July 10th 2007 1PM @ XM Stuios Washington DC

[jimmy1974]

Hey everyone,

I promised a write up on the XM show from yesterday and here it is.

I arrived at the XM studios (about 6 blocks from 9:30club) with a friend right at 12:30pm yesterday, July 10th. We were greeted in the lobby by an employee as well as about 8-10 other people all wearing these SP laminates. We signed in. got our laminates and made our way upstairs to the performance area. A little room with space for about 20 chairs, a host and a band that was very well air conditioned =) All that could be seen were acoustic instruments, and so it was, an unplugged set.

We sat down and the host came in and started to talk to us but was cut off right away. The Smashing Pumpkins were ready. The band filed in, Jimmy first, Billy last. Billy had his sweatshirt off, but had it covering his head. He got to his stool and took the sweatshirt off of his head and spread it across the stool, looking both pissed off and tired. As soon as he sat on the stool, he broke into a big smile and said hi to the host.

The band launched right into "Thats The Way (My Love Is)". As it ended the host asked Billy where a song like that comes from and Billy starts talking about November 2005 in Scottsdale, Arizona where him and Jimmy rented a house and lived once deciding to put the band back together. Billy and Jimmy then went on to play the original version of the song, the way it was written and it sounded like a cross between 33 and an acoustic Muzzle. That was the problem with the original version for them, they thought it sounded like it just fell off of Mellon Collie and they were not interested in doing anything like that. So they messed with it over and over till they got it the way it is now. They performed the beginning of this song about 4 times, showing the evolution of it to where it is today. Jimmy spoke at length about the rehearsal process, how every day they would write for 4-5 hours in the morning, go out and play baseball and come back and practice what they had written, making reference to all of these practices having been recorded in one form or another.

Then the host said to Billy that all of the promotion and artwork for the album is very propoganda and politically based and asked Billy why now, since he had never been overtly political in the past. Billy launched into a long overview of the state of our country being at an all time low as far as social awareness and stupidity are concerned. He talked about how up until he went to Arizona, he had been a news junkie, watching FoxNews for entertainment and hanging on every story like it would be the last. When he moved to Arizona he stopped watching the news and reading the newspapers altogether and still to this day avoids it all like the plague. He set up the next song by saying that he wrote this next song with all of the stupid people in mind, from the president down to the meatheads at some of thier shows. They then played "For God And Country"

As soon as "God & Country" ended billy started talking about the evolution of that song, how it started out like a "civil war funeral dirge", a very slowed down dreary march. Jimmy played the original beat and Billy began playing the song as it was originally written, they got through to the first chorus and stopped it, commenting on how boring it was, that while trying to record it, Billy would start to fall asleep strumming it. He said that they werent happy with the original version and that they still arent very happy or convinved that the version on the album is the "final" version of the song. And that is where the talk of Roy Thomas Baker began. Roy loved the song, and made it his own in the studio. Billy and Jimmy talked for a long time about Roy, working with Roy and the effect that he had on the album. When Billy originally called the record label and they asked "who are you thinking of working with on this album" and they replied, Roy, the label said "Why would you want to work with that old has been. We have Green Days producer lined up for you". He talked alot about the problem of "short money" in the music business, where bands/labels are in there to get as much money out of a product as fast as they can and then they move on. That was not something that they were interested in, they were in it for the music. Jimmy told some hilarious stories about how wealthy Roy is, "he was complaining one day that he had to sell his castle and the town that surrounded it". This was a good 20 minutes of the show.

The host said that they should now move onto the next song, "Neverlost" and asked if there was any stories about it. Billy said it was one of those magic songs that they had worked on a bit but hadnt found the right sound. They were closing up the house to go away for Christmas 2005 and the sun was going down and Jimmy was on his way out the door and Billy said "one more song" and 10 minutes later they had "Neverlost". They then played the song.

