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Let’s say you’re releasing your first solo album (although many folks have accused your entire recorded output up until this point as basically being solo work.) Let’s say that this album is ostensibly a chance for you to distance yourself from your previous band. Let’s say that this band had a pretty popular signature sound and, after one attempt to follow that sound up with something similar exploded upon takeoff, you’ve decided to regroup, retool and release something largely unexpected.
And then the day you release this step away from your past you decide to tell the world that even after all this the thing you most want is to re-group your old super-popular band!
That’s just what the Great Pumpkin did this morning. On the day of the release of Billy Corgan’s solo album TheFutureEmbrace Corgan has taken a full page as out in The Chicago Tribune stating that he wants his old band back. Badly.
Now Chicagoist was going to review his new disc today (we find it refreshing even if it does drag a bit from time to time, but overall it’s a step in the right direction for a man so obviously obsessed with Depeche Mode and the Cure...that is to say, his past) but in light of Corgan’s recent bout of "honesty" we just can’t bring ourselves to do it.
We admire Corgan’s work ethic. Heck, we even admire Corgan’s recent string of, um, nakedly honest statements. However we find it difficult to expect anyone to read and actually digest any basic music criticism when all this hoopla is surrounding and obscuring the actual work. Kind of like that whole Tom Cruise thing…only taller and balder.
UPDATE: Billy will be at the Adler Planetarium tonight from 6:30 until 10:30 to celebrate the summer solstice and admission is free to anyone who buys his album. He may be batshit but at least he knows how to keep the fans happy.
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while i love billy and the pumpkins, i wonder how kindly james and d'arcy will take to a pumpkins reunion after how much shit billy's talked about them in his journal and to the press.
boy, that sounds so junior-high - he was talking bad about them on his livejournal, haha.
I get almost excited about li'l Uncle Fester's daily pronouncements as do about 'what Oprah really thinks about control-top-panties.' The goofy little cue-ball should stop off at Jimbo's and wax poetic.
Doesn't the full-page ad come on the heels of his interview in Sunday's Sun-Times where he basically said no amount of money would bring the Pumpkins back together?
Nice egg on the face of Jim Derogatis, there.
What he said was that it wouldn't be about money if they got back together. It would be because they all wanted to do so.
Yeah, the funniest part about this ad was how he included the address for his myspace page. Cripes...
The MySpace page is where he's publishing his "biography."
I showed my girlfriend the ad this morning and all she could say is, "So he's completely lost it now, huh? A full page ad. Why?"
Because he's Billy and he's gone kee-razy! I love it. He's so much more entertaining now than when he was famous and bitter.
Dude painted himself in the ad like he was a cultural ambassador to the world for Chicago...I bet 1/2 the people who opened up the paper this morning and saw that were like, "Who? What?"
If the band gets back together, what will all of the fans who gave up their tears on the night the Pumpkins broke up do?
As the day wears on, I can't think of this as anything but a publicity stunt. I'm not saying Corgan doesn't want to re-form the Pumpkins (even though his statements to the press and on his site have suggested otherwise). But I don't see them making new records for the next several years. Maybe a one-off project.
Plus, the suggestion of this is a win-win situation for Billy. If the rest of the band agrees, Billy is seen as this great guy. If they refuse, they're the ones seen as preventing the reunion of the Pumpkins and not as people who might want to get on with their lives, artistic or otherwise, instead of being drawn back into a situation headed up by an increasingly mercurial frontman. But Billy still looks like the good guy in that situation too.
Plus, that front-page ad seems like a way to force someone's hand rather than a full-fleged announcement.
there's a good thread on this on stereogum today
Also, according to Ultragrrrl, Iha learned of the reunion through the ad that ran today...so that doesn't really bode well.
Metromix is running a poll right now: Does Billy Corgan need to get over himself. No is out poll-ing Yes by about 37 votes.
So Mr. X here happened uppon the "event" this evening. I wanted to see the stars, err planets and drink in a museum.
That guy needs to get over himself as this was all a shameless plug . . . but that's the point in the music business, genereate buzz, get things going so people get interested and kids, like me, wander to your event to pick up a CD because I like the sound of the Pumpkins. If they get back together fine, if not fine (no tears are shed here for highly paid pop stars). I live under a pop culture rock and I don't care who you are just entertain me and I'll maybe attend a show or buy your stuff. There is plenty of music to go around and more new stuff everyday.
Oh, you went to the Planetarium? What was the deal. Was he just standing there or did he actually do anything like interact with folks or sign CDs.
Was he actually there?