I heard Iha's solo project... interesting, very mellow. Ironically, now that I think of it, it ressembles a bit what Zwan was about, although not as crafty.
Anyways, I'm curious of what actually happenned that made Mr. Corgan "clear it up for us". I mean, I get why he didn't say anything before, but I don't get why now spill it out.
First, I think we need to hear Mr. Iha's side on the subject:
From: JAMES IHA DOT ORG
"All I can say is I'm very proud of my work with that band ... It was a good band, and we accomplished a lot. And that's not what happened. I definitely did not break up the band."
I hate it when this happens: one person's word against another... that wasn't much of help.
well, in any way, whatever happenned with SP, was it Mr. Iha's fault or not, was hidden by Mr. Corgan in an act of nobelty towards his bandmates. But the reason to unhide it is still unclear to me, I mean, really, I don't find it important to know this: I'm still gona buy the new APC record and the solo project that Mr. Corgan is preparing; I don't think Mr. Howerdel is going to kick Mr. Iha out of APC because of this; my life is going on, as is both Mr. Corgan's and Mr. Iha's, independently of this knowledge: why bring it up now?
For what it's worth, here are a couple of reasons why I think Mr. Corgan's may have decided to make this statement:
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Right now Mr. Corgan is not doing so well (and I don't mean financially, just he's not in or near the spotlight) and Mr. Iha is (kinda), thanks to APC. What i'm trying to say is... well, maybe the reason is jealousy (maybe even unconciously). I mean come on! In the middle of a big tour, many dates in which many are sold out, etc. Mr. Iha's being seen/recognized, and Mr. Corgan's, even though working, not that much in the public eye... right then he decides to break the news.
I am a big fan of SP, and even of Zwan, but Billy is an egocentric hardhead that makes a band like he wants it: we SP fans know this, this is why most of us know about, heard, bought, etc. Zwan material; an SP fan is a Corgan fan. And right now, I think Billy is not liking not being seen.
And if it this is actually true, it's quite foolish because, as Mr. Iha said it himself from the same source:
"(In APC) I get to do some fiddling around, but Billy (Howerdel, APC's lead guitarrist) does a lot more than I do."
Wouldn't this sound apropiate comming out from Mr. Iha's mouth while being on SP?
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Another reason might be that in some way Mr. Corgan's been bothered by the fact that he has been portrayed as a quitter in the fight against pop, and maybe just had it. Problems with the band were leading to break up, and Mr. Corgan wanted to salvage the image of his bandmates so he came up with "we're throwing the towel against britney".
If this is true, why say such a thing? some bull about "the industry is sucking us dry", "is time for us to grow as musicians in other means outside the band" or even "we started this band at an early age, we've changed, and there are some changes between us that cannot be settled" would suffice. Now to think of it, I would've liked to have heard that last one... Yes, there can be problems between bandmates, we're people, we argue, and sometimes we have enough of someone to the point that we don't want to work with that person... and even though I was a teenager when I got the news, I still would've understand.
If Mr. Corgan wants to wash his hands off the situation to make whoever he wants to convince beleive that he didn't "call out a foul, picked up his ball, and went back home", well, with just the fact that he continued on with not only Zwan but helping other bands in the process (he was a producer, and a stand-in guitarrist for other bands), he had me convinced. Because of this I beleive that it's too late now to say anything. Nothing is going to change: the persons he wanted to convince, were convinced already.
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I also want to point out that I think that to say that a band member has the fault of breaking up a band is ridiculous: there were four members in that band. Being in one myself I do beleive that the health of the band is responsability of everybody in it: you have a problem? The band has a problem. Can't work it out with the band? There's the door. But we're friends, and founded this band: fine, split up the earnings, go separated ways and start new bands. Sound familiar? Of course it does! This is very common... but I don't hear Jimmy (drummer) throwing shit at James or at Billy, neither does D'arcy. Nor do I hear former Metallica base player Jason Newsted writing a letter to CNN claiming that the reason he left was the abscense of the feeling of actually being a Metallica member: yes, he was alienated from the rest of the band, you can see it in pretty much any interview with the whole band, during concerts, etc. but he left the band and stayed there graciously. How? He washed his dirty laundry indoors, period.
