As the year comes to a close and as I have been meaning to write something about the Pumpkins, I take this opportunity to talk about my experience of the band since the reformation.

Introduction/Reformation

I was so excited when I heard the Pumpkins where reforming. I think I am a slightly unusual Pumpkins fan in that the first album I heard was Adore. A friend gave me it to listen to about 6-7 years ago when I was in study period at school. It really blew me away! He had actually brought it in to school to lend to mutual friend of ours. However, I left with the CD that night. I was then given Gish to listen to, and as I listened to some of the other albums (Mellon Collie etc), it became clear that I had finally found a band that I could truly love. It was first band I had heard who’s work seemed to show true variety and distinction between albums.

About this time, Earphoria and Viewphoria where being released, which I ran out and immediately bought. I loved hearing the Pumpkins on live recordings…but ofcourse I knew this was probably going to be the only new Smashing Pumpkins release I would ever witness and it wasn’t even going to be a studio album. Thankfully, I was mistaken.

Zeitgeist

I could give a glowing review of many of the tracks I heard on Zeitgeist, but I think something illustrates the point better. I must confess that I have pirated music in the past. It is not a surprising fact. I have always been interested in computers (Alas, I am Computer Scientist student now) and when I was in my teens Napster/KaZaA emerged so prominently.  I think one thing that that has been lost from the p2p since advent of bittorrent, has been a sense of community. I mean downloading an album took hours so you had to love the music and because the system was centralised you could talk to people who where downloading the same album.

Why I bring this up is because I didn’t pirate Zeitgeist. The music was good enough for once to pay for. It wasn’t merely a question of quality however, for first time I wanted to do my bit to support a band financially. I even bought the album on iTunes, with DRM, which I loathed doing (I didn’t know about 7digital at the time). Infact, I bought the album from the US store, with a gift certificate I bought off ebay, because the UK store didn’t have the album at first (I wrote a complaint to Apple, not sure if it was their fault, but I felt I had to say something). I later bought the Deluxe Version and all the singles from Itunes as well.

American Gothic

Although I loved Zeitgeist, I was a bit dissapointed to not to hear any less heavy tracks from the Pumpkins. I mean even as a big alt rock, I had started with Pumpkins on Adore. Thankfully, the release of American Gothic filled that need for me. In particular, I loved the track Pox.

A Live Gig – Glasgow SECC

Obviously, back in school, there was always one thing better than thought of a new studio album. A gig that I could go to. With the tour, this was a possibility. At the time I had just left St Andrews Uni from a course I hated and somehow completed (Biology BSc) and had went to UWS to do a Computing PGDip (which I later passed with distinction and loved) before the MSc I am currently doing. However, more importantly, for the first time I was near a big city (I grew up in small village). So the opportunity to go to a gig was possible! When the Pumpkins tickets came on sale for the gig at Glasgow SECC, I delved into my minimal uni funds and got a ticket for about £60. I wouldn’t have done this for any other band. I was meant to go to the gig with my ex girlfriend of two years. We had split up a year ago and where trying to be friends.

Unfortunately, she pulled out because she was concerned about upsetting her new boyfriend. She knew what the gig meant to me and how scared I would be to go alone (she is more of a party/gig than myself). I don’t dislike her for her decision at all. However, I think that decision was litmus test if we could be still friend and if she still cared for me like I did her. Its probably why we don’t speak much now. Looking back it was real beginning of end and not the backdrop to my first SP I had imagined.

Anyway, I decided to go to the gig myself and got their early and managed to get to front. The gig was great, but imperfect. I would have preferred if there wasn’t any pushing and drunk idiots at back shouting. I think it would have been better if we had all be sitting and just listening, but perhaps I am too refrained for gigs.

When the gig was over, the Glasgow SECC nicely stopped running trains back into centre of town. I would really like to thank them for doing this! So, as someone who had lived in a village and a town with 3 streets all my life, I had to try a traverse the rather long road back to centre of town, so I could get a train back home. I managed somehow to get back for last train, with a little help from two girls who where so kind and helpful giving me directions. I might not go to another gig again. But the experience was wonderful and one I am glad I experienced it. I would love to go back to gig with group of people from the site I didn’t know. As much as I try, most of my friend aren’t Pumpkins fans unfortunately.

American Gothic Live

The next day after the gig, I tried to find a recording of the gig online. I would obviously need to pirate this because no official release was available. Thankfully I got a copy and later a purchased the UK Tour live version of American Gothic (I am pretty sure “1979 live” came from the Glasgow Gig).

Livesmashingpumpkins.com

Even though I did get a (somewhat poor) recording of the gig, I did think it was unfortunate that high quality full gig recordings where not available. I mean I thought it would be great idea to sell them online or even after gigs (I think this is technically possible in theory). Now the Pumpkins have filled this need for the future with livesmashingpumpkins.com. However, to prove perhaps I am not a complete fan boy, I do have some suggestions below;

1. The cost is quite high. I mean I want to buy them all but your talking about more than £100 for all the gigs. I hope its clear I value Pumpkins and I purchase their material to support the band. Today’s culture does want to consume music in large volume though and I just feel the price is slightly restrictive. Perhaps the band might consider going for the Amiestreet.com model, where the current price of each song is based on the number of people who have bought the track previously. The more popular the track, the more the cost and vice versa. It might not be any cheaper I know, but I think its a better and more interesting model.

2. Having a dedicated website is great but the band should be trying to get the live tracks out to fans who don’t regularly check the SP website. Putting the tracks on sale at 7digital, Itunes, AmazonMP3 and Amie Street is a great way to create more revenue from the band and engage more fans.

3. The next step in the future would obviously be to sell live video recordings on the site. Obviously, DVDs are a good idea just now, but digital distribution is the future (would like to see a digital version of If All Goes Wrong, even though I am buying a DVD copy). Heck, we could even have a paid for online tv channel that plays Pumpkins stuff all day!

Conclusions/The Big Elephants in the room

As things stand just now, the future is bright. The Pumpkins are back together, they are recording good tracks regularly and they are interacting with fans in a more immersive way than ever before. Furthermore, they are no longer tied to a record label, which can only be a good thing for their prosperity and longevity.

There has obviously been some talk about how successful the new material has been, how profitable the band is, should they just play the hits on tour to please the fans and all the other elephants that are supposedly in the room.

Well all I can say is those that have issues with the direction of the band will eventually stop complaining. They can clutch their copy of the SP back catalogue as the leave. Because I have realised that when I heard Adore for the first time I wasn’t really longing for a Pumpkins Greatest Hits tour to see and be apart of, I wanted to support the development of a new Smashing Pumpkins.

It is up to us as fans of the new Smashing Pumpkins to make that happen in the future as much as any one else, including the band. Billy worries that he might be “Putting the clown suit back on”, however, personally I think the band has done well to keep it in the locked room of 1993 with the elephants.