Smashing Pumpkins to play Japanese festival in August 12:08 am // Monday, March 15, 2010
Posted by jjb in japan, news, tour.trackback
The Smashing Pumpkins have set a tour date for the first time since 2008, marking off August 7-8 for the two-city Summer Sonic festival in Japan.
The Pumpkins headline the lineup (as posted to the festival website) alongside Jay-Z, the Pixies, the Offspring, and Dream Theater. According to Wikipedia, it is typical that bands booked for Summer Sonic play Tokyo one day and Osaka on the other day.
UPDATE (3/17): SmashingPumpkins.com has the band playing Tokyo on the 7th and Osaka on the 8th.
This is good news! I mean, unless the site retracts cus it turns out to not be legit. This might give that ozphoria rumour of the pumpkins doing some Aistralian festival which Tge weekend before this I believe.
studiodog has commented on it so i guess it is legit for now.
an entire nation of tiny little dicks just grew a whole inch in response to this news
total
KISS may play at Summer Sonic too.
http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/kiss-and-friedman/
corgan will be bumped from the lineup then, no need for two has been bands on one bill.
@ Floppy
Pretty much.
The ['we won't play any more old songs'] is surely down the pan then.
“an entire nation of tiny little dicks” – ohh porno-expert! Uh La La!
やっぱり！楽しみにしている！ところで、アメリカ人が恥を知れ！; )
Maybe they’ll play “Bullet Train to Osaka”
To all comment-leavers on this post: Try Harder.
Wish i could go, but i cant );
If he doesn’t come anywhere close to me in the summer, i may be tempted to plan my flight to china on this weekend so i can stopover in japan for this.
私は日本語、私は日本語、私は本当にそう思う転換だと思って回転だと思う
Sweet
Mr. “deafchild”, when you wrote:
>私は日本語、私は日本語、私は本当にそう思う転換だと思って回転だと思う
I guess you were trying to quote “The Vapors” song “Turning Japanese” (“I’m turning Japanese, I’m turning Japanese. I really think I am.”)…and you used an online translator.
Those online translators don’t work…because the gibberish you wrote above could best be translated as something like:
“I am the Japanese language, I am the Japanese language, I really think a conversion I think revolves I think.”
It’s nonsense.
yeah what’s with the japanese replies in the comment section? last i checked this is still an english site.
@tokyo5
Thanks Killjoy!
(o:
hope big bill forces jeff to sing blew away and wear a wig
It would be awesome if Billy tried to play a Spirits in the Sky set at this show, although the Japanese would probably just stand there politely. If he did that at Roskilde, they would appropriately rush the stage in anger and crush as many people as possible (Pearl Jam style).
What’s with the racism?
If Jeff sings Blew Away I will personally book time at Iha’s studio to laugh in his face.
do u guys think if jeff did it big bill would turn his back to the audience when he had to play iha’s solo for old times sake?
Billy took the solo already when they played it on the Machina tour, nothing like the album version.
It would be nice for Kerry Brown to play on it again though, since he played it on Pisces Isceriot, along with most of the other Iha bside songs. (Production credits too)
funny how billy sucks at playing james’ recorded parts, but when james is asked to play saint bills parts, he gets called a hack for not playing them correctly and billy still insults him 10 years after the fact.
@Adam
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Adam, tell something new. you loved Corgan since you heard SP, but now you hate BC. okay, we get it. his guitar playing sucks! Tbk sucks! Mellon Collie sucks! you suck! I suck! so why live? 2012 here we come. peace niggas.
Would be rad if they played “Slunk” on Japanese TV again! Just for old time sakes! I would love to see Mikey drum along to that song! Not that he couldn’t…but it would be just awesome to see! “Ride on, mother uckers!”
There’s just no getting rid of that Adam butthole is there?!
There’s something really creepy with those fuckers who actually enjoy pissing people off. I mean, what other mean could be Adam’s right now?
Of course, by doing so, he accepts to be showing how lame his own life is. But, so what? What matters to him is that he lets all of us unintelligent remaining Billy fans know that we are lame and know nothing about music. That’s what’s important eh Adam?
hey big pumpkins and butthead.. you forgot one important detail:
YOU SUCK.
