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Day Three Hundred Twenty Four (Year Two)

Tonight was one of those nights at work where I had to fight not to buy something.  It was a terrible night, and my usual response to that is to buy music.  I held off, though, and was proud of myself for it.

I made it through half of the new Grace Potter & The Nocturnals record today.  It's really good, yet again.  Both she and Brandi Carlile make music more consistently than pretty much anyone else I know of.  The best, most beautiful part of that, is that the new music seems to fit flawlessly into the music that's already there.

Oh yeah, another thing that happened today: I figured out what the two records are that come out the 19th that will serve to make it an all-around amazing month for music:

1) The Idler Wheel... - Fiona Apple
2) Oceania - Smashing Pumpkins

I'll admit straight off that the Pumpkins record is more of a curiosity than anything else at this point, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to help myself.  Part of me is genuinely intrigued as to whether or not Billy Corgan can make revolution relevant again in the way he was able to in the 90's.  The other part of me is equally terrified that he'll screw it up entirely and damage any cred that he might have left.  On the other hand, Corgan is one of those people that will either:

1) Put something out that's of a lower quality just to spite all of us who walk around in the hope that a Pumpkins record can be an EVENT again.

OR

2) Would pull the record at the last minute if he had even the slightest fear that it wasn't going to measure up.

Regardless, I'm pretty sure that he believes without a doubt that every record he puts out deserves to be as big as Mellon Collie.  In reality, I don't know that he will ever be that brilliant again.

It does raise the old question again, however:  If Corgan and Cobain had switched places (i.e. if Billy had died after the Pumpkins 3rd record, and Cobain had lived), which one of them is the bigger legend today?

Nirvana's first three records were:

1) Bleach
2) Nevermind
3) In Utero

while the Pumpkins first three records were:

1) Gish
2) Siamese Dream
3) Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness

Discuss amongst yourselves, and feel free to leave any thoughts in the comments section below.

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