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2010.02.05 at 4:46 pm #1370
confuciousconfusingSpectatorhttp://illinoisentertainer.com/2010/02/ … ly-corgan/
If the adage holds true â that ârich is the examined lifeâ â then itâs about time for society, as a whole, to grab its pipe and slippers, curl up in its comfiest recliner, and have a long, hard thoughtful stare into the ice-cold mirror. Chances are, Snow Whiteâs unforgiving Maleficent might just be gazing back. What have we become in this Tiger-Woods, guilty-until-proven-innocent, media-controlled schadenfreude era? Look no further than Billy Corgan, people. The 42-year-old Smashing Pumpkins leader has lots to talk about at this surreal point in time. But do you want the ho-hum news or the real salacious dirt? Think carefully â once youâve bitten into that poison apple, youâre a card-carrying part of the decadent problem.
Appearing: February 18th at LaSalle Power Co. in Chicago.
Corgan would love for all his fans to be aware of âA Song For A Son,â the first guitar-squealing single from his proposed 44-track set, Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. Especially since each track will be released online at http://www.smashingpumpkins.com, no strings attached, before being anthologized in 11 four-song EPs, and finally a deluxe box set for the serious collector. Heâs also launching his own vanity imprint, with a kickoff signing already lined up: The Electric Prunes, with whose bassist Corgan recently worked as Spirits In The Sky, in tribute concerts to late Seeds stalwart Sky Saxon (with whom he was recording a comeback album; âAnd thereâs some really interesting, beautiful unreleased music there,â Corgan promises).
The next composition to see release will be âWidow Wake My Mind,â a jagged-chorded, keyboard-buttressed ballad, followed by âAstral Planesâ and âA Stitch In Time.â And the self-sufficient Svengali is playing/recording almost everything himself, aided in-studio by his longtime production cohort (and Catherine member) Kerry Brown and new drummer Mike Byrne, with provisional Pumpkins Jeff Schroeder (guitar) and Ginger Reyes (bass) hopping back on board for an upcoming tour. Original on/off band drummer Jimmy Chamberlin departed again last year, after â07âs Zeitgeist album and â08âs American Gothic EP. Additionally, Corgan just launched his own spiritual-themed blog, âEverything From Here To There,â in which he does, indeed, pore over his own existence. Often microscopically so. Which ought to be enough, relevant-fact-wise, right?
Not in this gossipy, 24-hour-news-channel age. At this writing, the latest issue of the photo-driven Us magazine has just hit the stands, with a Corgan-related story filed under âHot Stuff.â Seems the quiet, privacy-seeking rocker has now become tabloid fodder by the simple act of dating pop star Jessica Simpson, 29 (whoâs been run ragged by the paparazzi over the past few turbulent years). Several unnamed sources dish the trashy lowdown on the couple, who are âofficially an item!â But why the exclamation point? Why, in fact, does society need to know any of these details at all? Some have speculated that our obsession with celebrity storylines are the one thing that unites America, rich and poor, and that as each yarn unspools to its often tragic climax, everyone keeping track around their watercoolers at work feels at one with a bigger picture: a hive mentality, with individual drones no longer able to form their own media-free opinion.
So therein hangs the tale. How does a King Bee like Corgan, whoâs proven himself over 20-multi-platinum-selling years, make deeper music in a time that, a la Mike Judgeâs brilliant Idiocracy, focuses squarely on the shiny surface? And who knows? By the time you read this, his relationship with Simpson already may be over, killed, perhaps, by the same nosy reporters and photographers who once trumpeted it with celebratory punctuation. And this breakup, if and when it occurs, will be excruciatingly documented, even televised, as if Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest truly feel empathy for any pain the lovers might be suffering. What happened to humanityâs innate grace and dignity? âGone,â Corgan sighs, resigned to his Don Quixote quest of bringing intelligent art to the increasingly stupid masses. âItâs gone and it ainât coming back.â
IE: What were you doing up in Northern California over Christmas?
Billy Corgan: Uhhh . . . girlfriend things. My girlfriendâs family lives up there.IE: Jessica?
