James Iha appreciation thread

[toase]

Originally Posted by houseofglass11

Please refer to the 5:05 mark of this video:

Jeff would never do that

[Bomb The Moon]

then which beatle is bam bam mikey?

Jimmie Nicol

[Funbags]

Originally Posted by Cool As Ice Cream

pete best

Holy shit. I was about to say that. I think we're best friends now.

[Elphenor]

Oh the irony of dissing Iha's singing while being a fan of Corgan

[Ram27]

Originally Posted by houseofglass11

goons are telling me you don't like "Blew Away", "The Boy", "The Bells" (should have been on MCIS), "Country Girl", "Go"...? Those songs are more Pumpkins than Pumpkins. James didn't need to "settle in to the Pumpkins aesthetic" like Jeff. He was the Pumpkins aesthetic.

Country Girl has the most Pumpkins sounding riff than anything Corgan has done since 1995

[Elijah Moon]

Lazy Eye? I was just this minute listening to that for the first time in years...

[toase]

I've just remembered Tinted Windows, that was nice

[ping-ping]

Originally Posted by dreams of glass

He does "shred" in his own way though, as folks have pointed out, he was more artsy than traditional guitar god technical.

He was referred to as a "secret weapon" by those who didn't call him "lead guitarist" (not sure if that was an error by journalists or something the band themselves may have said at one point, especially in Mellon Collie era & beyond) -- I think it's just a reflection of the dynamic between Corgan & Iha/their personalities more than anything. Billy was the extroverted leader, James is introverted and prefers to work in a supporting role, so Billy did most of the in-your-face guitar and James added in atmospheric touches, ray guns, whatthefuckever. Then every now and then James would step beyond the e-bow and people would be like, "Holy shit, that made me feel tingly in my private area."

I'm not a technical person so I don't have much of an opinion on Jeff one way or the other, but his presence in the band has always sort of confused me. It's, "One of these things is not like the others." He seems too practical or sensible for all the bullshit that inevitably follows Billy. Most likely he ignores it. Workin' man.

I've seen James sing live with The Smashing Pumpkins (once), Tinted Windows (once), and his tour for his second album (four times). His singing has never even approached how bad he sounds when he goes to Japan/Korea. Everyone loves him so much over there he could probably hold his nose and burp the ABCs to deafening applause so maybe he doesn't give a fuck. Generally I love his voice on studio recordings -- he's got a great high/low range, but he admits his voice isn't well-suited to loud rock music and he seems a little disappointed by that. After his second album I came across a comment by someone accusing him of using AutoTune (probably here, you jerks). Got a good laugh out of that one.

[toase]

Is that you James? I love you!

[ping-ping]

Yes, I like to stare at myself in the mirror and fondle my nipples.

[dodoz]

James will never be a vocalist, but I do like his voice, they fit his songs really well. Live singing is a different beast anyway, Lou Reed had a prime and then pretty much sucked, live, in the vocal department. And I mean no disrespect, I love Lou Reed.

[bigoltitties]

He is genuinely hilarious in Special winners song. Always gets a laugh out of me.

[dreams of glass]

Originally Posted by houseofglass11

Dude is the George Harrison of SP. Sensitive, cool, stylish, spiritual.

Yeah...YEAH! I like it. So, I think Billy wants to be John Lennon, but he's more like Paul.

[toase]

billy is brian wilson, james is one of the other guys...

[Ram27]

Slide guitar on To Sheila live>>>

https://ia801701.us.archive.org/10/i...0-09-20t05.mp3

[inkless]

Originally Posted by toase

billy is brian wilson, james is one of the other guys...

james is dennis

[FoolofaTook]

Jamez did some pretty sweet lead guitar stuff on live GATGC. That song is soooo much better live, and I actually like the studio version too.

[KissesandNoise]

Originally Posted by Ram27

Listen to those riffs he's dropping in around 4 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Mr0ZOOe7k

Or his thing at the end of Disarm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iVrVgaHC-8



The Boy was pretty good, as was Go, as was Said Sadly.

I was pretty anti-James for a while because of how he seemed to not respect Billy and turn his nose up at someone that made him rich and famous. I thought James and D'arcy were dragging down the genius of BC/JC because of their attitude. Although that is partly true I've come to respect his presence much, much more. That said, his songs - although cute - generally brought albums to a screeching halt. They totally seemed like Billy was throwing him a bone and letting him do his completely flat, mumbling, frail-voiced songs just to appease him in the middle of these alt-rock powerhouse records.

