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Any fans? They recently "reunited" and by that I mean Billy Corgan got together with a bunch of people you've never heard of. Anyway, they played a show here in L.A. not too long ago and their stuff has been getting some airplay.

They are probably my favorite band from the alt rock movement of the 90's. I owned all their albums at one point from Gish to Machina. But when the new stuff started playing I dusted off my copies of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and have been playing them incessantly. SD is a great album but very heavy on distorted guitars and power chords, you have to be in the mood for it. MC...well, that is simply one of my favorite albums of all time. A diverse gamut of music both soft and hard but always beautiful, poignant and emotional.

The new stuff doesn't sound too bad but it just doesn't quite measure up in my opinion. Jimmy Chamberlin is one of my all time favorite rock and roll drummers, James Iha made some good songwriting contributions, and D'arcy was a babe...oh, and she contributed some decent background vocals. Watching old clips of them perform live from back in the day, it's clear that, however much Billy controlled the band, that lineup gave him something that has been lacking in the past decade.

I saw the band for the first time during the Zeitgeist tour, October 2007. I was a huge fan for close to a decade, and I still consider myself a fan of Billy Corgan, but you're absolutely right, the band suffers somewhat from the lack of the original lineup. Melissa Auf Der Maur did okay as D'Arcy's replacement, which one would expect, but the lineup I saw contained only Billy and Jimmy from the original group - they did a passable job, for sure, but the magic just wasn't there from earlier live performances that I'd seen on video.

I haven't listened to anything that Corgan's put out since American Gothic. You're right, even Zeitgeist didn't have the right feel, and I think that's as much due to a change in music itself as to the many changes in the band. My energy for seeking out music just doesn't go far enough any more to seek singles out the way he's publishing them now, from what I've read. Perhaps I should, just because.

I also agree with you that Mellon Collie is probably one of the best albums of all time. It certainly ranks as the top album of the '90s for my money, and that's saying something, because there was a LOT of amazing music put out in that decade.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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I used to love them in high school, and every now and then I'll bust out Cherub Rock and relive my childhood. It's telling of Corgan's ability as a frontman when, when he tried to reunite the band to begin with, D'arcy and Iha just laughed at him. However, he used to have the knack of crafting a damn fine pop song...something that I'm not sure he's been able to accomplish since 1999 though, to be honest. However, he did go out with a bang, at least for me...I saw the Pumpkins on their original farewell tour in I think 2000 and, during an acoustic rendition of Muzzle, Billy leaned too far forward and smacked himself in the head with the mic. Heh heh.

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"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

I've always been a big fan of Smashing Pumpkins and, as an interesting bit of trivia, Melissa Auf de Maur graduated from my University and used to work at one of the campus bars I haunt.

That being said, I'm not particularly as fond of her era in the Pumpkins, and as Rangers51 can attest, I have nothing but ire for Zeitgeist and anything after it. Still, I share the opinion that Mellon Collie is probably one of the best albums ever and easily my favorite album to come from the 90's.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

@R51, at least you saw them when Jimmy Chamberlin was in the band. He is one of my favorite drummers, and him leaving was really the death knell for me. Prior to that, they could claim some semblance of being The Smashing Pumpkins, since it's pretty well known that Gish and Siamese Dream were essentially Jimmy on drums and Billy on everything else. Now, the band is more or less Billy Corgan and Friends.

And, on that same note, the album that is reportedly the most collaborative, Mellon Collie, was their best selling and one of the best reviewed. Don't get me wrong, I still admire Billy Corgan as the central driving force behind the band, and it is ultimately his lyrics and music that I fell in love with. But it does go to show that working well with others has it's benefits, and he hasn't been known for that.

On a more positive note, the recent show in Tulsa, OK got some good reviews and a surprisingly warm reception from the Internet community. Who knows, maybe the new band will gel together. Like I said, I don't hate what I've heard of the most recent stuff, I just don't think it compares to the classics. But if this band can come together and make good music, whether it's old songs or new, more power to them.

I actually heard one of the new songs last night. However, it was 2am and I'd been in a plane or an airport for eight hours prior, so I really gave it no thought beyond "oh, hey, I haven't heard that before."

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

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Why haven't I commented in this thread yet?

I'm still a huge fan of the group even though they've gone through several lineups. My favorite one is still the original with Billy, D'Arcy, Jimmy and James. Billy Corgan might be the band's driving force and the guy who really makes the music sound like signature Pumpkins tunes, but it's lost a lot over the years with original lineup calling it quits due to Billy sometimes mercurial ways. That being said, I don't see myself ever completely disregarding the band in the future, save for Billy going off the deep end.

I liked Zeitgeist but didn't fall in love with it as I had some previous albums and didn't really bother with American Gothic.

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"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

Ahh, love the Pumps. Big fan of the original lineup, but the new one's come off pretty well. As for Teargarden, I've heard a lot of hate from the Siamese Dream-era lovers, but I think it's come together pretty well, definitely beating my expectations (lowered a bit by Zeitgeist's sludginess). Was kinda surprised to hear the next EP's released this month -- time certainly flies!

PS: Billy, quit hating on Pavement!

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change