Billy Corgan - Vocals and Guitar
James Iha - Guitar and Vocals
D'Arcy - Bass
and Vocals
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. 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. The
band has retained this lineup ever since. 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 yearas 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 growingknack 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 anda 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 beganto 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
beenexulting 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 of 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 infavor
of smaller venues that will allow the new material a considered
hearing. In 1998, they released their new album called Adore and they expect
to sold more than the previous one.And at the moment their new album "Adore"
is in the top positions on the album charts all over the world including
our country Greece.The Smashing Pumpkins are with no doubt the rock band
of the decade.
Adore marks the latest creative chapter
for The Smashing Pumpkins, a band that has broken through barriers
since its inception. Produced by Billy Corgan, the new album was
recorded
in Los Angeles and Chicago and released
in June 2 1998.Adore is the follow-up to The Smashing Pumpkins multi-platinum
selling album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. That album
garnered the band a Grammy Award (Best Hard Rock
Performance) and 7 MTV Video Music Awards (including Video of
the Year and Breakthrough Video). Critics and fans alike lauded
the album -- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
was named Album of the Year by Time Magazine. Readers of Rolling Stone
and Request voted it Album of the Year. Editors of
Rolling Stone named Billy Corgan Best
Songwriter and Best Songwriter and Request
editors named The Smashing Pumpkins their Artist of the
Year. The band also completed their most ambitious and successful tour
ever, playing 165 shows over a 13-month time
period and reaching 5 continents. This past year the band received
their 2nd Granimy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
for their song "The End is the Beginning is
the End."
Title: Gish
Label: Caroline/Virgin
Released: 1991
2
Title: Siamese Dream
Label: Virgin
Released: 1993
3
Title: Pisces Iscariot
Label: Virgin
Released: 1994
4
Title: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Label: Virgin
Released: 1995
5
Title: Adore
Label: Virgin
Released: June 1, 1998 (UK)