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by KissesandNoise

I was pretty anti-James for a while because of how he seemed to not respect Billy and turn his nose up at someone that made him rich and famous. I thought James and D'arcy were dragging down the genius of BC/JC because of their attitude. Although that is partly true I've come to respect his presence much, much more. That said, his songs - although cute - generally brought albums to a screeching halt. They totally seemed like Billy was throwing him a bone and letting him do his completely flat, mumbling, frail-voiced songs just to appease him in the middle of these alt-rock powerhouse records.

i don't know i thought take me down, blew away, & go work pretty well on the respective albums/compilations they're on, honestly

and most of the aeroplane stuff works pretty well/fits into whatever lighter theme is happening on those records

[Grox]

true. although i think James really wanted The Boy on MCIS.

[Mals Marola]

that wouldn't have been so bad, honestly

probably woulda ended up somewhere late-ish on disc 2, but still, i could see it in place of beautiful or something (no h8!)

[topleybird]

I think that'd work out really well, yeah

It's got that exaggerated teenage love-ache thing Billy seemed to be going for

Personally I'd switch it out for Lily (WHY did we need like twelve fucking versions of this song on the TAFH boxset*) but somewhere around the end of Disc 2 seems right




*It SUCKS

[freshfacedyouth]

mcis is good as is, tafh is good as is

[toase]

Originally Posted by KissesandNoise

I was pretty anti-James for a while because of how he seemed to not respect Billy and turn his nose up at someone that made him rich and famous. I thought James and D'arcy were dragging down the genius of BC/JC because of their attitude. Although that is partly true...

how exactly?

I mean, I know you are probably speculating, but I'm sure you have a lot to back that theory of yours (besides billy's infantile rants over the years, I hope)

[grape]

The Boy and The Bells are both terrible. Believe is the best James song under an SP banner, closely followed by Go and Blew Away. His solo album was totally forgettable. He's still a better live guitarist than Jeff, but that's a low hurdle. On yeah, and his backup vocals on She are the worst ever.

Does Billy need Iha to play on a record to sound good? No, obvious proof is Gish and SD. Listen to Today or Geek USA from 92, Billy basically wrote all the parts you think of as James's in the studio. That's why he could never play them accurately live.

Billy and Jimmy without James are capable of Siamese Dream. Billy and James without Jimmy are capable of Adore. Billy without anyone is capable of all the dozens of fantastic acoustic demos that prove to me he's fully capable of greatness whoever you pair him with.

I hold the controversial opinion Corgan's output post 2000 is as good as before. The only difference is you were too young to have critical distance from the music when you were a teenager. James Iha is nothing special as a singer, song writer, or really guitar player. I still appreciate his contributions but that's the fact. None of us would have ever heard of him if he never met BC. I really seriously doubt the inverse is true.

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by topleybird

I think that'd work out really well, yeah

It's got that exaggerated teenage love-ache thing Billy seemed to be going for

Personally I'd switch it out for Lily (WHY did we need like twelve fucking versions of this song on the TAFH boxset*) but somewhere around the end of Disc 2 seems right




*It SUCKS

we can talk about beautiful but don't you touch lily

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by grape

I hold the controversial opinion Corgan's output post 2000 is as good as before. The only difference is you were too young to have critical distance from the music when you were a teenager.

i was 17 when zeitgeist came out and still preferred siamese through machina

[grape]

Originally Posted by Mals Marola

i was 17 when zeitgeist came out and still preferred siamese through machina

I almost went into more detail here but got lazy. In terms of songwriting I think Billy has stayed consistent in quality if not improved. I prefer MCIS to post reunion work altogether, but I think that is mostly from a performance perspective. Production is a separate issue.

One example would be, say, Zero and Mouths of Babes are equal to me from a songwriting perspective, but Zero was more fully realized in the studio. But Zero live in 2007, 2010, or 2015 is less exciting than Mouths of Babes in the studio. My conclusion is that if Billy wrote Zero today, no one on this board would like it. If he wrote Freak in 1994, we would all love it.

In my opinion half of that is due to performance but for most of the people who were teenagers in the 90's its a fair amount of nostalgia too. There's nothing Billy could do to impress me in my 30's that he couldn't do better in my teens. That's not really his fault, but its the curse of pop music as an art form.

[dreams of glass]

James' stuff was cool, fo sho

listen to this and you can get a sense of how important he was

[dreams of glass]

SHE'S HAPPY AS A TUUUUURRRRTTTTLLLLE

https://youtu.be/CBUicuBd8ow?t=20m17s