Actually James couldn’t pull the parts he recorded either, part of the reason didn’t do many in the first place. Jeff did a better job on the “Zero” solo that James recorded then any bootleg I’ve ever heard of James doing it. No consistency whatsoever, just improvising with the Whammy and Wah, which would be fine that wasn’t the biggest forefront solo he ever took in the Pumpkins. James always had terrible intonation on his bends, a good example are the harmonized ones over the alternating bars 3/4 and 4/4 sections of “Quiet” on Vieuphoria. Apparently 4 notes are too many. He did do a good job on the melody solo under the last Chorus though. Another is the live version of “Tear” where he doubles the vocal melody (good idea though). The older stuff might be able to be put off on his guitar though. Billy said that the main Black Les Paul Custom James favored always went out of tune. The Silverburst one he had was the actual guitar that Billy tracked most of James’ parts with since they got it. “Tear” was played with the Tele Cust though (live, that part isn’t on the album).
To continue the facts – I’ve never heard/read Billy insult James for not playing them right. He has said that he can recreate the albums closer to the original versions live now. He has said that James had a good memory, and good ideas, but didn’t stay tight enough to track live with Jimmy and him during Siamese Dream, hence why he is only on some of the overdubs (like the Intro/Outro to “Mayonaise” which he used that cheapo guitar he played with the alternate tuning, which was a MAJOR problem recording according to Butch). Same reason D’Arcy is only on “Luna”. If you really want to actually hear James playing the albums he’s actually on the most are Adore (a lot of the EBow stuff), and Machina. He is on parts of Mellon Collie though (I think the halfstep A bends with the wah in “Thru the Eyes of Ruby” are him) and I think some of those do include the rhythm parts. The insults I’ve heard/read Billy say about James all have to do with their personal friendship, not his musical ability.
Break out the Fender Blender for “Slunk” and make ears bleed! RAWK
he said at the recent benefit to the audience, who was singing out of tune “you are now a level above james iha.”
and james’ playing is all over mellon collie as well.. he had one of the solos in muzzle, played the recorded solo of zero, etc etc.
yeah, some of his technique was quite off at times (there are some old performances where all 4 members are completely playing out of whack, probably due to all the acid they took on stage).. but he is a hell of a lot more creative than jeff. jeff’s original parts on songs like owata, 99 floors, his take on starla, etc., are a total headache to listen to.
but to my point.. the two are really completely different guitar players with different styles, and james made a career out of playing parts that billy wrote (for the most part, when he wrote his own parts it seemed to come from a place that was more genuine).
but when you listen to the kind of stuff james was playing/wrote, it’s completely opposite of the BCs style. Check out the chords in Take Me Down for example.. really interesting voicings, with a very nice moving progression. Very rarely did i see billy play chords like that with such density. yes he had his strengths over james but james also had his strengths over billy, so it’s always seemed odd when i hear billy talks james’ playing down.
listened to recent james playing though, via tinted windows.. and he’s playing out of his element again. some terrible live playing on some of those tunes.
The voicings on “Take Me Down” in the Mellon Collie tab are not totally correct, but I agree they are good voicings.
James’ singing, and even more so D’Arcy’s were ALWAYS iffy live, and the album versions of “Take Me Down” and “A Night Like This” definitely don’t add any good light to that. I don’t think live vocals are an arguement anyone would/should take up for any of the members of SP prior to Zeitgeist tour. Billy has gotten WAY MORE consistent on his pitch/projection in recent years, even if the same crazy passion of the SD and MCIS years have gotten blurred by the desire for more consistency.
As far as Billy’s voicings go, he has always seemed to favor a lot of major7ths (“1979″, “By Starlight”, “Luna”, “Geek USA”)and a lot of Lifeson chords (F#7add4, Bsus4). This probably has a lot to due with his blues-based style, which much like Gilmour, is an undercurrent of pretty much everything he writes. “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” has some nice voicings, as does the voiceleading part on “Thru the Eyes of Ruby”.
