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Old 12-20-2014, 04:51 AM   #1
pavementtune
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Default Billboard Interview: 'I'm a Rock Star Because I'm a Great F---ing Musician'

any tips how to erase each and every narcissistic-overload interview I read in the past month from my mind?
this one is getting so ridiculous that it's hard to still find his display of a challenged mental health entertaining.


http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...music-industry
Quote:
Billy Corgan: 'I'm a Rock Star Because I'm a Great F---ing Musician'
By Steve Baltin | December 19, 2014

When it comes to the state of the music industry (or anything else for that matter), Smashing Pumpkins mastermind and frontman Billy Corgan has no problem speaking his mind. Billboard sat down with the musician in his dressing room at the recent KROQ Almost Acoustic Xmas event in Los Angeles for an unfiltered chat about the band's new album, Monuments To An Elegy, why the music business "has no plan for a future," and why he's "just a wise, clear-eyed person who calls it for what it is."


What are your thoughts about the state of the music industry today?

This business has no plan for a future, and we are getting jobbed, to use a wrestling term, by the tech industry. We are becoming sycophants for another industry that's building off of our content. Basically the tech companies have appropriated the buzz and lure of what used to be the rock business, they've integrated it for themselves, they've stolen all the moves and we're sitting here waiting for record sales to pick back up.

Which won't happen.

No, it's over. It's so over and yet the storyline carries on, the media narrative built around the album release carries on and then you go and deal with kids on a one-on-one basis and they are not on those wavelengths. And unlike us they have no sentimental attachment to what was.


But on the plus side there's the freedom that comes with the old model being gone. Look at U2 this year, or go back to NIN and Radiohead.

Wait, sorry to be a jerk, but don't forget I put out a free album in 2000. People skip over that point.

You were just too early.

Thank you. But people drop the name Radiohead to me and I point out I put out a free album about five, seven years before that. As far as I'm concerned we were the first ones to cross that bridge.



Is it something you would do again?

Absolutely not, a total f---ing waste of time and money. In that case I actually put my album out for free. U2 did get paid. I put out my album for free, literally for free (laughs). So when people say "free" let's talk about what free really means. I didn't get my recording costs back.


So you don't think there is that freedom?

Don't buy it. There's excitement for lighting yourself on fire too, you got about five seconds of excitement. Col. Tom Parker used to have a saying, "How much does it cost if it's free?" There's no such thing as free -- free is fake.



It's interesting to hear you speak because I think journalism went the same route as music.



And here we are, the journalists continue to slit people like my throat for not getting in line with something that doesn't work. (Laughs). So I don't get that one either. I've got journalists I've been dealing with for twenty years and they still literally write about music like it's 1994. And they expect the same things to happen like it's 1994.

There are a lot of artists who do the same thing as well.


I can't speak for them. I'm obviously not in that camp and I don't give a f--- about that camp. We've seen the rise of the, let's call it, the individual business. So I'm in the Smashing Pumpkins business, I'm not in the music business. So when I negotiate with Kevin Weatherly I'm negotiating Kevin Weatherly versus Billy Corgan's interest. I no longer believe I'm in the music business and that somehow there's a holistic result that's going to happen here.


It's an interesting juxtaposition because as frustrated as you are with the industry, Tommy Lee said he had more fun making this album than any other.



Musicians should do what they do, which is make music. But if the question is to what end, that's a really difficult one. But I know when we're getting jobbed. When MTV was robbing us blind and the music industry bent over and said "Thank you very much," now you see where that went. That was the beginning of this. The music business had this whole thing stitched up; manufacturing, shipping, they had all the leverage on the record stores, and they let MTV come along and basically steal them out the back door. And it's been one non-stop steal for over thirty years.




Justin Timberlake has said he makes tons of music, but doesn't always put it out. So can you just make music for yourself?



No, we have to build new systems. If we're trying to speak to someone between the ages of 15 and 65, we have to build new systems by which to reach them. Look at simple things like this: in the past year, what have I done? I've made an album with Tommy Lee. On paper seems like a big perplexing thing, but yet we made something interesting out of it. Why? Because I'm not afraid.

