Billy Corgan has never shied away from speaking his mind and has been at the heart of a number
of feuds, including with artists like Courtney Love, , Soundgarden and even
Smash Mouth.
By the way I’ve done a few videos on these feuds, links are down below.
But in today’s video we’re going to explore his feud with the indie band Pavement.
The indie rock band Pavement anticipated the
reaction they’d get from Corgan when frontman Stephen
Malkmus wrote the lyrics to song “Range Life,” where he’d take aim at the Smashing
Pumpkins.
Range Life was found on the group’s 1994 album crooked rain crooked rain.
The lyrics go as follows”
“Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins...nature kids, they don't have no function," adding,
"I don't understand what they mean / And I could really give a f."
It probably didn’t help that Range Life would became one of Pavement’s best known songs.
And the criticism seemed to come out of nowhere, since Pavement had never toured with The Smashing
Pumpkins up until this point.
It was rumored was rumored that after the song came out that billy corgan had personally
requested that pavement be kicked off the bill from 1994's incarnation of lolapaolooza
something corgan denied. Something the smashing pumpkins frontman denied. In 1995 rolling stone
interviewed corgan where they asked him about the song range life and he answered as follows
How about let’s start with jealousy? There’s always been flak we’ve gotten from certain
bands – the Mudhoneys and Pavements of this world – that somehow we cheated our way to the top,
that we deceived the public to get where we’re at. We have our own level of integrity that we’ve
kept to, and we’re not going away. So I think it’s rooted in jealousy,
the kind where someone is looking at a picture and saying, “This is where I belong,
and I don’t understand why I’m not there.” It shows true pettiness. And on top of that,
Pavement started a rumor that I kicked them off Lollapalooza [in 1994], which was totally untrue.
I had no problem with Pavement. When I met the guys from Nick Cave’s band,
they said they were told that I’d tried to kick them off the bill, too.
I’m totally a Nick Cave fan. That was astounding to me, maybe Pavement didn’t start the rumor.
Maybe it was some industry insider: “Blame it on Billy.” But stuff like that is really pathetic.
The feud would rage on for more than two decades as in 1999 interview with New York Rock magazine,
Malkmus said defended the lyrics and said they were misunderstood saying
“We never [dissed them.] I only laughed about the band name, because it does sound kind
of silly … I like their songs – well, most of their songs anyway … I just dissed their status.
I never really cared for the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle or being indie.”
Then In 2007, Malkmus tried to clear the air during an interview to Oregon live.
He said the lyric was actually a tribute to how big The Smashing Pumpkins were at the time,
referring to the song like and i quote “reading the headlines”
and calling the lyric and i quote “a backhanded compliment.”
same festival bill as the Smashing Pumpkins,
he took to Twitter to say the following:
“Just found out that Smashing Pumpkins is playing with pavement in Brazil it's
going to be one of those New Orleans type funerals. I say that because they represent
the death of the alternative dream and we follow with the affirmation of life part. Funny how those
who pointed the big finger of 'sell out' are the biggest offenders now" he'd write.
This whole idea of not selling out was a big deal for the artists of
the grunge area & An article from MTV would back pavement
and defend the group while also taking a shot at the smashing pumpkins saying :
Pavement stayed ultra-indie until the end, while Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins were considered
sell-outs because they made big-sounding music that was all over the radio and MTV. Also it
didn't help that they were on a fake indie label that was actually owned by Virgin mtv would add.
Meanwhile in another 2010 piece, the Guardian online called out Corrigan as a hypocrite
saying and i quote that: “Pavement's reunion gigs are reportedly awesome,
while Smashing Pumpkins' new songs are relatively terrible.”
Fast forward 8 years now and Smashing Pumpkins announced a reunion tour with their classic lineup
The only problem was? It wasn't a full reunion Corgan was in a nasty feud with
bassist D’Arcy Wretzky at the time, so she would sit out of the reunion
Malkmus would weighed in on the reunion in 2018 tell Spin magazine how he compared it to
the situation involving guitarist Lindsay Buckingham saying "The numbers will be out
there. As soon as there's a hint that Fleetwood Mac's not selling well, you'll hear about it.
The members of Smashing Pumpkins — Lindsey Buckingham is not in the Smashing Pumpkins,
but there's a female bass player named D'arcy, and she's not going to be on the tour,"
"And people are doing a similar complaint, because the band has already done like three
fake reunions, almost-reunions, and this is supposed to be — I think they're just playing
like their old hits, they're not going to bore us with the new album or whatever" he would say
The same year Brooklyn Vegan would publis an april fools day prank claiming the feud had been settled
and that pavement was opening for the smashing pumpkins on their reunion tour.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.