As the song ended the host brought back up the idea of "short money" and how labels and bands nowadays all are in the business for a quick cash grab and that everyone is in it to do everything as fast as they can. Billy went on to talk about the process of making the album, recording straight to 2 inch tape with almost no digital overdubs. They were not interested in using pro-tools and upon mentioning that to the dozen or so producers that they met with, they were pretty much left sitting at the table by themselves. Why would a producer spend over a year recording an album when they could record 5-6 albums in a year with a greater chance to have a big smash hit. And then the talk turned back to Roy Thomas Baker. They hadnt wanted to work with him due to the stories of his drug use, but Billy was in a LA recording studio laying down songs for Courtney Loves new album "which still isnt out" and the CEO of the studio set up a lunch between Billy, Jimmy and Roy. 10 minutes after meeting, they knew that they had thier producer and were talking out ideas with him. He joked about Courtney for a little bit saying "hey i guess we do need to thank courtney ... FOR SOMETHING" and calling L.A. "CourtneyLand". Billy also talked a good bit about meeting Paris Hilton and the whole story of how they hooked up for the photos in the album. Paris was a friend of Courtneys and he met her at "the house" and told her right away that her public persona disgusted him. She agreed. Billy went on to say what a good person she is to talk to about the differences between reality and fantasy and how the lines can get blurred. Anyways, he called her one day and told her what he wanted from her and she said tell me a place and time and ill be there. 4 days later, on a sunday morning at 10am, Billy walked into a photo shoot and there was Paris sitting in a make up chair.

The talk turned back to the labels "squeezing all of the life from a product then throwing it away so they can move onto the next one" and he said that that is what "Bleeding The Orchid" was written about. They went on to play "Orchid". Again, they played a sample of how it originally sounded really bluesy and talked about how it all changed once they got into the studio. This lead into discussion about "United States".

They then played "United States". As it ended Billy was asked how do you come up with a song like that, how do you piece it together. He then turned the mic over to Jimmy to talk about "The Shuffle". The shuffle is a life long fear that Jimmy has. It is a very simple very basic beat on the drums and Jimmy refuses to play it, tho he gave us a quick sample of "the shuffle". When Billy originally wrote the song, he wrote it around a shuffle drum beat. They played various versions of the song, showing the evolution from shuffle to tom madness. Talking about how billy would just play the same riffs for hours and Jimmy would be behind him hitting every drum over and over trying different things out every time around, until he hit them the way that they are now. They also talked about how it takes 6 minutes for Jimmy to get to the snare but when he does, the whole song explodes. Billy talked about the original riff for the song too, playing a bit for us, it was also, very very bluesy.

After alot of talking and quite a bit of cursing just to be funny (that will be edited out) the band played Today. They got up, said thank you and filed out of the room. We were asked to stay there till the band got out of there although when we walked out there was Jeff just standing there. I walked by him telling him what a great job he did and he said thanks.

The show lasted from 1pm till 2:45pm. The host said that it is due to air in about a months time but that it will be edited down to 1 hour.

A friend that works at XM gave me a quick tour of the studios and it was off to the 9:30 Club.

We all know the stories of the 9:30 Club by now. First 200 people got wrangled into thier own herd and given a bunch of free stuff. Seranaded by a barbershop quartet and Billy pulled up in his parade car and shook hands.

We then went inside, got right up front and waited. This is when i realized just how fucking obnoxious SOME SP fans can be. During Celebrations set, there were a group of fucking meatheads chanting "LAST SONG PLEASE". I dont know if you dildo's know this or not, but a band is going to play thier entire set, regardless of what you yell out. show some fucking respect next time.

Then it came time for the Pumpkins and the real "Winners" came out. There was one guy that I almost went to jail for, but we will get to him in a bit. First there was some schmuck yelling "That Song Sucked" after every song. Im pretty sure security got him out of there after about 12 songs or so, because he disappeared. Then there were the talkers. The worst of all being the piece of shit that I almost went to jail for.