Now I'm playing with Brad [Wilk] and Mark [Stoermer], you have a different version of the band. People that are seeing the band now today are saying it's the most muscular physical version of the band they've ever seen. People don't realize what a great musician Tommy Lee is. You put Tommy Lee in a musical situation, boom, you have something. Why has the guy filled arenas for god knows how long? But if I walked into a boardroom, to the [label exec] Tom Whalleys of the world, and said, "Yeah, I want to make an album with Tommy," the first thing they'd say, "Well, how are your fans gonna react to that? What are your fans gonna say? Is that really gonna play with the alternative crowd?" Sometimes I get in these conversations with [manager] [Peter] Katsis, "What's the down side? Zero to fifty thousand, there's your down side." We're not talking half a million or zero, there's no down side. Everybody should be taking chances, instead everybody gets conservative.


Having this new version of the band allows you to go back and revisit old material.



In a fresh way, yeah.


So what are some of the older songs you're excited to play with this new lineup?



Well, believe it or not we're playing "Silverfuck," it's a different version than what's on the album, it's about 12 to 15 minutes long. And everybody in the world would tell you, "Don't play a 12- to 15-minute song in front of this crowd." But because you have that ability to have physical presence, that's an easy delineation point of why these bands are pussies and why we're not pussies. When you have a band like No Doubt that's in their trip, they know what they're doing, so they got no problem playing against a band like us. A lot of these other bands, it's all studio creation, there's no physical nature to what they do. They haven't come up through the clubs with the physical need to move a crowd. They go in, they dig around with Pro Tools, they make this big immense sound that sounds like some sort of Michael Bay movie.



Are there songs from the catalog you have a new appreciation for or that stand up well for you?

To me, I personally can't get past the audience expectation, which is the past is better than the present. Like, we played last night in Vegas, kind of an older crowd, probably a bit touristy crowd. We'd play a new song, good healthy applause, new songs are going over great. And you play an old song it's like (roars), it gets fucking boring. Is that what a concert's down to now, waiting around to whether or not we're gonna play "Surrender" or "I Want You To Want Me." To me, that's grandpa's music business. Kids are moving at such a f---ing great speed and we're still stuck, the 35-plus generation, on who's in the band, what songs are you gonna play. We're killing the amazing business opportunity and creative opportunity to create new works.

I'm up there with the most successful writers of the alternative, let's say you start with punk, '77 to now, I'm up there with the top writers. But I've still got to beg and stoop and be slavish to these great gods who are presiding over what? What are they presiding over? That's my big criticism. It's like I'm a waiter on the Titanic, so fucking what.

You're seeing the flip side, as you had great commercial success. But someone like Paul Westerberg, who is genius, up there in the best writers category…

Absolutely…

…Never had that commercial success.

Why is the music business not creating new opportunities for people like that? Why isn't somebody creating a series where it's like, pick the top three up-and-coming bands of a particular ilk and put them in a studio for a month with a Paul Westerberg and create this synergistic thing? Create new marketing opportunities, get old f---s like us to actually pay attention because maybe we see something in that, then the reverse, maybe some kid pays attention to The Replacements because there's some connection they understand? Why is that not happening? Why does that happen in the movies? Ever notice when they have the star franchise and the star gets a little old and they introduce the young character so you can relate? Then if they want to move the franchise on they can turn the franchise over to the young character, like when they had Shia LeBeouf in the Indiana Jones series.

Why is the music business not doing that? Because they already decided intrinsically once you pass a particular line, whatever it is in their own minds, a commercial line, a cultural line, you have no value. It's not even you have a little value, you have no value. You look at any other entertainment business, they reel out the old people all the time to host a show. It's so f---ed up.


But musicians are creating their own opportunities to work with young talent. I know Brad [Wilk] from his work with Last Internationale, who are amazing.


I've talked to him about Last Internationale.

Are there young bands you would want to mentor or collaborate with?

