Smashing Pumpkins' classic line up recording a new album & tour*

Who exactly is the stable member in the Smashing Pumpkins?

Reminds me of when a friend and I interviewed J.Mascis for the Dinosaur Jr. reunion and my friend asked him if it felt good to have his "friends" back in the band. J. gave him a very strange look and replied gravely: "Who said we were friends???"

 

Google “Smashing Pumpkins” and watch what comes up! Well, if they wanted publicity for the upcoming announcement they couldn’t have planned it better. Call me cynical, but I can’t think of any other way they could have gotten advance notice of the reunion announcement on every major music related website (and most major news sites). Maybe this is all being cleverly orchestrated by Billy? Maybe D’Arcy is being manipulated? Or maybe D’Arcy is in on it? Suspicious.

 

They probably haven't received this much press since the original band broke up. I think the hostility is real though---if this trainwreck were all a ruse, it would be a brilliant one.

 

No idea if it's accurate, but I like this attempt to boil down the textwar into a short exchange.

Billy: We want you in the band, even though it will be slightly annoying to include you!
D’arcy: Sounds great! I’m gonna get a third opinion on my injured shoulder!
Billy: Great! Can’t wait to see you! Seriously, we can’t wait!
D’arcy: Awesome!
Billy: This could be as big as GNR’s tour if we don’t blow it. By the way, you will probably be the reason we blow it. But that’s cool!
D’arcy: I’m on my way!
Billy: No need to pressure yourself! Get well! Don’t come!
D’arcy: I’ll be there in no time!
Billy: Jesus, we don’t need you.
D’arcy: **** you.
Billy: **** you.

Also from the article: "Forget the actual tour — having D’arcy again as a foil to Billy Corgan in the media is far more entertaining. Any day where I can read about these two lunatics feuding truly is the greatest day I have ever known."

 

Good point. I stand corrected.

 

Is it normal for a 50 year old man to have the texting habits of a teenage girl?

 

Well, among those who've lasted more then a year or so, it doesn't seem as if either of their Asian guitarists have dished out any instability or weirdness...

 

In 2018 it is. Baby boomers are the worst abusers of social media, well over 'millennials.' I'm glad Corgan has eased off of those platforms. It's embarrassing. (edit because I'm mixing texting and social media...but still a similar point)

On this whole thing I guess I'm team Corgan. I can't agree with everything he's done, but the dude puts out new music about once a year or every other year. They tour regularly. He is a prolific artist. D'arcy has released NO music in years (because what's the point?). She seems to be full of excuses.

 

Billy and crew know Darcy’s current state better then any of us or a start up website that desperately needs viewers for ad revenue. You can easily lose your musicianship if you don’t continue to work on it. 18 years is a lot of time for one to regress mentally and physically. Also who gives a **** who is playing bass for the pumpkins? They were always a guitar and drums band. Can’t really think of one memorable bass line. We’re not taking Peter Hook here...

 

Neither party comes out looking good here. Apparently, no one is enough of a grown up to actually meet face to face, have a conversation and hash out their issues.

 

"I Am One" for $1000

 

Which was played by Billy of course. Great song, though.

 

Still a memorable bassline.

He never said that D'Arcy never played a memorable bassline; by that measure, outside of Mellon Collie, she didn't really play much at all...

Which is why they're like, "whatever, D'Arcy..."

 

MSG NYC
Forum LA
United Center Chicago

All but confirmed on social media of the venues. Probably single nighters with ambitious hopes of further US arenas in later in the year or 2019.

The shocker here is no festival tie-in. At least 5 feasts in LA/Chi said no and the band has a big history with Chicago and AEG touring.

 

I recall reading some interview where Billy discussed his concerns about festivals and only wanting the band to appear at them if they were treated as a top-tier act, so if the organizers aren't willing to offer that, it might explain why.

 

Concerning this whole debacle between Billy and D'Arcy, I think the only chance all four original members would ever appear together henceforth would be at a RnR HOF induction.

 

I'm not sure they need to do a fest in Chicago. They can make more by filling the UC, as it will be fans, and not a mixture of people seeing dozens of bands.
Merchandise is where the money is when it comes to gigs.

 

So who is this Linda Strawberry person anyway? I mean I can see who she is by googling but why does she seem to speak for the band? Like she says 'we' tried etc.

 

Playing around with some numbers, EVERY fan(15,000) at the United Center would have to spend $250+ between ticket/merch to equal what a major fest would give major reunion gig. Something like Soundgarden Lolla 2010 had no overhead, since they only had to bring some instruments and 2-3 cloth backdrops.

Unlike the Misfits reunion, the Pumpkins don't have great iconography.

 

The clock is still winding down, eight hours to go. Not that I'm holding my breath though

 

Really like the image, but the text "Shiny and Oh So Bright" makes this look like a photoshop parody.

 

Looks like Zeitgeist. And 'Shiny and Oh So Bright' is a terrible title for an album, a tour, a song, a movie, a book or whatever it might be. That's why it would have been good to include D'arcy. Crazy as she might be, and we can't really know that since none of us know her in real life, she would have fought against it. Sure, she sounds like a pain in the you know what if all you are looking for in your bandmates for them to say yes to anything. I mean, Corgan is talking about a Broadway kind of show, whatever that means, it doesn't sound very cool to me. She was the opinionated member, she was the one who dared to question the leader and I think that's what brought that thing the band had and lost after Machina with Zeitgeist, Teargarden, etc. Iha and Chamberlin might roll their eyes behind Corgan's back when they don't agree but I just don't see them saying anything. It's a question of balance. I really think she pushed him to create stronger material, having in his mind the possibility that D'arcy would tear to shreds a stupid song like Widow Wake My Mind.

 

The thing is, if you're going to do a whole reunion thing and hype it as a reunion...then it should really be a real reunion. Chamberlain has been back for a while, and Iha coming back is hardly a Slash reuniting with Axl situation. In other words something so big it overrides everything else. People didn't care about Fortus and Ferrer because OMG Slash! This isn't like that. The nostalgia power here would be in having all of them together. The whole lineup. Without that it doesn't really seem like that big a deal.

 

That's exactly what' I've been thinking.