I did list the “Zero” solo in there, as I think it’s probably the best solo he ever recorded with the band. The “Muzzle” lead at the end is more of a “part” then a “solo”, mostly just G# and Bb, very similar to the ending of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”. This is a good example of James’ style in contrast to Billy. James was good as the “Alternative” kid in the band, i.e. his style for leads was a lot more like The Edge/Robert Smith – minimal notes, heavy use of effects, creating a part/mood rather then a “solo” per se. Another good example are the sampled leads on “Pug”. Billy’s style is a lot better defined by the “Lead Guitarists” like Hendrix. The “Siva” or “A Song for a Son” solos for example. “Starla” will never have the same vibe as the recorded version, unless he breaks out the crazy effects (I can dream can’t I) for the main ending solo. I have never seen James play any leads over “Starla” on any version of the song.
I don’t disagree that Jeff isn’t as creative as James, nor has he had the time to show if he is or not. James hasn’t done anything that caught my ear since playing with Billy, and that pretty much says it all for me on him. I can tell you out of all the songs I’ve seen them play live on the last few tours, the only song I actually missed James on was “Glass and the Ghost Children”, I liked the filter effects he was using on the song.
ok so i’m play palpatine in this ok? alright!
Back to the topic here – I can’t wait to see what songs they do play. For me, one of the most exciting things is seeing what Billy decides to rearrange. It’s always a surprise as to which songs stand out in a new way. For example, although I liked the Machina version of “Bullet” I still think the definitive version was the early MCIS version. I prefer the Matt Walker era extended MCIS version of “Zero”. Loved the Machina RAWK version of “Ava Adore”. Prefer the acoustic “That’s the Way”, and the Fillmore version of “Blue Skies Bring Tears”. I can’t wait to see what does get played, and what gets changed.
Yes, I agree with you jcoriha. To me everytime Billy and co. arrange a setlists of songs for a tour, any incarnation of SP takes all sense. It’s never disappointing. At all.
This is the time when it’s becoming very useless and almost ridiculous to try to make us believe how a shame that is that Billy continues with the name.
-yes i’m aware the mcis tab books are largely incorrect. for take me down they had the majority of the voicings correct, but not the actual shapes.
-it’s hard to judge james and darcy’s vocal harmonies when billy is singing in front of them out of tune most of the time. but i don’t disagree that their vocal abilities were less than bills.
-a lot of bills voicings were the result of playing half chords while hitting open strings at the same time (example the Bsus4 is basically a B power chord while letting the open B and E strings ring out). He’s continued this trend in his playing for years. A lot of that style reared it’s head completely on machina, where is songs where more chord based rather than riff based. He would tend to discover a chord shape and move it around the neck, writing by ear (ala thru the eyes, taking what is essentially a minor bass movement but playing all chords as majors).
-Also, I forgot about the mid section of nitemare, which has some of his most interesting chord moments that really moved outside of his own ability. Oddly enough though that section sounds like a chord pattern james would have written, so perhaps their influences were rubbing off on one another.
-starla, i’m not talking about the solo, but more about the reverse guitar effects in the beginning, jeff does an annoying job of covering that bit, and i preferred james interpretation of that part of the song.
-yes, billy was more in tune with the soloistic style, which is why i liked james on stage/record with him as a contrast. billy has the whole athletic rock guitarist thing down, and ames was more about being melodic and setting a mood.. a perfect contrast. jeff shreds just as well, if not better than billy at points, but it’s too much in the atmosphere. a lot of the 2007/2008 guitar moments got way too wanky.
anyhow im enjoying this pumpkins guitar talk! i’m assuming you play?
here’s a good example of billy botching one of james’ tunes: http://thepumpkins.net/mp3/double_doors/The_Smashing_Pumpkins_-_Blew_Away_(live_95).mp3
of course it doesn’t help his singing blows.
Yes, I play. Learned how to play from reading Billy’s column in Guitar World, and playing along to Siamese Dream and MCIS when it came out. Totally devoted to KT88s ever since.