I'll give you a perfect example. I worked with this band Ex Cops, they're on Downtown Records. The guy from the label reached out to me. So we cut this deal, I went in the studio with them for probably about 10 days, song-doctored some stuff, co-wrote some stuff, the song that's out now that's the single, I had some writing on, kind of got them in the right direction. The guy from the label made, in my eyes, a fateful decision to stick them with a very good young producer named Justin Raisen, kind of an indie-type producer, who had success with Sky Ferreira. To me, they have kind of a Eurythmics, ABBA upside. But the label pushed them to make more of an indie album. That world that's all about, "Hey, I love you, you're so great," and nobody sells anything. So to me that's a total lost opportunity, and that's what I don't like about hipster world, 'cause it's all self-reverential. And then the mainstream world can't translate because their songs aren't dumb enough to get played on the dumb-enough stations.

We have this ubiquitous pop that's in the f---ing way that's like a f---ing monolith and god forbid anybody says anything negative about a pop star because of social media. And then over here we have the indie ranks kissing the ass of the pop stars and you have no middle. And you have people like me in the middle totally exposed because we won't play either end of the street. But why I am still here?

Do you have a new system in mind?

Absolutely, I think it's very similar to the old A&M or old Phil Spector model. You have to bring talented people together and you have to promote what they do best. But you can't do it the way they do it now. I used to date a pop singer and they would walk into these writing sessions, and before they'd walk through the door they would've given away 70 percent of their publishing. The scummy part of the business has to go. So it'd have to be more of a transparent model that's holistic and beneficial to everybody. And to be overly simplistic about it you have to create moments. It's a moment-driven culture because it's all headlines. So [Marilyn] Manson appears on stage with the Pumpkins, headline, boom, click. It was beneficial for our record and beneficial for his record and it was just fun. Oh by the way, we were playing music. We didn't go in the corner and light ourselves on fire. We did what we do, we f---ing made music.



What do you think of radio today?

We were just listening to the station on the way in and [guitarist] Jeff [Schroeder] said, "I don't even know where these bands are drawing from." What source of music are they drawing from? It doesn't even feel like it has a lineage, is that a new condition of the social world we live in? I don't know. But it seems strange to me when all of my life I could listen to somebody and go, "Oh they listened to Link Wray, they listened to Sabbath, they listened to Led Zeppelin." I listen to these artists now, I don't even know who they're listening to. Why do they all sound the same? Why is there a sameness in the vocal and production style? Where is that coming from? Is this the new thing where kids don't date anymore and they just want to hang out in packs? What is all that?

They sound the same because everybody uses the same three or four producers. Once someone has success with a sound, others go for that same style. It's the idea people have of becoming a rock star.

I'm a rock star because I'm a great f---ing musician, that's the way I look at it. So when people try to tell me how to be a better rock star, I f---ing laugh. Just make sure you go interview them in their thirties. I want to hear those stories. "It's great being the manager at Starbucks -- I got great insurance."

is there anything left he didn't do first or better or bigger than any of his contemporaries?

one band playing AGAINST another band? really, is it all wrestling now
Quote:
But because you have that ability to have physical presence, that's an easy delineation point of why these bands are pussies and why we're not pussies. When you have a band like No Doubt that's in their trip, they know what they're doing, so they got no problem playing against a band like us.
also comedy gold, after putting out an album with lyrics like MTAE
Quote:
And then the mainstream world can't translate because their songs aren't dumb enough to get played on the dumb-enough stations.

and
Quote:
So I'm in the Smashing Pumpkins business, I'm not in the music business...
....No, we have to build new systems. If we're trying to speak to someone between the ages of 15 and 65, we have to build new systems by which to reach them...
....Why is the music business not creating new opportunities

Last edited by pavementtune : 12-20-2014 at 05:09 AM.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 05:34 AM   #2
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ehhh I can dig what Corgans saying. He is one of the only mainstream artist left from his generation still making interesting music.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 08:46 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fuzzyroes View Post
He is one of the only mainstream artist left from his generation still making interesting music.


