Wow! I’m not sure which is bigger news – that the Smashing Pumpkins are in league with a bunch of wankers, or that Pitchfork published a news report that I can really get behind (look! I even spelled their name proper, that’s how great this report is!) I’m reeeeeeally going out on a limb here by blaming it on the people that the SP are either being blackmailed by or are voluntarily working with, rather than blaming the Pumpkins themselves. Other music journalists are quite happy to blame this all on SP, but I lack the belief that a band has this much influence over how their material is presented.
So here’s the news, maybe you can figure out which is the BIG Story:
Pitchfork reported today that the long-awaited album from the new Smashing Pumpkins will be released as FOUR different versions! That’s right, 4 versions. In order to own all the music by the new SP you will have to buy all four albums. The title track “Zeitgeist” is merely a bonus track on one of the versions. One version will be available at Best Buy (this store is tooo big said the golden-haired girl), another version will be available at Target (this store has toooooo many clothes, she thought), another version will be released by iTunes (this store is way too restricted, she said as she started to feel sad), and finally, a presale version will be released by iTunes accompanied by Smashing Pumpkins covers by bands such as Academy, Bravery, Panic At The Disco, etc… at which point our confused heroine began to feel very melloncollie indeed….
So what makes this about Pitchfork? If you look at the article that they published, titled “Smashing Pumpkins to Fans, Indie Stores: Fuck You ” you will find angry quips like this one:
Billy and company would like you to know that they fully support the extinction of the American independent record store at the hand of large, faceless, little-guy-crushing big boxes.
Pitchfork is commonly smarmy and degrading, that’s nothing new. I dissed them for dissin DJ/Rupture’s remix of Architecture In Helsinki because their report was racist and totally fucked up. But this time, they are on the side of the little guy instead of the snobby hipster who spends a lot of money on cds, tix, and tees. Pitchfork has dissed the idea of being a greedy corporate sell-out. What’s next? Pitch4k Music Fest staging only bands that have music available without DRM? HAha! That would be rad!
And wait just a minute, I read somewhere that the new Smashing Pumpkins is really just Billy Corgan and his new friends, that Darcy and James Iha are not in the new band. Is that true? I already thought, no Iha, no Pumpkins, but what about Darcy? Is she part of this or no? I noticed that their my$pace page doesn’t list any band members besides Corgan.
Well, I certainly can’t blame ex-bandmates for not wanting to work with Rev. Billy:
For curiosity’s sake, here are the differing tracklists:
Standard Zeitgeist Tracklist:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That’s the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let’s Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp and Circumstances
Zeitgeist Tracklist at Best Buy:
01. Doomsday Clock
02. 7 Shades of Black
03. Bleeding the Orchid
04. That’s the Way (My Love Is)
05. Tarantula
06. Starz
07. United States
08. Neverlost
09. Death From Above (bonus track)
10. Bring the Light
11. (Come On) Let’s Go!
12. For God and Country
13. Pomp and Circumstances
Zeitgeist Tracklist at Target:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That’s the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let’s Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp aAnd Circumstances
13 Zeitgeist (bonus track)
Zeitgeist Tracklist at iTunes:
01 Doomsday Clock
02 7 Shades of Black
03 Bleeding the Orchid
04 That’s the Way (My Love Is)
05 Tarantula
06 Starz
07 United States
08 Neverlost
09 Bring the Light
10 (Come On) Let’s Go!
11 For God and Country
12 Pomp and Circumstances
13 Stellar (bonus track)
I’m noticing a lot of redundancy here. In the web development/SEO world, we call this duplicate content and it usually has very poor results. I wonder who thought it would work better in 3-D reality? It’s hard to believe that all the hype and sensationalism surrounding the reunion of SP has ended in such a deflated product.
Smashing Pumpkins LINKS
Pitchfork report
$mash$pace – i’d go directly here to lodge complaints in the comments. Chances are they don’t ever edit them, and maybe Iha will get a laugh out of it.
Official web scene – Here I LOVE the way the top of the page boldly declares: SMASHING PUMPKINS BETA VERSION
hahaha! maybe that’s the answer to my questions.
Sorry Smashing Pumpkins fans! This is truly wrong…
What Do You Think? ↓
1 // Jun 21, 2007 at 23:41
[...] Pitchfork Smashes New Pumpkins Album! In the web development/SEO world, we call this duplicate content and it usually has very poor results. I wonder who thought it would work better in 3-D reality? It?s hard to believe that all the hype and sensationalism surrounding the … [...]
2 // Jun 22, 2007 at 3:25
that is SOOOO suck. Here’s the promo campaign: “Hey kidz, do you want that Zero on your t-shirt to mean something again? Well now it can! That’s how many new collectible SP albums you’re actually going to pay for!! That’s right – we’re releasing 4 ever so slightly different versions of more or less the same thing at the same time!! Can we say “Fuck You -Consume and DIE!!” any more clearly? Get thee to a PirateBay, plebs, unless you want to give your money to people who consider wallet-invasion to be foreplay.”
And the only thing pitchforks are good for is unloading truckloads of babies (because you can fit more than on a shovel)
3 // Jun 30, 2007 at 23:19
this is nothing new, a lot of bands have went a similar route..and Please keep in mind these are bonus tracks, you no like? YOU NO BUY! Billy actually wouldn’t mind if people bought their favorite version, and downloaded the rest online.