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Old 01-19-2003, 02:02 PM   #1
Jackboot11
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Default Zwan Article in todays Chicago Tribune

Billy Corgan's second act
Can Smashing Pumpkins head climb to the top again with Zwan?


By Greg Kot
Tribune rock critic
Published January 19, 2003

For most rock contenders, one Olympian climb is all they have in them. If they're fortunate, they peak with pop fame, artistic acclaim and millions in the bank -- the trifecta of stardom.

But if Act 1 is a Herculean feat, doing it twice is even more difficult. There are few epochal second acts in rock, instances where a major star has followed up a highly successful band with another one of equal or greater significance. Paul McCartney and Wings will always be regarded as the petits fours after the Beatles' five-course banquet; Mick Jones' Big Audio Dynamite could never eclipse the Clash; and both Roger Waters and Pink Floyd were never the same after Waters went solo.

For Billy Corgan, Act 2 begins in earnest this month, when his new band, Zwan, makes its debut on album ("Mary Star of the Sea," out Jan. 28 on Reprise Records) and kicks off a string of five sold-out concerts Sunday at Metro as a prelude to a world tour. The blitz of activity is designed not only to launch a band but to create a fresh identity for Corgan separate from his previous one, as the founder and driving force of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's a long shadow to climb from under.

The singer-guitarist founded the Pumpkins in 1987, and with James Iha, D'Arcy Wretzky and Jimmy Chamberlin shepherded the Chicago quartet through 13 years and 25 million album sales. The Pumpkins helped define the emerging alternative rock genre in the early '90s, while forging a sound that set them apart from the Seattle grunge bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), rap-rockers (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine) and industrial-disco terrorists (Ministry, Nine Inch Nails) that were also part of the movement. The Pumpkins' music had an epic quality born of layered guitars and orchestral drumming, the lyricism of a doomed romantic, the obsessive production values of a post-punk Phil Spector, the earnest intensity of a shaven-headed, stooped-shouldered misfit who willed himself into the mainstream, where he presided over Lollapalooza, was parodied on "The Simpsons" and feuded with anyone who got in his way, sometimes even his own bandmates. When the Pumpkins finally called it quits in 2000 with an epic 4 1/2-hour show at Metro, Corgan had reached a level of sustained commercial success and artistic acclaim unprecedented in Chicago rock.

Behind the scenes

Corgan re-emerged behind the scenes, writing music with and for Marianne Faithfull, Paul Oakenfold, New Order and others, and assembling a band of accomplished musicians to work out new songs on the road. The new band's nucleus was Chamberlin, the sole holdover from the Pumpkins' original lineup (Wretzky has dropped out of the music business, ostensibly to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, while Iha is working on a solo album), and Matt Sweeney (an old friend of Corgan's who fronted the angular punk band Chavez). They were joined by David Pajo, another indie-rock veteran with stints in Slint and Tortoise who releases solo albums under the moniker Papa M, and bassist Paz Lenchantin, recruited from art-metal band A Perfect Circle.

Zwan played mostly undersized clubs for a year, far removed from the Pumpkins' arena-stomping heyday, including an informal residency at the Hideout, with friends frequently sitting in. During this period, countless live Zwan performances filtered onto the Internet, as the band experimented with a wide range of material, touching on gospel, metal and even country. For the first time in more than a decade, Corgan had the opportunity to build a band from the ground up, and both the volume and range of the music suggested that he relished the task. The singer-guitarist declined an interview, saying he preferred "to let the music speak for itself." He left the speculating to others who have avidly followed his career.

"I think Billy is really happy starting over, because the Pumpkins had a natural flow, and when they were finished, it seemed like it was the right time to leave," says REM guitarist Peter Buck, who has been a Pumpkins fan "since before they were making records."

"I don't think he gave a thought to the branding idea, which says that it doesn't matter who is in Pink Floyd or who writes the songs because the name `Pink Floyd' will sell tickets," Buck says. "If your goal is to stay as big as possible for as long as possible, you worry about the brand name. But when I bumped into Billy last year, he didn't seem to be thinking that this new band is his ticket back to the top of the charts. It isn't hard to put another band together if your goal isn't to scale the Olympian heights of your previous band. It's kind of liberating, actually."

Insistent, sunny choruses

But "Mary Star of the Sea" isn't aiming low. The new album distills Corgan's year-plus of songwriting into straight-ahead pop-rock, a barrage of mostly three- and four-minute tunes with insistent, sunny choruses and intertwining triple-stacked guitars. Though Corgan's thin, nasal voice links the album to the Pumpkins, the taut verse-chorus structure of the songs and their relentless optimism distinguishes Zwan from its famous predecessor.