This is total thread hi-jacking but here we go -
For the record for bootlegs I saw it looks like Billy played the 097900 F#m7add4/E and 076800 Emaj7 voicings on “Take Me Down” live, which are of course similar to his “1979″ chords (x97900). This is from the blurry footage I’ve seen. The tab book says James’ are 097600 and 011131300 and I’ve always thought those worked fine, but I like the way the 2 harmonize over each other even better.
I have some boots where James and D’Arcy’s vocals are mixed over Billy’s. The Rock Am ? MCIS with “Rudy the Streaker” is a good example. D’Arcy is so out of tune on “Cherub Rock” it’s painful.
Yes, the power chord/barre chord with open strings approach really goes back to Alex Lifeson’s stuff, and I know Jimmy Page did a little of it too. Edge and Andy Summers also. I think the reason these chords have become so wide spread is just not just their ease of play, but because they are “power chords” as in they can be played with distortion and retain their power, and add the droney chord suspensions and extended intervals as if a keyboard pad was being played as well. They are just effective as “big sounding” and that’s why Billy loves them (as do I). Love the “Thru the Eyes of Ruby” chords, and the effect (I think it’s the H3000 flanger, but I have gotten a very similar sound with my ADA Flanger)
I love “Behold! The Nitemare” and was very pleased with the Porcelina/Nite Mare combo on the Europe tour. Would have loved to see it live. I agree that that’s a great section, although I don’t hear why that sounds more like James to you. Chromatic movement inside of a progression is something that Billy has always used a lot, such as the D A C G progression (Cherub Rock, Rocket, Porcelina, now a step lower in Widow Wake My Mind). The little D C# C B walk down in “Cherub Rock”, and the variation in “By Starlight” rocked my world when I first realized it way back when. It’s been a leitmotif for him for a long time. The Nitemare bridge isn’t the same thing, but I’ve never heard James do anything like it. (The xx0220 Dmaj9 in “By Starlight” is another of my favorites by the way)
I haven’t heard a good enough boot of “Starla” to hear James’ part for the reverse section. I will go through my collection and see what I can find. To be honest, I will so into singing along with the song, I didn’t really notice Jeff’s stuff that much. Jimmy playing Bonham style with no sticks on the “Serve yourself” section was also a highlight. The album version has always rocked more for me then the live version on this one, as I would count it in my Top Ten. I’m pretty sure the backwards stuff is Billy with the H3000 on that.
I agree that James was an “opposing ice cream flavor” and their work together will always be my personal favorite recorded music both for sentimental and stylistic reasons.
That version of “Blew Away” definitely isn’t as good as the Machina era versions of youtube. Both Billy and James would have benefitted from having guitars set up with higher action for slide. I like the Barret-esque slide stuff that James played on “Spaceboy”, and even some of the stuff on “Tonight, Tonight” live, but the actual tone itself coudl have been better. That Rickenbacker did sound pretty good though.
To be completely honest with you, I think people don’t realize how much Billy and Jimmy’s friendship drove a wedge between Billy and James. I think that Billy and James started the band, and Darcy came along to distract James, and then Jimmy came along to distract Billy. Billy even said during TheFutureEmbrace Guitarworld interview that James and his combined style is really what formed the Pumpkins sound. Jimmy pushed the style into what people think of as “The Smashing Pumpkins” even though the whole picture reduces back to Billy trying to make the band he wanted to make and finding James. And there you have the current model – Billy bringing his songs, and seeing where the current times/players take them.
I personally am similar in a lot of ways to Billy’s Perfect Ideal Picture/Let’s Destroy It mindset, and I used to play with another guitarist whose personality was similar to James’, was I have my own frame of referance as to why they were not able to continue their friendship, regardless of the work they could do together. Sometimes somethings are just not meant to last forever. They are like Water and Fire. When I talked to Billy for a few mins, he was very nice, and not at all the way people try to demonize him to be. He is just a human being though. James, I have not met but from what I have read/seen of him, he seems fairly standoffish.