 
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Old 12-20-2014, 09:35 AM   #4
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Fuck you Billy

Every interview is the same, just incoherent abstract bullshit about the music business

make a good record, an actual good record, with an actual good band again and it'll be fine

or fuck off and keep complaining

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 10:07 AM   #5
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Yep, he sounds kind of like a pub bore with this stuff...endless going on about the glory days, and how life never gave them the breaks THEY DESERVED.

STFU, seriously.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 12:51 PM   #6
Araneae
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Default Billboard Interview: 'I'm a Rock Star Because I'm a Great F---ing Musician'

http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...music-industry

Quote:
What are your thoughts about the state of the music industry today?

This business has no plan for a future, and we are getting jobbed, to use a wrestling term, by the tech industry. We are becoming sycophants for another industry that's building off of our content. Basically the tech companies have appropriated the buzz and lure of what used to be the rock business, they've integrated it for themselves, they've stolen all the moves and we're sitting here waiting for record sales to pick back up.

Which won't happen.

No, it's over. It's so over and yet the storyline carries on, the media narrative built around the album release carries on and then you go and deal with kids on a one-on-one basis and they are not on those wavelengths. And unlike us they have no sentimental attachment to what was.

But on the plus side there's the freedom that comes with the old model being gone. Look at U2 this year, or go back to NIN and Radiohead.

Wait, sorry to be a jerk, but don't forget I put out a free album in 2000. People skip over that point.

You were just too early.

Thank you. But people drop the name Radiohead to me and I point out I put out a free album about five, seven years before that. As far as I'm concerned we were the first ones to cross that bridge.

Is it something you would do again?

Absolutely not, a total f---ing waste of time and money. In that case I actually put my album out for free. U2 did get paid. I put out my album for free, literally for free (laughs). So when people say "free" let's talk about what free really means. I didn't get my recording costs back.

So you don't think there is that freedom?

Don't buy it. There's excitement for lighting yourself on fire too, you got about five seconds of excitement. Col. Tom Parker used to have a saying, "How much does it cost if it's free?" There's no such thing as free -- free is fake.

It's interesting to hear you speak because I think journalism went the same route as music.

And here we are, the journalists continue to slit people like my throat for not getting in line with something that doesn't work. (Laughs). So I don't get that one either. I've got journalists I've been dealing with for twenty years and they still literally write about music like it's 1994. And they expect the same things to happen like it's 1994.

There are a lot of artists who do the same thing as well.

I can't speak for them. I'm obviously not in that camp and I don't give a f--- about that camp. We've seen the rise of the, let's call it, the individual business. So I'm in the Smashing Pumpkins business, I'm not in the music business. So when I negotiate with Kevin Weatherly I'm negotiating Kevin Weatherly versus Billy Corgan's interest. I no longer believe I'm in the music business and that somehow there's a holistic result that's going to happen here.

It's an interesting juxtaposition because as frustrated as you are with the industry, Tommy Lee said he had more fun making this album than any other.

Musicians should do what they do, which is make music. But if the question is to what end, that's a really difficult one. But I know when we're getting jobbed. When MTV was robbing us blind and the music industry bent over and said "Thank you very much," now you see where that went. That was the beginning of this. The music business had this whole thing stitched up; manufacturing, shipping, they had all the leverage on the record stores, and they let MTV come along and basically steal them out the back door. And it's been one non-stop steal for over thirty years.

Justin Timberlake*has said he makes tons of music, but doesn't always put it out. So can you just make music for yourself?

No, we have to build new systems. If we're trying to speak to someone between the ages of 15 and 65, we have to build new systems by which to reach them. Look at simple things like this: in the past year, what have I done? I've made an album with Tommy Lee. On paper seems like a big perplexing thing, but yet we made something interesting out of it. Why? Because I'm not afraid.

Now I'm playing with Brad [Wilk] and Mark [Stoermer], you have a different version of the band. People that are seeing the band now today are saying it's the most muscular physical version of the band they've ever seen. People don't realize what a great musician Tommy Lee is. You put Tommy Lee in a musical situation, boom, you have something. Why has the guy filled arenas for god knows how long? But if I walked into a boardroom, to the [label exec] Tom Whalleys of the world, and said, "Yeah, I want to make an album with Tommy," the first thing they'd say, "Well, how are your fans gonna react to that? What are your fans gonna say? Is that really gonna play with the alternative crowd?" Sometimes I get in these conversations with [manager] [Peter] Katsis, "What's the down side? Zero to fifty thousand, there's your down side." We're not talking half a million or zero, there's no down side. Everybody should be taking chances, instead everybody gets conservative.

