THE SMASHING PUMPKINS' BILLY CORGAN ANNOUNCES THE DEPARTURE OF JIMMY CHAMBERLIN FROM THE GROUP

CORGAN SET TO HEAD INTO THE STUDIO TO CREATE NEW SMASHING PUMPKINS MUSIC

The SMASHING PUMPKINS' guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member Billy Corgan has announced that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has left the group. Chamberlin joined the band Corgan founded in Chicago in 1988 and played on all their albums except Adore (1998). Corgan will continue to write and record as SMASHING PUMPKINS with plans to head into the studio this spring.

You can discuss this topic with others on the SP.com forum in THIS THREAD, however you will need to be logged-in to SP.com to do so.

another article on this..
http://newsroom.mtv.com/2...-pumpkins/

In otherwords, he's gone solo! Can anyone shed light why the breakup in the first place? Was it all Billy's craziness?

god i hate what he's done to the legacy of that group. that fucker should
have just stuck to being a solo act after Machina II.

his debut album was pretty bad, only a couple of good songs on there. but
those that were good were really very good. he should have just put some
more work into it and made it something a bit more special.

he just keeps digging up the pumpkins' corpse and it stinks worse every
damn time he does it. he pretty much didn't write a single good song in
about 4 years now.

truly can't believe he plans on recording under the name pumpkins again
because by now it's become more of a hindrance than anything else since
he's made the smashing pumpkins into a very sad parody of their former
self.

d'arcy and james must be going somewhere.

IstenSzek said:

We have the same birthday!

But I completely and wholeheartedly agree with you. You cannot have SP without Billy so obviously I respect immensely that he was the driving force of that band. But the work he's done post breakup just pales in comparison to what they were doing as a group.

I don't know if it was the dynamics of being surrounded by different influences or if it's just the process of aging that has altered his art to the point that as one of my favorite bands of all time I could care less about this upcoming album. The last one sonically was totally Smashing Pumpkinds but it felt completely technical and devoid of any heart that made those early albums incredible.

In those early albums he is jaded. You hear it in the lyrics. But his jadedness is tempered by the innocnece of youth. His work post band feels completely jaded with no sense of compassion to the nuances of life.....

IstenSzek said:

At the beginning i was upset at d'arcy and james not joining. Foolishly, I thought well their just being bitter. But with a logical thought I wouldn't be able to re join a band who's founder is a total control freak. It would not be fun. He(corgan) needs to realize his days as a pumpkin are over. Or in other words the pumpkin has become rotten. sadly, i always knew this was going to be zwan part2:the reckoning. alas! siamese dream and adore were the only two good records they made.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

all musicians become irrelevant at one point except for bach..cause he's god..

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

i don't know. i just got this message on myspace. I thought, well let's spread the good news to people.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

you have the same birthday as corgan? really?

i agree completely with what you wrote about the last album. it stinks imo.
i listened to it twice but i just can't listen to it anymore. i saw him in
the netherlands performing new material live just a week prior the releasing
the album and the show was a total nightmare.

he was wearing that black/white space-cape dr evil outfit and although he
played a mean motherfcking guitar the rest seemed uninspired and just total
"i'm only here for myself. and the money. so.fuck.off." kind of attitude.

me and 3 friends left after 20 minutes because it was just hard to watch.

his heart is no longer in it or his sentiments are no longer the same. you
described it better. i completely agree.

billy corgan IS the smashing pumpkins. zeitgiest was a great record, the tour was awesome, and i honestly dont think it matters who plays bass or drums in his band.

sassybritches said:

It probably doesn't however the psychology is different and it isn't just the fans.....

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

the fans i saw at the shows were having a great time. i think a lot of people get attached to nostalgia...kind of like the way people always wish the revolution would get back together as if that would make them like prince again, lol.

sassybritches said:

I think that is true to some extent but something IS missing. I know people grow and all that because I have lived probably 4 distinct lives since 20. However it feels like he's holding onto some bitter pill that is never fully swallowed down even though he keeps drinking lots and lots of water.

sassybritches said:

much as i fucking love you, i disagree completely

without the input of james and d'arcy it just wasn't the same. adore was
still a very good album, even without jimmy. but after that everything
just went down the shitter.

i think billy would do much better if he could just disconnect from the
whole pumpkins revival shit and focus on himself and write stuff about
his own experiences and anxiety again. he used to write such beautiful
18th century poetry inspired lyrics that were saved from elitist tosh
by the sentimental teenage angst and emotional drama, which was saved
from "teenage diary" chatter by his sense of literary urgency and angst
that connected to everyone from teenagers to 30 somethings to bored and
coked up clubkids, all of which was framed in a sort of neo film noir
setting done in japanese bondage.



i've lost the plot now, i just LOOOOOVED the old pumpkins so much.

IstenSzek said:

Exactly.

Those early aubms were magical. This is how I explain the first guitar solo on Siamese Dream:

3:00 minutes into cherub rock is the first guitar solo on the album and I just began sobbing. That solo sounds pained, fearful, elated, limitless, free, as if asking a question and giving an answer all at the same time.

I feel nothing but bitterness in his solo work. The longing, the fear, the joy, the freedom, all are eclipsed by the bitterness. I can totally get with music to kill yourself by but it's just too much!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

another solo from siamese dream that gives me the shivers (i have them now
just thinking about it) is the first one on mayonaise.

IstenSzek said:

YES!!! When I found that out all the mysteries ceased to be mysteries Did you ever get the backstory on my experience with Pisces Iscariot?????!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

no i didn't. please tell!

