8 Random (And Mostly) Musical Observations For Absolutely No Reason At All

1. When did Kurt Cobain become the new Prophet Muhammad in that it's a sin to duplicate his likeness on screen? So he's in the new Guitar Hero and he can oddly sing a Bon Jovi song. Who cares. Well, it looks like Courtney Loves does. She has also lost her mind, because she clearly signed over the rights to Activision, makers of Guitar Hero, for them to use Cobain. How do I (and everyone else) know this? Because since she controls his estate, she would be the only one that would have the right to do this in the first place. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic aren't behaving much better, and are apparently demanding that Activision "relock" Cobain's character so he can't sing other artist's songs. Again, I can't find a part of my brain that thinks they should even care. If I could unlock George Clinton on NBA Jam on my old Super Nintendo and dunk the ball from half court, then surely it won't kill Kurt Cobain to belt out "Livin on a Prayer" every now and then. As an old Nirvana fan, the only thing that ever bothered me about Kurt Cobain was that he was always presented, or seemed to present himself, way too serious and completely humorless even though I'm sure he wasn't. But we should all thank Love and the surviving Nirvana members for keeping this myth alive.

2. I did not watch the MTV Video Music Awards the other night because the Bears' game was on and because it was the MTV Video Music Awards, but I did stumble across this fantastic picture of Joe Jackson (Michael's dad, not the guy who helped throw a World Series back in 1919 and didn't like wearing shoes) on the red carpet. If you ever wondered what a hybrid of Don Vito Corleone and Little Richard would look like after said hybrid decided to become a pimp, well, there you go. (And you know Jackson must look pretty ridiculous, when he looks even more ridiculous than his ridiculous looking date.) And speaking of the VMAs...

3. ...I love Kanye West, but it's getting harder and harder to defend him. At least his apology on that new Jay Leno show seemed sincere. And, the performance that followed with Jay-Z and Rhianna was pretty great, too.

4. Remember that Seinfeld episode with the Three Tenors where they kept referring to José Carreras as "the other guy?" I think the same thing is starting to happen with Monsters of Folk. I recently overheard someone telling their friend about this group on the bus. And he described them as Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and "some other guy." Well, "some other guy" is actually Bright Eyes member Mike Mogis. (Please don't think I'm trying to cop a snobby attitude, I actually had to look it up myself. But now that we all know his name, let's keep calling him "some other guy." I like that much better, don't you?)

5. If you're looking to start an argument with a group of friends, just send them the latest Paul Shirley column where he pretty much calls the Beatles' music average and boring, while at the same time paying the requisite respect to their influence and legacy. Suffice to say, I loved it. And speaking of which...

6. ...this idea of reviewing the Beatles entire recently reissued catalog is stupid. I know both Paste and Pitchfork have done this. I'm sure others have as well, but this is pretty much akin to watching The Godfather and then writing a review blathering on about how good it is. Thanks, but billions of people have already beat you to the punch.

7. The 9:30 Club sucks. Not the venue itself, but the actual process of trying to buy tickets from their website, which works about as well as the Bears' fake punt the other night. The layout is just generally confusing, the system never remembers your password so you're forced to sign up for a new account with each purchase, and they add so many extra fees that it almost makes you want to swear off live music. The other day I purchased tickets for a Built To Spill show in October. The entire process seemed to take about half an hour, and to top it off, they charge $4 to mail you the tickets. And I'm not talking about having the tickets sent express or anything, I'm talking about the regular mail. I don't know how much stamps cost on their side of town, but over here it's still 43 (44?) cents.

8. Backing up a few months, over 4th of July weekend I attended a birthday party for one of my friends. He's Polish and had traveled to Maryland that day to stack up on some "fine" Polish vodka. We consumed a lot of it. This will come into play later. Ever the playlist dictator, as the evening went along, I took control of his iPod and with his permission implemented myself as dj. Not necessarily an easy task when you're dealing with a music catalog that is 90% Polish. But I found a few party favorites and cranked them out and everyone had a good time. One of the songs I played was "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins. As the evening wound down, and 3am had passed, I decided to walk about 1.5 miles home rather than take a cab. (Stupid.) I also decided to listen to my iPod while making the journey. (Very stupid.) And, I decided to take side streets through a dodgy neighborhood so the street noise from the main roads wouldn't drown out my music. (So incredibly stupid, it's nearly beyond comprehension.) Still having "1979" in my head, I decided to play Side 1 of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness which I had not listened to in quite some time. While listening to Track 13, "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans," I was reminded of a mid-October day in 1995 when I saw this band at the Madison Theater in Peoria, Illinois, just before Mellon Collie was released. They opened with this song, and I had obviously never heard it before, but I remember thinking it was just incredible. (Looking back, the song is good but I would hardly call it incredible.) As I was recalling this memory, a man appeared from nowhere, lunged at me, and I before I knew it, I was on the ground being robbed at gunpoint. Wallet, phone, iPod...gone. (I really hope that guy liked $4, crappy phones, and rock music because that's what he got.) Nevertheless, I can't help but laugh to think that the same "incredible" song back in 1995 would one day serve as the soundtrack for a gun being pointed in my face. Why I even put myself in that situation is beyond me, but I'd prefer to place the blame on my foolish love for music and the Polish vodka.