These last parts are mostly my own theories from the outside. Obviously I do not know Billy/James/Darcy/Jimmy other then through the great music they given me/us. But like I said, from my own experiances I can project a little into what I think may have been at least a part of reality.
sorry for any typos in there
I don’t understand any of this guitar talk, but it’s sure interesting to read.
At least it makes me think that Adam knows what he’s talking about musically, even if I don’t always agree with him.
The nice thing is that, when people are discussing guitar playing, I don’t have to go through posts and posts of insults and flaming. It’s hard to find a comments section where people don’t want to rip each others heads off. It’s wonderful when things stay civil.
Shocking thing – guitar players arguing civilly….only on the internet.
How many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 100. 1 to do it, and 99 to how moan about how they know more/could have done it better.
lol. that joke could be said for any other musician, too.
have you listened much to james’ solo record? I can’t think of any specific tunes off the top of my head, but i do hear some of those chromatic ascending/descending movements at points.. i think i’ll give it a spin soon, it’s been a while. i’m sure a lot of those were influenced by having played the pumpkins songs night after night for years as well. ‘Falling’ is a good example of bill’s style rubbing off on James. Another part of nitemare that sound jameish is how he plays a sort of riff on the lower string while letting some of the open detuned strings ring out (ala beleive).. we don’t get that effect so much from cherub rock, porcelina or by starlight.. the chords are more direct, even though there is a specific voice lead.
i guess the similarities in nitemare have to do more with the tuning as well as how he used it (how he built chords within it). Billy and James both used the Sonic Youth approach when playing in detuning, as in they didn’t necessarily understand what they were playing and were more or less going by their ear, often times creating interesting chords and progressions. I think Billy alluded to this in a Machina era guitar world interview.. in that they at times like to do this to help them create something interesting.
as far as the relationships are concerned.. i don’t want to get into that but i feel the individual relationships all played an integral role in the success and demise of the band.
you guitar learning story is oddly similar to mine. I too picked up the guitar world ‘lessons’ and used those as my guitar bible. I learned nearly all of SD, MCIS, and some of Gish. Once Adore came out I was learning how to play piano as well.. so i was transcribing a lot of the melodies and chords and playing on both instruments. Then the Adore book came out and answered a lot of questions for me. Haven’t played a lot of those songs in a while though.. once in a while if i get bored in practice i’ll start noodling away at an old tune. These days I’m mostly playing jazz, and a bit of alternative styles (tortoise, SY, radiohead, fripp, etc).
what are you favorite songs to play by SP? I always had a blast with here is no why, and to sheila was always a blast for acoustic style. I actually still play that once in a while at some solo gigs I do. I used to play along to siamese dream a lot, and would have a blast improvising during the silverfuck break down.. been a long ass time though.
King Crimson/Fripp’s Bowie work is great. I love the “midperiod” RH stuff a lot, but the way they sell themselves over the last 10 years has really killed my joy in their music. I still like some of the stuff on each of the newer albums, but Yorke’s weed smoking really killed his vocals (to me).
These are my favs, but over time I find myself more checking a riff to test a certain sound I dial in, more then actually playing the songs all the way though anymore. But I retain a lot of the riffs/progressions in standby.
Gish – Siva
SD – all of it. Pretty much everyday of 1996 was spent playing along with the record start to finish. Billy came over to me at the 1st Fillmore show where he does the behind the nut bend on the “Hummer” solo as I mimed it with the other guitarist in my band. He caught me mouthing the “That’s the Way” solo on another one of the nights. “Soma” has to be my number 1 solo of all time, for emotional connection if nothing else. I was at the Atlantic City, and LA shows in ’08 so finally getting that was awesome. “Cherub Rock”, faster live “Geek USA”, etc.
PI – “Starla”, “Hello Kitty Kat”, “Whir”, “Pissant”, “Frail and Bedazzled”.
MCIS – “1979″ was the first song I learned to play from start to finish ever, after “Today”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Smoke on the Water” riffs etc got me off to a start. “Here is No Why” and “Jellybelly” remain 2 of my all time favorite songs. When my band played Chicago, I couldn’t help but soundcheck “Here is No Why” and “Cherub Rock”. “Thru the Eyes of Ruby”, “By Starlight”, “Thirty-three”, “Galapogos”.
