Aqualung

I started listening to the Smashing Pumpkins recently, because of how much praise I heard them get from the other members of the forum, and I think it's about time to do a review on them.

Years Active:
1988-2000, 2006

Genre:
Alternative, Goth, Power pop, Psychedelic

Line up:
Billy Corgan - Guitar, vocals
James Iha - Guitar
D'Arcy Wretzky - Bass
Jimmy Chamberlin - Drums

Others:
Melissa Gaboriau Auf der Maur (replaced D'Arcy Wretzky on bass in 1999)
Various replacement drummers after Jimmy Chamberlin was released from his position as drummer in 1997.

Discography:
Gish - 1991
Lull (EP) - 1991
Siamese Dream - 1993
Pisces Iscariot - 1994 (B-Sides compilation)
Earphoria - 1994 (a limited promotional CD, originally released only to radio stations; full release in 2002)
Vieupohoria - 1994 (VHS version of Earphoria. Re-released in 2002 on DVD)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - 1995
The Aeroplane Flies High - 1996 (5 expanded singles)
Adore - 1998
The Smashing Pumpkins 1991-1998 - (A greatest hits compilation)
MACHINA/The Machines of God - 2000
MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music - 2000
Rotten Apples - 2001 (A limited edition greatest hits compilation, which included Judas 0)
Judas 0 - 2001 (A limited edition compilation of B-Sides, meant to sequel Pisces Iscariot)
Greatest Hits Video Collection - 2001 (including all music videos except The End is The Beginning is The End, and Untitled)

The Smashing Pumpkins is a Chicago-based Alternative Rock band. Their eclectic music, less post-punk than many other bands of the day, was a mixture of heavy metal, goth rock, psychedelic rock, and power pop, and was heavily guitar-driven and many-layered. The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the best selling groups of the 1990s, with over 40 million album sales.

Birth of The Smashing Pumpkins:
When Billy Corgan was 19, he left Chicago, Illinois, and traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, along with his Goth rock band The Marked. This band was not very successful, and quickly dismantled, so Corgan went back to Chicago and started working in a record store. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working there, and they started getting together and composing songs, with heavy influence from both The Cure and New Order. In 19988, Corgan met bassist D'Arcy Wretzky. At this time, Wretzky was already in another band, and was living with one of the band members, so she had to be really sneaky about practicing with Corgan and Iha. She finally decided to leave her band and join with Corgan and Iha. When the trio played their first gig, Joe Shanahan, owner of Cabaret Metro, was impressed enough that he wanted them to open for Jane's Addiction if they would hire a drummer. The trio brought in jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who, at the time, knew nothing about alternative. Corgan quickly realised, however, that Chamberlin's expressive and powerful drumming was just what the "sad-rock" trio needed to round out their sound. And thus The Smashing Pumpkins were born.

Smashing Pumpkins begin releasing material:
In 1990, after having recorded a number of demo tapes, The Smashing Pumpkins released their first single, I Am One, on a Chicago label. This single sold out, so they released a second, Tristessa. Virgin Records then signed on the band, and matched them up with producer Butch Vig. In 1991, The Smashing Pumpkins released their first album, Gish, which was recorded in Vig's basement. This album's music, a mixture of psychadelia, metal, and dream-pop, was comparable to Jane's Addiction's music, a comparison which was quite helpful for the band.

The release of this album and its subsequent tour foreshadowed things come. Corgan played all of the instruments for the recordings, in order to create a consistency in the instrumentation, but this created a lot of tension and bad feelings among the band members. Their tour (where they opened for bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns 'n' Roses) escalated these tensions, and Iha and Wretzky (who had started a relationship shortly after Wretzky joined the band) broke up quite messily, Chamberlin started using narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan slipped into a deep depression.

