SMASHING PUMPKINS
official site
MySpace
Alternative
Chicago,United States
Billy Corgan - vocals, guitar
Jimmy Chamberlin - drums, percussion
Ginger Reyes - bass, backing vocals
Jeff Schroeder - guitar
Lisa Harriton - keys, backing vocals
Дискография
- Gish - 1991
- Siamese Dream -1993
- Pisces Iscariot - 1994
- Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - 1995
- Adore - 1998
- Machina/The Machines Of God - 2000
- Machina II: The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music - 2000
- Zeitgeist - 2007
: Музыка растерзанных тыкв
Возрожденные при странных обстоятельствах и с серьезными
кадровыми потерями Smashing Pumpkins прилежно занимаются записью нового
материала. Однако сведения из студии долетают обрывочные. Но
обнадеживающие - для тех, кто продолжает верить в созидательную силу
великого и ужасного Билли Коргана (Billy Corgan).
Пока, насколько известно, компанию ему составляет только один
бывший коллега по группе - барабанщик Джимми Чемберлен (Jimmy
Chamberlin). На днях он записывал в студии свою партию и поделился
впечталениями о новом материале с посетителями блога группы.
"Я здесь, чтобы рассказать вам о том, какие прекрасные вещи
ожидают нас в будущем, - ничуть не смущаясь пафоса, приступает к
рассказу Чемберлен. - Как некоторые из вас знают, мы действительно
снова создаем музыку - музыку, которая является из места настолько
чистого, что выжжет все ложь из душ тех, кто пытается ее опорочить. Мы
достигли состояния, где правда и чистота - превыше всего, и творим свою
музыку."
Эта музыка, по заверениям барабанщика, "звучит фантастически".
Космические метафоры кажутся ему наиболее адекватными для ее описания.
Даже запись своего соло он сравнивает с космическим путешествием на
другую планету, длительность которого невозможно установить или
почувствовать.
Восторг Чемберлена пока разделяют и продюсеры, работающие над
записью: Рой Томас Бейкер, писавший Queen, и Терри Дейт, работавший с
Soundgarden и Deftones. Название, дата выхода - все это коружено тайной
или, точнее будет сказать, неизвестностью. Но Билли Корган уже
собирается в следующем году отправиться в тур в поддержку этого
альбома.
25.10.2006, Дед ЗВУКАРЬ (ЗВУКИ РУ)
http://metalmachine.narod.ru/fan.html
Из всех альтернативных рок-групп начала 90-х, "Smashing Pumpkins"
менее всего находились под влиянием традиционного рок-андеграунда.
Гитарист и автор песен Билли Корган готовил смесь прогрессива, тяжелого
металла, готики и психоделии, создавая слоистый, мощный звук.
Фактически, "Smashing Pumpkins" стали моделью для успешной
альтернативной группы - "Nirvana" были слишком деструктивны, а "Pearl
Jam" избегали успеха. Сын джазового гитариста, Билли Корган, выросший в
пригороде Чикаго, в 19 лет покинул дом, чтобы уехать во Флориду со
своей неоперившейся готической группой "The Markes". Но проект потерпел
неудачу, и в 1988-м Билли возвратился в Чикаго. В магазине, куда он
устроился, Корган встретил Джеймса Иху (гитара), с которым они начали
записываться, используя в качестве ударных драм-машину. Вскоре Билли
познакомился с басисткой Д'Арси Врецки, которая присоединилась к их
компании.
Группа, доукомплектованная барабанщиком Джимми Чамберлином,
получила название "Smashing Pumpkins". В 1990-м "Тыквы" выпустили свой
первый сингл, "I Am One", изданный на местном лейбле "Limited
Potential". Пластинка быстро разошлась, а в декабре появился очередной
релиз, "Tristessa". Тут начали суетиться компании звукозаписи, и
"Smashing Pumpkins" решили заключить контракт с "Virgin Records".