Aeroplane – Love “Mouths of Babes”, “Clones”, “Set the Ray to Jerry” (another of James simple/good parts), “The Aeroplane Flies High”.
Adore – “Ava Adore”, “Pug”, “For Martha”, Behold, “Shame”, “Perfect”, “Tear”.
Machina – “Stand Inside Your Love”, “Wound”, “The Everlasting Gaze”, “The Sacred and Profane”, “With Every Light”, “I of the Mourning”
Mach II – “Lucky 13″, “Home” (one of the only ones I missed from the Fillmore shows, still kicking myself over it)
“Mary Star of the Sea”
“Now (and Then)”, “Walking Shade”, “A100″, “TheCameraEye”
“7 Shades of Black”, “Pomp and Circumstances”, “Zeitgeist”, “Superchrist”
“As Rome Burns”, “A Song for a Son”, “Owata”. I’m digging “A Stitch in Time”
Some of the newer stuff I haven’t learned all the way through. I liked something Billy Howerdal said (paraphrased) once you start thinking about Em and Am’s it can take some of the magic away.
I preferred the JBTV “With or Without You” version of “To Sheila”.
I haven’t listened to Let It All Come Down since probably ’99 or ’00. I remember one song was really similar to “Mayonaise”‘s pattern. It was an ok album, but nothing stood out to me. Like I said I like some of what James added to Billy’s stuff, but my connection to the band had a lot to do with Billy’s big theme ideas/lyrics/writing, and James always seemed like he would rather just play in a mid level band who weren’t as into extremes. I like the extremes.
I have written 2 songs in “Mayo” tuning though, just to prove I could.
The simple alt tunings like EADGAE, EGDGBE, or EADG#BE (I rarely tune down a half step for my own stuff) proved useful to me as well for more the droney pad stuff in other keys. I really like that hidden complexity to things. And of course, DADGBE.
Adam.. it doesnt matter how much you hate BC and the SP (2007-now), but his music still better 1000x thans James Tinted Windows or Glass what ever that band is called. so get over it. and yeah. we all suck. that the way it is. this is the world we live in. the killers.
Bring on the 3 hour shows with mostly new material, and a few hits/oddities tossed in !
bring on the one and a half hour show of greatest hits and waves of noise and wankery that don’t fit with them.
yorke’s weed smoking? he’s said in several interviews that he can’t touch that shit. and i guess we think on polar opposites on this subject, but i love how they’ve sold themselves over the past 10 years. seems a lot more honest than billy has been going about it.
also, check out fripps ambient work with brian eno.. the equatorial stars is a favorite of mine.
i gotta agree the soma solo is also my favorite.. that along with the one in TAFH.
for me tonight tonight was the first song i ever learned to play.
I also really pefered that version of to sheila for a long, long time, but as time has passed i’ve found that the recorded version is one of the top best sp recordings. but yes, great version.
seems like you are pretty hardcore about the particular sounds as well, which is cool. i got into that habbit for a while, but found i was spending way too much of my money and decided to sell a lot of the gear i was buying trying to emulate corgan.. i realized it’d take thousands upon thousands to try and get his/james sounds, and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter because i don’t have their hands and brains.
butthead discount: urm, i agree sp 07 is miles better than tinted windows.. so what exactly is your point?
I’m talking more about the Kid A tour. I have a heard a lot of boots, and considering what he was capable of before, I don’t think he’s ever regained the ground he lost on that tour. They had so many good songs ready for that album, and they toned it down a lot, almost like saying “this will be too great and an album and we will be bigger then we want to be”. Again, my opinion, and I still like some of the stuff they’ve done since. “How to Disappear Completely”, “Pyramid Song”, “Where I End and You Begin”, “Videotape”. I loved the OK Computer version of “Nude”, and have a hard time listening to the In Rainbows version. Until they release some version of “Big Boots” I don’t think I will be able to forgive them…….(geeky laugh)
I just don’t like the “I’m too cool to play like that” stuff. No other bands were able to match my feelings for TSP, or Radiohead circa The Bends/OK Computer since then, except for a band named the Secret Machines.
