Billy and His Rotting Fruit

The Smashing Pumpkins (Reprise)

Comments (0) By Jonathan Garrett Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

When Billy Corgan took out a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune to announce the reformation of the Smashing Pumpkins, few would have guessed that we would get Zwan instead. But perhaps it was just wishful thinking on our part. After all, this 2007 incarnation of the group does feature the very same Pumpkins members as the short-lived Zwan: Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Zeitgeist, sadly, proves just as forgettable as their former outfit's first and only album, Mary Star of the Sea.

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The Smashing Pumpkins perform a ridiculous amount of dates: Sunday, July 15; Monday, July 16; Wednesday, July 18; Sunday, July 22; Tuesday, July 24; Wednesday, July 25; Friday, July 27; Saturday, July 28; Monday, July 30; Tuesday, July 31; and Wednesday, August 1. All shows start at 9 p.m. and tickets are sold out. Visit www.thefillmore.com for more info.

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It's not for lack of trying (is it ever with Corgan?) — more trying the wrong things. Corgan clearly intends the Pumpkins' official comeback to be a rock record. Most of the moody goth pretenses that characterized the band's post-Mellon Collie output have been ditched for squealing guitars and, erm, squealing Corgan. But the songs rarely do the band any favors. Proffered "rockers" like "Doomsday Clock" and the single "Tarantula" sound like rote exercises — tracks in service of riffs as opposed to the other way around. And the less said about the 10-minute dirge "United States" — a direct descendant of "Jesus, I/ Mary Star of the Sea" — the better. "We are stars," Corgan would have us believe ("Starz"), but Zeitgeist is more prayer than convincing argument.