Machina II

IceBus

IceBus

IceBus

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,817
Location
, Washington DC
Machina II (Smashing Pumpkins)

Somehow I've managed to be a Pumpkins fan for all this time and never heard Machina II. I've just downloaded it (it was released online for free by the band) and I must say I'm pretty impressed as most of the stuff on it is of a higher quality than the dross on Machina - a lot more good foot stomping rockers on it ("Dross", "Cash Car Star" etc.).

I'm beginning to worry that the new Smashing Pumpkins material will be more along the lines of Billy's solo material than any of the recent good Pumpkins though.

Here's a link for those of you interested:-

Download Machina II
 
Last edited:
Yup... they're supposedly working on new songs to go into the studio in the summer (hopefully a release will come out before Christmas and also not suck...).

I never got to see them live so I'm prepared to go anywhere in Europe to see the old stuff live :D As long as it's Billy and Jimmy I'll be happy. I'd imagine it'll be Melissa Auf Der Maur on bass and maybe an outside chance of James Iha. I'd love to see Geordie White involved if they can't get either of the other two :)
 
Loving this :cool: I've only just got into the Smashing Pumpkins, with Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadnes, and now this....

Still think Siamese Dream is my favourite, but this sounds damn good...cheers!
 
I wouldn't say no to Jeordie White as the new bassist. I didn't really rate Melissa Auf Der Maur as highly as [size=-1]D'Arcy as a musician and bassist. But D'Arcy had a very disruptive affect on the band especially James Iha. And when they broke up it strained the relationships in the band. Have you seen her recently, I used to find her quite attractive in my teenage years but now....Jez Louise...no friggin way, she's ruined herself with drugs and plastic surgery. :eek:

darcy.jpg


Jimmy Chamberlain most definitely!! An excellent drummer. :) As long as Billy Corgan doesn't ask any of the other members from Zwan to join him they'll be good. :)
[/size]
 
The links don't seem to be working? I'm just getting internal server errors :(.

The Pumpkins are awesome, been into them since Siamese Dream but was disappointed with pretty much everything after Mellon Collie, as are a lot of people it would seem.

I'm interested to see which direction they go in with this new album Corgan is muttering about.
 
Tony Soprano said:
I wouldn't say no to Jeordie White as the new bassist.
[/size]
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking of him for guitarist ;)

Any particular reason you don't want him involved?

I've seen him as a hired gun for A Perfect Circle and NIN and he was amazing both times.
 
IceBus said:
I was actually thinking of him for guitarist ;)

Any particular reason you don't want him involved?

I've seen him as a hired gun for A Perfect Circle and NIN and he was amazing both times.
Click to expand...
I think he's saying he does want him involved. I'd be more than happy for him to be on board, I was a huge Manson fan back with Antichrist and he did an awesome job with APC too.
 
Personally i like Machina, there is a fair bit of filler on it but it's a decent album, Machina II is better though, wouldn't mind a proper copy of that, but they are somewhat hard to come by.

Like all of their albums, personally i like siamese dream and adore the best, if it came out sounding like Billy Corgans solo stuff it would be odd but i'd still like it as i liked The future embrace a lot.
 
Big Chris said:
I think he's saying he does want him involved. I'd be more than happy for him to be on board, I was a huge Manson fan back with Antichrist and he did an awesome job with APC too.
Click to expand...

I'm blind, I thought he said 'would mind' ;)

"Siamese Dream" is probably my favourite Pumpkins album, as it's just so consistently amazing. It'd be in my top five albums of all time. I think 'Mellon Collie' would be if I could cut out the tracks that don't do it for me, but then the problem is, everyone likes different parts of it, so everyone's single CD version would differ greatly :)

Apparently there were only 30 copies of Machina II ever pressed so I don't fancy any of our chances of getting a copy.
 
IceBus said:
Apparently there were only 30 copies of Machina II ever pressed so I don't fancy any of our chances of getting a copy.
Click to expand...

More than that iirc there were 4-5 hundred or something, from what i understand when the Pumpkins played their last ever gig at the metro or whatever it's called in chicago, it was a fanclub only type thing, and there everyone who went recieved a copy of Machina II.
 
machina had to be one of the worst albums ever, when i bought it, i listened to it and took it back the same day, however, i have since then bought another copy, just to add to my collection (at a discounted price i might add)

machina II is pretty good however i have always loved siamese dream (mayonaise) then mellon collie (galapagos) and then adore (perfect), always brings back happy memories of my childhood HOWEVER commenting upon the reformation of the smashing pumpkins - i caught them at their last wemberly gig and it was immense, i thought, what a perfect way to end your career with the pumpkins and when i hear about them reforming, it kinda makes me feel a bit sad in a way that it had to come to this.

I mean it was obvious that corgans solo career didn't exactly take off with him having a lot of cancelled gigs and chamberlins solo career ditto. Zwan was a strange period, i bought the album foolishly thinking it could be something similar to the pumpkins, how wrong was I. Both iha and d'arcy have probably had better solo careers and more recently iha playing for a perfect circle.