Having this new version of the band allows you to go back and revisit old material.

In a fresh way, yeah.

So what are some of the older songs you're excited to play with this new lineup?

Well, believe it or not we're playing "Silverfuck," it's a different version than what's on the album, it's about 12 to 15 minutes long. And everybody in the world would tell you, "Don't play a 12- to 15-minute song in front of this crowd." But because you have that ability to have physical presence, that's an easy delineation point of why these bands are pussies and why we're not pussies. When you have a band like No Doubt that's in their trip, they know what they're doing, so they got no problem playing against a band like us. A lot of these other bands, it's all studio creation, there's no physical nature to what they do. They haven't come up through the clubs with the physical need to move a crowd. They go in, they dig around with Pro Tools, they make this big immense sound that sounds like some sort of Michael Bay movie.

Are there songs from the catalog you have a new appreciation for or that stand up well for you?

To me, I personally can't get past the audience expectation, which is the past is better than the present. Like, we played last night in Vegas, kind of an older crowd, probably a bit touristy crowd. We'd play a new song, good healthy applause, new songs are going over great. And you play an old song it's like (roars), it gets fucking boring. Is that what a concert's down to now, waiting around to whether or not we're gonna play "Surrender" or "I Want You To Want Me." To me, that's grandpa's music business. Kids are moving at such a f---ing great speed and we're still stuck, the 35-plus generation, on who's in the band, what songs are you gonna play. We're killing the amazing business opportunity and creative opportunity to create new works.*

I'm up there with the most successful writers of the alternative, let's say you start with punk, '77 to now, I'm up there with the top writers. But I've still got to beg and stoop and be slavish to these great gods who are presiding over what? What are they presiding over? That's my big criticism. It's like I'm a waiter on the Titanic, so fucking what.

You're seeing the flip side, as you had great commercial success. But someone like Paul Westerberg, who is genius, up there in the best writers category…

Absolutely…

…Never had that commercial success.

Why is the music business not creating new opportunities for people like that? Why isn't somebody creating a series where it's like, pick the top three up-and-coming bands of a particular ilk and put them in a studio for a month with a Paul Westerberg and create this synergistic thing? Create new marketing opportunities, get old f---s like us to actually pay attention because maybe we see something in that, then the reverse, maybe some kid pays attention to The Replacements because there's some connection they understand? Why is that not happening? Why does that happen in the movies? Ever notice when they have the star franchise and the star gets a little old and they introduce the young character so you can relate? Then if they want to move the franchise on they can turn the franchise over to the young character, like when they had Shia LeBeouf in the Indiana Jones series.

Why is the music business not doing that? Because they already decided intrinsically once you pass a particular line, whatever it is in their own minds, a commercial line, a cultural line, you have no value. It's not even you have a little value, you have no value. You look at any other entertainment business, they reel out the old people all the time to host a show. It's so f---ed up.

But musicians are creating their own opportunities to work with young talent. I know Brad [Wilk] from his work with Last Internationale, who are amazing.

I've talked to him about Last Internationale.

Are there young bands you would want to mentor or collaborate with?

I'll give you a perfect example. I worked with this band Ex Cops, they're on Downtown Records. The guy from the label reached out to me. So we cut this deal, I went in the studio with them for probably about 10 days, song-doctored some stuff, co-wrote some stuff, the song that's out now that's the single, I had some writing on, kind of got them in the right direction. The guy from the label made, in my eyes, a fateful decision to stick them with a very good young producer named Justin Raisen, kind of an indie-type producer, who had success with Sky Ferreira. To me, they have kind of a Eurythmics, ABBA upside. But the label pushed them to make more of an indie album. That world that's all about, "Hey, I love you, you're so great," and nobody sells anything. So to me that's a total lost opportunity, and that's what I don't like about hipster world, 'cause it's all self-reverential. And then the mainstream world can't translate because their songs aren't dumb enough to get played on the dumb-enough stations.

