@JenXMusic

I’m sure by now you have heard that the Smashing Pumpkins new album Zeitgeist will have different bonus tracks on it, depending on which store you buy it from. All in all there will be four different versions.

People are making a big deal out of this, and spinning it into something negative. I have been amazed at how people (Pitchfork in particular) jump so quickly to think badly of a band and attribute their motives strictly to money and power.

I have been reading comments and blogs from people who say they were long time fans until this, so truly now because there are four versions of a really cool album available, they say they will not be buying the album at all and they think Billy Corgan is some kind of money hungry sell out.

They can’t have been very devoted fans, or even know their history very well because Billy Corgan has always been the opposite of everything they are calling him.

• He supported Napster back when many musicians were out to kill it- which they did.

• He gave away the entire MachinaII album online, just as a gift of music to the fans that loved The Pumpkins so much.

• The shows in Asheville and San. Francisco had incredibly cheap ticket prices; $20-25.00 which The Pumkins easily could have charged double that and still sold out just as quickly.

• They have made announcements that anyone can record or photograph them at their concerts, in fact they have made most of the new album available live on their site ThePumpkins.net for anyone to listen to.

I am disappointed once again by the petty, single minded way that people, and even so called fans, have jumped to conclusions without caring or even thinking for that matter. As for myself and other devoted fans, we are looking forward to all four versions of the album coming next month.

And, duh, if you don’t want to pirate the music and still want all four songs with out buying all four cd’s (seriously people, you REALLY think that the Pumpkins expect or even want you to buy all four versions!!!!), the Tarantula maxi-single has 2 of the songs on it and I would suspect that future singles will have the others available too.

I am so happy that Billy Corgan and the Band are back, despite all of the negativity and crap that he has received over the years in compensation for creating some of the most beautiful, true and real music.

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We all love The Nightmare Before Christmas, the characters are grotesquely adorable, the storyline is entertaining and the music is so so fantastic. I get very excited when Danny Elfman does a soundtrack, his band Oingo Boingo has been one of my favorites since I was a Freshman in high school. I must have musicals on the mind, what with my son’s fascination with Phantom of the Opera, because I keep thinking that the next great Broadway musical should be The Nightmare Before Christmas. Who do we know that is tall, thin, pale and has a beautiful emotion filled, slightly depressing (in all the right ways of course) voice? If you know me at all then you know its Billy Corgan. Now I realize he is very busy with the new album and touring- please come somewhere near Boise, thank you- but I can wait. Billy Corgan would make the best “Jack” ever, to me this seems like such a good idea that hopefully some one in the actual business of making musicals has already thought of it and they are working hard to make it happen.

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Hey, remember The Toadies? Their big radio song was Possum Kingdom from the album Rubberneck; “make up your mind, decide to walk with me, around the lake tonight…DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!!” That was just a little refresher for those of you who were trying to remember that far back. I thought I saw them three times in concert, but Tac just told me he thinks only twice. So whatever, the point is I got to see them at least twice, once on Tac’s 23rd birthday and if you look on the raggedy poster you can see the words “happy 23rd Tac” written on the brightest circle thing on the poster.

My point was going to be that I have seen them live more than any other band, but perhaps not. I have seen Billy Corgan three times, but every time he was in a different band (the last time his band was just as himself). I can only think of two other bands that I have actually seen twice: Sugar Ray and One More Weekend ( a very cool local Vegas band that our friend Nick was in).

Before you puke, Sugar Ray used to be awesome, they opened for the Toadies one night, and to this day we still think of that show as one of the best we have ever seen. They rocked so hard, I don’t know that I have ever seen a band display so much energy and sound so good doing it. When they came through Boise again (thats where we lived), it was for Warped Tour so we went mostly to see them, but it was right after they put out their second album; I think it was called wuss music, and they went downhill fast after that.

All of this makes me think of trying to go crowd surfing, watching my husband in the mosh pit, baggy Levi’ Silvertabs and 501′s, my standard concert shoes: steel toe boots, and having no children to take care of. The Toadies broke up after that, I have no idea what any of them are doing now.

Popularity: 18% [?]