IstenSzek said:

HOLD

ON

but...but...maybe he's not an angsty 20-something anymore?? they guy is like, what, 40 now? i'd hope he is not as pained and frustrated as he was when he wrote those records. reflective? sure. in love? hopefully. but pained, depressive, struggling, etc...man, by now he should have it together.

i loved adore, machina, zeitgeist...love those cds!

sassybritches said:

i don't want him to be happy. i need another mellon collie

j/k. you're right.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

no, wait... i think i can recite it verbatim for him by now

IstenSzek said:

we'll never get another mellon collie

at least not until he hits mid life crisis mode! hahah!

errant said:

Don't hate cuz it didn't happen to you!

rock angst + shitloads of money = absolute crap

this is what happened to billy corgan.

I had the misfortune to attend one of the Smashing Pumpkins "reunion" concerts last year. It was one of the worst concerts I'd ever been to in my life. He had these long tuneless jam sessions that just went on and on and he played mostly obscure stuff that no one cared about.
At the end of the concert, he insulted fans who wanted to hear more of the well known songs and also James Iha who left the band. He is a very unpleasant person.

I really don't understand why he insists on using the Smashing Pumpkins name. Why doesn't he just do a solo record under his own name? Most people who have an interest in the SP songs know his name. Doing a tour as a solo artist would not stop him from performing songs that the SP released. Singers who leave bands do that all the time. But he is the one who says it's "selling out" when a band does each and every one of their old hits anyway. So he is really incomprehensible to me.

Damn this is what happens when one man's ego destroys an entire group. He and Axl Rose must be lost brothers.

IstenSzek said:

On the January, 26th 2007 I went in search of a hard-drive. After finding it, I thought I'd buy a CD or 2. Couldn't find any of the newest releases I wanted, so I went searching for old stuff that I had either lost or that had seen better days. Everything I thought of buying, I couldn't find. Finally I gave up my search. As I was walking down the aisle to purchase my harddrive, I spotted an album by one of my favorite bands that came out 13 years prior and I had never bought it

So I sat there and had a dialogue in my head (yes I had to to have an inner debate about it ) and I did figure out why I never bought it. But things had changed both in my personal life as regards to my spirit and with regards to artifacts found that changed the landscape of one of Jesus' disciples. That album is Pisces Iscariot. I remember that I initially refused to buy it because it was the purity of my sign mixed with betrayal and at that point I hadn't yet fully ripped the influence of the church out of my head. But scrolls were found in the year prior that were supposed to be Judas' account of the Gospel and it painted him in a different way than the vast majority are taught to think of him. He is seen as the closest of all Jesus' disciples.

Considering god is all knowing, it really makes so much sense that Judas was meant to play the role he did. It couldn't have been any other way. Matter of fact, his betrayal was the catalyst that resulted in the death of Christ and without the death of Christ there could have been no resurrection. Without the resurrection, there could be no redemption. So really, you could even say it was an act of love. Who knows what kind of conversation they had prior to the crucifiction. Who is to say that Jesus didn't work to convince Judas that he had to betray him in order to bring about the events that unfolded?

So I picked up the album and I got to the end of the aisle and I hear this lady come up right behind me saying Put it Back! I stand there for a second....What?!???? I turned around and nobody was there. The closest person near me was four aisles over My inner voice was that clear that I actually heard it. OK, if I actually hear a voice, I OBEY! So I put it right back

The next morning I am sitting there with my mom watching TV and the mail comes and she hands me a package from one of my best friends. I got so excited I open up the card and my friend says that he has sent me a late Christmas present and that he wasn't sure if I had the CD or not but if I didn't that I should own it. So I open up the package and what am I staring at? Pisces Iscariot!

Later that night, I listened to the Album. So I'm listening and reading the liner notes at the same time and I am floored on so many levels First, the band experience and everything that goes into the recording of an album. I love love LOVE reading stuff like that. So I'm reading the liner notes and I'm practically crying the whole time I'm listening to that cd, and then I get to the end.....

somebody comes up to you in a bar and asks if you are who they think you are, and then you say if you know then i am and if you don't then i'm not. special thanks to everyone for their continued support and a fuck you to those who will never understand

love, peace, empathy, desire, mischief, and gladness
2007

I started bawling right there because it was just so much confirmation. Confirmation about listening to that inner voice and about the path of my life. When I was holding that CD in Best Buy the day before, the main thing that screamed inside my head when I was asking myself why I never picked it up, was the fact that my sign is in the title. I am everything I am because of the time I chose to enter this world. Now back in 1994, the year 2007 would have been completely irrelevant. Last year IT. WAS. NOT! I have no idea why he would have signed off the liner notes with 2007 in 1994 but it just floored me to think that something as ridiculous as never picking up something like this from one of my favorite bands would turn into something beyond amazing. I kept the ending of the liner notes as my signature for a year. It was just so perfect I couldn't change it.

Because of that experience, I thought that the year was going to be a cinch. Easy as pie. It was not. The year was all over the place for me. I went from having that kind of amazing experience to feeling totally lost and disconnected from my gift to the point of complete doubt. The year vasciallated from amazing experiences to doubt to experience to anger to experience to pain. During the height of my doubt I actually woke up one night praying in my spirit language. I was speaking it in my sleep! I told Rhondab that I felt so lost but damn if I wasn't on auto pilot!





I'm sure errant would have left out a detail or two