We have this ubiquitous pop that's in the f---ing way that's like a**f---ing*monolith and god forbid anybody says anything negative about a pop star because of social media. And then over here we have the indie ranks kissing*the ass of the pop stars and you have no middle. And you have people like me in the middle totally exposed because we won't play either end of the street. But why I am still here?

Do you have a new system in mind?

Absolutely, I think it's very similar to the old A&M or old Phil Spector model. You have to bring talented people together and you have to promote what they do best. But you can't do it the way they do it now. I used to date a pop singer and they would walk into these writing sessions, and before they'd walk through the door they would've given away 70 percent of their publishing. The scummy part of the business has to go. So it'd have to be more of a transparent model that's holistic and beneficial to everybody. And to be overly simplistic about it you have to create moments. It's a moment-driven culture because it's all headlines. So [Marilyn] Manson appears on stage with the Pumpkins, headline, boom, click. It was beneficial for our record and beneficial for his record and it was just fun. Oh by the way, we were playing music. We didn't go in the corner and light ourselves on fire. We did what we do, we*f---ing*made music.

What do you think of radio today?

We were just listening to the station on the way in and [guitarist] Jeff [Schroeder] said, "I don't even know where these bands are drawing from." What source of music are they drawing from? It doesn't even feel like it has a lineage, is that a new condition of the social world we live in? I don't know. But it seems strange to me when all of my life I could listen to somebody and go, "Oh they listened to Link Wray, they listened to Sabbath, they listened to Led Zeppelin." I listen to these artists now, I don't even know who they're listening to. Why do they all sound the same? Why is there a sameness in the vocal and production style? Where is that coming from? Is this the new thing where kids don't date anymore and they just want to hang out in packs? What is all that?

They sound the same because everybody uses the same three or four producers. Once someone has success with a sound, others go for that same style. It's the idea people have of becoming a rock star.

I'm a rock star because I'm a great*f---ing*musician, that's the way I look at it. So when people try to tell me how to be a better rock star, I*f---ing*laugh. Just*make sure you go interview them in their thirties. I want to hear those stories. "It's great being the manager at Starbucks -- I got great insurance."

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:02 PM   #7
Araneae
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I didn't notice you already posted this interview, pave.

There's so many things he said that deserve a good tongue lashing but this one caught my eye…

Quote:
Are there songs from the catalog you have a new appreciation for or that stand up well for you?

To me, I personally can't get past the audience expectation, which is the past is better than the present. Like, we played last night in Vegas, kind of an older crowd, probably a bit touristy crowd. We'd play a new song, good healthy applause, new songs are going over great. And you play an old song it's like (roars), it gets fucking boring. Is that what a concert's down to now, waiting around to whether or not we're gonna play "Surrender" or "I Want You To Want Me." To me, that's grandpa's music business. Kids are moving at such a f---ing great speed and we're still stuck, the 35-plus generation, on who's in the band, what songs are you gonna play. We're killing the amazing business opportunity and creative opportunity to create new works.
So now we're back to blaming the 35+ crowd for his failure? He's fucking crazy if he truly believes that younger fans are more excited for the new material than hearing Today or Tonight, Tonight for the first fucking time.

I almost forgot how fucking obnoxious and elitist he can be. He just seems really confused and hurt so he's starting to lash out at whomever.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:05 PM   #8
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It happens to every single band. At some point the crowd DOES want to hear your old songs more because yes, there will always come a point where you best work is behind.. I really don't think U2 fills up stadiums ebcause people want to hear Songs of Irrelevance. Or even How to Dismantle an atomic bomb or even All you can't leave behind. Even if yes unlike Corgan they still have comemrcial success with new records. But i'd be willing to bet people roar ten times more at hearing the beginning of where the streets have no name or Pride then they do at the beginning of...whatever title of the new songs. Or even Vertigo.

