I've been a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins as long as I've been old enough to buy CDs. My admiration began way back in middle school with the release of mellon collie and the infinite sadness and continued through to the latest release, zeitgeist, even if it was only down to two original members (albeit the two most important members of the original quartet).
With the departure of Jimmy Chamberlin from the most recent iteration of the Pumpkins, I think it's safe to say that the dream is dead. As much as Billy Corgan would like to believe that he embodies the Pumpkins, he needs to look back at all those bands that have tried to go on with only one original member and realize that he's done. Whatever he's putting together now is barely recognizable as the slow ballads and grinding power cords that defined pumpkins for a decade.
Let's face it. A band implies a group of people that collaborate to make a finished product. Sans three members, you no longer have a band, you just have a name. Go ahead, Billy, keep making music. But let's not pretend that its worthy of the Smashing Pumpkins moniker.
