Infinitely Sad
Just when we thought it was safe to gain a little self-confidence, crack a smile and let go of your teenage angst, they are back! Yes, on June 21, Smashing Pumpkins announced that they will be reforming. It is fitting that this announcement was made on the longest day of the year - a day that just keeps going on and on and on and on and on - kinda like the Smashing Pumpkins. Even the announcement as it appeared in Billy Corgan's full page add in the Chicago Tribune (that he took out himself) was annoying.
"For a year now," Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams."
Didn't this guy kill himself yet? Obviously not but I will be coming very close to it if I have to endure "the pumpkins" as part of my auditory experience again in the near future. For me, the Smashing Pumpkins spoke to a generation of idiots who walked around being disenfranchised about the fact they had nothing to piss them off. They thought this stuff was clever.
I'm never coming back/I'm never giving in/I'll never be the shine in your spit/I disconnect the act/I disconnect the dots/I disconnect the me in me
Shine in your spit? Disconnect the me in me? We are free falling now ...
the disenchanted, the romantics,/the body and face and soul of you is gone /down that deep black hole/destroy the mind-destroy the body-but you cannot destroy the heart/and you, you make me so I need to disconnect/and you make it so real/I don't need your love to disconnect
... and now we have hit rock bottom. Are they kidding? This is stuff that isn't even fit to print in a high school literary mag where all the submissions should be called "an ode to my staged suicide attempt". Speaking of suicide, did I mention that even reading these lyrics again is making me lose the will to live?
You may say that the Smashing Pumpkins have earned their right to march to a funeral dirge. Here in Dublin, a girl was killed at an over-crowded show and Jonathan Melvoin, who was Wendy as in Prince and the Revolution Wendy's brother (that is a one of those killer trivia moments), died of a drug overdose. Another guy in the band was arrested for the incident - basically, they are all a train wreck. But it may be a case of 'what came first, the chicken or the egg?' I mean, drama kings and queens tend to bring a lot of drama into their lives. Corgan himself looks like a big, endomorphic baby. But I have limited sympathy, just like I had little sympathy for those pathetic "crys for help" by the self-indulgent, ridiculous 15 year old girls who timed their confessions of suicidal tendencies perfectly so they can miss midterms while they talked to the school councilor who would remarkably deem them fit to attend the homecoming celebrations.
Here is a description of the 1995 offering from the Smashing Pumpkins:
The result was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album release featuring 28 songs and lasting over 2 hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs and an alternate tracklisting). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death.
Pleaaasssee, God! Take me out of my misery! Do the words "overbearing, immature and adolescent" spring to mind for you too? No? Then you must be 15 years old.
Usually on Sucky CD Sunday, I own and like the music that I know to be bad for me but not in this case. The reason for this is because this music isn't bad for me like the standard fare on this blog - bad in the junk food way which is just an over indulgence of processed pleasure. The Smashing Pumpkins are bad in a much more lethal way. It won't turn my brain into sugary, bubblegum goop like Disco does - oh no- the Pumpkins make me go straight for the razor blades. Not only does this music make me want to die, it provides me with the soundtrack for my own demise. Ugh.
posted by pog mo thoin @ 6:14 PM
8 Comments:
OK, this album had 1 (maybe) disc of good material. But their first disc, Gish, is one of the best discs I own.
But Corgan IS a whiny bitch.
Gish is the only CD I like from them. Then the just bore me and give me a headache.
Dim, Fresh - I will give Gish another listen since you are in concensus on you but do me a favor - listen to it with the age and wisdom that you now possess since the time you bought it. Is it still as good?
Road - You are correct. Admin details are definitely not my style. I hate paperwork.
damn, poglette, you were really in rare form this time. loved your skewering of the poor 15 yr. old suicide queens. and all else you skewered. well done. hope you feel better now.
'This is stuff that isn't even fit to print in a high school literary mag'
that, my friend, is a classic line.
Sage, Hot - thanks for the kind words. Here at "Skewers R Us" we aim to please. And I do feel a bit better - not enough to get me over high school mind you - but better.
So true. This album was a pile of crap. If I recall correctly, and I rarely do, this album had 3, maybe 4 good tracks. Such a waste of time and energy. We've got to remember this was back when a single cd cost between $18-24 dollars. I was only ten when this came out, but I've got a feeling you were lucky if you only paid $32 for this crap.
Adore is the only SP album I can listen to end to end, but even that is that great.
Billy Corgan is hands down the most over rated musician of the last 10-20 years. No wait that's Kurt Cobain. Billy C. is the second most over rated musician.
My sister still talks about the time I came home with a Billy Corgan curly do!
Post a Comment
<< Home