Rise to fame:
When bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana brought alternative rock to mainstream America, the Smashing Pumpkins were ready to ride that wave into success. Although the Smashing Pumpkins protested this, they were routinely classified as a grunge band, mostly due to their heavy guitars and influences. After having been called "the next Jane's Addiction", the title of "the next Nirvana" was not pleasing to the band. Due perhaps in part to this nickname, the Smashing Pumpkins felt a huge pressure to create a very popular album after Nirvana released Nevermind. This pressure, although somewhat necessary for the band to create a great album, furthered Corgan's depression, to the point of contemplating suicide. To keep his mind off suicide, Corgan clocked in a ton of hours writing material for their next album, Siamese Dream. They recorded this album in Atlanta Georgia, with Butch Vig again as producer, in order to keep the band focused. Not only did this distance keep the band members away from the distractions of friends and family, it was also intended to keep Chamberlin away from his drug connections, although Chamberlin managed to make other connections in Atlanta.

Recording this album was as stressful for the group members as the first one. The other group members saw Corgan as somewhat tyrannical. Again, there were rumors that Corgan had recorded most, if not all, of the guitar and bass work. And the guitar work was immense. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, Corgan said there were around 40 over-dubbed guitar parts in the song Soma. Even though the band experienced a lot of stress with this album, that did not keep the album from becoming quite successful. The album reached #10 on the Billboard charts and earned the band international acclaim. As the band wanted, this album is considered to be one of their best, and is compared to Nirvana's Nevermind album.

1994 saw the release of Pisces Iscariot, a B-Sides compilation. As a sign of their rising popularity, this B-Sides compilation actually outperformed Siamese Dreams, reaching #4 on the Billboard charts.

After touring in 1994 and '95, The Smashing Pumpkins decided to record a next album. Over the next year, Corgan wrote about 56 songs for the next album. The resultant album, released in 1995, was a double album that Corgan called "The Wall of the 90s", in reference to Pink Floyd's concept album The Wall. Unlike The Wall, however, this album had no real theme within its songs. It was very successful, debuting at #1 on the Billboard charts and selling around 16 million copies. It was nominated for 7 Grammies in 1996, including album of the year. The B-Sides which did not make the Mellon Collie cut were released later on The Aeroplane Flies High.

To support this album, the Pumpkins once again went on tour, this time on a world tour. Corgan's stage look became an icon of the alternative rock movement, and the Smashing Pumpkins were even featured in a Simpson's episode. Not everything was bright and shiny, though. In the Dublin, Ireland leg of the tour, at an over crowded, poorly controlled show, a girl was crushed to death by moshers. Two months later, their touring keyboardist overdosed on heroine and died, and Chamberlin was arrested for possession. Corgan also made a statement that rock was dead. These occurrences all combined and led to a decrease in popularity for the band.

Downfall:
The album Adore was released in 1998, and had a lot more electronic influences than previous albums, and was therefore a lot less guitar-driven than usual. The album was similar to some of Corgan's favorite groups, namely, Depeche Mode and New Order. Along with this change in music came a change in the band's public image into more Gothic styles. This album only sold about 830,000 albums, even though it was nominated for a Grammy and received other critical acclaim. Corgan blamed this mostly on the absence of Jimmy Chamberlin. A drum machine could never reproduce the jazzy, emotional style of Chamberlin.

Jimmy returned in 2000 for the recoding of MACHINA, but bassist D'Arcy Wretzky left, though not until the album had been recorded. This album was more like the previous albums, probably because Chamberlin was back on drums, but fans felt the album was generally over processed. They felt that the wall of sound production quality diminished the guitar personalities of Corgan and Iha. It's mystical, conceptual nature was yet another thing that didn't sit well with fans. It has only sold 582,000 as of 2005.

Billy Corgan officially announced the band's break-up on May 23, 2000, which would be "finalized" at the end of that year. Their final album, MACHINA II, was released in September. Vinyl release was limited, but the album came with permission for free distribution on the internet. On December 2 of 2000, The Smashing Pumpkins played their final tour at the same place where their career started, The Metro in Chicago.