Smashing Pumpkins Выпущенный весной 1991 года и представлявший
собой микс "Black Sabbath" и дрим-попа, альбом "Gish" стал повсеместным
хитом, особенно в студенческой среде. В поддержку диска "Тыквы"
организовали глобальное турне, продолжавшееся более года и включавшее в
себя выступления с "Red Hot Chili Peppers" и "Pearl Jam". Во время
гастролей в коллективе возник ряд внутренних проблем: любовники Иха и
Д'Арси поссорились, Чамберлин увлекся наркотиками и алкоголем, а Корган
впал в тяжелую депрессию. Вся эта бодяга продолжалось и при записи
второго альбома, "Siamese Dream". Но потихоньку Корган избавился от
депрессии и включился в работу с удвоенной энергией, взяв на себя
запись почти всех гитарных и басовых партий. Тем не менее, выход
альбома откладывался несколько раз. Диск появился на прилавках в июле
1993-го, дебютировав в чартах под номером 10. Лучшими вещами на нем
были "Cherub Rock", "Today" и "Disarm".
"Smashing Pumpkins" стали хедлайнерами "Lollapalooza 1994", а
по завершении тура группа приступила к работе над новым альбомом. В
промежутке между студийниками в октябре 1994-го был выпущен сборник
би-сайдов и раритетов, "Pisces Iscariot". Многие сомневались, что
двойной альбом с таким дурацким названием как "Mellon Collie And The
Infinite Sadness" будет иметь успех. К их удивлению работа стартовала
под номером один, а ее тираж не единожды пересекал платиновую отметку.
Smashing Pumpkins "Тыквы" собирали целые стадионы и были на
пике популярности, когда в группе опять начались проблемы. 12 июля от
передозировки героина скончался гастрольный клавишник, Джонатан
Мелвойн. Чамберлин чудом умудрился переварить такую же дозу, но его
выгнали из команды, и "Smashing Pumpkins" потратили два месяца на
поиски нового барабанщика. В августе было объявлено, что гастрольным
ударником группы станет Мэтт Уолкер, а гастрольным клавишником - Деннис
Флемион, после чего "Тыквы" отправились в пятимесячный тур. Весной
1997-го "Smashing Pumpkins" поучаствовали в создании саундтрека к
фильму "Batman & Robin". В начале 1998-го Иха записал свой первый
сольник, а несколькими месяцами позже вышел очередной "тыквенный"
лонгплей, "Adore", оказавшийся не очень удачным. После этого в команду
вернулся Чамберлин, зато ушла Д'Арси.
Немного времени спустя Корган объявил о своем решении
распустить группу. С бывшей басисткой "Hole" Мелиссой Ауф Дер Маур в
2000 году "Smashing Pumpkins" начали свой прощальный тур, который
завершился 2 декабря концертом в Чикаго. В 2001 году Корган совместно с
Чамберлином замутил новый проект "Zwan", а Иха и Ауф Дер Маур начали
играть в "The Virgins". По прошествии четырех лет Билли заявил о
намерении возродить "Smashing Pumpkins", а вскоре участие в реюнионе
подтвердил и Джимми. В 2006-м они начали готовить материал для нового
альбома, дату выпуска которого назначили на июль следующего года. // http://hardrockcafe.narod.ru/
• GALANET
После того, как знаменитая команда прекращает существование,
поклонникам остается надеяться лишь на выпуск альбома лучших хитов и
нереализованных ранее раритетных записей. Судя по всему, нечто подобное
происходит с почившей недавно в бозе командой Smashing Pumpkins: до
издаваемых официальным путем бутлегов пока не дошло, а вот greatest
hits уже "в дороге". Альбом будет снабжен некоторыми аут-тэйками, то
есть песнями, не вошедшими в предыдущие пластинки. В качестве
специального подарка фанатам. Релиз сборника намечен в нескольких
форматах, включая DVD, и состоится уже в следующем месяце.
По информации американского отделения MTV, бывший лидер "Тыкв"
Билли Корган приятно - а главное, неожиданно - порадовал своим
появлением публику, собравшуюся на концерт-трибьют имени Smashing
Pumpkins. Он прошел в прошлую субботу в тихом гангстерском городке
Чикаго. Там Билли и рассказал восторженной толпе, что коллекция лучших
хитов не за горами, и что она будет приправлена несколькими редкостями:
упоминавшимися выше аут-тэйками и би-сайтами. В пластинку войдут лучшие
песни из альбомов "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" (в свое
время он был удостоен премии Грэмми), "Adore" и "Machina/The Machines
of God".
АЛЕКСАНДРА ЛОПАТА, GALA.net (по материалам NME.com)
english wikipedia.org
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that
formed in Chicago in 1988.[1] While the group has gone through several
lineup changes, The Smashing Pumpkins consisted of Billy Corgan
(vocals/guitar), James Iha (guitar/vocals), D'arcy Wretzky
(bass/vocals), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums/percussion) for most of the
band's recording career.
Disavowing the punk rock roots shared by many of their alt-rock
contemporaries, the Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered, and
guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal,
dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazer-style
production and, in later recordings, electronica. Frontman Billy Corgan
is the group's primary songwriter—his grand musical ambitions and
cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have
been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's
nightmare-land".
The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with
their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built their
audience with extensive touring and their follow-up, 1995's double
album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on
the Billboard charts. With approximately 18.3 million albums sold in
the United States alone as of 2006, The Smashing Pumpkins were one of
the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the
1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing sales
hampered the band and led to a 2000 break-up. In April 2006, the band
officially announced that they were reuniting and recording a new
album. Returning members Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were joined
by new additions Jeff Schroeder (guitar/vocals), Ginger Reyes
(bass/vocals), and Lisa Harriton (keyboard/vocals) in 2007 to tour in
support of their new release, Zeitgeist.
History
Early years: 1988–1991
At the age of nineteen, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left
his native Chicago, Illinois, moving to St. Petersburg, Florida with
his gothic rock band The Marked. The band had limited success and
quickly broke up. Corgan returned to Chicago, taking a job in a record
store. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning
themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began
writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were
heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. Corgan met bassist D'arcy
Wretzky in 1988 after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued
the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass, Corgan
stated his band's need for a bassist and gave Wretzky his telephone
number. Wretzky soon joined the band, and she and Iha later had a
short-lived romance The first performance of The Smashing Pumpkins was
on July 9, 1988, at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance
included only Corgan and Iha with a drum machine.On August 10, 1988,
the band played for the first time as a trio at the Avalon Nightclub.
After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the
band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live
drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recruited for the band after
a recommendation from a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin was at first an
unlikely match, as he knew nothing of alternative rock at the time. As
Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock,
Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I
realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to
rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the
complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret
Metro.Although not an official member of the band at this point,
Chamberlin would soon be announced as such, and the complete
four-person lineup from this first show at the Metro would be unchanged
for the next seven years.
In 1989, the group had recorded a handful of demo tapes, which
appeared later on the bootleg release Early 1989 Demos. The Pumpkins
made their first appearance on vinyl that same year on the compilation
album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative
bands. They released their first record, a limited edition single of "I
Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single
sold out and they released another single, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop,
after which they signed to Caroline Records. The Smashing Pumpkins
recorded their 1991 debut album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his
Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, for $20,000. In order to gain the
consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments save drums,
which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars,
psychedelia and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's
Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros"
receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull
EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with
Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported
the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red
Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the
tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became
addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep
depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking
garage where he lived at the time.
