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Old 05-31-2021, 01:20 PM   #14
themadcaplaughs
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People hit the nail on the head with the fact that Netphoria represented an entity that could freely criticize his work which Billy could not control.

As others have said, there was definitely criticism of Machina and the "concept" and "shards of glass", but the criticism of the music itself seemed relatively restrained if I remember correctly. Going through the end of Zwan, I do not even think it was truly hostile on his part, more just "oh those crazy motherfuckers". I remember the tide starting to turn when the reaction to his 2004/2005 acoustic Chicago project was not 100% praise, followed by the abysmal reaction and general mockery of TheFutureEmbrace.

To me, things truly started getting nasty in the lead up to Smashing Pumpkins coming back in 2007. Instead of just admitting up-front that D'arcy and James were not going to be involved, he purposefully avoided the subject, which just seemed like rubbing salt in the wound. I do not think anyone truly expected D'arcy to be back in the fold, but by staying silent, I'm sure some took it as tacit acknowledgement James was involved. Either way, I remember it being a huge fallout when James issued a press statement saying that not only was he not involved, but hadn't talked to Billy in years, which made Billy's newspaper ad in 2005 appear even more disingenuous.

 
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