Reunion?:
On January 21 of 2005, Billy Corgan took out a full-page advertisement in the Chicago Tribune with plans of a reunion. Jimmy Chamberlin has confirmed this reunion. On April 26 of 2006, Corgan officially announced a Smashing Pumpkins reunion. Corgan and Chamberlin have verified that they are part of the group, but Iha and Wretzky have not made any statement whatsoever about their involvement in reunion material, and it's doubtful that they will be, considering their strained relations with Corgan.

__________________


Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

 

MrsPink

Siamese Dream is an elite album! It`s one of my favourites actually, and one of the first cds I ever got. It`s so full of emotions and anger, dreaming and fun. Got to love it!

__________________


I am 1338. One step beyond the average nerd.

Animus Light

"Adore" was one of the greatest and most well-selling albums SP ever did. Also, you failed to cite the reason WHY Machina II was released on the net. Virgin refused to let Corgan write any music for SP that was not "depressing acid rock" according to their contract. The result was that Corgan decided to release the album behind Virgin's back as a final "Fuck you."

And D'Arcy has agreed to be a part of the new SP. James Iha declined, but they're recording already. Corgan normally writes all the music, anyway, so it's not a problem that James isn't there.

MusicMan

I love SP and Siamese Dream was one of those albums I'll never forget from my younger days. That album could take you anywhere you wanted to go.

I hate that James Iha refused to rejoin them, but hopefully they'll find someone just as brilliantly experimental as he was. If that happens I'll definitely be buying their upcoming CD.

__________________



Rules! A definite must-read

How to upload music to the Music Showcase. How to embed a YouTube video.

Send me a PM if you need any help with anything.

Aqualung

Thanks for that extra info, Animus!

__________________


Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

Boston®

Don't get me wrong, I love Cherub Rock as much as the next person, but their last album I liked a lot and was really dissappointed when it didn't gain the same fame they held before. The style was new and welcoming a change, its too bad others didn't feel the same as I did. I will definitely go see any reunion tour if I can. *crosses fingers*

Mr. Chainsaw

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is like one of my favorite rock albums. That album is upped in the badass factor when you listen to it at night while driving. It's definitly a great experience.

Nice feature by the way. The Smashing Pumpkins deserved it.

__________________
"Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter."
Albert Camus

Ourobouros

Smashing Pumpkins are a unique and wonderful band, and their album Siamese Dream is a personal favourite (almost beating Pablo Honey - !!) and I love my Pablo Honey, make no mistake.

Of course, there's many other moments outwith Dream, but it was so great and remains - to me - the most lasting statement from within rock music since the likes of the sex pistols, the smiths or joy division

StellaScarr

This band were absolutely my first musical crush, and still own a very special place in my heart, i mean, after all you never forget your first love. i can't say that each album hasn't at some point in my life given me heart and understanding, and that little flicker of un-loneliness. When I was younger billy corgan totally owned my

Can't pick a favourite song, it changes all the time....

But for today, Today is the Greatest....

To be honest they dipped and tipped and Zeitgeist didn't instantly connect with me the way the every other album did. I know its a comeback an' all, but it just didn't feel there was the heart in it the way there was with say, Adore or Siamese Dream, the wasn't the even the essence to prove themselves the way they did with gish, or the pomp of Machina or Mellon Collie. It wasn't even just Brill the way some of Pisces was, maybe i'm a heretic in the pumpkinpatch or maybe i need to put my headphones back on, but i just ain't feeling Zeitgeist.

Smashing Pumpkins may just = Billy Corgan with his pumpkin cap on, but it just isn't the without Mr. Iha. Of course it isn't. I saw recently on some site that the reunited pumpkins is Jimmy & Billy plus employees...

I think I agree...

__________________
(\ /)
( . .)
c('')('') This is Shadow-Bunny. Copy him into your signature to help him to beat the living dayshits outta his fatfuck brother and dominate the world!

dg

Solo albums by Corgan, Iha, and Chamberlin are really worth checking out, especially for fans of the particular styles of each of them.
As well as the ever underrated Zwan.

pk_horrormusic

pretty good band