If you're not ok with that well...you're trying to change how it's always been. Good luck. It sucks to be confronted with the facts the old songs were better, but that's just fact. You've got a choice though, you can call it quits,


And now if i understand him..he wishes younger artists would work with him to give him exposure to young people? Maybe they would..if you stopped bitching about how their music sucks.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:12 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The exploding boy View Post
It happens to every single band. At some point the crowd DOES want to hear your old songs more because yes, there will always come a point where you best work is behind.. I really don't think U2 fills up stadiums ebcause people want to hear Songs of Irrelevance. Or even How to Dismantle an atomic bomb or even All you can't leave behind. Even if yes unlike Corgan they still have comemrcial success with new records. But i'd be willing to bet people roar ten times more at hearing the beginning of where the streets have no name or Pride then they do at the beginning of...whatever title of the new songs. Or even Vertigo.

If you're not ok with that well...you're trying to change how it's always been. Good luck. It sucks to be confronted with the facts the old songs were better, but that's just fact. You've got a choice though, you can call it quits
i think that kind of shit has more to do with the archival nature of old hits having been around for awhile than any objective "good/bad" standards

i mean on the subject of u2 how to dismantle is pretty hit or miss & divisive for such a "return to form" type record, but i think certain tracks on there are as good or better than anything they've ever done. basically i think there's enough people affected by subjectivity and unaffected by "time biases" to justify these sort of bands going on. even if it's not always absolute peak, it can still be exciting to hear what they're doing now

of course the band in question challenges that by releasing something as utterly boring & unsurprising as their last album, but they've done it before

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:36 PM   #10
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Yes and no, some songs from certain bands really are just that good that time biases don't really play a part. Tonight, Tonight is probably one of the strongest songs that Billy has ever written, musically and somewhat lyrically, so people young and old are going to feel the emotional pull of it even years later. Which is a good thing, that's a sign of a great song if people still want to listen to it 20 years later.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:39 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy
Why does that happen in the movies? Ever notice when they have the star franchise and the star gets a little old and they introduce the young character so you can relate? Then if they want to move the franchise on they can turn the franchise over to the young character, like when they had Shia LeBeouf in the Indiana Jones series.
What an awful example to use. That movie was universally panned and many people prefer to forget that it was even part of the franchise. The movie was just a clear attempt to rake in money for the studios, as they always do with their "summer blockbusters." Judging by his words then he just wants music that will make him popular and hang with the cool kids, and he couldn't give a fuck about making any artistic statement. If his sole goal is just to be popular again then what's the fucking point?

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:40 PM   #12
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Here's a thought Billy:

If you don't want to play old SP songs, STOP CALLING YOURSELF SMASHING PUMPKINS

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 01:51 PM   #13
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"It's great being the manager at Starbucks -- I got great insurance."

LOL

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:02 PM   #14
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We have three threads going where we talk about how stupid Corgan is

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:24 PM   #15
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We should write a group letter to Bolly. We netphoria think that...

Of course he's always treated netphoria as a wretched hive of retards and illiteracy....(and a lot of tht is true....but it's not all true)

And that's always been his problem i guess. With anyone. He's never been wrong, ever. From what we know of his failed relationships with others, THEY have always been in the wrong. So i have to laugh when he says in that other interview does it sound like i want to be coddled. Yes. You've always wanted to surround yourself with yes men. Criticism is something you absolutely cannot tolerate probably because deep own inside he feels it makes him worthless, if he accepts he did one thing wrong, he must feels it means he's a shit overall. I've lived with someone like this. It's sad. And unsurprisingly, the person like this i knew had major issues in childhood in terms of relationships with parents. Not quite unlike Corgan's...

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:25 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poots View Post
Billy might sound like a pompous ass, and he probably is, but he is 100% correct about everything he said in this interview.
Agree.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:31 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The exploding boy View Post
We should write a group letter to Bolly. We netphoria think that...

