Who's Simon Defending Now?: The Smashing Pumpkins

Sometimes, good bands just get lost. Despite releasing plenty of good music and finding success, other factors can conspire to knock a band down a few pegs. I think this is what happened to the Smashing Pumpkins, who were once treated as alt-rock royalty and are now the music press’ favorite clowns and media disaster. Of course, their legacy hasn’t been well-maintained, thanks to frontman Billy Corgan and his propensity to do stupid things like taking out full page ads in Chicago newspapers in order to ask the Pumpkins to get back together. However, even with Corgan (hereafter referred to as His Baldness) pulling stunts like that, the band’s body of work is still very strong and influential and it’s worth noting the quality of music the Smashing Pumpkins left behind before His Baldness dragged them down into their current “media circus” status.

Whenever band members bond over being unhappy, it’s usually not a great sign of things to come. Given that all four band members ultimately ended up hating each other, the Pumpkins are probably not the exception that proves the rule. However, they did manage to keep it together long enough to record at least three-and-a-half great albums. After clawing their way up through the Chicago rock scene, Corgan and his merry band of misfit, paisley draped cohorts struck gold when their debut album, Gish, fit right into the aesthetic of the emerging grunge scene of 1991. The Pumpkins became one of the earliest non-Seattle-based groups to get lumped into the huge, identity robbing umbrella of “grunge rock.” Whether or not this media classification was fair or not is irrelevant. The Pumpkins did play loud guitar rock, which served as a platform for Corgan’s angst-ridden lyrics and instantly identifiable nasal whine. That grating voice is an obstacle not everyone can get over when it comes to enjoying the Pumpkins’ music, but on Gish, it definitely seems to deliver what the music needs.

The Smashing Pumpkins would never record an album easily again. Their follow-up, 1993’s chart-annihilating Siamese Dream, was doomed by Corgan’s increasing nervous breakdowns and the other band members’ generally irritation with his megalomaniac tendencies during recording sessions. In the end, the majority of the album was recorded by His Baldness alone, relying on his bandmates as little as possible. Just to make sure every Pumpkin was overwhelmed by stress, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin decided this was the perfect time to start disappearing sporadically to feed his drug habit. Needless to say, not all was happy in Camp Pumpkin. Yet, the record was magnificent, creating a sound that was gritty and in-keeping with the still-vibrant alt-rock scene while polishing it up and making it ready for mainstream consumption. Tracks like “Cherub Rock” and “Today” tore the charts apart.

Two years later, His Baldness oversaw one of the most amazingly indulgent musical projects set to tape: the immense double album (and a triple album on vinyl), Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. In case the title didn’t tip anyone off, the resulting two hours of music documented every fleeting emotion Corgan seemed to have had over the past five years, ranging from indignant rage (“Zero”) to buoyant celebration (“Tonight, Tonight”). These recording sessions were, according to all involved, an improvement upon the clusterfuck that surrounded Siamese Dream, but it was still unavoidable that Corgan was making sure the band revolved entirely around him. Again, however, the music was extraordinary and the band again found chart success with the furious “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and the exquisite “1979”.

Finally, in 1996, the runaway train known as the Smashing Pumpkins jumped the tracks. Chamberlin’s drug addiction and lifestyle ended up taking the life of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin when the two of them OD’ed in a New York hotel room. Chamberlin was immediately dismissed from the band and the new Pumpkins record, Adore, was an uncomfortable listen, with amateur drum machines replacing Chamberlin’s deft drumming. Around this time, bassist D’arcy Wretzky decided she’d had enough of His Baldness and left the band. The Smashing Pumpkins were falling apart. (In an odd turn of events, Wretzky virtually disappeared from the world until recently this year, when she randomly called into a radio show to discuss her love for the Monkeys. Go figure.)

Corgan wasn’t content to let his band die, though. He drafted in a new bassist and even brought Jimmy Chamberlin back into the fold, all in order to record two forgettable albums of nasal rage: Machina and Machina II. Neither was very good or successful, with the later not even given a commercial release, instead being made available for free online. This was when Corgan finally realized the Pumpkins were a dead-band-walking. Corgan tried his hand in a new group, Zwan, before taking a stab at a solo career. Both projects were, for lack of more descriptive terms, boring as shit. Then came the infamous full-page ad incident, followed by the not-so-shocking reveal that Wretzky and guitarist James Iha wanted nothing to do with a Pumpkins reunion. However, missing fifty percent of the band wasn’t something that was going to hold His Baldness back. With Chamberlin in tow, he recruited a couple of young gun musicians to play bass and guitar and took his resurrected monstrosity of a band back into the public eye with 2007’s Zeitgeist. No one was surprised when that record proved to be less than mediocre. If only Corgan could have let the Pumpkins’ tarnished legacy rest there, however. Instead, after Chamberlin left the band out of frustration this year, Corgan decided to replace him with a nineteen-year-old drummer he dug up somewhere in Oregon. The saga continues...

All of these personal disasters and media fuck-ups have made people forget the strength of those first three records, which stand as an essential part of the musical landscape of the early-to-mid-90s. Before the personnel exodus began, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most intense, caustic and unique bands to appear during the whole alt-rock bonanza. They left the world with a legacy of great music, followed by a legacy of bullshit. However, my hope is that people can look back at the first half and see the great band that lost its way in recent years.