THE PUMPKINS TURN 20

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced that they are going to be doing some "special shows" this year to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Of course, "The Smashing Pumpkins" is really whoever Billy Corgan says it is: original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain and whoever else he hires. Like his post-Pumpkins band, Zwan. 

Supposedly, Billy played all of the guitars and basses on most of the Pumpkins records anyway. But I think people weren't really buying the Pumpkins reunion last year. 

Billy Corgan is a weird case. He never seemed to fit in the mainstream or in the indie/alternative world. When I saw the Pumpkins headlining Lollapalooza, Billy made an ass of himself, yelling at fans, mocking their backwards baseball hats, etc. Fair enough, but the dude had attended the festival, he knew what he was getting into. You don't sell tens of thousands of tickets a night without attracting that crowd. At the same time, he was never really accepted by the snobs, and he always bore a chip on his shoulder for it. After taking years of crap for not being "punk" enough, or some nonsense, he decided to do a flat-out arena rock DOUBLE album inspired by Boston and Queen, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.  Really good album, if a bit long. It brought the band from the club to the arenas. That made him uncomfortable, so then he did a left-field electronic based album, Adore. He took a risk, and it paid off with lots of great songs. But he was criticized for not being "rock" enough, and his response was Machina, which almost seemed like he was punishing people with a metal album that was fueled by his temper but not much else. 

But Zwan bored me, and I didn't like his solo record either, and I didn't hear most of the Pumpkins "reunion" album. Still, I think that he could do another great album, or at least a few more great songs.