The new Smashing Pumpkins album has been met with some trepidation. Billy Corgan is now the sole remaining original member of the group. Many critics have questioned whether one original member is enough to constitute the privilege of continuing to use the name. Billy's response is a resounding..."fuck you." Though that may seem like Billy is the one being the gigantic dick...are the critics really being fair? When it comes to the amount of original members of a band...the critics seem as consistent as teenage girl's emotional stability. Guns N Roses (Axl Rose) are habitually abused...while no one questions that Mick Fleetwood (the freaking drummer) is the only original member of Fleetwood Mac. Robert Smith gets a pass for being the only original member of the Cure as does Dave Murray and Iron Maiden.
I honestly don't think it should matter as long as the integrity of the band remains in tact. Good music is good music...and the name of the artist is pretty irrelevant. It's not like we're talking about Napalm Death or the Misfits who have no original members.
Here are the 11 Best Songs By Billy Corgan (non-Pumpkins songs):
- Declarations of Faith (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
- Lyric (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
- Honestly (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
- DIA (Billy Corgan - The FutureEmbrace)
- Come With Me (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
- Mina Loy (Billy Corgan - The FutureEmbrace)
- Settle Down (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
- Walking Shade (Billy Corgan = The FutureEmbrace)
- Love Is a Battlefield (Djali Zwan - Spun Soundtrack)
- The CameraEye (Billy Corgan - The FutureEmbrace)
- El Sol (Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea)
Buy Smashing Pumpkins new album...Oceania..now!
2 comments:
good stuff, a few other songs that i'd have slid into my top 11:
spiders (billy corgan - ransom soundtrack)
endless summer (zwan - mary star of the sea)
think you know (djali zwan - spun soundtrack)
I won't question Corgan remains an inventive musician, but I think you're waaaay off base in those other acts that are supposedly still legit w/only a single original member; in most cases, any traffic they still enjoy is less about their current lineup than nostalgia for the band they once were. In Corgan's case, I was an ardent Pumpkinhead til the end, and I would have remained a fan had he continued in the direction he seemed to be headed with Zwan: stripped down, upbeat, unpretentious rock. I wouldn't even have been offended if he'd stuck to his guns from "The Future Embrace," though it was assuredly not for me. But by backtracking he bared his neck, demonstrating he was afraid of failing spectacularly, and so he now "succeeds" in mediocity. I'm sure there are many, including him, who fool themselves into thinking he was the be-all and end-all to peak Pumpkins; he wasn't. And I feel he no longer has anything to say with his music besides "buy me," so I no longer listen nor buy.
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