I have a lot Pumpkins related stuff, but my rig isn’t a clone of his MC rig. I do use a JMP1, and KT88 poweramp though. I’m was up to 70 something guitars, but I’ve sold about 10 in the last few months. Over 100 pedals, lots of rack stuff. I will say that the reunion has made me go back and hear how much the KORG SDD2000 was the main delay they used on a lot of stuff. Between that and the Space Echo (“Hummer”). I really like the combo of the JMP1/VHT2150, and my Diezel VH4, with my Godin LG (p90s). It’s like the best parts of SD/MCIS/Machina tone rolled into one. The LG is totally underrated, and the best $500 I ever spent, I have much more expensive guitars, and that one just kills. Perfect combo of a Les Paul Special and a Jazzmaster. I also got an ’81 3 bolt neck Strat that is total Gish/the Edge in sound, and also cool since it’s the same age as me.
What do you think the best starting point in the Fripp/Eno stuff. Everyone always talks about “Baby’s on Fire”. I’ve been meaning to check that stuff out for about 15 years, but have never gotten around to it.
You mean the same waves of noise and wankery that were a part of the Gish/SD/MCIS tours also? I seem to remeber just a few 20 min versions of a song called “Silver****” around that time. In case you haven’t noticed Billy and co. have quite a long history of annoying people who don’t get the joke. I personally enjoyed seeing the looks of disgust on the Paris Hiltons in the crowd at the Fillmore. Go home and watch Twilight, and listen to Fallout Boy kids!
the equatorial stars.. it’s a great record. very moody. fripp employs lots of ebow.
I will check it out when I find. I don’t see it on iTunes yet. Has it been issued on CD/internet yet, or is it still vinyl only?
I just found it on Amazon, I pick it up later this month. Bills to pay right now.
I’m surprised you chose the new one. It’s probably the Fernandes Sustainer pickup rather then the Ebow, since he favors that.
the difference jcoriha was those waves of noise were good
It was interesting reading your guitar talk. I too learned everything i know from that MCIS Guitar World interview. I bought the MCIS tab book years ago on ebay, read that article, and learned almost every song on there. I then went on to learn all of Siamese Dream and some of Gish. Siva, Soma, GeekUSA, and I Am One are my favorites to play. I just wish i had the money to buy some better equipment to replicate the Machina sounds. I really want to learn As Rome Burns and Song for a Son. Anyone have good tabs? jcoriha do you happen to own the Billy Signature Strat? I hear it sounds amazing.
Yes, I tried to resist but it couldn’t be denied. One of the best guitars off the shelf I have. Great setup, great sound. I upped the strings to .011s though. I can really get a wide range of sounds out of it, including some very singlecoil-ish sounds from the “stacked” humbuckers. I got the White. They seemed to be very consistent among the ones I’ve played.
Careful on some of those tabs though, there are a few wrong things in there. The SD book had a lot of typos (reversed octaves on Cherub Rock were my favorite). The “1979″ tab I got in Guitar School right after MC came out included the part that James played on the early live version (American Music Awards show) tuned EbAbDbGBbF. Billy played it on the album, but live James played on the Rickenbacker on that show. It was a cool chordal overdub on the Choruses/Bridge. I don’t think they even included it in the book.
Cool story – after getting that article where Billy mentions shopping at Black Market Music in San Francisco, I went in there. It was the first time I saw that kind of gear. Lots of pedals. Pics of Billy/James/Radiohead/Jimmy Page all signed on the wall from when they went shopping there. Then the guy behind the pedal counter told me that the keyboard sitting behind the counter Billy bought, but couldn’t take with him because he was in a taxi. Never came back for it. This was either the end of ’95, or the beginning of ’96 I think. I saw the picture of James sniping the ’70s Strat out from under Billy mentioned in the interview. A year or 2 later I went back to buy some stuff, having finally started to get the money to buy gear, but they were closing at the end of the week. Got a DOD Envelope Filter, BOSS DS1, and a ProCo Brat. Rocker Guitars took over their old spot on Howard St.
how does that early james live 1979 part go?
