Do you remember your first time hearing this month’s cover story band? Chances are it was way past midnight and there were a few flannel shirts in the room and tons of hairspray and at least two guys with eyeliner.
Right away it was clear that it was a slightly different sound and long guitar jams almost seemed super cool again. The screeching vocals nearly pop an eardrum, but yet you have to hear another song then another and so on.
While, yes, they had their day and at one time had the world at their fingertips and, yes, they kinda threw it all away with pettiness, drugs and drama, there was always hope that maybe – just maybe – they would come back bigger and better.
Well … they are back, and it seems to be going well. Let’s hope that we can get a second glimpse of what was once a really good thing. Here’s a little more about this month’s cover.
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band based out of Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan, along with bassist D’arcy Wretzky James Iha on guitar and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Over the next three decades, the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder.
They became known for their diverse, densely layered and guitar-heavy sound, while still using elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoe gazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group’s primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band’s albums and songs, which have been described as “anguished, sometimes angry and often bruised that seemed to be created from the inner workings of Billy Corgan’s nightmare-land” mind.
The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993’s Siamese Dream. Several songs including “Today” and “Disarm” both did well in the charts. The group then continued to build its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, brought a kit their untimely and ultimate demise.
The band was dormant for the most of a decade before finally giving it a second try. They have recently started working together and have headlined several shows this year. All with terrific success.
Let’s hope they have grown up a little and can work together on a future EP as the alternative masses await.
