rank the bassists
 

Nicole
melissa
ginger
paz
linda
d'arcy

kinda stupid if Nicole is out. oceania had the best bass playing of any SP/related album
at this point it would really be a coup if the next bassist was a guy

what

Lol. First of all paz was not an sp bassist. Second, paz is miles and miles above all the sp bassists including corgan. Don't let what she played in zwan fool you.

Also, linda strawberry was a bassist?

yeah she was

Dumb.

Darcy beats them all. Regardless of her technical skill, no one sounded better for smashing pumpkins than she did.

Agreed, but paz is the best bassist in general on that list.

#1: Paz
#2: Melissa
#3: Ginger

Like airplane mode, Nicole means nothing to me.

but not in SP


Also, what about Mark?

Ranking only people who have played under the name Smashing Pumpkins:

1. D'arcy - first off, I've never completely bought this whole, "she was not a good bass player business." She played in the band for 11 years, with three very different (and very talented) drummers, and played her parts on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, and the Machina albums. Obviously, she was some kind of technical marvel, but she seemed to have that "it" factor with the band, seemed to play well off Corgan, and had a great tone that was just strong enough to come through when it needed to.

2. Melissa: Not counting Paz (since she was Zwan) Melissa is probably the most skilled bassist Billy has worked with as Smashing Pumpkins. Beyond that, she had that "metal mojo." I very much believe the intensity and speed of the shows in 2000 come just as much from Melissa as Jimmy. She challenged Jimmy in a way D'arcy probably didn't, learned an incredible amount of songs, and really seemed to have fun on stage. In an alternate reality, I'd love to see a Smashing Pumpkins were we got an album with Melissa playing.

3. Mark: Really seemed like a good foil for Billy, and one of the few people who humbled him. To me, he was a great mix of the "laid-back" style of D'arcy with just a little oomph added.

4. Nicole: I really do not have anything against Nicole, and her bass playing was certainly the best thing to come out of the Teargarden/Oceania era. It's just that the majority of the material she played on was boring.

5. Ginger: Once more, no particular problem with Ginger, but we really have nothing to go off here. When I saw Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 she seemed to keep it going well.

Zwan was more SP than 2011 SP had any right to be

D'arcy
Melissa
Nicole
Ginger

really at this point we should be referring to zwan as SP 1.5

D'arcy was the best. The fact that she didn't play on many of the studio recordings means nothing; she played all the parts live with passion and ferocity. She was a "pocket" player, as cliche as that term is. It was the perfect complement to everyone else's style of playing.

Melissa's tone was straight garbage. Sounded like a wet fart.

I know Billy changed the name and the band to a more poppy happy thing as way to distance himself from the doom and gloom of the machina pumpkins. Still don't get why he didn't just continue tsp with Melissa and Matt on guitar.
D'arcy was the best. Saw her twice but never with the full original lineup.
Melissa is talented as hell. Her playing was flawless. granted that envelope filter she used live sounds very dated but she's awesome.
Paz was great too and like D´arcy she had a pretty bad live singing voice. But some pretty impeccable playing. Not the same as D'arcy but still a great bassist.
The bass lines on Oceania are very good and more creative than most sp albums.

In conclusion: D'arcy is rad. Her laidback playing and her challenging Billy was part of that original magic. Billy used to write songs and changes to impress the other 3 members. That magic has been gone a long time. Prolly since James and D´arcy left.

D'arcy or GTFO

The more Zwan stuff I listen to the more I get pissed off at Billy.

Chrysanthemum would've been a huge hit. So would Never Give Up. They weren't totally heroin and rainbows. MSOTS (or maybe it would be titled The Empty Sea) would've been fucking incredible if he didn't go and write a songs like Baby Let's Rock! and put them on the album.

Baby let's Rock! is a cool song with a really lame title

i can't remember if it was one of billy's blog posts or a reissue book or something... but i read something a while ago where he cited jimmy hating d'arcy's playing as a major source of friction. then it hit me: imagine for a moment, you are jimmy fucking chamberlin. god among men, drummer among drummers. and the other half of your rhythm section is not only unable to play almost anything beyond steady quarter notes, but very likely refused to even attempt to. and then you are forced to spend your creative career that way. it resulted in a unique sound that we all came to love, and i guess tension helped everything end up the way it did, but she really seemed like the one 90s SP member who never progressed or pushed themself. even then it's not like she had no talent but certainly less than average.

i just checked paz's discography. i was never really into perfect circle. what other good bass did she play? i had no idea she played fiddle on tanglewood numbers and a jenny lewis song and a QOTSA song. that's pretty cool.

i think she's touring with the pixies right now

1. Melissa
2. D'arcy
3. Eric Avery
4. Nicole
5. Ginger Fish played bass for SP??

that's a billy myth

and she's brilliant

Pixies - "Silver Snail" - Live at Water Music from Spotify on Vimeo.

1. D'arcy
2. Melissa
3. Ginger
4. Nicole

I think you're exaggerating a bit



But I think Jimmy just ignored her - listen to that Geek USA video shot from behind the drums.

also lol

Man, all of those bootlegs from 1990-1999 just sound god awful.. Thanks for ruining the pumpkins Darcy!

Y'all are fucking nuts.

Seriously.

1. D'arcy

2. Who gives a fuck?

Some people don't seem to get that technical playing does not a cool rock band make.

Go listen to Rush

...but Neil Peart

we should rank them by looks cause all this discussion is pointless