Poor setlist choices, awful-sounding music, and confounding sartorial decisions mixed with heavy doses of audience mockery: These are the reports we’ve been getting about the Smashing Pumpkins‘ “20th Anniversary Tour”, and guesses at Billy Corgan’s motivations can only confuse and infuriate.

That would be Pitchfork’s Dave Maher, hyperlinking his way into an hilariously intense fury at Billy Corgan instead of walking down the street to cover the Chicago Theatre shows. After (maybe) watching a YouTube clip and (probably) reading the Rolling Stone and Fluxblog concert reviews, Maher denounced the tour as a “shitshow” (what?), claimed that Corgan had “lashed out at his band’s fans” with an “outburst”, called Zeitgeist “mediocre”, said the band was “meandering into formless noise jams”, accused Corgan of “ruining people’s nostalgic fondness” for the Pumpkins, said Corgan was “cashing in”, and called Corgan “crazy”.

Can you explain this, Dave? Why all the anger?

Personally, I don’t buy that this intentional audience befuddling is some kind of pure pursuit of an artistic muse. It seems like the flailing around of an artist who has declined and is unwilling to face that truth even when his own fans proclaim it so by their reactions to his art.

You may be on to something there… (more…)

Within a three-hour span this afternoon, music-news websites Stereogum, Idolator, and Pitchfork all posted the same recording of “G.L.O.W.” sourced from the song’s radio debut on Chicago’s Q101. “NEW SMASHING PUMPKINS” blared a Stereogum headline, with the accompanying article stating that “it finally hit the airwaves”. Shortly thereafter, Idolator promoted the recording as “Leak Of The Day”, declaring that today marks the song’s “WEB DEBUT”. Pitchfork followed, saying “Chicago’s Q-101 played it, someone upped a rip to YouTube, and now you can listen to it in rather abysmal sound quality.”

The YouTube clip of “G.L.O.W.” embedded and hailed as newsworthy by all three sites? It’s been on YouTube for a week. The Q101 debut featured in the clip? That happened two weeks ago. And the song has been in the top 40 at alternative radio for eight days now. Links to various recordings of the song (even to perfect-quality versions) have been appearing in comments on HU posts over that entire span, and of course similar links are all over Pumpkins messageboards.

It’s one thing for these sites not to cover the Smashing Pumpkins well and therefore not to have the story on day one; really, that’s fine and no one should much care. But for them to claim that they are right on it, to act as though the music world has shrunk to the size of a three-site circle jerk, is in every sense of the word…wait for it… pretentious.

Brent DiCrescenzo — yes, the former Pitchfork Media contributor (more on Brent D. below) — gets the news in a phone interview with Billy Corgan for Time Out Chicago:

Corgan promises the Pumpkins will return to “Chicago proper” in November for the band’s 20th anniversary show; the only question, he says, is whether the venue will be the United Center or the Allstate Arena.

DiCrescenzo, best known to Pumpkins fans for his withering review of Machina, is apparently back in the world of music writing. (In 2004, DiCrescenzo wrote that he was quitting the profession at the end of his review of the Beastie Boys’ album To the 5 Boroughs, a piece that was later blasted by Pitchfork editors for…wait for it…making stuff up about Radiohead.) So, now what did he think of the not-really-reunited Smashing Pumpkins playing at a fucking casino?

[I]t’s a shame nitpickers avoided the Horseshoe for the sake of some mythical rock ideals; there’s no way those shows will sound as sweet as this one.

The Pumpkins have been practicing seven hours a day, Corgan says, and it shows: The band rips through material from each of its records, some B-sides and a cover of Pink Floyd’s early acid freak-out, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” Unlike in his ’90s performances, Corgan exerts control over his voice; in fact, he sings better than ever. The group blends heavy-metal geek shredding with trippy goth shoegazing. After an insane, extended guitar duel, the band huddles up for a quiet acoustic set at the front of the stage. The Pumpkins always balanced the audacious with the intimate, which might have led to many listeners’ inability to understand Corgan’s intent. But that’s his point—to remain enigmatic. Before his biggest hit, “Today,” Corgan tells the audience, “This is for you, even though I don’t know who you are. But you don’t know me either.”

Wow, not even a snarky comment about how Billy singing “better than ever” must mean that he paid big bucks to have his “wax-paper septum” replaced! Looks like you can take the Pitchfork out of the boy.

After spending a long, long weekend taking in the sounds (and more amusingly, the sights) at the annual Pitchfork Music Festival here in Chicago, I’m needing some recuperation time from all the rock.

One of the stranger sights seen at this indie rock hipster heaven?

Some guy wearing an Arising! tour t-shirt. (Note, the baseball style, not the one pictured.)

 I don’t know if he was trying to be ironic.

In praising Mission of Burma’s performance of a 25-year-old album at Pitchfo*k Music Festival last night, venerable Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis drops two comparison points:

It’s easy to take shots at Pitchfork’s opening-night “Don’t Look Back” concept of bands performing one of their classic albums in its entirety and to dismiss it as a gimmick or cheap nostalgia. But as with everything else, it all depends on the music in question.

A long since gone-Hollywood Liz Phair performing “Exile in Guyville” or the reunited sorta-Smashing Pumpkins rendering “Gish” arguably are as sad as any state fair act. But a band like Mission of Burma is a different story: Its music was always far ahead of its time; it ended the first round of its career prematurely, in part because of guitarist Roger Miller’s tinnitus, and the new albums it has recorded since 2004 have been every bit as good as “Vs.” (1983), the subject of Friday’s retrospective.

The reformed Pumpkins haven’t actually yet performed Gish, but now many of DeRogatis’s Sun-Times readers (particularly those who know that Liz Phair recently did perform Exile in Guyville) are going to assume that they have. But hey, since he already knows it’s going to suck, no harm done!

New Order bassist Peter Hook has just spoken to Pitchfo*k about the progress being made on the album by his new bass-based band Freebass.

“We’ve already written 17 tracks and it’s coming along very well,” said Hook. “We hope to finish it soon.”

Whoops, my mistake — that was Hook being quoted from a November 2006 edition of Argentine publication Página/12. Here’s Hook in his new interview with Pitchfo*k:

PH: Freebass is coming along quite well, really. If I didn’t have to work for a living as a DJ, it’d be done a lot quicker because DJing can be quite arduous. I enjoy it a great deal, all of us do– Mani, Andy Rourke, and I DJ professionally, and we do it a lot. And we’re trying desperately to fit Freebass in between, which is proving to be a little bit annoying now, because as it’s sounding better and better, we’re more desperate to finish it. So it’s coming along quite well.

To the transparent delight of Pitchfo*k interviewer Matthew Solarski, Hook the hardworking DJ teasingly asks Corgan to rush delivery on his promised contribution of free bass-free vocals for the project:

Pitchfork: I’ve also heard that you were trying to get Billy Corgan to sing?

PH: Yeah, Billy offered his services, and was provided with a couple of tracks. I’m still waiting, so if he’s listening out there: Billy, get on with it!

On Thursday, industrious Pitchfo*k newsman Dave Maher located the official website of the Smashing Pumpkins, using information found there to snark out a report on a two-week-old interview.  All links are Maher’s:

Not letting their music get overshadowed by their typically dramatic activities from earlier this year, Smashing Pumpkins revealed their plans for the rest of the year to ArtisanNews.com (as reposted on their website.)

…

Thanks to reader Keith Beshwate for the tip.

Maher added value to his reposting of the Artisan News Service interview by misspelling Jimmy’s last name, saying that the Pumpkins’ “best songs are behind them”, and suggesting that a reunion with James and D’Arcy would be desirable.

[18:33] pins: you know, there’s some criticism to be made about this lawsuit.
[18:34] jjb: and i’m looking to you
[18:34] jjb: haha
[18:34] jjb: i just don’t care about it
[18:34] pins: well, goodwill with the fans? integrity? not too sure about that.
[18:35] jjb: what?! you think it’s about money?!
[18:35] jjb: haha
[18:35] pins: lol
[18:35] pins: well, goodwill with the fans, like selling 7 versions of the same album?
[18:35] jjb: hey, maybe some people wanted seven versions
[18:35] jjb: just kidding
[18:36] jjb: i would agree that they have not been perfectly assiduous in cultivating an “alternative” image
[18:36] pins: just saying, weird terminology. they’re well within their rights in the lawsuit, but all they had to say was unauthorized usage.
[18:37] jjb: i agree with you
[18:37] jjb: i remember, back with the sharon obsourne lawsuit, people making fun of the terminology
[18:37] jjb: that billy sounded like he was still an abused child
[18:38] pins: heh
[18:38] jjb: and i was definitely reminded of that
[18:38] jjb: reading the press release
[18:38] pins: funny, so pitchfo*k totally just said the same thing i did
[18:39] jjb: oh there’s a shock

Apparently, betwixt the Pumpkin negativity, Pitchf*rk is trying to replace MTV. Or at least the MTV I grew up with that still played music videos. On April 7th, reports Idolator, Pitchf*rk.tv launches, replete with loads of footage of bands-you-never-heard-of and music-videos-your-kid-sister-could-probably-make.

