BILLY CORGAN'S SKY SAXON TRIBUTE

Before Sky Saxon of The Seeds died, he was collaborating on a
project with Billy Corgan. Billy is now paying tribute to Sky with a new band called Spirits In The Sky, which also features Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, former Catherine drummer (and D'arcy's ex-husband) Kerry Brown, new Smashing Pumpkins drummer, 19-year old Mike Byrne, and Dave Navarro. Little Steven, take note! While Billy annoys me when he mouths off sometimes, one thing I've always respected about him (other than his great body of work) is how he gives lots of credit to artists that influenced him, even if they aren't necessarily considered "cool." I remember he interviewed Eddie Van Halen for a magazine (and wrote a tribute to Van Halen's Fair Warning), made a great speech about Tom Petty at the MTV Awards, did a great induction speech for Pink Floyd at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, wrote a great essay for a live Cheap Trick album, played guitar for New Order on one of thier tours, produced tracks for Ric Ocasek, collaborated on a song with Tony Iommi on his solo debut, and the list goes on and on.

BILLY CORGAN = THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

Billy Corgan has done hardly any interviews since rebooting The Smashing Pumpkins, and none since drummer Jimmy Chamberlin left the band. That's probably a good idea, since he tends to say hot-headed stuff that journalists go to town with. But it also leaves him open to being criticized. So he just took to The Smashing Pumpkins website to explain his reasons for continuing on as The Smashing Pumpkins, even though there are no other founding members of the band. Basically, because he is the band, and pretty much wrote all the songs himself anyway. He'd rather be surrounded by people who care about the music than people who don't.

BILLY CORGAN'S LATEST BLOG POST

Billy Corgan may be many things, but is rarely boring. His latest blog post reveals a lot, including: an explanation why he thinks he should continue on as Smashing Pumpkins even though he is the only founding member, that he is going to form other bands, and also still record solo material. He also talks about his behavior towards fans. If you're fan you probably know about the post, but if you don't, check it out. 

THE GREAT PUMPKIN

I almost forgot about this, but last week, Billy Corgan made the Bush-ian move of putting out a press release late Friday noon, no doubt hoping that it wouldn't get much attention (and full well knowing that most of the music press was at SXSW). He announced that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was leaving The Smashing Pumpkins and that he'd been going on without him. Meaning that Billy is the only original member of the band. It's weird: no one seems to mind that Nine Inch Nails = Trent Reznor, but Billy has taken criticism for using the band name without the involvement of guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy. But I guess Trent established that he is NIN early on, while Billy tried to make it seem like the Pumpkins were a "band." Billy Corgan hasn't been doing interviews, but I wonder what he would say is the difference, at this point, between a Smashing Pumpkins album and a Billy Corgan album.

BILLY CORGAN: GOOD SONGS, DUMB COMMENTS

And ain't that the story so often with Billy Corgan? I kind of respect his stubbornness: he simply does not play the game. In the press and onstage, he says what he wants to say, even if it comes off crazy/stupid/douchey. 

Let me start off with the bad, so I can end this post on a good note. Billy, who has allegedly been getting in some verbal battles with fans over his unwillingness to do "greatest hits" type sets at the Smashing Pumpkins' shows, recently complained from the stage about Eddie Vedder writing "All The Way" about the Chicago Cubs, saying that it jinxed the team. Whatever Bill. 

On a positive note, I really like the two new songs The Smashing Pumpkins posted on iTunes, "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist." 

TWO NEW SMASHING PUMPKINS SONGS (are good!)

A few months ago, I wrote about The Smashing Pumpkins and said that I thought they Billy Corgan still had some good Pumpkins songs in him. Well, he did: they just released a two track single on iTunes, "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist." I think both songs are great, not that they're likely to get any notice. After the original Pumpkins reunion failed to set the world on fire, I think the band has lost their shot of getting the attention that they used to get from radio/press/etc. Which is too bad, the songs are good. The only press that Billy has gotten lately has been bad: apparently select vocal fans haven't enjoyed the song selection at the recent Pumpkins gigs, which of course pissed off Mr. Corgan, always game to scold fans during a show. I'll give it to him: he never makes things easy on himself. He has noted in interviews that fans seem to want to hear a "greatest hits" show, and that's not where he's at. I guess he's earned that right, but fans don't have to keep coming back. Anyway, Mr. Anonymous, please take note that I do enjoy both of the new Pumpkins songs.

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.