Recently i have been hearing rumours about the line up and it's not good, both corgan and chamberlin will be in the band obviously (both needing money) and possibly also, david Pajo and paz lenchantin, i.e the zwan line up minus one.

I also heard corgan say in an interview (could be wrong about this) that they would only be playing NEW material at shows and no old classics, to reinvent themselves which makes absolutely no sense because without those songs, they have no foundation to play on.

So zwan rename themselves to smashing pumpkins to play new music? Let's hope not, otherwise this reformation (not reunion) will be a mockery.
 
00bob00 said:
Recently i have been hearing rumours about the line up and it's not good, both corgan and chamberlin will be in the band obviously (both needing money) and possibly also, david Pajo and paz lenchantin, i.e the zwan line up minus one.

I also heard corgan say in an interview (could be wrong about this) that they would only be playing NEW material at shows and no old classics, to reinvent themselves which makes absolutely no sense because without those songs, they have no foundation to play on.

So zwan rename themselves to smashing pumpkins to play new music? Let's hope not, otherwise this reformation (not reunion) will be a mockery.
Click to expand...

Worrying news on the lineup front as it does sound like Zwan take two... Paz is an awesome bassist and I was always sorry she left APC, but judging by the happy/saccharine stuff in Zwan it could be bad.

If they only play new material I wouldn't want to go, unless somehow Billy rediscovers Mellon Collie form.

If you're right and the reformation goes down like that, I'd rather it didn't happen.
 
IceBus said:
Worrying news on the lineup front as it does sound like Zwan take two... Paz is an awesome bassist and I was always sorry she left APC, but judging by the happy/saccharine stuff in Zwan it could be bad.

If they only play new material I wouldn't want to go, unless somehow Billy rediscovers Mellon Collie form.

If you're right and the reformation goes down like that, I'd rather it didn't happen.
Click to expand...


Agree, although i very much like Billys solo album, as it's got a very cure feel to it and the cure are one of my favourite bands, but Zwan while being pretty good if you take it out of the whole pumpkins context, there was just something missing from it which the pumpkins had. I can't say i think thats the way it will go however, as i don't think Jimmy would sign up to Zwan II.

At least i hope not anyway.
 
Tony Soprano said:
snip...
darcy.jpg
Click to expand...

personally the second picture looks so drastically wrong because of the lighting more than anything, the first one she has more colour due to it being an indoor shot, not sure about the drugs and plastic surgery front, i didn't really follow it that much but she seemed mightily fine in the pumpkins.

And jimmy chamberlins drumming is immense, especially in tonight, tonight.
 
Spud21 said:
i don't think Jimmy would sign up to Zwan II.

At least i hope not anyway.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure. I didn't really like The Future Embrace, and it sounds worryingly like it shares a fair bit of ground with the Jimmy Chamerlain Complex album, which had Billy guesting on a couple of tracks. He's also sung for New Order etc. I just don't want a new wave Pumpkins album. I mean, I don't want another one <glares at Machina>
 
from what i've read (sorry don't have links to hand) Billy is aiming to get back to his rock roots as it were, so it sounds like he wants to recapture that spirit that the Pumpkins had but lost with Adore (not that Adore was a bad album it just wasn't as commercial), i doubt that D'arcy will be bakc in the line up, by all accounts she is very bitter, and James Iha would be unlikely as well, but so long as Jimmy is there then that's all that matters as he was the support for Billy, and i don't think having Melissa Auf Du Mer back would be a bad thing either. But we shall see, i will buy the album regardless.
 
00bob00 said:
personally the second picture looks so drastically wrong because of the lighting more than anything, the first one she has more colour due to it being an indoor shot, not sure about the drugs and plastic surgery front, i didn't really follow it that much but she seemed mightily fine in the pumpkins.
Click to expand...

That was one picture that I could find, trust me she really does look that bad now. There was a program on MTV a few years ago talking about plastic surgery and I watched footage of her behaving like an arse outside a club looking exactly like that second photo with ballooned lips and her face pulled up behind her ears. It's very sad because she was attractive before.

As long as Jimmy Chamberlain is on board, I'm fine with any setup as long as it doesn't involve one of the other guitarists from Zwan, not that they were particularly bad mind you, but I don't think they would be as like-minded as Billy to pick up on the roots of Pumpkins. Although I would be happy if Paz joined as bassist, because we all know how Billy likes his female bassists. Especially ones that wear hotpants all the time, shaking their ass with their back to the crowd during gigs. ;)

It would be fantastic if James Iha could bury his ankst with Corgan because I rate him very highly as a guitarist, he has a very unique style. I really feel like a kid again, getting quite excited about this new album. I bought my first Pumpkins album Siamese Dream back as a 12yr old in 1993 and loved it. Then backtracked and got Gish. I was completely blown out of the water by Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness and it remains my favourite album, although I remember paying £24 for the double cd back in 1995, it was well worth it. :) The Tonight Tonight video is the best music video ever made! I'm surprised I haven't worn out the DVD of their best videos.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom