My definitive lineup:Jimmy Chamberlin - Drums
Billy Corgan - Guitars, vocals
D'arcy Wretzky - Bass
James Iha - Guitars
Probably the biggest band of my life, or at least one of the biggest, is The Smashing Pumpkins from the United States. The Pumpkins were also, unarguably, one of the biggest alternative rock bands of the 90s - and probably of all time.
As a big fan of The Simpsons, I found the existence of the Pumpkins in the mid-90s via a Simpsons episode (S5E24, "Homerpalooza") in which the band performed one of their singles, Zero. The bleak rock sound impressed me, then 10-year old little boy, but I didn't have a CD player nor did I have any CDs for that matter, so I forgot the Pumpkins for some five years.
Then, during my first year of high school - when I was 16, I guess - I stumbled upon a Pumpkins song or two over the internet, and found out that I had couple of friends who had a couple of Pumpkins records. I borrowed them (Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie if I remember correctly) and fell in love with the music instantly.
I was completely blown away by the bleak, nihilistic and utterly melancholic message of Billy Corgan, the gloomiest man in the alternative rock scene. Some of the songs were musically dripping with melancholy, whereas others were surprisingly bright and cheery songs, in the vein of The Smiths, despite their angst-ridden lyrics. (Well, I guess it's easy to make music that is appealing to angsty teenagers - just make it depressive). I didn't even find Billy Corgan's nasal voice annoying at all - unlike many of my acquaintances, who claimed it was the biggest problem with their music.
However, and probably because of the great impact the band had on me, I still listen to the Pumpkins, unlike many other "gloomy" bands I found during my teenage years. I guess their music still was more mature, despite its dark nature.
But unlike the vast majority of Pumpkins fans, I soon found the two pre-breakup albums the most enjoyable ones, in the stead of the earlier works of the band. Adore's experimental nature tinted with gripping melancholy, and Machina's heavy metal aesthetics combined with modern soundscapes - to this day I find them more interesting than the grungy alternative rock of their first three albums. Don't get me wrong - I think these earlier albums are made of pure awesome, and they contain some of the greatest songs of the 90s, but however, the departure from their general sound to the electronic elements have made these two latter albums stand out for me.
I guess it would be best to clear the terminology about the pre- and post-breakup eras now. The musical history of the Smashing Pumpkins divides into three distinct eras - at least in my eyes.
First, there is the early pre-breakup era. During their formation years, they played fuzz-heavy alternative rock, heavily influenced by psychedelia and dream pop (debut album Gish), before moving on to more clearly defined alternative rock. During this time the song structures got simplified and shortened and the band's sound became more accessible. The band produced two albums during this era: the definitive Siamese Dream and the magnum opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Also during this time, the band added the "The" article to their name.
Then became the late pre-breakup era. Billy Corgan kicked out the drummer and his close friend, Jimmy Chamberlin, due to excessive use of drugs, and then he solely composed their semi-acoustic, semi-electronic album Adore, which was a complete departure from their traditional alternative rock sound - fierce angst had changed into crushing melancholy. Adore received some critical acclaim but its commercial succes was far behind the two previous albums.
Later Corgan took back Jimmy and the band recorded the album Machina, which was to become the swan song of the band. Tensions were growing within the band and after the recording, bassist D'arcy Wretzky was kicked out. Former Hole bassist, Melissa auf der Maur, replaced D'arcy as a live bassist, but soon afterwards, the band called it quits. The members of the band left publicity or concentrated on their solo efforts or activities in other bands (for example, the guitarist James Iha played in the alternative rock supergroup, A Perfect Circle).
It took some six years (and for long I had never thought that it would happen) for Billy Corgan to put the band together - but to be honest, I think that it was more of an extension of Billy's solo project, because only Jimmy Chamberlin joined him this time. They recorded together one full-length album and an EP before Jimmy left the band. I think it is questionable to call this band, in which Billy Corgan is the only remaining Pumpkin, as "Smashing Pumpkins" (NB: the "The" article was dropped from the name). This period I call very unsurprisingly, the post-breakup era.
However, many sources claim that a vast majority of all of the Pumpkins songs and records have come solely from Billy's hands. It's true that a great deal of the songs have only Billy's name in the songwriting credits, but the rumors go that he also recorded almost all the instruments too - including the legendary hundred guitar overdub tracks on Siamese Dream. Despite that the man who has been almost single-handedly responsible for almost all of the Pumpkins song is still on the lead, the quality of the later releases are greatly overshadowed by the superb earlier works of the band. I wonder if the remaining members had after all something to do with the quality of music they did during the 90s, or if Billy just had his major inspiration back then and now it has run dry - now it seems that Billy has nothing more to say under the Pumpkins moniker, yet he wants to milk the cow as long as it milks.
I really hope that the now-ongoing "40-plus songs released free over the internet" -project titled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope results in songs that are more interesting than the earlier works of the post-breakup era. At least the first results are promising, but only time will tell. Still I think that it would've honored the legacy of one of the greatest alternative rock giants of the 90s if Billy had just released this insane, yet insanely awesome project under his own name.
