I mentioned Billy Corgan two weeks ago when I featured Zwan, but he was on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last night and sang Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball backstage:
Kinda makes it seem like a good song, too.
Showing posts with label Billy Corgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billy Corgan. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Video Of The Week: Zwan
Billy Corgan (who these days goes by his full name, William Patrick Corgan, because he's super-serious as a solo performer, playing piano accompanied by strings and stuff) once said of his Zwan bandmates:
The video for the lead single Honestly was directed by Bruce Dickson, featuring some nice harmonies and apparent chemistry between Corgan and bassist Paz Lenchantin, former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin's signature jazz-inspired drum rolls and a bit too much flanger effect on the guitar:
It's colourful and seems more joyous than the tumultuous end(s) of the Pumpkins. Which is the beauty and magic of film, i.e. "make-believe".
I'll never go anywhere near those people again. Ever. I mean, I detest them. You can put that in capital letters. Bad people. (Original Smashing Pumpkins members) James (Iha) and D'arcy (Wretzky) are good people. They might be misguided people, but they're good people.There's also this blog post of his. Oh, and this Chicago Tribune quote about the band's demise:
The music wasn't the big problem, it was more their attitude... Sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders. (Guitarist David) Pajo sleeping with the producer's girlfriend while we were making the record.Followed by this Entertainment Weekly quote just four weeks later:
Sex and drugs and junk. Tick off the list: heroin, band members having relationships... You don't trust the person next to you. I'm on the bus. I send an email to somebody and I throw my BlackBerry in my little day bag. The next day, my ex-girlfriend calls me screaming. Somebody in the group went into my BlackBerry and forwarded her an email that another girl sends me. I mean, that's the kind of stuff we were dealing with.But taking away the psychodrama, Zwan's Mary Star Of The Sea may very well be Corgan's last very good album. It's certainly his most consistent output in the past 15 years (it came out in January 2003).
The video for the lead single Honestly was directed by Bruce Dickson, featuring some nice harmonies and apparent chemistry between Corgan and bassist Paz Lenchantin, former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin's signature jazz-inspired drum rolls and a bit too much flanger effect on the guitar:
It's colourful and seems more joyous than the tumultuous end(s) of the Pumpkins. Which is the beauty and magic of film, i.e. "make-believe".
Friday, February 10, 2017
Video Of The Week: The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins' 1998 release, Adore, was the band's ode to dark New Wave music, where electronic beats (and Joey Waronker) took over for departed drummer Jimmy Chamberlin; it was also the last to feature any member of the classic line-up save for leader Billy Corgan, as guitarist James Iha left for A Perfect Circle and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky had just had enough (of everything, Corgan in particular).
A lot of people loved the song Perfect - I didn't, feeling that it was an easier-to-listen-to rehash of 1979 - and almost no one understood the The Cure reference of 17; Ava Adore, however, was liked by almost all fans, in the same vein as Eye from the Lost Highway soundtrack, but more radio-friendly and with its own themes and structure. Its video, directed by Dom & Nic (a.k.a. Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley), was heavy on the "heroin chic" visual theme, one the Pumpkins had been flirting with since 1995 (Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero) but hadn't fully embraced yet:
With Adore considered a flop, Corgan followed it with the extremely hard rocking two-part release Machina: The Machines Of God and Machina II: The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music, thought at the time to be the band's curtain call.
A lot of people loved the song Perfect - I didn't, feeling that it was an easier-to-listen-to rehash of 1979 - and almost no one understood the The Cure reference of 17; Ava Adore, however, was liked by almost all fans, in the same vein as Eye from the Lost Highway soundtrack, but more radio-friendly and with its own themes and structure. Its video, directed by Dom & Nic (a.k.a. Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley), was heavy on the "heroin chic" visual theme, one the Pumpkins had been flirting with since 1995 (Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero) but hadn't fully embraced yet:
With Adore considered a flop, Corgan followed it with the extremely hard rocking two-part release Machina: The Machines Of God and Machina II: The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music, thought at the time to be the band's curtain call.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Video Of The Week: The Smashing Pumpkins
"Tomorrow's just an excuse away / So I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own".
- Billy Corgan, 1995.
Winter's upon us, ice covers the streets and sidewalks - and perhaps even our hearts. The warmth is so far away, a few of us may not even get to experience it again. And in this cold, all I hear are the words to The Smashing Pumpkins' Thirty-Three, the first song Corgan wrote after the seminal 1993 album Siamese Dream which ended up as the final single released from the two-disc epic and so-aptly-titled Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.
Mellon Collie sounded tragic, and in many ways it was. It was the last record the "classic" Pumpkins line-up ever recorded, although said line-up was usually just used sparsely in the studio, with Corgan performing all instruments except drums himself, save for a piano or guitar solo here and there, courtesy of James Iha. It was also one of the harshest tours in rock history, as one 17-year-old fan was crushed to death at the Dublin show, and with touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin overdosing on heroin in New York, resulting in Melvoin's death and Chamberlin's expulsion of the group.