Mainstream success: 1992–1994
With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American
mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and
Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial
success. At this time, and amid their protests, the Pumpkins were
routinely lumped in with the grunge movement. In a Halloween night
interview on MTV's 120 Minutes in 1993, Corgan remarked, "We've
graduated now from [being called] 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the
next Nirvana,' now we're 'the next Pearl Jam.'The group nevertheless
contributed the song "Drown" to the platinum-selling soundtrack of the
1992 movie Singles, a film set in the Seattle grunge music scene.
The band in concert in 1993, as shown in the Greatest Hits Video
Collection (2001). They performed "Geek U.S.A." live with fifty
professional clowns onstage after they were told they would be
presented however they wished on tour.
The band in concert in 1993, as shown in the Greatest Hits Video
Collection (2001). They performed "Geek U.S.A." live with fifty
professional clowns onstage after they were told they would be
presented however they wished on tour.
Corgan said that in the wake of Nirvana's landmark 1991 album
Nevermind, "We felt a great pressure that if we didn't come up with a
record that was huge, we were done. It was that simple in our minds. We
felt like our lives depended on it."[6] Corgan's depression deepened to
the point where he contemplated suicide. To counteract his depression,
Corgan worked overtime, saying he practically lived in the studio for
the 1993 follow-up album, Siamese Dream. The album was recorded at
Triclops Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, mostly between December
1992 and March 1993. The band lived in Marietta during the sessions, as
Butch Vig reprised his role as producer. The decision to record so far
away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to
avoid local friends and distractions during the recording, but largely
as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug
connections.In this respect, the strategy failed, as Chamberlin quickly
managed to find new connections and often was absent without any
contact for days at a time.
The recording environment was very difficult, and the band
fought constantly. The contemporary music press portrayed Corgan as a
tyrant during the recording sessions. Corgan admitted there was some
truth to the accusations, though he felt the press misunderstood the
situation. Rumors circulated that he had recorded all the guitar and
bass parts himself. It was never confirmed exactly how much each member
participated on the album; Corgan did say he performed a majority of
the guitar work, but only because he could record tracks and parts in
far fewer takes.In 2007, Corgan would finally clarify the nature of the
band's recording habits, stating "ninety-seven percent of what you
would hear off of any Smashing Pumpkins record is, pretty much, just
Billy and Jimmy."
In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with
the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its
recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard charts,
and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. MTV put the videos
for the songs "Today" and "Disarm" into heavy rotation, garnering the
Pumpkins international attention.
While the Pumpkins were successful, they were not universally
adored by the alternative rock community. Participants in the indie
scene had derided the band as careerists since their early days. Indie
rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" refers to the band with the
lines "I don't understand what they mean/And I could really give a
fuck", which have been widely interpreted as an insult (although
Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated "I never dissed
their music. I just dissed their status."). Former Hüsker Dü frontman
Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago
musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to
an article praising the band. He countered that the Pumpkins were no
more alternative than REO Speedwagon and said they were created "by, of
and for the mainstream" and "stylistically appropriate for the current
college party scene, but ultimately insignificant". Others such as
Courtney Love of Hole (who dated Corgan before marrying Nirvana's Kurt
Cobain) were vocal supporters of the band.
In 1994, Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation
Pisces Iscariot which outperformed Siamese Dream by reaching number
four on the Billboard charts. Also released was a VHS cassette titled
Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes
footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings,
including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading
Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997
Corgan worked nonstop over the next year and wrote, according to
statements in interviews, about fifty-six songs for the next album.
Following this spell of concentrated creativity, the Pumpkins went back
into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what
Corgan described as The Wall for Generation X", a comparison with Pink
Floyd's famous two-LP concept album.
The result was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double
album featuring twenty-eight songs and lasting over two hours (the
vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs,
and an alternate tracklisting). The songs were intended to hang
together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death.
Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work
yet",[ Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard charts in
October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified
nine times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling
double album of the decade to date.It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy
Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the
Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet
with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with
Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight", and
"Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but
"Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the remaining songs that did not
make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and
were eventually compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. As a
testament to the band's popularity, Virgin Records originally intended
to limit the set to 200,000 copies, but produced more after the
original run sold out due to overwhelming demand.