BC: Heh heh heh. Letâs just skip all that.IE: Well, several entertainment sites promise to tell us who youâre dating. Itâs sad that youâve now turned into prey for tabloid predators. Even reality-TV shows all feature cutthroat people competing for some sleazy prize. Whatâs gone wrong, as you see it?
BC: I think weâre in a sort of exponential, continually accelerating sort of . . . self-examination? And one thatâs probably unprecedented in human history. And technology, of course, is facilitating that. And there are interesting upsides. Like, for example, now people are their own media server. I donât need anyone to print my quote â I can print my own quote, and if people wanna pick it up, they do. Which is interesting, because sometimes I say things that I think are pretty edgy, and nobody gives a shit. And then Iâll say something thatâs really benign, and people pick up on it and suddenly itâs on somebody elseâs Web site. But then you get into the whole Andy Warhol thing, where weâre now counting down to four minutes, 59 seconds. And itâs a fascinating insight into the human psyche in that everybody, in some sort of way, really wants to be famous. And you canât say theyâre wrong to want to be famous, because thereâs something about being famous that feeds the inner child and makes you feel special. And when weâre around children, we always say âYouâre special,â because we want them to grow up to be special. But this is like a short-cut to âspecialâ that seems to not quite care about the consequences of how you get there. And in our world â and Iâm sure youâve seen this â thereâs been a breakdown in what I would call âcritical media,â where thereâs no separation of church and state anymore. There was a time when a Nirvana album was reviewed differently than, letâs say, a Monkees record. But now everybodyâs on the same playing field, and theyâre supposed to adhere to the same sets of rules. And the indie world, the Pitchfork world, will pretend that itâs a different set of rules, but not really. Everybody follows the same rules, because might is right, and even the indie worldâs reaction to might is a complete overreaction.IE: Well, Britain just watched Simon Cowell get livid when his latest âX Factorâ winner didnât secure the usual No. 1 Christmas week. Rage Against The Machine did, after an online anti-Cowell campaign.
BC: I saw that. And thereâs been an erosion of . . . letâs call it âthe credentials.â And one needs to look no further than what gets played on alternative radio these days. If you wouldâve gone back in a time machine and visited one of the leading alternative stations, and told them that in 10 or 15 years theyâd be playing popularity-contest winners and people who had no alternative-music pedigree, theyâd go âNah! Thatâll never happen! Because our whole stationâs image is based on the idea that weâre playing music that comes from the streets!â So weâve basically had everything co-opted, hijacked, and popped out, and it goes back to the Warhol premise, which is that the obsession with being famous has been disconnected from the need to actually do something to be famous. And from my point of view, and where it gets really weird is, it inverts on itself now, where oftentimes I get more attention for things that have nothing to do with music than I do my music. And it puts me in a weird position, because, on some level, I do have to get people to listen to my music. So the jerk in the audience goes, âYeah, but if you did better music, maybe theyâd pay attention!â But câmon. Itâs not that simple. I run into people who are fans, they own six of my albums, theyâve been to five shows over nine years, and they donât even know you have a new song out. Because theyâre just not in contact with your form of media. So you can look at whoâs listening and say, âOh, not enough people are listening.â But you canât be sure in this day and age that anybody is even coming in contact with what youâve done. So itâs really hard to gauge what real value is.IE: But yet everyoneâs seen photographs of you and Jessica together. Print media is being replaced by visual, which only accelerates ignorance.
BC: Well, I say now to my friends, âMusicâs just not enough.â Look at our culture, look whoâs succeeding, and itâs usually not music-driven anymore. Or itâs music-driven, with some other angle: I won something; thereâs a backstory; I did something controversial. And when I look at somebody like Adam Lambert â whom I donât know but who I think is talented â heâs come up through a system thatâs told him already, âHey â youâre gonna get more attention by being provocative than being talented!â Does that mean thatâs why heâs done what he has? No. But the feedback is there. Whatâs popular these days are the things that satisfy the most. You no longer have an artistically driven culture that can ride people to the mainstream. And I would say that ours was the last generation that was able to do that in an effective manner. I mean, taking street-level music and crossing it over? Itâs happened in rap culture, so I canât say that it hasnât happened. But from a culture that was continually doing that, from Elvis and Louis Armstrong on back? It no longer seems to be able to do it, just on the incendiary sexual nature of the music. Now it has to basically have sex on top of it. And thatâs when you get into the pelvis-shoving-in-the-camera stuff [on many contemporary rock videos from female artists].IE: I think Idiocracy got it right.
