By Steve Rhodes
A loose collection of whatnot.
1. Billy Corgan plays to his demographic, appears on CBS Morning Show.
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I do appreciate Corgan’s sociological interest in the culture of music and its place in society etc., I just think he’s wrong most of the time.
For example, I don’t remember the Smashing Pumpkins being “dangerous” to society – ever. I don’t remember the Pumpkins’ worldwide tours challenging the established order. I don’t remember the Pumpkins taking on Ticketmaster, or being a cause-oriented band that played a string of benefits, or even being musically challenging. I remember the Pumpkins being on the radio a lot.
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Questions from the esteemed CBS morning crew include:
* Who writes the songs? As if!
And:
* How did you get to be who you are? Um, that’s another show. One that was done 20 years ago, in fact.
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Better:
* How can you bill this band as the Smashing Pumpkins when you are the only remaining member?
* Does everyone in the band get paid equally?
* Do you write everybody’s parts?
* Why not just record and tour under the name Billy Corgan?
* When you mention artists’ fallow periods, is that an acknowledgement that you’ve been in one since Mellon Collie?
* You opened a tea shop in Highland Park, will you save Val’s Halla Records?
2. From Northwestern magazine:
Clare Cavanagh recalls the day that Will Butler came to her after class and politely asked if he could skip the next session. “He said, ‘I’m in a band, and we’re gonna be on Conan,'” says Cavanagh, a Slavic languages and literatures professor who remembers Butler as a very good student in her seminar on modern poetry. “I kind of did a double take. But it was Will, and even if it hadn’t been, the story alone would have been worth an absence.”
A few weeks later Butler again approached Cavanagh after class with a copy of Rolling Stone that featured Butler’s band, Arcade Fire. “He said, ‘I just wanted to show you it was true. We were on Conan. It’s in Rolling Stone.'”
Previously in North By Northwestern: Will Butler’s Rise From Lit Nerd to Rock Star.
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3. Waco Brothers Live!
At Schubas on Friday, December 28th & Saturday, December 29th.
From Bloodshot HQ:
“Ladies and gentlemen, quite possibly the best live rock band on the planet. We’ve seen them a hundred and sixty nine times, and the Waco Brothers never fail to entertain with their train wreck approach to country. Subtlety is for the weak, so they’ve chosen the path of optimum mayhem and tomfoolery. In their rollicking career, they have been called everything from the flagship act of the alternative country “movement” to pure butchery. Both are likely to be correct.
“In a world of corporate-sponsored tours by lame-o alt-rockers complaining about their hotel suites and ‘country’ stars who owe more to Boston than Bakersfield, the Wacos go out every night and play as if their lives depended on it. Their shows at SXSW and CMJ are legendary, and every year threaten to actually collapse under the weight of their runaway brilliance. If you’re not drunk, sweaty and out of money at the end of one of their shows, then brother, we pity you. Over the years, this fervor has resulted in an onstage wedding proposal betwixt two fans (SXSW ’02), a riot (Edinburgh ’03), and a thousand and one lost nights of sweaty, happy reverie.”
“Waco Express”/Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland 2009:
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Comments welcome.
Posted on December 12, 2012