In 1996, the Pumpkins embarked on an extended world tour in
support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved
head, a longsleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and
silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest
appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With
considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero"
shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the
most popular bands of the time. But the year was far from entirely
positive for the band. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at
The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The venue was overcrowded and
despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a
seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death.
The concert ended early and the following night's performance in
Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan
maintained that moshing’s “time [had] come and gone,” the band would
continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the
tour.
The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11,
1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin
overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and
Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band
announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the
incident.The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt
Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision
to continue touring was the worst the band had ever made, damaging both
their music and their reputation. Meanwhile the band had given
interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be
the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming
stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic
music. It really seems boring just to play rock music."
Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000
After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed
multiple songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the
song “Eye” relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and
signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins’ previous musical styles. At
the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and
get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format”. Later that
year, the group contributed "The End is the Beginning is the End" to
the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on
drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet With
Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The
song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though
Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could
expect from the band in the future, the band’s next album would feature
few guitar driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's
mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change
of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into
electronica. The record, cut with assistance from studio drummers and
drum machines, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the
band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding
its alternative hipster look for a more subdued appearance. Although
Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative
Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000
copies in the United States by the end of the year, which lead the
music industry to consider it a failure. The album nonetheless sold
three times as many copies overseas. On June 30, 1998, the band
embarked on a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour
in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100
percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's
expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told,
the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour.
In 1999, the band surprised fans by reuniting with a
rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising",
which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was
short-lived, however, as upon the completion of the album Machina/The
Machines of God, the band announced the departure of Wretzky in
September. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for
the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in
the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was
initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock
sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore.The album
debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly
disappeared and as of 2007 has only been certified gold. Music
journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the
strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in
comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof
that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward
alternative rock."
On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los
Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the
end of that year following additional touring and recording. The
group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends &
Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited
pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free
redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were
cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band
along with band members themselves. The album, released under the
Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double
LP and three ten-inch EPs. This is the only Smashing Pumpkins studio
album that is not under an EMI-owned record label. Originally, the band
asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who
bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release
the material independently.
On December 2, 2000, The Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell
concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had
effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-hour-long show
featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given
a recording of the band’s first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret
Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to
coincide with the farewell show.
Post-breakup: 2001–2004
In 2001, the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The
double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition,
included a B-sides/rarities collection called Judas Ø. The Greatest
Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time, which
compiled all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along
with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as
was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio
stations in 1994.
Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members
of Corgan's next project, the shortlived supergroup Zwan. Their only
album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released to generally positive reviews
but, after cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the
demise of the band in 2003 under cloudy circumstances. During 2001,
Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their
comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004, Corgan released his first
book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he
released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace. It was greeted with generally
mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade",
was released in support of the album.
In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed
an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called The Jimmy
Chamberlin Complex. They released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins
Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha
served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their
Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been
involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa
and the O's. He continues to work with his own record label as well,
Scratchie Records. D'arcy Wretzky has not made any public statements or
appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On
January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three
bags of crack cocaine, but after successfully completing a
court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped.
Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not
reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was
in Smashing Pumpkins [. . .] I think it was naive of me to think that I
could find something that would mean as much to me." On February 17,
2004, Corgan posted a bitter message on his personal blog calling
Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup
of The Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of
my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha
responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up
the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy."
