Smashing Pumpkins Season

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VideoGameCritic
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Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 5th, 2019, 9:54 pm

My favorite band. Own all the deluxe versions of their albums. Each October I listen to all the CDs and watch the concert DVDs. Good times.

My annual Halloween party features non-stop Smashing Pumpkins videos played on most of the TVs.

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Stalvern
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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby Stalvern » October 5th, 2019, 10:51 pm

There is something autumnal about them beyond the name. Maybe it's just the romanticism; fall is a very romanticized season. I'm not much of a fan, but I do like Gish and Pisces Iscariot.

Edit: Zwan too. I wish that project had held together longer; it's probably the best thing that Billy Corgan did after the '90s. Much more of a summer band, of course.

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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby jon » October 6th, 2019, 9:29 am

I can't believe Stalvern said that. I thought Zwan was awesome, I got turned onto them by a friend. We saw them 2 times. There were some great songs on their album. It was definitely a success and showed Billy Corgan's evolution as a songwriter. I believe Jimmy Chamberlain was the drummer as well.

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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 6th, 2019, 10:14 am

Agree about Zwan. Very tight, melodic album rock.
More upbeat that the Pumpkins and less heavy.
I usually listen to that one album in the summer. There's a great song on there called Endless Summer!

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velcrozombie
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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby velcrozombie » October 6th, 2019, 11:54 am

I think I may have listened to the Zwan album once many years ago and then never again - with all the praise I'm hearing towards it I'm going to give it another shot today when I get some time.

Siamese Dream will always be my favorite (although I think Melancholy...is just as good overall and tops it in terms of ambition) because, along with having some of their best songs and most intense performances, it has the perfect production for the band - dirty guitars but with a sense of space, natural-sounding drums that are prominent in the mix and (most importantly for me) the vocals are placed a little further back then in the subsequent albums. Billy Corgan has a unique voice but it quickly becomes grating when it is too loud in relation to the music and it feels like this became the norm at a certain point. I just listened a couple of songs from Zeitgeist and it sounds like Billy is standing like six inches behind you (not to mention how bad the production on that album is in general).

What does everyone think of Adore? I have a very good friend who loves the Pumpkins but despises that album. After I got over the fact that there were no heavy guitar parts I began to realize how memorable a lot of the songs were and I put the album just behind Siamese Dream and Melancholy personally (although I haven't heard anything post-Zeitgeist).

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Stalvern
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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby Stalvern » October 6th, 2019, 1:21 pm

velcrozombie wrote:What does everyone think of Adore? I have a very good friend who loves the Pumpkins but despises that album. After I got over the fact that there were no heavy guitar parts I began to realize how memorable a lot of the songs were and I put the album just behind Siamese Dream and Melancholy personally (although I haven't heard anything post-Zeitgeist).

I struggle to remember much about that album after "Daphne Descends", and I'm not that into the songs before it either (they're catchy, but the goth edginess of "Ava Adore" makes me cringe every time I hear it, and "Perfect" was much better when it was called "1979"). I'd probably like it a lot more at under an hour – 73 minutes is way too long for such a slow album after such a zippy start.

I never bothered with Zeitgeist (Pumpkins fans seem to hate it, and I'm not even a fan) or the last two albums (serious red flag when Billy Corgan of all people can barely crack half an hour), but I gave Oceania a shot when it came out and was pleasantly surprised. I still like it after seven years and appreciate it even more now as the last time that Billy had his s*** together. I didn't mention it in my first post because it never quite grabs me the way those albums manage to do, but I do think that anyone with an appreciation for the band owes themselves a listen. (Especially Adore fans; there's a surprising amount of synthesizer danciness on Oceania to spice up the familiar Pumpkins sound.)
Last edited by Stalvern on October 6th, 2019, 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 6th, 2019, 7:37 pm

After listening to a lot of Siamese Dream as of late, I have a new favorite Pumpkins song: Mayonnaise. So good!

As for Adore, I love it. It has a very low key, melancholy tone that lets you zone out to it. Ava Adore has one of the best music videos I've ever seen. It's all done in a single shot, and at the halfway mark it pans past the track the camera is moving along, which is strangely brilliant.

Zeitgeist and Oceania were okay but lacked the goth element of the original band. Monuments to an Elegy is underrated. It's a short series of ridiculously catchy pop songs. Less Pumpkiny but still great.

But before you think my love for the group is blind, I cannot stand Shiny and Oh So Bright! WTF

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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby newmodelarmy » October 6th, 2019, 8:39 pm

I haven't listened to this band in decades. Back in the 90's I was into them but mostly just liked what was on the radio. Disarm is probably my favorite song of theirs. I thought their double album would have made a great single album. As it was, Melacholy was had too much filler for me.

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Retrology
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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby Retrology » October 6th, 2019, 10:41 pm

Yeah I enjoy them too. Listened to them a boatload a few years ago, but haven't been religiously listening to them since. I should get back on that, as they have a few of my favorite songs (Hummer, Cherub Rock and 1979).

And I agree they are a perfect fall band. Love Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, Adore is very underrated and a fascinating record to look back on when Corgan was trying to make more electronic music at a time when nu metal was about to take over the rock scene at the time. It's a shame it didn't sell like hotcakes like Siamese and Mellon Collie did because I thought it was a high quality record that added another dimension to the Pumpkins sound.

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Re: Smashing Pumpkins Season

Postby jon » October 8th, 2019, 9:50 am

The 2nd time we saw Zwan this is early ‘03 and Billy Corgan’s dad got on the stage and they started playing a few songs together. His dad is really good at blues.


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