In rare form, Idolator jokes:

I’m sure every Idolator reader is eagerly awaiting the moment when “The Interview Show,” which promises to bring “today’s best and most respected artists face-to-face with the Pitchfork critics who write their features and review their albums,” embarks on its ratings-grabbing “0.0 Week.” Let the fists fly!

According to Pitchf*rk’s press release, the site will be featuring current and long-lost music videos, full-length feature films, vintage concerts, music DVDs and even live pro-mixed concerts. Interesting. Why do I suspect that the Superchrist video will not be included?!

What looks hilarious are the recurring programs that they’re starting. I have taken liberal editing authority on their descriptions.

• Daytripping - “puts you in the passenger seat for a day out with some of the most vibrant personalities in independent music.”  Let’s hope they’ve showered.

• Juan’s Basement - a program that takes you into the basements of high school kids everywhere to find out what the real underground scene is like. Ugh. Flashbacks from my high school punk days scare me.

• Treefort Sessions - answering those seminal questions such as “What happens when disparate artists are chosen to spend a day recording together in a Brooklyn studio?” Gee, that question was keeping me awake at night. Oh wait… no, that was my neighbor who actually does record in his Brooklyn studio next door. They’ve colonized this borough.

• Don’t Look Down - apparently not for the vertigo-inclined, this program “brings artists to rooftops around New York and Chicago and says go.” Okay, so this one could be cool since they’re actually performing live sets. Can I nominate Deerhoof? That’s a long way to fall.

• The Interview Show - in which Pitchf*rk reviewers come face to face with their destiny — of fists.

Gee, I can’t wait.

I’ll admit: my Google Reader does have an RSS feed to Pitchf*rk. I’m not one to read it regularly because its self-indulgent Radiohead pandering causes quick-onset indigestion. However, once in a great while they do post relevant Smashing Pumpkins news… if you can tolerate the suffocating cynicism.

This morning, Pitchf*rk reported that Billy Corgan will be heading back to the studio to do a collaboration with New Order bassist Hook, Mani from Primal Scream and ex-Smiths star Andy Rourke for their “supergroup” Freebass. If you want to skip the blurb below in favor of a fairer reportage, check out this article from Gigwise.

First there is the matter of Freebass, the Peter Hook/Andy Rourke/Mani all-bass supergroup. Freebass, as you know, have been recording with a number of different vocalists, including ex-Stone Rose Ian Brown and the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess. A BBC 6 Music report yesterday quotes Hook as saying, “We persuaded Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins [to work with us].” Mr. Corgan will, presumably, assist in the vocal capacity, as will Haven frontman Gary Briggs, UK singer Rowetta, and celebrity dope-dealer Howard Marks (”doing a rap,” according to Hook). Oh boy!

On a semi-related note, my co-blogger Pins picked up a CD today that included a promotional sticker flaunting that it is “Recommended by Pitchf*rk!” No way! Gee, that’s such a compliment! Tastes like… Radiohead!

[This post made possible by American Apparel (and AdBlock Plus)!]

[Pitchfo*k] closes 2007 with a look at each of our writers’ favorite albums of the year. To construct our consensus staff list, we used a combination of the following lists– with most writers listing 50 records– and, as we’ve done each of the past two years, a points allocation system similar to Pazz and Jop.

La dee da. Among the artists with a 2007 release earning more than one mention among the 37 Pitchfo*k writers’ top-25 album lists: Against Me!, The Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Cam’ron, Devin the Dude, Dinosaur Jr., Fall Out Boy, Feist, Low, Oh No, The New Pornographers, Paramore, Pissed Jeans, PJ Harvey, Rhys Chatham, Rihanna, Sally Shapiro, The Sea and Cake, Elliott Smith, Britney Spears, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The White Stripes, White Williams, Amy Winehouse, Wu-Tang Clan, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Here are all the albums that appeared on exactly one of the 37 lists:
(more…)

This making-of-Zeitgeist documentary is available from Best Buy for $13.99; it will be packaged with a free CD copy of Zeitgeist that contains a previously unreleased bonus track entitled “Ma Belle”.