--Alex

Smashing Pumpkins--DAR Constitutional Hall, Washington, DC

Smashing Pumpkins were recently in DC at the DAR Constitutional Hall for two shows featuring two completely different sets. The first show was called “Black Sunshine” and the second “White Crosses.” I was at the White Crosses show. I have no idea the backstory or significance to these two respective titles, so let’s just skip all that. I covered a lot of this ground over the summer, but let me give a quick disclaimer: I am a fan of this band and I am not really objective when it comes to discussion. As far as allegiances go, they're right up there with Michael Jordan, A Confederacy of Dunces, and those UPS commercials featuring the guy with the weird haircut utilizing the dry erase board. I'm unapologetic in my fondess for all those mentioned and I will barely entertain even rational arguments to the contrary. And although I don't listen to Smashing Pumpkins nearly as much as I used to, they're cemented into a list of my all-time favorites and are not leaving. I've seen countless Pumpkins shows, sat through a set from the short-lived Zwan, and been in the audience for one of Billy Corgan's solo shows from The Future Embrace days and feigned enjoyment. So now that my credentials and my biases are of the way, let me just say this was probably the best Pumpkins show I have seen since Corgan actually had hair.

(Speaking of which, I can't believe how long he has had that shaved head. When you first saw that, how long did you think he could keep that up? Two months? Maybe three? To put things in perspective, President Clinton was still serving his first term when Corgan last had a head of hair.)

After a couple of cantankerous shows in New York (and one the night before in this very building), I was half-expecting to walk into the auditorium and have the air already filled with tension. I even thought of throwing my hat into the ring. Although instead of yelling out "Where's James!" I was thinking of bombarding the band with loud shouts of "I want the drum machine back!" You see, I'm old school. And it was hard for me to forgive the band for ditching the drum machine in favor of Jimmy Chamberlin back in 1988.

(I have a group of friends from college that I exchange emails with every week day. Whenever one of us wants to convey a message with sarcasm, but is slightly worried the sarcasm will be lost over a monotonic email, the selected passage will be surrounded with the # sign. Therefore, had I sent the last sentence before the parenthesis to the college panel, it would have looked like this: #And it was hard for me to forgive the band for ditching the drum machine in favor of Jimmy Chamberlin back in 1988.# I just wanted to clear that up. Side issue #1: Anyone still upset that James Iha and D’arcy aren’t in the band needs to move on. This has been the reality for well over a year now. They aren’t coming back. I don’t know what else to tell you. But hey, at least you’ll always have that Let It Come Down album to hold on to! Side issue #2: In reference to the two links in the paragraph above, Andy Warhol's famous quote was, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Unfortunately, he didn’t have the foresight to realize something like Youtube would one day be in our lives. Fifteen minutes seems a tad short now, doesn’t it? Warhol had a nice run, but it’s time the pop culture vernacular catches up with the 21st century. For now on the quote will read like this: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for acting like a complete a-hole on Youtube for about an hour-and-a-half." Please cite me accordingly.)

I'm not sure what happened but I think I was actually supposed to be writing about this supposedly great show I saw. Alright, here we go...

With no opening act, the lights dimmed and the beginnings of "Ava Adore" started playing. Corgan emerged in his customary ridiculous outfit, sans guitar, holding a plastic Halloween jack-o-lantern and dancing around the stage in a manner that can’t be described. Actually, that’s not really true, it can be described. Just envision Billy Corgan trying to imitate Elaine dancing on Seinfeld. That about sums it up. “Cupid De Locke” was next, followed by a stirring “1979” and Corgan was still empty handed. Not that he didn’t have adequate backup. Chamberlin was his usual self and Zeitgeist-era members Jeff Schroeder, Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harrington were joined by a trio of enjoyable horn players.

The setlist was simply superb. Early on, while still in slow-down mode, the band played “Sunkissed” from the Zeitgeist add-on American Gothic and a new song called “99 Floors” which might be the best Smashing Pumpkins song I have heard in quite some time. They visited enough old material, but it never seemed whore-ish and crowd-pleasing. Corgan finally got around to picking up an electric guitar and they belted out “Soma” and “Cherub Rock” in succession. The most unexpected part of the night was what didn’t happen. Other than urging the crowd to clap along during “I Of the Morning,” Corgan didn’t say a word to the audience the entire night. There wasn’t any “We’re happy to be here” or “Hey you in the third row, you want a piece of me?” None of that. It was just the band playing, and us listening.

That’s not to say there wasn’t the fair share of polarizing spacey jam sessions and seven minute guitar solos. However, they were relegated towards the end of the set, and those who paid a hefty ticket price to hear Mellon Collie and Siamese Dream tunes had already been appeased. (Most notably during a pin drop rendition of "Disarm.") After an encore that kicked off with an acoustic “That’s the Way (My Love Is),” the band turned it up a notch and sent the crowd packing with a long, sprawling alternate version of “I Am One.”

Overall, they spliced together a perfect blend of heavy guitars, and frail and gentle melodies, which is where I always felt Zeitgeist slightly missed the mark--a lot of the former, almost none of the latter. But if a song like "99 Floors" is any indication, I think the band has reclaimed their identity. And that's why the evening was so enjoyable. For the first time since the band got back together (and yes, if Corgan and Chamberlin are involved, saying “the band got back together” is a completely fair statement), it seemed like we were not only watching the Smashing Pumpkins we all once knew, but also the Smashing Pumpkins that we should all be happy to know again.

--Alex