Q101 Liveblog
November 21st, 2008 by jillysptags: blogging, radio, live
As we reported on Monday, the Smashing Pumpkins are due in the Q101 studios in a few minutes to sit down with Local 101 On Q101 and host Chris Payne. Click here to access the live feed and follow along with our comments below!
1:55pm CST - Hostess “Electra” says she’s happy to be taking off a few minutes early from her show since Jimmy Chamberlin and Billy Corgan are in the studio to take over for the next hour. Cue the Stone Temple Pilots.
2:00pm CST - Jimmy and Billy are now on air, joking about requiring a “clean” playlist. Chris asks what took them so long to come back to Chicago and Jimmy replies that “it just didn’t add up” yet — they wanted to make sure they came back at a time that “meant something.” They cop to the low-key nature of the post-show partying; Jimmy reports that half an hour after the last show, he was tucking his kids into bed and drinking tea. First song pick?
now playing: Alice in Chains - Dam that River
2:05pm CST - Reminiscing about Alice in Chains… ahhhh, the ’90s. “That record was a big reference for low end for us,” referring to Alice in Chains’ basslines. On to the state of the early ’90s music: “I think we brought a different set of alternative values,” Billy says regarding the grunge scene, claiming they got wrongfully lumped into the Seattle scene. Billy argues that they always thought of themselves as more of a European band; Jimmy concurs.
On celebritydom: Jimmy says the guy at TCBY totally recognizes him.
Now on to the Scorpions. Predictable. The Man-Love for Uli Jon Roth is undeniable. And gee, I sure don’t hear the influence.
now playing: The Scorpions - Sails of Charon
2:12pm CST - Storytime! They’re talking about playing in Germany and meeting Uli Jon Roth and Rudolph Schenker for the first time. They invited Uli to get up (at Rock am Ring) and play with them on “Gossamer,” unrehearsed, in front of 80,000 people. Billy jokes: “It’s 30 minutes long” and Chris laughs. They expected the crowd to go crazy, but Uli’s been out of the Scorpions for 20+ years. “Not exactly the pop we were expecting,” Jimmy says. But it was amazing because of his playing, Billy purports. “Once Uli plays with you, he’s in the band.” They laugh and talk about learning Scorpions songs for a later concert in Germany and surprising Rudolph and Uli. On a related note, Billy tells of being surprised at a U2 concert that Bono was using “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” lyrics.
now playing: The Cure - Fascination Street
2:20pm CST - “We take requests at our concerts,” Billy says. “Just shout it out.” Billy continues on to talk about the structure of the Black Sunshine / White Crosses structure: It’s like “walking through the valley of darkness on the first night and on the second night they seem to embrace us in ‘agape rapture.’” And on the murmurs of audience dissatisfaction? “It’s not a local thing - it’s nationwide.” Jimmy jokes.
They’re talking about what sets the band off and what frustrates them: “when there’s a general assumption that the band doesn’t have a bright future and there’s no hope for the future… That’s what drives us crazy,” Billy says. “We’re really not interested in being that band [of the past].” Billy continues on to talk about the younger fans being more interested in the experimental and the older fans wanting to only hear the old hits.
now playing: ZZ Top [tease]
2:27pm CST - Back to decide another track since the station management calls to cut poor ZZ off.
now playing: UFO - Space Child
2:32pm CST - Now to solicit questions from texters (text to 99161) … this should be interesting.
2:33pm CST- What are the clubs they miss playing at? The Unicorn in Milwaukee. Billy relates a story: “A guy in one of the middle of our goth songs takes the microphone and says ‘play some music!’” That will be part of our bootleg release series, he says. Jimmy jokes that it will be the 30th anniversary before that happens.
2:35pm CST - Question from the peanut gallery about Gossamer. Billy plugs the new DVD, If All Goes Wrong, and says you can find the song there. Billy states he’s very proud of the documentary and how ‘real’ it is and how well it portrays the band as musicians. Jimmy’s song pick next.
now playing: The Killers - Spaceman
2:42pm CST - Time for the text Q&A.