No, that’s not how it’s being marketed, but that is an economically equivalent way of describing the “re-release” of Zeitgeist. I don’t think anyone would have a problem with the band pricing a new standalone DVD documentary at $14; however, the offer of a $14 DVD/Zeitgeist combo ($10 if pre-ordered) has been met with some hysterically righteous denunciations. Two examples:

• Pitchfo*k Media has responded to this $14 DVD/CD offer by (again) trotting out an image of a 100-dollar bill with Billy Corgan’s picture superimposed upon it, referring to the band as “$mashing Pumpkin$”.
• The webzine Prefix headlines an article “Billy Corgan’s integrity R.I.P 2007″ and says anyone who wants this item would “probably better off writing a check for the same amount and sending it to P.O. Box Your Toilet”.

UPDATE: The “full length” DVD reportedly contains the 20-minute-long documentary as well as the promo videos for “Tarantula” and “That’s the Way”. That plus “Ma Belle” for $14? It’s a borderline call for me, but I won’t pretend to be deciding for everyone. Of course, I’m listening to “Ma Belle” right now for $0, so… :)

UPDATE: The in-store price is $10 through Friday.

I realize that Pitchfo*k, as a matter of editorial policy, makes no pretense at objectivity (or “objectivity”); I think that is terrific, really, and HU sure doesn’t pretend to be objective either. That said, I think the following three facts are in considerable tension with each other:

1. Pitchfo*k is, or at least has the reputation for being, a sort of one-stop shop for musico-cultural guidance to a stratum of aspirational hipsters.
2. This, from Tuesday, is fairly representative of Pitchfo*kian attitudes toward/ coverage of Radiohead (and many other bands): deeply contextualized, centered around matters of music and the creation thereof, and editorially positioned in the respectful-to-fawning range.
3. This, from today, is fairly representative of Pitchfo*kian attitudes toward/coverage of the Smashing Pumpkins: shallow and disjointed, focused primarily on trivialities and supposedly telling “gotcha” moments, and oscillating between qualified respect and sneering dismissiveness.

They’re entitled to their opinions, I’ve got mine, and that’s all good. But let’s not kid ourselves; once we get beyond questions of competence — and Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, Thom Yorke, and Johnny Greenwood are all palpably competent — notions of objectivity play a diminished role in cultural criticism. I personally have zero doubt about my ability to stand on two feet and argue down to brass tacks for the proposition that, relative to Radiohead, the Pumpkins have a roughly equally defensible claim to be a vital/vibrant/enriching/inspiring/enlightening/whatever artistic entity. Pitchfo*k could put up whomever they wanted to take the negative side, and sure, that person might be able to win over much of the audience in a hip debate hall, but I find it hard to imagine that I personally could feel that I had been exposed or ruffled in whatever process would take place. I already know why I believe the Pumpkins merit great respect; I’ve been thinking about it for a long, long time now; hopefully, over the past and future lifespan of this blog, reasons iz communicated. I also know from experience that I’m not alone in holding this opinion; if there is desire or need for it, I would be honored if this blog were to serve as a comfortably appointed haven for that Pumpkins-respecting stratum of culture consumers. I guess we’ll find out.

While my HU brethren are part of the delegation tonight at the convention, there’s still work to be done, even if I think the candidate is only running on its past laurels…
Chicago blog Gapers Block has followed up on the Zeitgeist bonus track controversy with a blurb on their Transmission music page (full disclosure, I have written for GB, but not on the music side), noting that local indie stalwart Reckless Records has opted to not order any copies of the Pumpkins new disc, in response to the lack of inclusion of indie stores from carrying any editions of the big Z with bonus tracks.

“We all kinda weighed in and decided that if we were going to be inconsequential to Billy and the Pumpkins, than we should make him him inconsequential to our sales,” says Dylan Posa, manager of Reckless’s downtown location in the article.

Let’s be honest. There is nothing all that newsworthy about multiple versions of the new CD being released. Pitchfork’s accusations of selling out and milking the fans dry is overblown, empty haranguing. This practice isn’t new, either to the music world at large, or the Pumpkins in general (remember Still Becoming Apart , the 7 song EP and the lithographs from Machina?).

That said, in 2000 the band made a concerted effort to support local independents, both by doing autograph signings in many stores during Resume the Pose and with the exclusive EP. Why the change of heart in 2007?

Reckless’s boycott won’t matter much to the band’s overall sales, as its 3 Chicago locations would have provided a minute amount of sales to the total count. Likewise, I don’t think many of the store’s indie clientele was banging down the doors at midnight either.

But the gesture, while empty, is noble. Why push a product of an entity that doesn’t support your existence? Bravo to Reckless. I’m heading there tomorrow to show *my* support.

jillysp:  i wonder what pitchfork is going to write
jillysp:  and if it’s going to be on principle
jjb:  before they suddenly started hating on them
jjb:  i was predicting around a 6.6
jjb:  now i think a 5.0

Dang, just missed.