The band didn't stop the tour, however, recruiting studio drummer extraordinaire Matt Walker (who also appeared on later studio singles and 1998's Adore) and keyboardist Dennis Flemion; the band played the Molson Centre on September 11th, 1996 (I won tickets to the show by calling in at CHOM, the local rock station), and released the following single and video (co-directed by Corgan and then-partner Yelena Yemchuk), filmed in stop-motion and leading up to a re-enactment of the Mellon Collie album cover at the end:
- Billy Corgan, 1995.
Winter's upon us, ice covers the streets and sidewalks - and perhaps even our hearts. The warmth is so far away, a few of us may not even get to experience it again. And in this cold, all I hear are the words to The Smashing Pumpkins' Thirty-Three, the first song Corgan wrote after the seminal 1993 album Siamese Dream which ended up as the final single released from the two-disc epic and so-aptly-titled Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.
Mellon Collie sounded tragic, and in many ways it was. It was the last record the "classic" Pumpkins line-up ever recorded, although said line-up was usually just used sparsely in the studio, with Corgan performing all instruments except drums himself, save for a piano or guitar solo here and there, courtesy of James Iha. It was also one of the harshest tours in rock history, as one 17-year-old fan was crushed to death at the Dublin show, and with touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin overdosing on heroin in New York, resulting in Melvoin's death and Chamberlin's expulsion of the group.
The band didn't stop the tour, however, recruiting studio drummer extraordinaire Matt Walker (who also appeared on later studio singles and 1998's Adore) and keyboardist Dennis Flemion; the band played the Molson Centre on September 11th, 1996 (I won tickets to the show by calling in at CHOM, the local rock station), and released the following single and video (co-directed by Corgan and then-partner Yelena Yemchuk), filmed in stop-motion and leading up to a re-enactment of the Mellon Collie album cover at the end:
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Video Of The (Past) Week: Hole
For some reason, I'm still in my Hole trip - it's been a year, these usually last me three or four months at a time, but I'm hearing things I want to hear on every single one of their records these days - well, 1991 (Pretty On The Inside) until 1998 (Celebrity Skin), anyway, I never delve into 2010 (Nobody's Daughter) territory.
This song - Celebrity Skin, the title track off their most commercial release - was co-written by Courtney Love with the band's guitarist Eric Erlandson and Billy Corgan (of The Smashing Pumpkins), whose influence is very distinct (the chord progression is very Siamese Dream, the wordplay very Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness), and the beautifully stylized video was directed by Nancy Bardawil; it's the type of imagery (glowing gowns, bright pink and purple with black) that would also have worked wonders for the band's breakthrough hit Miss World.
The only downer in it is seeing future drummer Samantha Maloney wear a wig to look like Patty Schemel who had not yet been told she wasn't in the band anymore; they didn't even really have to go that route since Deen Castronovo (G/Z/R, Ozzy Osbourne, Bad English, Steve Vai, Paul Rodgers Band) was the actual session drummer they used, but I guess having two men (with Erlandson) appear in the comeback video for what is considered a ''girl band'' - and one that the media put the entire weight of feminism in rock on - may have been seen as a treason of sorts.
This song - Celebrity Skin, the title track off their most commercial release - was co-written by Courtney Love with the band's guitarist Eric Erlandson and Billy Corgan (of The Smashing Pumpkins), whose influence is very distinct (the chord progression is very Siamese Dream, the wordplay very Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness), and the beautifully stylized video was directed by Nancy Bardawil; it's the type of imagery (glowing gowns, bright pink and purple with black) that would also have worked wonders for the band's breakthrough hit Miss World.
The only downer in it is seeing future drummer Samantha Maloney wear a wig to look like Patty Schemel who had not yet been told she wasn't in the band anymore; they didn't even really have to go that route since Deen Castronovo (G/Z/R, Ozzy Osbourne, Bad English, Steve Vai, Paul Rodgers Band) was the actual session drummer they used, but I guess having two men (with Erlandson) appear in the comeback video for what is considered a ''girl band'' - and one that the media put the entire weight of feminism in rock on - may have been seen as a treason of sorts.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Video Of The Week: The Smashing Pumpkins
I could have chosen any of at least 10 videos to feature The Smashing Pumpkins, and I really almost went with one featuring Melissa Auf Der Maur on bass, and also hesitated putting their best song up (Bullet With Butterfly Wings), but ultimately I went with this one, released a couple of weeks following my 15th birthday, for Today, by acclaimed director Stéphane Sednaoui:
Despite the band being from Chicago, the Pumpkins are generally lumped into the ''grunge'' category for mixing quiet verses with heavy and loud choruses, and having lyrics that lean heavily towards the very personal but often incorporating tremendous amounts of sarcasm, such as this track, claiming ''today is the greatest day I've ever known'' and yet dealing with extreme depression (perhaps even to the level of being suicidal).
A sharp contrast to the subject matter is the use of bright colours, and all the extras making out all over the desert throughout the video.
At the time of its release, I remember thinking the Siamese Dream album the track is from to be better than Nirvana's Nevermind, but not as enthralling as Pearl Jam's Ten; both Seattle bands would release tremendous albums later in the year - In Utero and Vs, respectively - that would blow Siamese Dream out of the water, and it took until the follow-up record, the two-disc Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, for me to finally claim the Pumpkins had made a masterpiece.
