No way! Gish, Siamese, and Mellon Collie sound incredible. The first two in particular continue to get praise from studio production geeks and everyday musicians alike. Adore wasn't too bad either, but I think he had Brad Wood do most of the production there. Machina is sloppy, Machina 2 isn't... Billy really didn't lose his touch on production values until 2003 when the Zwan album came out. The problem is I think Billy became OCD about making his albums sound perfect and overproduced them. I also think he is now partially deaf in one ear which can interfere making sure everything sounds okay.
Yeah there are so many examples with the reissues of songs that just DID NOT need to be there, like they were totally redundant or made no sense... too tired to think of them all, but every time I listen to the reissues a particular song will play, and it just makes me wonder why it wasn't filled with a rare track that hasn't been heard/heard as often instead. I.e. there are two versions of Plume on the reissues. One being on the Gish second disc, the other of course on Pisces Iscariot. Totally stupid that they would put another mix of that song on the Gish reissue, but leave out a song that fans had been wanting for YEARS, Pale Scales (which has yet to be heard except for the short audio loop from their now ancient greatest hits DVD). The song is more Gish-y than Plume, anyway and far more deserving of being included on a reissue, since it's from that era of the band and has yet to be released. DERP. I swear Billy just does it to be a dick/troll his fans. Another example: a modern mix of Transformer that sounds pretty much the same and is not needed. I could go on. I don't know how many opportunities Billy thinks he's going to have to keep selling his material but now would be the time to get it out there... both he and the core of his fanbase aren't getting any younger.
¡HarlequinPanic!;118980938 said:
My theory: James & Jimmy are the two of the original lineup who haven't gone nuts from celebrity and ego. James is doing his thing and generally seems happy, Jimmy is off driving cars and being alive.
Billy & D'arcy both morphed into their own caricatures.
To compound any Smashing Pumpkins related depression, here are recent photos from D'arcy:
¡HarlequinPanic!;119000501 said:
Billy was doing most of the work regardless... just because Vig and Flood were producing doesn't mean they made it sound the way they did. Otherwise they would have a lot of other albums with that kind of quality and they do not, period.
It's funny to see pics of the band like this, where they were just being normal and smiling. After Mellon Collie every band photo either had to be some serious pose or some art shot with them wearing black garbage bags and eyeliner. I'm not complaining, I particularly love the Adore era band photos...it's just a funny change they went through.
Yeah me too. Definitely great.
Gish, probably. Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, no. Billy had a vision for what he wanted and while the producers helped a lot, it was Billy who did most of the work. Have you read the various interviews and message board posts with Vig over the years? Billy and Vig would just sit in the studio for hours on end, day after day, obsessing over every single thing. Once Billy learned the ropes for the first album in how then-modern production worked, he and Vig kind of kept each other in check.
Well sure. I think his ego in and of itself was the catalyst for that shit. It just kept getting bigger and bigger post-MCIS.
I think the Vinyl was mono IIRC
If Billy doesn't release it with the Machina reissue he's being incredibly foolish. He can't expect to keep putting off key releases thinking it'll generate more hype/money. Those days are gone.
Are you sure? Everyone on Netphoria is pretty excited by it. I've been waiting a long time for it to leak and have never heard any rumors about it floating around.
