The Smashing Pumpkins'

November 19, 2001 10:47 AM

The Smashing Pumpkins' website is even more active than it ever was before the group disbanded. With a 6 part documentary, "Graceful Swans of Never", that was uploaded part by part every Monday over the past 6 weeks, and the upcoming animation project "Glass and the Machines of God", Billy Corgan is keeping interest alive postmortem.
posted by Satapher (10 comments total)

The True Poets of Zwan, have begun touring recently, members include Billy Corgan and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Im not sure how they sound tho.
posted by Satapher at 10:50 AM on November 19, 2001

cool, fast site. i like the free mp3's and the amnesty link.
posted by aLienated at 11:07 AM on November 19, 2001

Is Billy still bald? I'm not having anything to do with the Pumpkins until Egghead grows his hair - and his talent - back.
posted by solistrato at 11:48 AM on November 19, 2001

I dropped out when they came out with that spiraly box set and came out with The Beginning of the End is the End of the Beginning of the Band.

He really seems to be into that Machines of God thing.
posted by jragon at 12:47 PM on November 19, 2001

At least he's doing what he wants, and is getting away with it. Regardly of opinions on talent, they had some great innings, had fun, and had fans.

Personally, I always liked the personality that came with the band (or the illusion of it, at least).
posted by trioperative at 12:56 PM on November 19, 2001

Well... I think the public perception of the band has been way distorted...

eg : The album Machina and the Machines of God, was written under the premise that they were going to caricature themselves, become everything the percieved public opinion was about them.... and it worked....

on the song "Heavy Metal Machine" (sarcasm just drips from the title alone) he sings a line

"if i were dead, would my records sell?"

and the critics opinion of the band was so jilted, they actually believed he was actually being serious...

on another note, i really dont understand societies obsession with the personal and private and even the personalities of musicians....

if youre gonna base music on the individuals themselves, or at least what such lame-hipsters like Rolling Stone TELL you about the band, theres not a whole lot of people left to like...

John Lennon was a bit of a dick you know?
posted by Satapher at 1:25 PM on November 19, 2001

VH1.com has a good review of Zwan's first show at the Glass House. The second show (last night) at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana was much better because you could see the band finding their groove. Chamberlain and Corgan were goofing off half the time - smiling and laughing. These 4 shows in Southern California are obviously about finding the Zwan sound - and last night it happened.

The second encore was incredible with Billy ecstatically yelling into the mic "WE ARE ZWAN!" right before leaving the stage. The crowd went nuts. You could tell he said it more for his benefit than for ours.
posted by jgilliam at 5:19 PM on November 19, 2001

Good for them. I, too, lost interest in the Pumpkins with that "end is the beginning" song (although Adore is a great record, imo). But, I'm glad to hear that this new project might yield some good results. That and I am really psyched about the other 2 guys in the band, Matt Sweeney and David Pajo! Matt was in Chavez and Pajo was incremental in the creation of Slint's Spiderland, one of the best records of the 1990s, plus he has been a member of Tortoise and many of the other Chicago post-rock bands. I don't see how they could be a part of this project and not have some sort of influence...I mean, these 2 guys are not exactly Iha and D'arcy...and that's a good thing!

KPH
posted by kphaley454 at 5:49 PM on November 19, 2001

it's appropriate that they disbanded, i think some years down the line when we think of the 90's we'll associate it with the smashing pumpkins. quite a marketing talent, that billy corgan, in spite of the whole turning his back on vanity thing.
posted by elle at 1:23 AM on November 20, 2001

when i think of mellon collie and the infinite sadness it takes me back to my highschool days filled with incredibly good times, such an incredible album imo. after adore i stopped "growing" with the pumpkins, but will always remember them for one of the greatest works of music ever. and i definitely agree with elle.
posted by physics at 9:30 AM on November 20, 2001