“and pedestal”

but regardless of the initial difference in praise for Spiderland and Loveless, both of them have reached the same point of “awesomeness” that probably isn’t deserved.

shine scenes

Most kids when they first get into music discover the easiest available, be it corporate rock or top 40 or what not. I mean, almost every teen goes through some form of classic rock phase where they “discover” Led Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd, or the Who, or someone else. Any rock star can probably pull out Sabbath teases at a moment’s notice, it’s ingrained.

As they get more and more into music, they delve deeper and deeper into the scenes as their own personal aesthetics are formed and fostered. Though I’ll freely admit that many of these efforts are probably in an effort to look “cool” and “hip.” But if you’re truly going to move beyond top 40 rock and become a serious musician, it’s a bit of a rites of passage. You can’t claim to love shoegaze if you’ve never heard MBV. It makes you less genuine. “Oh, you like the Pumpkins? You’ve never heard MBV? Seriously, you’ll love this album…”
I know someone pointed out above following your influences’ influences, which is definitely true. Though isn’t it at all possible that as you discover things you like buried deeper, that your initial influence becomes less important?

I mean, I have no doubt people namecheck records that in reality they rarely listen to or care about, but I doubt those same people are still secretly checking out the Top 40 countdown every week or blasting Siamese Dream every day. So in that way, it’s very much a “classic” listen as described initially, and it’s disingenous to praise a record just because you should, but that doesn’t mean your initial influence is what’s still driving you either.

I think Penn makes a good point in terms of Pitchfork’s talking trash about Corgan and the reasons why though. There’s reason to dislike him now if you don’t like the band’s output post SD or MCIS. With My Bloody Valentine and Slint, there’s such a small history that there was no time for backlash at following subpar albums to emerge, which has definitely heightened the aura around them (just as with Nirvana).

Side note: Loveless and Spiderland are two entire different beasts in my eyes. Loveless had tons of critical praise when it came out, which only heightened with Kevin Shields going into hiding. Spiderland has still only sold 50,000, most of them probably in the past 5 years, and is much more a revisionists’ history in terms of its influence. And it’s not that good, especially live. Dreadful.

Secondary side note: I am going to see My Bloody Valentine in September, and imagine it’ll be a great show. Though I’m more than a little wary about the holocaust…

The one thing that really made sense after reading this though was why Pitchfork talks so much trash about Corgan. I mean it would be just as easy for them ridicule Dave Matthews, Adam Duritz, etc. But they don’t, most likely because The Smashing Pumpkins probably had a tremendous effect on many of the writers there.