The Pumpkins
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Smashing Pumpkins History
The Smashing Pumpkins story begins in 1988. For it was then that two guitar players in Chicago, Billy Corgan and James Iha, met and decided to form a band. At this point, Corgan was working in a used-record shop and living with his father, Bill Corgan Sr. a professional guitar player. Iha, on the other hand, was still in school, studying graphic arts at Chicago's Loyola University.
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Playing together and working on songs by both guitarists, Corgan and Iha finally developed enough material to make their live debut in Chicago at a Polish bar where Corgan played bass and a drum machine kept time. Although Corgan's previous musical output was as a member of a Florida metal band called Marked, he describes the nascent Pumpkins sound as "gloomy art rock." Soon after he and Iha's Polish bar gig, Corgan got into an argument outside a club -- about a band called the Dan Reed Network -- with a woman named D'Arcy. As the two argued, D'Arcy let it slip that she played guitar. Corgan immediately ceased being confrontational and asked her if she'd like to play bass in his and Iha's band. Corgan handed her his phone number, and despite an awful audition, she soon became the third Pumpkin.
Catching the ear and eye of a local club owner, the rapidly progressing, and growing, Pumpkins were booked to open a show for Jane's Addiction, provided they tossed the drum machine in favor of a human timekeeper. Thus, Jimmy Chamberlin, a drummer more adept at the time at playing jazz rhythms than alternative music, was brought into the fold. With Chamberlin's addition, the Pumpkins became a complete entity. But in 1996, Jimmy was kicked out for drug use.
After more opening gigs, the next step for the band was to record. A single of the Iha and Corgan song "I Am One" -- which later appeared on the Pumpkins first LP "Gish" -- on Chicago local label, Limited Potential, established that the band actually had much potential. Label interest was stoked even more with the release of an additional 7-inch in December 1990 on the supergrunge label Sub Pop, this time of the song "Tristessa" -- which also appeared later on "Gish." Eschewing a proper major-label deal, the Pumpkins signed to Caroline Records, an independent label owned by Virgin Records.
Recorded by Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisc., "Gish," was released in May of 1991 and went on to become one of the most heralded albums of that year -- no mean feat considering the fact that Nirvana's "Nevermind," also recorded by Vig, came out that year as well. The album was a swirling musical epic that was noticeably hard to pin down. While retaining aspects of the Iha and Corgan duo's gloomy art-rock days, "Gish" also displayed Corgan's growing knack for writing grand but accessible songs influenced by such disparate sources as Black Sabbath, Bauhaus, the Cure, Jimi Hendrix and Cheap Trick. Whatever the formula, it worked. To date, "Gish" -- since reissued on Virgin Records -- has sold more than 700,000 copies.
After completing "Gish," the band went on tour for a year and a half. It was at this time that the Pumpkins' life began turning into a painstakingly well-documented soap opera. First, Iha and D'Arcy, who had been dating, broke up as a couple while the band was on the road. The strain this created never hurt the Pumpkins musically, but it took an emotional toll on all of the members. Then, just as the chorus of praise for "Gish" was becoming louder and louder, Corgan began to develop such acute insecurities about himself and his talents that by the time the band returned to Chicago after touring, he was virtually suicidal. Next, Chamberlin announced to his bandmates that he was despairingly addicted to drink and drugs and that he would enter rehab. Finally, although critics and a healthy number of college kids were smitten with the Pumpkins at this point in their career, in the incredibly provincial and hipper-than-thou music scene of their hometown, the always-on-the-outside Pumpkins were subjected to a vicious and distracting outpouring of animosity. So it was that after the "Gish" tour, just when Smashing Pumpkins should have been exulting in triumph, they were in serious danger of destructing.
In Chicago, Corgan found himself debilitated by writer's block while pressure for the Pumpkins to get started on their next album, which would also be their major-label debut for Virgin, mounted. Eventually, Corgan squeaked his way out of depression through the therapeutic process of finally being able to write a song, as well as through therapy proper. Meanwhile, Smashing Pumpkins' popularity was given a significant boost as a result of their contribution of the song "Drown" to the soundtrack of the popular film "Singles."
Entering the studio with Vig again at the control boards, the Pumpkins began work in Atlanta on their second LP, "Siamese Dream." With communication between the band members at an all time low, Corgan ended up playing almost all of the guitar and bass parts himself, leaving Iha and D'Arcy out of the picture. Nevertheless, maniacally driven to capture his now blossoming musical ideas at their most perfect, Corgan worked incessantly with Vig, eventually turning in the finished album about a month behind schedule. "Siamese Dream" was released in July of 1993 and entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at No. 10. To date, it has sold more than 3 million copies.
Touring in support of "Siamese Dream," the band still had serious difficulties interpersonally. Musically however, they had clearly improved as a unit, and no matter how much Corgan was the mastermind of the band's grand schemes, in a live setting it clearly took the effort of the whole band to bring his ideas to life. In 1994, the Pumpkins were paid just about the highest honor in the alternative rock world by being asked to headline that year's Lollapalooza tour.
Immediately following Lollapalooza, the band once again returned to Chicago, at which time Corgan immediately began writing material for the Pumpkins' next release. Before any new songs were recorded, though, a collection of Pumpkins' rarities and B-Sides was released in October 1994; it was entitled "Pisces Iscariot."
Getting down to the business of the next album, Corgan penned several dozen songs. It was decided that instead of going through the trouble of whittling down his voluminous output to the usual 13 or 14 songs, the new album would stretch 28 songs over two albums. Work began on "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" with band relations much improved. Corgan relaxed his despotic grip on the recording process, and Iha and D'Arcy are featured on the new album's tracks playing their respective instruments. As in the past, though, Corgan searched for perfection in the studio with an ardor verging yet again on the psychotic side. Working without Vig this time, co-producers Flood and Alan Moulder provided a sounding board for Corgan's ideas to new and interesting effect.
With a healthier outlook and a newly found strength and maturity, Smashing Pumpkins look to have triumphed over the collective and personal demons that consistently dogged them during the last few years. Corgan has said recently that when the band does tour in support of "Mellon Collie," they wish to shun large arenas in favor of smaller venues that will allow the new material a considered hearing.
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