Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus criticized Smashing Pumpkins for doing a ‘fake reunion’ without D’arcy Wretzky in a new SPIN article. Billy Corgan ripped Pavement’s reunion in 2010 as being a cash grab.
Corgan informed D’arcy in January that he had selected Jack Bates to tour with the Pumpkins in 2018, and offered her a ‘Steven Adler’ guest role. Fans have criticized the move, and while ticket sales have been strong in several major markets, they’ve been slower in other cities, which many have attributed to the fact that the band’s original lineup is not actually reuniting for the tour like had been teased for two years.
Tim Heidecker: If I put myself in the mind of a potential Fleetwood Mac concertgoer, let’s say I’m living in Cleveland or something. Let’s say I had already seen them three years ago, and it cost me like 500 dollars by the end of the night. Then I find out they’re coming back to Cleveland, but Lindsey Buckingham isn’t involved, and it’s some other guy that I’m not that interested in seeing. I mean, hey, I like Tom Petty but I don’t need to go see Mike Campbell ever again. Am I going to spend the money again on that night? Am I getting the babysitter? I don’t know. I’ll let them worry about that.
Stephen Malkmus: We’ll see. 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.
Heidecker: No Zwan?
Malkmus: I’m into Zwan. Zwan was good. But there’s been a little talk that it’s not selling well. I think people will go though. It’s a brand, and Fleetwood Mac is a brand by now. And it’s not like they have three different Fleetwood Macs going around.
Heidecker: Like the Eagles.