It’s been awhile, but I know it was a 022002 E major (down a half step I will just refer to them by the standard tuning names) over the E and Emaj7 chords, x02100 A6sus9 over the A pedal point riff, and the Bridge had x21200 Bm7 over the Bsus4, and I don’t remember the voicing over the C#m or F#m7add4 (x97900) chords. I seem to remember they were barre chords with the altered open strings on the F#m7 (244300) Aadd9 (577600) “down to see” part but don’t quote me on that. The 022002 Open E stands out the most at the end where it just strums the chord and you can hear the high major 3rd ringing out. This part could have been recorded on that Kimberly “Mayo” guitar (the feedback one) since he said he tracked the song with it, or it could have been used on the main part. I think Billy auctioned off the Red/blue pickguard Ibanez Talman he initially used on the song live for a charity a few years ago. Some of the chords may have had a little more variations.
They talked about it in the same Guitar School article where he said he added that guitar with a slight envelope filter, and an additional P Bass over Dub on the Bridge. They misquoted which song it was on though, saying it was “Tales of a Scorched Earth”.
That ’70s Strat I think is the one picture on the Let It All Come Down liner notes, and it was in the Adore documentary as well (James was playing Ebow on it). It was Lake Placid Blue I think, with a rosewood board. It’s been awhile, but it made have been more of a gray-blue finish from age, or another color I’m not sure it’s been awhile!
Not Bm7, just noticed that. It was B7
I was just playing it out, and I’m not convinced on those voicings exactly. The “B7″ (actually a B6 duh cause of the tuning) doesn’t sound right with the 3rd in the lower octave. It may have been a barre chord variation like x24325 or x24324, I some to remember some little higher melody played among the chords here as well, but it’s been a LOOOONG time, and no one ever transcribes these chords. Some thing with the F# something like 244322. Some of it may be a keyboard that sounds like a gtr combined into the part, or the filter making it sound more like a keyboard. I doubt James actually tuned it to the open Ebadd9 chord, probably just played the chords in the same places (not over the main riff) in standard Eb. I don’t think they kept that arrangement that long since by the time Matt Walker was in I know I’ve seen him double the riff. The one time I know that arrangement was played was the awards show with the one camera mix. Also the first appearance of the 3 Marshall Valvestate combos that I remember.
typos typos typos. I’ve got to stop this streamofthought thing.
i think we need a happy birthday bill thread
@detta
Hey very true. I had not realized. Happy birthday to the greatest artist of all time! (I’m not sarcastic)
;-)
I’m pretty sure there will be a thread about it but still. From Courtney to Billy on facebook yesterday:
“Dearest Billy:
I love you, I love your strong and eternal heart, even love the f***ed up gnarly amazing magnificent bigger-than-god louder-than-love karma of the songs you write and allow me to fly with. We have again created beauty from the agony between us, all the buried and unburied anguish, all that is true, that is gold, that is meant to be is within this endless and somehow eternal cycle of Billy & Courtney. I hope you will take my sincerest apologies for all the thousand ways I sometimes offend you, because I know you are a king, a prince, and my beautiful noble boy. No one will ever force my hand, nothing will come between the truth of what we are:
Eternal lovers
Eternal fighters
Eternal warriors.
Let the forces and the shock and awe loose from its cages, all credit where it is due. I love and you and can never thank you enough.Your soul (and you know this).
Happy birthday to both Billy, and Melissa
So I’ve heard Billy is going to televise the bass auditions and make a show out of it. Hmmm…
Are you serious? My initial thought is…. Billy will get a bad rap from from a lot of folks if he does. But no doubt all SP fans wouldn’t miss it for the world and it might be kinda fun to watch. If it is true, I hope it won’t delay TBK. I also hope it’s low key and not as over the top like Rock star INXS! Mind you, Dave Navarro was involved in that so he may play a part in Rock Star SP which would be cool!
Where did u here this news Mr Purple Pumpkin?
Left this thread up accidentally and my friend thought he was funny. Sorry people.
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