I grew up on the pumpkin and was, and still am, a Smashing Pumpkins fan. So you’d think I’d be stoked to hear that they’re “back” but it just aint the same. Their first 4 albums were the heart and soul of their collective works, even Aeroplane was tight. Shit got weird with a couple exceptions on Adore in the midst of which Jimmy Chamberlain (the drummer) was let go for being smack out on the horse (a touring keyboardist died too) and fizzeled the final album fizzled. So the split up and Corgan went on to form Zwan, which was with Jimmy again, and other side projects, which Iha tried as well.

So now the Pumpkins are back… but it’s just Corgan and Jimmy still and some other unknown members. So it’s just Zwan, right? Maybe different guitarists and others… but why dredge up the Pumpkins name? Corgans solo project, titled Future Embrace no less, was a joke. I excepted keeping SP after Chamberlain was ousted, but you can’t call it Smashing Pumpkins without Iha and D’arcy. Seems like a desperate grab for cash/attention on Corgan’s part. And the tour schedule is just bizarre; A bunch of places in Germany and a few other European destinations then 9 days in Asheville, NC and 8 nights at The Filmore in San Francisco.

Heard the new single, Tarantula, which has a decent hook and the rest is kinda annoying.

Dammit.

In completely unrelated news I was pondering about comics the other day and really started missing Calvin and Hobbes. I don’t really think there will ever be a better comic strip for the rest of time. Talk about quitting while you were ahead too Waterson… who never licensed a single image and yet the likeness of Calvin peeing on one thing or another dons so many vehicles; mostly trucks.

Speaking of unlicensed images, transmogrifier.org has every single strip available online. Search for “Sunday” to get all the… you guessed it.

-Matt