Imagine if you will, and if you were standing right in front of Ginger, you dont have to imagine, you know who I am talking about, a 350-400lb black dude SHOUTING to his friends and anyone around him the entire show. Now during the loud jams its not a big deal, my ears are ringing and I can barely hear him. Then it comes to the acoustic portion of the evening. And this guy is shouting to his friend how he is "the biggest SP fan in this room and how he saw them play at Hammerjacks in Baltimore long before they were ever on MTV". First, they never played Hammerjacks. Second, He was louder than Billy on stage. I turned around and gave him his first warning. The finger to the mouth shoosh. 2 songs later, he was talking about Transformers and how "fucking awesome" it was. Everyone around me was turning around looking at him and I turned around and said "Be Quiet, show some respect". This is when this drunk bastard started yelling at me about how "We are all just here for a good time". The music goes electric again and drowns him out. A few songs later, Billy does Disarm solo on an electric and this guy is shouting at full volume, everyone around me is looking at him and Billy actually looks at him a couple of times, very annoyed looking. Now, im not a HUGE Muscle dude, but I am a big guy. I put my hand on this guy and told him "Shut The Fuck Up NOW" and sure enough he did ... till the end of the song. He then came up to me and said "I dont take that shit from anyone, but i am showing you respect because you look like a SP fan" and I told him that he was fucking up everyones night and that I was willing to go to jail to shut him up. And I was serious. After talking to everyone in line all day and overhearing all of these great stories about how all of these people got to this show, I couldnt stand to have one loudmouth standing right behind me fucking it all up.

Anyways, the crowd wasnt all bad. I met my "SP Soul Mate" in the crowd. Just some random girl who brought me a water and we sang every word to every song to each others faces. Sure enough, Gossamer chased her away and I never got to thank her for making my night that much more enchanting. I dont know if she reads this board or not, since she didnt say anything other than "Youre my Smashing Pumpkins Soul Mate tonight", but I wasnt trying to reject you or put you off by not dancing with you. I am 8 yrs married now and cannot bring myself to give into any kind of advances, even by someone as beautiful as you. O and you knew all of the words to every song. Thats Fucking HOT> =P

Anyways, thats the day. It was fucking amazing. Sorry I couldnt bring you all with me so I have even more people to talk to about it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that big dude that I almost went to jail for is reading this and replys so I can really lay into him for his behaviour.

JimmyMac

[jimmy1974]

O yeah, Pictures

[Virex Kills]

Thanks for the awesome writeup!!

And this picture reminds me yet once more of how tiny Ginger is!

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

[jimmy1974]

for those curious about the scratched out thing at the bottom of the setlist it says "07/10/07 Giants Stadium" but is crossed out with black sharpie. Not sure what that is all about. Also, i think that is the only setlist that was given out, the host gave it to me directly and I saw a tech crumpling up the other ones from around the room.

[davin]

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

for those curious about the scratched out thing at the bottom of the setlist it says "07/10/07 Giants Stadium" but is crossed out with black sharpie. Not sure what that is all about. Also, i think that is the only setlist that was given out, the host gave it to me directly and I saw a tech crumpling up the other ones from around the room.

hmmmmm.....weird.

it was probably a typo, because this set doesn't seem very suited for LIve Earth anyhow...

[davin]

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

They also talked about how it takes 6 minutes for Jimmy to get to the snare but when he does, the whole song explodes. Billy talked about the original riff for the song too, playing a bit for us, it was also, very very bluesy.

you know i was just thinking, if you go back and listen to the secret acoustic show in berlin, i think you can really hear the bluesy-ness of the US riff shining through. check it out if you haven;t already...

and thats so true about the snare. ever since the Inside Zeitgeist interview where JC said he recorded the US drums in 1 take with no click-track....i've been really listening to the drum part closely.

[zebramask]

After all the talk about them only recording like 17 songs it makes me happy that they recorded all of the practice sessions they had when writing Zeitgeist.


Billy give em to us plz :3

[davin]

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

The band launched right into "Thats The Way (My Love Is)". As it ended the host asked Billy where a song like that comes from and Billy starts talking about November 2005 in Scottsdale, Arizona where him and Jimmy rented a house and lived once deciding to put the band back together. Billy and Jimmy then went on to play the original version of the song, the way it was written and it sounded like a cross between 33 and an acoustic Muzzle. That was the problem with the original version for them, they thought it sounded like it just fell off of Mellon Collie and they were not interested in doing anything like that. So they messed with it over and over till they got it the way it is now. They performed the beginning of this song about 4 times, showing the evolution of it to where it is today. Jimmy spoke at length about the rehearsal process, how every day they would write for 4-5 hours in the morning, go out and play baseball and come back and practice what they had written, making reference to all of these practices having been recorded in one form or another.