- Will there be a soundtrack to accompany the new DVD? They’d like to do one, but it’s going to come down to fan demand.
- If you could jam with any artist ever, living or deceased, who would it be? John Coltrane quartet for Jimmy. Billy goes for the classic Jimi Hendrix Experience.
- What are some of your favorite and most respected musicians from Chicago, any era? Ministry. Urge Overkill. Material Issue. Precious Wax Drippings. “Oh man, taking me way back,” Jimmy reminisces.
- On the local music scene, Billy says he’s given up and felt that the clique mentality is what hurt the scene back in the early days. “There’s a lot of pressure these days for a band to get really narrow,” Billy argues about the music industry at large and cliquishness.
2:49pm CST - Billy makes some very interesting comments about his inability to relate to contemporary music culture. When they first started the band, he states that they felt they had to work unbelievably hard to even begin to approach the legacy that bands like The Beatles had achieved.
He argues that today’s culture doesn’t support the work-hard-and-reap-rewards mentality; celebrities can be made on MySpace. I have to agree strongly with Billy here when he says (with sadness in his voice) that those stars really never understand their full potential.
now playing: Ministry - Supernaut
2:55pm CST - Billy talks about his recent visit to the White House. Members of the Republican Party wanted to talk art and policy with him over breakfast, he says. Men behind the scenes. [Conspiracy theorists unite!]
On the recent election: “We love Obama” and then “Billy doesn’t vote.” So much for rocking the vote, they joke.
2:57pm CST - Oh no. They have thrown down the Bon Jovi Sellout Gauntlet. Both Billy and Jimmy argue that the Smashing Pumpkins never sold out and never plan on it, even if they can throw down the hits. On their reformation and what to expect in the future, an esoteric response: “I think in another four or five years it will be clearer what we came back to do.”
now playing: Michael Schenker - Rock Bottom
Thanks for playing along with the liveblog. The band is now off the air and on their way to the Auditorium Theatre for Black Sunshine, round two.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
ohhhhhhhh youuuuuu couldn’t dam that river
November 21st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
It was more fun when they just let Billy DJ by himself, the day of the TFE release.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
The beginning to this Scorpions song is “awesome”. Hahaha…
November 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Could the liveblogger please include song titles along with the name of the artist? Thanks
November 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Lord have mercy, what more do you want from me? :)
November 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Where’s Bimmy?
November 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
JILLY GOT A SHOUT OUT! BIMMY AND JILLY
November 21st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Billy’s commentary about the crowd’s visceral/non-visceral reaction to songs like “Today” from 1993 and today is definitely the same kind of thing I was talking about in my comments about the shows. Interesting.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for commenting about that, pins. Lot of good stuff in this interview - I can’t catch it all!
November 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
http://www.spfc.org/tours/date.html?tour_id=1323
So I guess they are saying they went into “The Zoo” after “Robot Man” at this show? Can we scrounge up any other evidence on that?
November 21st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
The Scorpions track was “Sails of Charon”
November 21st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Note, the Unicorn show he refers to is possibly unknown to spfc it seems, datewise. Jimmy’s 2nd show ever with the band. Unless he’s referring to the 11/18/88 date listing?
November 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Billy also threw out Eleventh Dream Day, an incredbily underrated Chicago band and one of my favorites.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Bimmy is the new b0lly
November 21st, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I had written 11th Dream Day down and deleted it because I have never EVER heard of them. LOL
November 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Ha, Billy calling out Bon Jovi for selling out has become the Jason-mentioning-Radiohead of this tour :)
November 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I want these guys back in the studio right now.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I am confused and not understanding something, so I hope someone can clear this up for me.
Billy says that older fans want them to stay the way they were and younger fans are eager to hear where they’re going, and so he would prefer to pay attention to what the younger fans are saying.
Yet at the same time he seems very nostalgic for how things used to be culturally and musically, and is unhappy with our instant results iPod shuffle manufactured celebrity type culture. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is the same culture that these younger fans would be growing up in and affected by. So this all seems somehow contradictory.
