Back to the 90s: Smashing Pumpkins vs Stone Temple Pilots

Well?

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During peak alternarock the Pumpkins were crazy prolific and managed a pretty broad range of styles.

Theses were b-sides from the same period as the double LP...









The Pumpkins had a real knack for memorable tunes/riffs and could make a real interesting record. STP were always kinda generic and their tunes blended together.

One major knock on Corgan in the post-reunion, Nu Pumpkins, and re-reunion periods is that his songwriting has gotten profoundly samey. There are like 48 tracks on that new electro-rock LP they put out last year and maybe three songs. His lyrics have turned to mush even moreso than before (and that’s saying something) and all the dynamics and textures are just hammered into a flat beige surface. Did you listen to that folky, Americana solo double record Billy put out a couple years ago? I did. Can’t remember shit from it. Which I guess demonstrates how special the Pumpkins early 90s run is. Tons of songs that are super memorable and recorded in unique and interesting ways that defined a lot of what “alternative rock”’or whatever sounded like.
 
During those years, I connected with Weiland’s vocals, as I could belt along with him as what he was doing was in my range. Which accounts for my vote. But, over the years, I have enjoyed the Pumpkin’s stuff more and more, and need to explore all those sounds @Peen Simmons just posted. In fact, my brothers and I were just talking about how we for some reason never got into the Pumpkins as much back then but how good a lot of the stuff still sounded. Back in those years, my brothers and I were more into the local bands back then as we lived in that area.
 
Peen Simmons said:
The Pumpkins put out several stone classics and a weirdo cult wonder. Plus shit loads of rad b-sides and random deep cuts.

STP were basically a bubble grunge act that punched above their weight a few times.
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I was the target demographic for these bands, and this was my impression of the consensus at the time. I was deep into acoustic blues then (I was a VERY popular boy), so maybe I misread it, but I'm surprised to see so many people voting STP.
 
Chicken Man said:
I was the target demographic for these bands, and this was my impression of the consensus at the time. I was deep into acoustic blues then (I was a VERY popular boy), so maybe I misread it, but I'm surprised to see so many people voting STP.
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Yeah, even adjusting for “internet guitarist” and taking the handicap for “Foo Fighters fan forum,” the outcome here is highly contrarian relative to critical consensus, record sales, etc.

I mean, half of why “Sex Type Thing” even got prominent buzz bin rotation was that Weiland had the same cheekbones as Eddie Vedder. (It’s also weird to me that some of the STP stans in this thread are also notable for their non sequitur Pearl Jam trashing on this forum.)

Tiny Music is probably the most interesting STP album and even then it’s got some filler happening and even some of the best tracks linger a verse or a chorus repeat too long.

I’m betting some of the STP folks here were also super into Collective Soul.
 
Peen Simmons said:
Yeah, even adjusting for “internet guitarist” and taking the handicap for “Foo Fighters fan forum,” the outcome here is highly contrarian relative to critical consensus, record sales, etc.

I mean, half of why “Sex Type Thing” even got prominent buzz bin rotation was that Weiland had the same cheekbones as Eddie Vedder. (It’s also weird to me that some of the STP stans in this thread are also notable for their non sequitur Pearl Jam trashing on this forum.)

Tiny Music is probably the most interesting STP album and even then it’s got some filler happening and even some of the best tracks linger a verse or a chorus repeat too long.

I’m betting some of the STP folks here were also super into Collective Soul.
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Both frontmen were assholes, but Weiland was the junky rockstar type which probably ages better than the Corgan a little too into anime type.
 
rhino said:
Both frontmen were assholes, but Weiland was the junky rockstar type which probably ages better than the Corgan a little too into anime type.
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Corgan is a jerk, undoubtedly. (He’s been cool to me when I’ve talked with him—but I know people who had the opposite experience, so...)

That being said, the Pumpkins’ first big hit wasn’t an apology for date rape, so...
 
Chicken Man said:
I was the target demographic for these bands, and this was my impression of the consensus at the time. I was deep into acoustic blues then (I was a VERY popular boy), so maybe I misread it, but I'm surprised to see so many people voting STP.
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I kinda bounced off STP too, but I think a lot of it was the timing of when I first heard tham - they seemed like faux-grunge lite or something and I wrote them off. But I was mostly into the more metal-adjacent grunge stuff at the time (alice in chains, early soundgarden, gruntruck, tad, etc), so it's probably more about me than about STP
 
Peen Simmons said:
I mean, half of why “Sex Type Thing” even got prominent buzz bin rotation was that Weiland had the same cheekbones as Eddie Vedder (It’s also weird to me that some of the STP stans in this thread are also notable for their non sequitur Pearl Jam trashing on this forum.)
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Well, I am among the few who admit to liking Pearl Jam so there is that.


As a side note, I was watching some internet vocal coach guy to check that out, and that guy does critiques of the vocals of bands, and does one on both Vedder and Weiland, and notes the swallowing your R’s thing that (he said) Vedder made popular in that time, though others like Tom Petty used that style before, and that Weiland used that same technique at that time.
 
I'll give a slight edge to the pumpkins but neither one is really my thing.

In the world of 90s alternative, I like a lot of jangly melodic stuff like Matthew Sweet, the Lemonheads, etc. over the wall of sludge sound
 
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