a heavy rock album, just not very inspiring. I love their heavy rock sound most of all, but it felt like they were pleasing their fans by making this heavy rock album instead of continuing with experimenting like they did on Adore and Machina.

Thats why I like Machina the best, rock songs but with a modern feel. 

But I feel like they should have quit after Melancholy and just played the hits until Today and Disarm were massive. 

[EvanG]

Hell has frozen over, Courtney joined them on stage.

 

[soon]

Chino sounds perfect on this!

(I guess the lyrics are kind of a precursor of all this MGTOW and Incel stuff?)

[wasted]

Nirvana should reform with Courtney in place of Kurt. 

[ZoSoRose]

I missed the gig tonight. Hopefully next time

[Stress Fracture]

Troubadour proshot looking and sounding good.

 

[EvanG]

It's kind of odd though, that it's not until his 50's that he learned to control his voice while singing live.

[LikeADog93]

I'm seeing them in Seattle later this month for the first time. Should be a treat to see Jimmy Chamberlin live in person. By far the best 90's drummer and one of the all time greats as well