Reunion: 2005–present
On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his album
TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out a full-page advertisement in the
Chicago Tribune newspaper to announce that he planned to reunite the
band. "For a year now," Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a
secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the
first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing
Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams."While
performing at various drum clinics across Europe in September 2005,
Jimmy Chamberlin confirmed that a reunion tour was planned to begin the
next February, with a new album possibly to follow. In February 2006,
MTV.com reported that Corgan and Chamberlin had signed a new management
deal with Front Line Management, and Melissa Auf der Maur stated that
the pair were currently working on an album of new material
On April 20, 2006, the band's authorized website,
www.smashingpumpkins.com, confirmed the reunion stating, "It's
official. The Smashing Pumpkins are currently writing songs for their
upcoming album, their first since 1999." The website later reported
that the new album would be produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who produced
many of Queen's albums, including A Night at the Opera. According to a
MySpace blog posting by Jimmy Chamberlin on October 20, 2006, they
finished work with Baker and had also enlisted help from producer Terry
Date, who has worked with Deftones, Pantera, and Soundgarden.
Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the
reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of
the band would participate. In April 2007, Iha and Auf der Maur
separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion.
Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a
part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the
first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the
band unveiled new members Jeff Schroeder and Ginger Reyes, who took
over second guitarist and bassist duties, respectively, as well as Lisa
Harriton on keyboards. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the
first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band
performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new
album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records,
entering the Billboard charts at number two. Chamberlin has confirmed
that the band will be going back into the studio to record a new album
at the completion of the current tour. The group released a four song
EP entitled American Gothic in January 2008. The EP was released
digitally on iTunes in the US, while internationally, the EP was
released as a CD.
Musical style and influences
The direction of the band is dominated by chief guitarist, lead
vocalist, and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot
wrote, "The music [of The Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is
without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured
relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf
der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows
Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other
than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board."Many of Corgan's lyrics
for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal
musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music
critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim
DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's
lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the
lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement.
The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore
involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the
recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army". There were a
few overdubbed parts on Gish, but Corgan said he really began to
explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has
stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts.
While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to
replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs
were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the
use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with
making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it
with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was
inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s arena rock bands Queen, Boston, and
Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative
rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling
layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan
Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a
fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine,
Ride, and Slowdive.
Like many contemporary alternative bands, The Smashing Pumpkins
utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice
versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band
how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and
Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand
musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own
alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener,
"Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet
Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore
(described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the
Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock
band).
The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres,
some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in
particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing
Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When
one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is
one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were
among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and
Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt", Corgan went on to
rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's
Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas
Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal". Post-punk
and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, The Cure,
and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered
such artists in concert and on record. Psychedelic rock was also
referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan,
"In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud
guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had
to do." Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the
Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with
the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock",
"Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix.
Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, The Stooges, and
Blue Cheer.
Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot
wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the
Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and
bands have mentioned the Pumpkins as an influence, such as Nelly
Furtado and members of My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance
vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the
Pumpkins',including the attention they pay to their music videos. The
members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan,and
lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins.Deftones
lead singer Chino Moreno said in an interview that he is a fan of
Adore, listening to it extensively while touring, and that "Once Upon a
Time" "really moves" him. Critics have found connections with the
Pumpkins' sound in various Deftones albums.
Music videos
A scene from the "Tonight, Tonight" music video, winner of the
MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 1996. Drawing heavy
influence from Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon, the video was
filmed in the style of a turn-of-the-century silent film using
theater-style backdrops and primitive special effects.
A scene from the "Tonight, Tonight" music video, winner of the MTV
Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 1996. Drawing heavy
influence from Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon, the video was
filmed in the style of a turn-of-the-century silent film using
theater-style backdrops and primitive special effects.
The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised for being "responsible
for some of the '90s' most striking and memorable video clips" and for
having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather
than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special
Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with
Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the
1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call
the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around
and stuff." The band worked with acclaimed video directors including
Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly
Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie
Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End is the Beginning
is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily
involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I
know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always
talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like
"Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle
American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid
the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for
"Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song,
was created as an intentional stylistic departure.
The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards
during the 1990s; in 1996, the '1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos
combined to win seven VMAs, including the top award, Video of the Year,
for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at
the 1997 ceremony. Fans reacted with equal fervor. Of the "Tonight,
Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people
react [like this]...it just seemed to touch a nerve."
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