MUSIC THREAD

I met Corgan on the Lollapalooza tour. I was fortunate to be the guest of Nick Cave at the second Dallas show. I met most of the people on the bill at some point during the course of the day. As noted in my earlier post, Corgan was an absolute prick. I don't know who pissed in his Cheerios but he was a prick all day and it carried over to the Pumpkins set. First thing he said when he walked onstage was something to the effect of "I'm gonna kill you motherfuckers!"

Along the lines of throwing balls...during my dancing days with the Toadies we would routinely throw crap at bands. Deep Blue Something were pelted with cherry tomatoes from a veggie tray in the dressing room we didn't eat. Tears for Fears had tea bags thrown at them (Lisa seemed to think this would remind them of the Boston Tea Party). TFF didn't seem to notice so we threw a couple of lemons to go with the tea. Bush were the targets of peeled and sliced bananas after Gavin Rosdale threw a shitfit backstage about the bananas on the fruit tray in Bush's dressing room having been peeled and sliced into two-inch pieces. I was also known to pelt the audience with half empty bottles of water (I say half empty because I'm not a "half full" kind of person).

I remember watching one of the early Farm Aid shows on tv and noticing these little things flying everywhere over the crowd. I always wondered what they were till I went to a Farm Aid show. The objects were plastic cups. Apparently when you finished your beer you were supposed to toss the cup into the air.

 

Spoon's album is a little hit or miss. I love "Yr. Cherry Bomb" and a few others, but it doesn't grab me like Gimmie Fiction or Girls Can Tell. Hell, I like Series of Sneaks more than this new CD.

Oh, and I just picked up Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block ... wow. Buy it now if you haven't already.

 

I love me some Smashing Pumpkins. Review, I think in Rolling Stone, said they were the second-most important alt-rock of the 90s and I tend to agree.
Corgan might be a huge dick, but I really like his music.
And I also have secret, umm not now dirty sex fantasies about D'Arcy. But that's what she gets for exposing a nipple in the liner notes.

 

Same thing with me and Liz Phair.

 

Oh, I love me some Liz.

BTW, got the new Ryan Adams. Except for one song which is just okay, it's really good album. Starts off with a bang with Goodnight Rose and doesn't stop. Good acoustic numbers, some rockers (Halloween head is fun). And unlike some of his records, not an 18-song opus with about four or five filler songs.

And I agree with the rest, the new White Stripes is pretty rockin'.

Josh Rouse, New Pornographers, Counting Crows still to come this year. And Old 97s in n. Ky on July 24, shaping up to be a good year.

 

No way SP were second-most "important" or "influential" alt-rock band of the 90s. Not when there's tons of bands that blatantly styled themselves in the late 90s early 2000s after Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.

 

Behind Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Uncle Tupelo, I'd put the Pumpkins right there.

Soundgarden was a better band, but SP had a bigger influence. Lots more people wore Zero shirts than Soundgarden shirts I'd bet.

 

more sales does not equal more influence. See Ramones.

 

No, but STP influenced bands like Nickelback, Creed, etc. THAT is not good. So did Alice in Chains, but they were actually good.

And in the 90s, when they were at the top, SP were more influential than pretty much every other band, including Soundgarden.

I'm not talking about just album sales, I did list Uncle Tupelo you know. SP may become irrelevant in the years to come, maybe not. They aren't second, but I'd put them in the top four.

The Pixies are 10 times more popular now than they were in their heyday.

 

For IJAG and others:



Not retail, but five advance tracks confirmed to be on Finding Forever.

"Living This Life"
"Chicago" (featuring Kanye West)
"Road to Forever" (featuring The Last Poets)
"Baby We Need It" (featuring The Willie Conttrell Band)
"Roses"

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KQYQDXMQ

 

If you mean SP's influence in terms of marketing and playing the commercial game, sure, the band was probably the best of the alt/grunge rock scene. Corgan sold out whenever possible.
I mean, even Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune reporter, wrote: "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves," citing the hard-hitting Nelly Furtado and My Chemical Romance as publicly saying they were influenced by the Pumpkins.

I have a hard time grouping Uncle Tupelo in with these bands. They were alt, but it was country-based stuff, and the only band I can think of that anyone's heard of that is directly influenced by Tupelo/Wilco would be Whiskeytown.

 

Here's my Smashing Pumpkins story:

They were the opening act for Guns n' Roses in OKC sometime in '94. "Gish" has been out a couple of months. I had it, knew who SP were. Liked them. Was actually looking forward to seeing them since I really liked Gish. Unfortunately, I think I was the only one in the arena who had heard of them or wanted to see them.
When they came out on stage and played their first song, the crowd immediately began booing. Throughout the set, the crowd was chanting "G-N-R" and booing every chance they got. After about 4 songs, Billy had enough, I guess. He says into the mic, "So this is Oklahoma? Well, now I see what you guys do when you're not tipping cooooooooows all day." I swear, I thought there was gonna be a redneck riot. They quickly played one more song and existed stage left.
To this day, it's one of the funniest things I've heard at a concert.