Of course he's always treated netphoria as a wretched hive of retards and illiteracy....(and a lot of tht is true....but it's not all true)

And that's always been his problem i guess. With anyone. He's never been wrong, ever. From what we know of his failed relationships with others, THEY have always been in the wrong. So i have to laugh when he says in that other interview does it sound like i want to be coddled. Yes. You've always wanted to surround yourself with yes men. Criticism is something you absolutely cannot tolerate probably because deep own inside he feels it makes him worthless, if he accepts he did one thing wrong, he must feels it means he's a shit overall. I've lived with someone like this. It's sad. And unsurprisingly, the person like this i knew had major issues in childhood in terms of relationships with parents. Not quite unlike Corgan's...
I was actually thinking that every year netphoria should collectively get him a strange xmas gift.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:39 PM   #18
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Hahaha exactly.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:43 PM   #19
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Not as many people buy albums because there are now more convenient ways to listen to music. This is a good thing. Not as many people listen to the same music because there's more music readily available to everyone. Another good thing.

The most offensive thing is Corgan saying releasing a free album was stupid. How much money does this guy need? Is the only reason he makes music to make money?

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:48 PM   #20
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It was stupid for him, because he doesn't get the credit that he was the first one to do it.
So then he thinks it is a waste of money.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:53 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juliana View Post
I was actually thinking that every year netphoria should collectively get him a strange xmas gift.
A sheet of LSD?

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:58 PM   #22
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That's not why artists do things. When you're 21 years old you have something to say and you want people to experience your art. You know how many frankly better artists would die for the kind of exposure Corgan still gets?

But for Corgan it's all about getting credit and making money and not about communicating through art. That's why I can't respect the guy

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 02:59 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juliana View Post
It was stupid for him, because he doesn't get the credit that he was the first one to do it.
So then he thinks it is a waste of money.
But that's just an example of Billy trying to rewrite his own narrative. He had no idea what was to come, he likes to pretend like he knew all along but he had no fucking clue. There are countless interviews from that time, and somewhat after, where he explains exactly why he did it. It was simply because the label didn't want to spend anymore money on him/the band, and since the band was breaking up he released it as a fuck you to the label. If the label had agreed to release it then he would have never released it for free. Radiohead consciously released their album for free when they were at the top of the alt rock world and when the industry was really starting to feel the impact of people downloading music. It was a complete different set of circumstances and intentions, that's why people make a big deal about Radiohead doing it, because it impacted other artists. Nobody fucking cares who released music for free first, Billy technically wasn't even "the first" to begin with, but that's just not the point anyway.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:03 PM   #24
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Very true

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:05 PM   #25
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Ya, but that is how he sees it. Not worth the investment. He is all about "why invest" these days.
I mean he contradicts himself CONSTANTLY.

I really don't understand him. I also don't understand why his dad can't call him up and tell him to shut up.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:06 PM   #26
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The man deserves his due and I agree he never got it. He's a better musician than Cobain but most are too scared to say it (even Billy won't go there even though he believes it) Hopefully the HOF puts his ass in in a couple years. If Green Day ( who I liked) is in SP is in by miles.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:14 PM   #27
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That's such a lame mentality. Obscurity is something to celebrate in Rock. Being a cult act or something that the mainstream can't appreciate is a badge of honor.

Real rockstars like Kurt complain about being so big, not about how they didn't get enough appreciation

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:15 PM   #28
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Billy may be a better musician that Kurt but Kurt wasn't a slouch. Even Billy recently said there's a few things he wished he had written. Kurt was a very strong songwriter and that shouldn't be taken away from him just because Billy is feeling insecure. There's no reason to put others down just to elevate oneself.

and how would you like him to get his due? Constant headlines? Check. Platinum albums? Check. Headlining festivals? Check. Awards? Check. Seriously though, you do realize that Billy's personality is the type that no matter how many good things he gets it's just never enough for him.

I can't even begin to count the number of bands that have been so much more influential than Billy/SP and they never got their due.

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:28 PM   #29
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Yeah SP is on the list with Nirvana of 90's bands that are still in the public discourse of young people. He seriously has nothing to complain about there.

Even my friends who don't like Rock music know who SP are

 
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Old 12-20-2014, 03:40 PM   #30
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Umm... I didn't put him down by saying Billy's better. Kurt was a great musician as well but a tad overrated in my book.

 
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