BC: In a beautiful stroke of synchronicity, thatâs one of the new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrneâs favorite movies. So that shows you where his headâs at. But is humanity over with? I have a slightly different take. I tend to look at from a more spiritual perspective, which is that things need to break, or get broken enough, and then people will find their inner reserve and wanna fix them. I see signs of light, but I think itâs gonna get a lot darker, as in itâs always darkest before the dawn. But I do think that weâre headed the wrong way, and weâve been heading the wrong way for awhile. And itâs accelerating, like that moment in Willy Wonka where theyâre in the tunnel, itâs getting faster and everyoneâs getting more freaked out. I think weâre testing our own tolerance for just how weird and creepy it can get.IE: Advertising is partially to blame. As in âI shop, therefore I am!â
BC: I think itâs deeper than that. My personal beliefs are that there are forces that are purposely eroding the middle class and the intellectual structure of this country to allow it to be basically taken over by a fascist sort of framework. And I believe itâs pretty obvious that itâs already happening. Whoever the people are in charge of this world? They do an interesting thing â they run out voices to make you think youâre being heard, understood, or recognized. And itâs not just for ratings, like Glenn Beck â itâs a way to control the debate. If you say to me, âHey! There are little green men in my backyard!â I can go, âHey! Iâve seen âem, too!â So thereâs nothing to fight if Iâm already agreeing with you. Thereâs only one problem â is on the network that helps create part of the scenario that weâre in. Heâs not an âindependent voice.â Independent voices donât take commercial breaks.IE: Itâs kinda like that scene in They Live, where Rowdy Roddy Piper finally puts on the sunglasses and sees the âConsume!â ads everywhere.
BC: But the funny thing is, itâs not even subliminal anymore. Whatever that is, you donât have to put on the sunglasses â itâs right in front of your face. We are living in an age of overt propaganda â itâs not even hidden anymore. Watch a political debate, and the pundits wonât debate the veracity of whatâs being said â theyâll debate how well the person manipulated their weaknesses to appear as strengths. Theyâll basically give points for, âWell, I know heâs totally full of shit. But he did a good job of convincing us that he isnât!â If you went back to [Walter] Cronkite days, they werenât saying that stuff.IE: It was clear after those first few Bush/Gore debates â intelligence has now become a liability in America.
BC: Hey, itâs been a liability in my musical life! Itâs been a liability all along! And Iâve had a few journalists who say, âThey donât like it if youâre smarter than them. Or even if you think youâre smarter.â But Iâve never been very good at playing the dumb genius.IE: It seems like youâre going through a metamorphosis right now. How did you finally tap into your spiritual side?
BC: I think I just got to the point where I had to take an inventory of how I got where I got, for better or worse. I was able to look back on 20 years of my life and say, âO.K., where has this worked? And where has it not worked?â And where it worked was always where I trusted myself, no matter what anybody said or thought around me. I just trusted my instincts. And every time it had not gone well, itâs where I didnât listen to my instincts and I betrayed my own inner common sense. And I realized that a lot of what I thought was good in my life was more in alignment with . . . letâs call âem âbasic spiritual principles,â more than what I would call âbasic material principles.â So there are good ways to make money and there are bad ways, and itâs not always an easy call, ya know? I got hammered for selling songs to commercials, when only five years ago I was bragging how Iâd never sold any of the Pumpkins songs to commercials and how theyâd been kept pure. Then I sold âTodayâ to Visa, but the person who really changed my mind on that was Pete Townshend. Iâd read an interview â and I know him a little bit, so Iâve even talked to him about it â where he basically said, âWho gives a fuck if they lost their virginity in the back seat of a car to âMy Generationâ? I donât give a shit. I put it out there to fucking be heard and sold, and I donât care how they fucking do it!â And why is Bob Dylan doing corporate gigs? At some point, if my heroes arenât holding to something, why the fuck am I? And I looked around and thought, âWell, no one in Alternativeland will claim me â theyâll piss on me, but they wonât claim me, even though I helped invent the genre. So where do I make this right?â And Iâm not saying God came down and told me âSell your song to Visa!â Iâm saying a person, a man, has to be O.K. with who he is. So I found more solace, more peace on every level â in my musical life, my personal life, my internal life â by subscribing to spiritual principles, and about five, seven years ago I started paying more attention. And the more attention I paid, the better I felt, the less crazy I felt. And here I am, 20 years later, still able to sell records and all that stuff, so I must be here for a reason. And itâs not to annoy people, even though Iâve done a good job of that. So I started finding a deeper connected purpose with spiritual ideas about what it means to help others, serve others, and in that way serve yourself. And that led me to a place where I was comfortable enough to start talking about it. Even though I know itâs a career-killer, I donât care, because I think itâs more punk rock to be righteously angry and spiritually forward than it is to continually wear the leather jacket with the tattoos, as if thatâs somehow dangerous. Thatâs not dangerous anymore â they use those guys on commercials now! And as an artist, Iâm attracted to the dangerous part. As someone who grew up in alternative rock, starting with Cheap Trick, Iâm attracted to where itâs like, âWhoa! I donât know how I feel about this!âIE: I donât trust anyone who hasnât gone to edge of the abyss and stared in.
