Billy Corgan, whose recently-remodeled Smashing Pumpkins begin an intimate club tour that brings them to the Metro on July 27th (click HERE for tickets) for a benefit show (with proceeds going to the Matthew Leone Sweet Relief Fund) recently had this to say about the concept of the traditional ten-song album:
Q: So you think the 10-song album format is not relevant anymore?
I think it's been destroyed. I understand why people are still doing it because they don't know what else to do. But it's destroyed. I don't see how that means anything anymore. And I realize if you print that, some guy's going to go, "Well, I love Johnny and the Toads' "Forest" album.' No, I'm not trying to throw a blanket over everything. I'm just saying, generally, people are not that interested. Why we keep insisting collectively as the music world, keep shoving something down people's throats that they obviously don't want, I don't get that. We're not talking about like it's been a couple bad years. We're talking where it's been over 10 years now.
If you were talking about sandwiches or cookies, do you think they would last that long in that kind of thinking? It's a preciousness that isn't needed. Just figure out how to get people what they want when they want it. Maybe it's about putting out 40 songs a year, maybe it's not about producing everything perfectly. Maybe you produce the best song you can produce perfectly and the other five songs you just run in the studio and cut in a couple days. Maybe it is the DIY model at the end of the day. For the Christina Aguileras of the world who, it's about being perfect, well then, that's fine. But for the rest of us, I don't see how that works anymore.
Read the entire POST-GAZETTE interview.
In other Corgan-related news:
In addition to the bald one recently finding God, there is a rumor that he and Courtney Love not only patched things up after a rather heated Twitter spat last spring, but are now living together, reportedly sharing separate wings of a McMansion in Schaumburg. Okay, we're just guessing it's Schaumburg.