As soon as "God & Country" ended billy started talking about the evolution of that song, how it started out like a "civil war funeral dirge", a very slowed down dreary march. Jimmy played the original beat and Billy began playing the song as it was originally written, they got through to the first chorus and stopped it, commenting on how boring it was, that while trying to record it, Billy would start to fall asleep strumming it. He said that they werent happy with the original version and that they still arent very happy or convinved that the version on the album is the "final" version of the song. And that is where the talk of Roy Thomas Baker began. Roy loved the song, and made it his own in the studio. Billy and Jimmy talked for a long time about Roy, working with Roy and the effect that he had on the album. When Billy originally called the record label and they asked "who are you thinking of working with on this album" and they replied, Roy, the label said "Why would you want to work with that old has been. We have Green Days producer lined up for you". He talked alot about the problem of "short money" in the music business, where bands/labels are in there to get as much money out of a product as fast as they can and then they move on. That was not something that they were interested in, they were in it for the music. Jimmy told some hilarious stories about how wealthy Roy is, "he was complaining one day that he had to sell his castle and the town that surrounded it". This was a good 20 minutes of the show.

now thats worth the price of admission right there. nice.

and thanks for the write-up.

[vitaldust]

thats sounds pretty cool

makes me want to hear the zeitgeist demos fo sho

[wayners]

10x a lot jimmy1974!!!

[palm0014]

Excellent review. Made me feel like I was right there!

[davin]

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

"squeezing all of the life from a product then throwing it away so they can move onto the next one" and he said that that is what "Bleeding The Orchid" was written about.

finally, the meaning of the euphemism revealed!

[MonteLDS]

the band looks good sitting down

[redhawk]

And they look good in normal clothing.

[redchandelier]

thanks for posting this

[Caine Walker]

that was a really cool read.

[Rickpat12]

wow thanks for all the details, I appreciate it. Glad you had a great time!

[1100ww]

thanks a lot for writing that, man. that's a great story. especially the parts where they discussed the evolutions of the songs, and actually played the old versions, to show how they progressed. i bet it was amazing to watch. this kind of info helps you relate to the album a little more.

lol at all the striped shirts onstage!

and yeah, there has to be an annoying dude like that at every good concert. why? the last time i saw SP, there was this horrible fat drunk lady next to me, who just decided to howl + scream at the top of her lungs--for no reason--for like 15 minutes straight. and at a JCC show, there was this big drunk guy who made it a point to walk through the crowd waving his arms and yelling sarcastically--he even kept trying to fuck with jimmy, who could see what was going on from the stage (jimmy was totally cool, just kinda winked at him). the dude's girlfriend looked totally embarassed. meanwhile, there's this amazing music going on, and you have to listen to this loud dumbass.

[Heat6Jones]

You would think they could find better fans for a setting like that

Poor b0lly and real fans.

[New Art Rioter]

Great post, thanks! I'm sure the rest of the people by you were glad you had the balls to tell that guy to shut the fuck up. Kudos to you my friend!

[runnersdialzero]

great story, hope we all get to hear those song breakdowns and they don't edit out the juciest parts. i will never understand his stance on courtney...

[Crystal_Chrome]

Thanks for the nice detailed review man.

[Smiley]

Originally Posted by jimmy1974

A little room with space for about 20 chairs

Damn. Lucky bastard. Thanks for the review!

If the show lasted 1 hour 45 minutes and they're going to trim it down to 1 hour, then that's not so bad. It sounds like there were only about 30-35 minutes of music anyway. You got to hear a lot of chatter.

[pelotas17crabs]

Great read.

[Zerospaced]

Excellent review! I hope they play some of that good stuff on the show.

[theghostchild]

Awesome story man...

[ratking17]

outstanding read brother.....

[wHATcOLOR]

thanks for writing that up man

[Wasabi]

This is a really good read for the most part. Thanks a ton!
I'm really looking forward to whatever comes out of this, particularly the song samples of evolution. Some of those 'other' versions sound incredible.

[JRiordan]

Superior review. Thanks a lot.