I say this as an older fan who is eager to see where they’re going, and who thinks current culture isn’t necessarily worse than the golden days, whenever they were, just different.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
but I agree with melabonbon. Corgan is the Prince of Contradiction. Today’s (”shitty”) music culture is intimately entwined with today’s youth culture… As an ‘older’ fan (I’m younger than Billy!) I appreciate (i.e. immediately recognize) his many influences — classic rock, metal, synth pop, goth, folk, etc. And I say ‘bring in on’ Corgan! :)
reC: schools down
November 21st, 2008 at 5:43 pm
i’m sick of this “the younger fans are the only ones that care about what we’re doing now” bullshit. i’m 29 and, while i love the old stuff and always will, i’m never going to stop being interested in what the pumpkins are doing RIGHT NOW. please give me some credit, billy! and the many others like me!
November 21st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
david, I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule like yourself, but I’m sure Billy’s speaking from experience based on the makeup of the audiences he’s seen the past year and a half. While melabonbon is correct in stating the “younger culture” is indeed singles-oriented, result-based, I do think that was the case when I was younger too, for a lot of people. It’s just that music and singles are more readily accessible now that everything has shifted to a greedy, all mine, disposable environment.
What Billy’s referencing is that of the people who are passionate about a band and love a band, the younger fans are those more willing to follow them on their experiments right now, which makes sense. The older fans who are fans have experiences and memories that will color their expectations, but to the 15-year-old kid, he’s REALLY viscerally connected to it. It’s the coolest shit ever. I know I felt that way when I was 15 toward the band. But there’s not that feeling that “this is the most important thing in the world” to someone who’s 29 and has had more real-life situations that *are* that important.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I’m 31 and was skeptical after having zero interest in Zwan and Machina II (which, by the way, NEVER gets name dropped when hipsters and critics slavishly cite Radiohead’s record from 2007 as the first offering of it’s kind.. they can’t hurt their precious “cred”), but I loved a large portion of Zeitgeist, and I loved some of the Schroeder era incarnations of the old songs and never before recorded songs. His noodling fits right in and it’s not as single-stringed loopy as the first incarnation was live. No offense to James. Translucent sounds fucking incredible
November 21st, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I also love how critics who act like the Pumpkins are another revolving door band with an artist who defines all the sounds they get on and off the stage, while they WORSHIP bands that truly are revolving door lineups on every other record. They need to start being called on that. Fucking politics.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Instead of playing other bands song, they could’ve used the opportunity to get “A Song for a Son”, “As Rome Burns” and “Owata” some exposure. I feel like this is becoming less bout music, more about image and message. All this endless bitching bout how culture and technology are out to get him isn’t productive.
recaptcha: hungarian strongly
November 21st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Well like I said on another website I CANT TELL wen Billy is serious or jus joking about all the stuff he says in interviews nd in the concerts yada yada yada Billy. Guitar Hero” aint that like SElling Out hmm??? Ok alot of the Rock bands are doing it too..Guess ppl hav different defintions of “Selling Out” Idk S.P. Still Rock Thou!!! Peace!!!Vincent
November 21st, 2008 at 10:05 pm
it’s a shame studs terkel isn’t still around to kick his MF ass. (maybe the terkel ghost will start haunting him.)
November 21st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I texted a question [a couple actually] to the Q101 number, and they asked it to Billy and Jimmy on the air. I asked if there was a going to be a soundtrack to accompany the “If All Goes Wrong” DVD. The response was a NO for now unless the fans show interest in having one.
I’ve seen a few torrents with stereo files of the concert footage floating around in cyberspace. But I’d be interested if the soundtrack could be more live songs from the Filmore and even the Orange Peel.
I also think it would be cool if the soundtrack could feature other songs like the instrumental scores that Billy wrote for the film or songs that don’t get completely heard, like Orpheus Descending or The Leaving Lament.
A petition should be started amongst us fans, “the Ghost Children”, to demand a soundtrack release for “If All Goes Wrong”
Peace and Love,
Thadd
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