"It doesn't sound dated at all, a totally fresh sound -- it's a real band, a total unit, and that's refreshing," says Leslie Fram, program director of Atlanta alternative rock station WNNX, which plans an all-Corgan weekend to usher in the album release.

"In the early stages of writing material for this album, Billy described in two words what this album would sound like: Simple and upbeat," says Norm Winer, program director of WXRT (93.1 FM), a Chicago rock station (that also broadcasts this critic's weekly music talk show) that has been playing Corgan's music since the Pumpkins' 1991 debut, "Gish." "It's power pop in many respects, well performed and produced, and I think it will surprise people."

The alternative-rock format has changed and atrophied since the Pumpkins, Nirvana and other bands emerged more than a decade ago, with a dearth of career bands with a deep history and a surfeit of one-hit wonders and second-album stiffs. Most radio programmers around the nation said they were eager to hear Corgan's new band, even though Zwan is, in the words of one programmer, "in a potentially awkward position because they're not cute young boys and girls anymore." Some cited the lack of airplay for the recent Pearl Jam album as evidence that aging alternative-rock pioneers may not be welcome on many of the commercial stations they helped launch in the early '90s.

Initial reception likely

But the early word on Corgan's latest project is that the album will be well-received, at least initially. "Honestly," the first single from the album, is already in the top 10 on the modern-rock charts, and is receiving regular airplay at each of the top 77 major-market alternative stations nationwide.

"The single is going gangbusters because it's a good song, but also because radio has been chomping at the bit for more from the Pumpkins or any of their members since they broke up," says Max Tolkoff, alternative editor at industry trade publication Radio and Records.

"They're one of the core artists of all the rock radio formats -- alternative, modern, active," says Matt Pinfield, a deejay at WXRK in New York. "Those formats are in desperate need not only of good artists with good records, but ones with longevity. If one-hit wonders are the foundation of your format, you're in trouble. We could use more bands like this."

Tim Richards, program director of Chicago alternative rocker WKQX (101.1 FM), says Zwan will face obstacles as it seeks to appeal to a mostly teen audience cl******g for edgier fare from Eminem and A System of a Down.

"This format has young appeal," Richards says, "and there is a percentage of our audience that hasn't grown up with the Pumpkins or know who they are."

That hasn't stopped Richards' station from playing "Honestly" as many as 60 times a week. "There are some people at our station who are not big Pumpkins fans who love this record," he says. "It will be tough to establish a new identity, but if anyone can do it, my guess is it would be someone like Billy Corgan."

Olympus not far away

Corgan's relentless work ethic and the quality of musicianship in Zwan ensures that he'll get a shot at scaling Olympus yet again.

The latest issue of Rolling Stone accorded the album a lead review, calling it "not quite" a classic in a four-star critique. Nathan Brackett, who edits the magazine's reviews section, sees a mixed future for Corgan's latest project.

"This is a real accomplished album, but I don't think it will do that well sales-wise" in an era when hip-hoppers [Eminem, Nelly] and new female voices [Avril Lavigne, Pink] have captured the attention of young music consumers, Brackett says.

Corgan "might be at the beginning stages of being consigned to a status similar to the Baby Boom rockers, where people love his past because it was an important part of their youth and pack concert halls to see him, but aren't so eager to pick up his new stuff."

Rock history tells us that Corgan may have to settle for that scenario. But as Peter Buck says, there are other things at stake. "Most people in his position would have tried to keep the Smashing Pumpkins going forever," the REM guitarist says. "To me, Billy is less interested in being the top band in pop Olympia than he is in keeping himself on his toes."

With Zwan, that means creating something that isn't simply retracing the giant steps of his former band. In that respect, he's already succeeded.


Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

 
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Old 01-19-2003, 02:24 PM   #2
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i ask. do you love OCR? cause if u don't NICE JOB!

 
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Old 01-19-2003, 07:48 PM   #3
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Cool, thanks for posting.

 
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Old 01-19-2003, 09:03 PM   #4
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nice one, thanks. it's cool to hear from a lot of dj's from around the states. and playing honestly 60 times a week is pretty cool
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Old 01-19-2003, 09:50 PM   #5
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thanks for posting that. sounds like they have a big fan at the paper.

 
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Old 01-20-2003, 12:05 AM   #6
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cool article, thanx 4 posting!

 
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