I liked that the Pumpkins, like Pearl Jam, took their influences everywhere and anywhere, including wearing their love of 1980s alternative on their sleeves. You can definitely hear Billy Corgan channeling The Cars in many overdubs of power chords, as well as 1970s arena rock; on Mellon Collie, you can tell he was inspired by U2's turn to studio doodling (à la Zooropa and Achtung Baby) as well as what Trent Reznor was able to accomplish with Nine Inch Nails, particularly off The Downward Spiral - and Siamese Dream is the low-fi, pre-dating, low-budget version of that. And while Disarm and Mayonnaise may be the best-written pieces on it, Today is the best-produced straight-up rock number on it, and the one that had the most impact - despite my soft spot for Cherub Rock's opening minute.
Despite the band being from Chicago, the Pumpkins are generally lumped into the ''grunge'' category for mixing quiet verses with heavy and loud choruses, and having lyrics that lean heavily towards the very personal but often incorporating tremendous amounts of sarcasm, such as this track, claiming ''today is the greatest day I've ever known'' and yet dealing with extreme depression (perhaps even to the level of being suicidal).
A sharp contrast to the subject matter is the use of bright colours, and all the extras making out all over the desert throughout the video.
At the time of its release, I remember thinking the Siamese Dream album the track is from to be better than Nirvana's Nevermind, but not as enthralling as Pearl Jam's Ten; both Seattle bands would release tremendous albums later in the year - In Utero and Vs, respectively - that would blow Siamese Dream out of the water, and it took until the follow-up record, the two-disc Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, for me to finally claim the Pumpkins had made a masterpiece.
I liked that the Pumpkins, like Pearl Jam, took their influences everywhere and anywhere, including wearing their love of 1980s alternative on their sleeves. You can definitely hear Billy Corgan channeling The Cars in many overdubs of power chords, as well as 1970s arena rock; on Mellon Collie, you can tell he was inspired by U2's turn to studio doodling (à la Zooropa and Achtung Baby) as well as what Trent Reznor was able to accomplish with Nine Inch Nails, particularly off The Downward Spiral - and Siamese Dream is the low-fi, pre-dating, low-budget version of that. And while Disarm and Mayonnaise may be the best-written pieces on it, Today is the best-produced straight-up rock number on it, and the one that had the most impact - despite my soft spot for Cherub Rock's opening minute.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Video Of The Week: Hole
I've been on a Hole tear lately, and decided to share with the rest of the class...
The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson, after Love had spent the better part of the decade parlaying her way into and soon getting thrown out of a multitude of bands (Faith No More, Pagan Babies, Babes In Toyland), either because of her personality or the fact that she didn't really know how to play an instrument at the time.
A sweet talker, she convinced Sonic Youth frontwoman Kim Gordon to produce their first independent record, Pretty On The Inside, dated The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, married Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and got signed to Geffen Records, which released their major-label debut Live Through This in 1994.
By the time touring for the record came about, Love had lost her husband, and the band had lost their original drummer as well as four bassists, including the most recent, Kristen Pfaff, to a drug overdose. The line-up with Melissa Auf Der Maur on bass and Patty Schemel on drums (14994-1998) is widely considered the quintessential Hole, though, perhaps because they appeared in the most videos and played more shows as a unit, but I like to think it held the best combination of balls and brawn, grit and softness, fury and beauty. (And I think Auf Der Maur has a lot to do with it).
Rumours have always floated around Hole that their best songs had been ghost-written by either Cobain or Corgan, and for their third album, Celebrity Skin, Corgan's actually credited as a co-songwriter on five separate songs, so at least the ''ghost'' part was eliminated. One of those songs is this one, Malibu, directed by Paul Hunter:
The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson, after Love had spent the better part of the decade parlaying her way into and soon getting thrown out of a multitude of bands (Faith No More, Pagan Babies, Babes In Toyland), either because of her personality or the fact that she didn't really know how to play an instrument at the time.
A sweet talker, she convinced Sonic Youth frontwoman Kim Gordon to produce their first independent record, Pretty On The Inside, dated The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, married Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and got signed to Geffen Records, which released their major-label debut Live Through This in 1994.
By the time touring for the record came about, Love had lost her husband, and the band had lost their original drummer as well as four bassists, including the most recent, Kristen Pfaff, to a drug overdose. The line-up with Melissa Auf Der Maur on bass and Patty Schemel on drums (14994-1998) is widely considered the quintessential Hole, though, perhaps because they appeared in the most videos and played more shows as a unit, but I like to think it held the best combination of balls and brawn, grit and softness, fury and beauty. (And I think Auf Der Maur has a lot to do with it).
Rumours have always floated around Hole that their best songs had been ghost-written by either Cobain or Corgan, and for their third album, Celebrity Skin, Corgan's actually credited as a co-songwriter on five separate songs, so at least the ''ghost'' part was eliminated. One of those songs is this one, Malibu, directed by Paul Hunter:
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