ON BILLY CORGAN VS. THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

It’s not the absence of D’Arcy Wretzky and James Iha that makes this “reunion” same ingenuous. I fully understand that Billy Corgan, and to some extent Jimmy Chamberlain, were always the songwriting axis of the Smashing Pumpkins and the brains behind their sound. Here’s the problem; Billy Corgan released a “solo” record a couple of years ago with Jimmy Chamberlain on drums. So what’s the difference? The difference is that it flopped. It goes without saying that Smashing Pumpkins will sell a hell of a lot more records and generate a shit ton more press than a Corgan solo record, and I think it goes without saying that this is the primary reason that Corgan chose to call Zeitgeist a Pumpkins record. Not that I can fault the guy; I’d do it too. All I’m saying is that let’s just call this what it is. Any Pumpkins record is really a Corgan record, the same way that any Nine Inch Nails record is really a Trent Reznor record. To believe otherwise is live with your head in the sand.

-VN