***
My top-10 list of songs that are worth checking out:
Ava Adore
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Crestfallen
Disarm
Eye
I of the Mourning
Siva
The Crying Tree of Mercury
Today
Zero
***
Reviewed albums:
Pisces Iscariot (1994) - 78/100
As a big fan of The Simpsons, I found the existence of the Pumpkins in the mid-90s via a Simpsons episode (S5E24, "Homerpalooza") in which the band performed one of their singles, Zero. The bleak rock sound impressed me, then 10-year old little boy, but I didn't have a CD player nor did I have any CDs for that matter, so I forgot the Pumpkins for some five years.
Then, during my first year of high school - when I was 16, I guess - I stumbled upon a Pumpkins song or two over the internet, and found out that I had couple of friends who had a couple of Pumpkins records. I borrowed them (Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie if I remember correctly) and fell in love with the music instantly.
I was completely blown away by the bleak, nihilistic and utterly melancholic message of Billy Corgan, the gloomiest man in the alternative rock scene. Some of the songs were musically dripping with melancholy, whereas others were surprisingly bright and cheery songs, in the vein of The Smiths, despite their angst-ridden lyrics. (Well, I guess it's easy to make music that is appealing to angsty teenagers - just make it depressive). I didn't even find Billy Corgan's nasal voice annoying at all - unlike many of my acquaintances, who claimed it was the biggest problem with their music.
However, and probably because of the great impact the band had on me, I still listen to the Pumpkins, unlike many other "gloomy" bands I found during my teenage years. I guess their music still was more mature, despite its dark nature.
But unlike the vast majority of Pumpkins fans, I soon found the two pre-breakup albums the most enjoyable ones, in the stead of the earlier works of the band. Adore's experimental nature tinted with gripping melancholy, and Machina's heavy metal aesthetics combined with modern soundscapes - to this day I find them more interesting than the grungy alternative rock of their first three albums. Don't get me wrong - I think these earlier albums are made of pure awesome, and they contain some of the greatest songs of the 90s, but however, the departure from their general sound to the electronic elements have made these two latter albums stand out for me.
I guess it would be best to clear the terminology about the pre- and post-breakup eras now. The musical history of the Smashing Pumpkins divides into three distinct eras - at least in my eyes.
First, there is the early pre-breakup era. During their formation years, they played fuzz-heavy alternative rock, heavily influenced by psychedelia and dream pop (debut album Gish), before moving on to more clearly defined alternative rock. During this time the song structures got simplified and shortened and the band's sound became more accessible. The band produced two albums during this era: the definitive Siamese Dream and the magnum opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Also during this time, the band added the "The" article to their name.
Then became the late pre-breakup era. Billy Corgan kicked out the drummer and his close friend, Jimmy Chamberlin, due to excessive use of drugs, and then he solely composed their semi-acoustic, semi-electronic album Adore, which was a complete departure from their traditional alternative rock sound - fierce angst had changed into crushing melancholy. Adore received some critical acclaim but its commercial succes was far behind the two previous albums.
Later Corgan took back Jimmy and the band recorded the album Machina, which was to become the swan song of the band. Tensions were growing within the band and after the recording, bassist D'arcy Wretzky was kicked out. Former Hole bassist, Melissa auf der Maur, replaced D'arcy as a live bassist, but soon afterwards, the band called it quits. The members of the band left publicity or concentrated on their solo efforts or activities in other bands (for example, the guitarist James Iha played in the alternative rock supergroup, A Perfect Circle).
It took some six years (and for long I had never thought that it would happen) for Billy Corgan to put the band together - but to be honest, I think that it was more of an extension of Billy's solo project, because only Jimmy Chamberlin joined him this time. They recorded together one full-length album and an EP before Jimmy left the band. I think it is questionable to call this band, in which Billy Corgan is the only remaining Pumpkin, as "Smashing Pumpkins" (NB: the "The" article was dropped from the name). This period I call very unsurprisingly, the post-breakup era.
However, many sources claim that a vast majority of all of the Pumpkins songs and records have come solely from Billy's hands. It's true that a great deal of the songs have only Billy's name in the songwriting credits, but the rumors go that he also recorded almost all the instruments too - including the legendary hundred guitar overdub tracks on Siamese Dream. Despite that the man who has been almost single-handedly responsible for almost all of the Pumpkins song is still on the lead, the quality of the later releases are greatly overshadowed by the superb earlier works of the band. I wonder if the remaining members had after all something to do with the quality of music they did during the 90s, or if Billy just had his major inspiration back then and now it has run dry - now it seems that Billy has nothing more to say under the Pumpkins moniker, yet he wants to milk the cow as long as it milks.
I really hope that the now-ongoing "40-plus songs released free over the internet" -project titled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope results in songs that are more interesting than the earlier works of the post-breakup era. At least the first results are promising, but only time will tell. Still I think that it would've honored the legacy of one of the greatest alternative rock giants of the 90s if Billy had just released this insane, yet insanely awesome project under his own name.
***
My top-10 list of songs that are worth checking out:
Ava Adore
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Crestfallen
Disarm
Eye
I of the Mourning
Siva
The Crying Tree of Mercury
Today
Zero
***
Reviewed albums:
Pisces Iscariot (1994) - 78/100
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