Pandemonium wrote:NYRexall wrote:His post-2000 output actually manages to be both different AND decent. And most of it he puts out for free in some form or another, too.
I would strongly disagree. And as I mentioned in another thread a few weeks ago, the current live show with the crappy arrangements of some older songs, his current band of scrubs (Chamberlain is a critical missing element) and the whole wrestling shtick is just terrible.
His live show today doesn't come close to the live shows the classic lineup used to perform, I'm certainly not trying to die on that hill. Nor is his current band anything short of a joke at this point. It's basically Billy and his hired hands carrying on with the Smashing Pumpkins mentality.
I was referring to his muscial output post-2000 when the band split for the first time. It's decent - not great, and certainly not as good as anything they did prior to breaking up - but decent nonetheless. That "Zeitgeist" album was as good of a Smashing Pumpkins album as you were going to get with just Billy and Jimmy, and it was doomed from the start because "D'arcy and James weren't there"
But the songs are still there, because he's a talented songwriter and a talented musician, still. Even if he needs to get his head out of his own ass and stop worrying so much about what people think of his legacy.
But his solo record? I loved that thing. Very shoe-gazey and different for him. The songs he's literally writing in front of you during that "If It All Goes Wrong" documentary? I immediately went and ripped those songs off Youtube. These new songs he's been writing and releasing for free in fits and spurts the last couple of years as part of that massive album he's trying to create? I've enjoyed the majority of those as well. None of it is in the same vein as what the classis lineup did, nor as spectacular. But it's more than enough to hold my interest in what he's doing and keep me listening in the present day, absolutely.
As for the wrestling shit...don't get me started. I have no idea what he's trying to say with it , nor do I care to know.