the purifyer wrote:AbsumZer0 wrote:I still don't understand how:
Billy Corgan + D'Arcy + James Iha + a drum machine = Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan + James Iha = Starchildren
Billy Corgan + Jimmy Chamberlin = Smashing Pumpkins reunion
1. James and Darcy never really did anything on the records of course there was always those James Iha b-sides and his solo album. Billy and Jimmy have always been the heart and soul of the pumpkins. The live boots of the Zeitgeist tour this year show that. Jeff, Ginger and Lisa are doing a wonderful job.
2. Starchildren consisted of Billy with collaborations with James, Jimmy, and D'Arcy, Bob
English, and Mark Rew, Neil Jendon, Cliff Fox, and Kerry Brown of Catherine.
3. Billy never called a reunion. It's a reformation. As he stated in
this radio interview.
If he and Billy are the 'heart and soul' of Smashing Pumpkins it's odd that they released a full album, completed a full tour, and did a slew of videos without him. His returning also didn't do jack for the success of Machina. Smashing Pumpkins is Billy Corgan's band and always has been; Chamberlin had just as little creative control as Iha and D'Arcy.
The members have been bouncing in-and-out since Mellon Collie. It isn't the absence of Iha and D'Arcy that irks me, but all the drama behind the name. Corgan officially disbands Smashing Pumpkins, forms Zwan
with Jimmy Chamberlin, they disband, Billy Corgan
collaborates with Chamberlin on a song for The Jimmy Chamberlin Project and Chamberlin drums for a track on Billy Corgan's solo album.
Then, on the day his solo album is released, Corgan takes out a 1-page ad declaring "I want my band back" and after the only person who agrees to reunite is (surprise!) Chamberlin, they're the Smashing Pumpkins again. WTF?