March 31, 2009

And then there was one...

...Smashing Pumpkin, that is.

It may sound a bit harsh, but at this point in his career, every blow against Billy Corgan and his current band of nobodies is a small boost for the Smashing Pumpkins proper. Every shitty album Billy tries to sell under his old band name further discredits this post-Pumpkins mid-life crisis thing and further removes him and whatever he's currently doing from remarkably decent albums like Gish and Siamese Dream. James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky were right to leave when they did. If it wasn't lucid before, it's certainly crystal-clear now.

Now Jimmy Chamberlin, everyone's favourite drumstick-wielding gorilla, is out for good, but is anyone surprised that Billy has resolved to continue? Apparently the Billy the Egomaniac still plans to record the follow-up to Zeitgeist this summer. Give him credit for his resolve. He simply cannot be phased! In a sharp contrast to Chamberlin’s other departure from the Pumpkins (In 1996, Corgan exercised his authority and booted Chamberlin out for overdosing on heroin with touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin who failed to recover). Billy’s bosom buddy explained the situation on his blog: “I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don’t fully possess. I won’t pretend I’m into something I’m not,” he wrote early last week. Did Chamberlin just recently discover that he was being sidelined? Now that Chamberlin’s gone, we’ll see how quickly Corgan’s project collapses in on itself. That is, depending on how the drummer auditions go this week. Billy has received more attention with his desperate attempts (post-Zwan) to regain his fleeting relevance than with any of his music from the last 6 years. In the midst of all this embarrassment let's cling to happier days, days when we could trust our larger-than-life rock stars to listen to smart producers (like Flood, Butch Vig and Alan Moulder) and be completely oblivious to fashion trends and American politics.

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