kjrain12 wrote:
Damn, this place is really dead now isn't it? A couple years back it used to be a bastion of daily posts about Billy Corgan and his antics.
There's nothing to talk about, Pumpkins wise. It's crazy to think that right now we might be the closest we've ever been to a proper reunion, and yet the momentum and buzz for this band is completely dead.
When I joined the site in 2010, SP were still coming off the last true Pumpkins album in Zeitgeist (though I guess many will disagree). There was a new song being released every 2 - 3 months and while some of the songs were bad (Freak USA, Spangled, Widow) some were really good (Tom Tom, The Fellowship). No one was sure where the band were headed but it seemed to be the infancy stages of a possible SP2 incarnation.
SP2 released Oceanian in 2012 after many pushbacks of the release dates, and it was a mixed reaction. I know that based on the live 2011 performances I was expecting something different and better.
Oceania had ENORMOUS hype. BC was saying it was the best album from him since Mellon Collie. As in it could hold its ground with Adore, Machina and Zeitgeist. It didn't.
Two years later the SP2 vision had deteriorated completely. The live shows from 2012 onward were unbelievably bland, a return to the 2010 standard sound, despite 2011 having a unique and brilliant departure. Monuments was released and it was basically hated by everyone. What you have to say about the individual songs my come under personal opinion, but the vision of the album was completely underdone and the effort wasn't there. It was a halved-ass attempt to appeal to 'today's generation', giving the finger to long lasting fans of SPs unique styles and progressive sound, in exchange for some cheap plastic pop rock. 35 minutes and 9 songs said it all. The mirror album, Day for Night which was promised to be released 6 months later, wound up never being released at all.
Apart from James Iha showing up during a couple of concerts earlier in the year, BC's pitch take that the band is the best place it's been in years, and that it has momentum is a completely deluded sham.
SP might be revived again, but as it stands now BC is president of Wrestling who-gives-a-fuck and SP are just a thing of the past.
Meanwhile I've been getting into sensational new albums from little known bands this year, producing some of the best music I've ever heard.