BC: Yeah. Thatâs the Nietzsche quote: âBe careful, because itâll stare back into you!â I mean, look â Blondie was provocative in 1978. So Lady Gaga will never be as provocative as Blondie was, or Madonna was. That stuffâs been tapped out. So even just as a human being, Iâm like, âWhere does this feel edgy again? Where does this feel like Iâm into something Iâm just not sure about?â And to me, God is the third rail of public life. You just donât really touch it unless youâre giving your Grammy speech, going âI wanna thank Jesus Christ for giving me a hit record!â So for me, it just happened â I just started falling down that hill, until I woke up one day thinking, âI must be religious! And Iâve probably been religious all along â I just didnât know how to put it into any kind of box.âIE: Youâre revolving Teargarden around four Tarot cards â the Child, the Fool, the Skeptic and the Mystic. Was the idea to give the songs away based in your new spiritual mindset?
BC: Well, there is a spiritual principle and there of course is a marketing principle in place. But for me, on a personal level, what Iâm trying to do is rekindle the flames in me that make me wanna get up every day and do this. And I find the Tarot fascinating. But Iâm also pretty keen, historically, on why some of the greatest musicians and writers burn out at some point. I wonât name names, but you donât have to look far for people who wrote unbelievable songs between the ages of 20 and 30, who never again even came close to writing anything on that level. So is that karma? Does God sorta take it away? Or has it got something to do with the system? And my opinion is that thereâs something in that system that inverts itself, because when you get so known for doing something and you donât wanna betray the audience, you kinda get locked into a philosophy. But as you get older and life changes, you donât have the same impulses, so if youâre suddenly into reggae, you canât play reggae because your audience isnât gonna like it. And something dies in the artist, that joy of discovery. So over the last few years, Iâve really come to watch my . . . internal self-interest. I mean, Iâm a skilled person â I can write you a song if I donât fucking care. But the best songs come from a place of caring, of commitment and excitement. And I have this contentious relationship with my audience â they just keep getting mad at me because I donât wave the white flag and become whatever it is Iâm supposed to become now. Like some middle-aged statesman of âGee, werenât the â90s great?â But they werenât that fucking great. And that song wasnât that good â Iâm sorry. And even though the overall reaction to âSong For A Sonâ has been very positive, part of that positivity was that it was familiar. And, back to Pete Townshend, he said something to me personally that applies, he said, âYou have to understand that for one moment in their life, you said exactly what they wanted to hear. And unfortunately, theyâre just not interested in anything else you have to say. So get used to it.â But Iâm not ready to throw in that towel yet.IE: There was a nice quote on your âEverywhereâ site, saying how you now strive to combine the enthusiasm of a child with the grace of an adult.
BC: Well, thatâs all I have left to do. Iâve already done Angry Young Man. Already done âGee, I almost killed myself but now Iâm back.â And Iâve already done the âI hate you all!â art trip. The only thing left for me to do is just be happy and be excited and try and make great music.â Tom Lanham [/quote:303hzdbc]
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