A set of four songs that are posted on file-sharing networks under the name “The Baker Demos” are rumored to be from the Smashing Pumpkins’ reunion album due out next year. Whether these songs are legitimately the work of Corgan and crew is debatable, and most fans are crying, “Faux!” The tracks — “Collapsing Cities,” “In the Eyes Beholding,” “The Restless World,” and “Siam Mais” — are either the work of new voice-altering technology that morphs Corgan into a young British prog-version of himself or a misguided attempt at imitation.
Spin assistant editor Kyle Anderson — an unabashed Pumpkins devotee — took “Collapsing Cities” out for a spin. “I was actually on board with the intro to this track — it sort of felt a bit like Adore-era stuff, especially the drum sounds and the general robotic feel of it,” he said. “But then the vocals kick in and it’s all over. This guy doesn’t sound a bit like Billy Corgan. If anything, he sounds like he’s trying to do a fruitier Dave Gahan.”
In fact, Anderson wouldn’t even consider it an admirable forgery. “At least the fake Chinese Democracy tracks kinda sorta sounded like Guns N’ Roses; whoever passed this off isn’t even trying very hard,” he quipped. “That’s unless Billy’s passed vocal duties off to somebody from an Interpol cover band — in which case this sounds perfect. ”
Here’s what the people are saying about the real/fake Pumpkins tracks:
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“Definitely not Smashing Pumpkins. If you notice, the song titles are actually poems from Billy’s Blinking with Fists.” — Pattern Recognition, nme.com
“So painfully not the Smashing Pumpkins it hurts. At best, the work of a bunch of fans who loved the two MACHINA albums and non-album songs like “Eye” and “The End Is the Beginning Is the End.'” — wellduhobviously, nme.com
“Okay, I listened to these. Obvious fakes…the singer sounds like the Panic! At the Disco guy, not Billy Corgan.” — puppetking2112, roadrunnerrecords.com
“Just hearing about a possible leak of new Smashing Pumpkins songs gets me excited, that yes, my favorite band of all time — and I really can truly easily say that — is coming back.” — AJ, myspace.com
Talk: What do you think: real or fake? COMMENT
Now Hear This:
Pumpkins tracks at mininova.org
>> Listen to the real Smashing Pumpkins on Napster
