In this third and final installment of the Billy Corgan albums of 1998, we will look at the work of his own band, The Smashing Pumpkins. Arguably the biggest band of the mid-nineties, the Pumpkins were riding an unbelievable wave of success. After selling six million copies of their double-album opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the Pumpkins were poised to make their stamp as a band that would last for years to come. Their next album found them altering their formula completely and catching many off guard. One more album after that and they were no more.
Formed in Chicago in the late ’80s, the Smashing Pumpkins never really fit into the categories the music press. They were a little too clean to be grunge. They were a little too self-aware to be unassuming. And like the previous bands Marilyn Manson and Hole, the Smashing Pumpkins were the driving force of one artist (Billy Corgan) supported by great musicians around him. Unlike the other bands, there were very few lineup changes.
Their first album, Gish, made a small ripple in the college radio circuit, and steady touring built up a decent fan base. For their second album, Siamese Dream, they went back into the studio with influential producer Butch Vig (Garbage). Vig’s production, along with Steve Albini and Brendan O’Brien, constructed the sound of the early nineties, producing both Goo for Sonic Youth and Nevermind by Nirvana. Spurned by their crossover hit “Today,” the Pumpkins were heralded as one of the leaders of the alternative revolution, and the future sound of music.
How does one top a genre-defining album? By releasing 28 tracks that covers all of the bases, including hard rockers, sweet ballads, and melodramatic movements. Simultaneously criticized as bloated and pretentious along with praise for fulfilling potential, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness catapulted The Smashing Pumpkins to a height Billy Corgan had always dreamed his band would reach. Working with producer Flood, whose work includes Violator by Depeche Mode, Corgan created an ostentatious sound that matched the sound of his ’70s music idols David Bowie, Cheap Trick, and Queen. Released on October 24th, 1995, and preceded by the smash “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” Mellon Collie was a commercial blockbuster.
And it seemed for about 18 months, the Smashing Pumpkins could do no wrong, as they were front and center in the music media spotlight. Just as Butterfly Wings began to lose steam, 1979 became a huge hit, and when that started to fall down the charts, “Tonight, Tonight” became a permanent fixture on MTV’s playlist, culminating in the “Best Video” award at the 1997 VMA’s.
That is not to say it was all roses for the Pumpkins. Those 18 months (almost entirely spent on the road) saw interband strife and legal troubles, culminating with the death of Jonathon Melvoin of a heroin overdose. The touring keyboard player, Melvoin had become close with Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, bonding over their love of music and drugs. Chamberlain had been partying with him in the room (he was the one who called 911) and was promptly arrested on drug possession charges. During the maelstrom of media scrutiny, Corgan unceremoniously dumped his good friend and founding member. Getting Filter’s Matt Walker to finish the tour, the Pumpkins carried on without much time to reflect. When the tour ended, they took a short sabbatical and recollected themselves.
It was rumored that Corgan and company where going to go into an electronic direction, especially of the announcement that there would not be a replacement for Chamberlain. People got their first chance to hear the Pumpkins new sound with the release of “Eye” for the soundtrack of David Lynch’s film Lost Highway. While it was no “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” the fan base was overwhelmingly positive for the track, and became a live favorite.
The death of his estranged mother became the focus of the album. Saying in interviews that he didn’t really know his mother, he was deeply moved by her passing. Corgan was in a pensive mood and wanted to shift his music to reflect that mood. Not one for modesty (or restrain), his “simpler” album would contain 17 tracks and run for over 70 minutes.
Perhaps due to the personal nature of the album, Corgan did all of the work on Adore. Previous albums featured at least a couple of Iha songs or collaborations. Not so for Adore, which was exclusively a Corgan affair. One look at the credits exclaims in bold type “Written and Produced by Billy Corgan.” Matt Walker appears in the credits more than anyone not named Corgan. Adore emphasized an earnestness that had only been shown in flashes on previous albums, including the bloated Mellon Collie.
The one thing Adore lacked most, unfortunately, was the one thing the masses wanted; stadium anthems. For a band whose fame grew on the sound of loud, bombastic brashness, this turn into softer, unguarded territory let many fans alienated. Critics, too, didn’t initially know what to think of the album. It would be an overstatement to say Adore was ahead of its time, but tracks like “Once Upon a Time” and “Perfect” capture an aesthetic (electro-acoustic, orchestral-synth flourishes, whiny vocals) would fit right into any emo/modern rock playlist today.
Their next album, MACHINA: the Machines of God, saw them return to form so to speak. Opening track and first single “Everlasting Gaze,” was to put everyone on notice that the Pumpkins of old where back. But it was too late. By the year 2000, the musical winds had changed and nu-metal and boy bands were the order of the day.
Further cementing that the band was always Billy’s baby, he announced that the Pumpkins would be no more. After a two night stand (sans original bassist D’arcy and with replacement Melissa Auf Der Maur) at the Chicago Metro on December 1st and 2nd of 2000, they played a retrospective of their career in front of long time hometown fans. And in a final f*ck you to their label, Corgan gave 100 copies of “Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music” to friends who he knew would put the tracks on the internet, leaking the final document of a band that had been through many changes when it began 13 years earlier.
Everyone in the band has stayed busy. James Iha joined A Perfect Circle, while Jimmy Chamberlain just recently debuted his new band, the Jimmy Chamberlain Complex. As for Billy, he formed a new band, Zwan, featuring an all-star lineup including David Pajo and Matt Sweeney, not to mention Paz Lechtinin, who he pilfered from the aforementioned A Perfect Circle. Ironically, her replacement was Jeordie White, formerly of Marilyn Manson and newly announced member of Nine Inch Nails. The incestuous cycle of music continues. Zwan stayed together for one album, and then at Billy’s behest, disbanded. He has recently been pushing his book of poetry to the masses, to mixed critical reviews.
By no means where these albums flops, as each had their share of successful singles. These groups where voices for a generation and not just the kinds that are paraded as such in the press, although they had their fare share of time in the limelight. “Despite all my rage/I am still just a rat in a cage” is one of the defining lyrics of that time, and will be quoted along such era-defining lines as “I hope I die before I get old.” But when one thinks of where these groups were, say, just 2 years before the release of the albums covered in this series, and where they
The three albums we covered are so intriguing to me because of the division they caused among those fan bases. To many, Mechanical Animals, Celebrity Skin and Adore are the bastard stepchildren of their bands respective oeuvre. The fact that they were all released in the same year and facilitated by the same man is even more interesting.
As the decade came to a close, all of the bands that represented the era, including Hole, Marilyn Manson, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots lost relevancy and gave way to the kind of mindless and misogynistic music they had initially toppled over. As we have crossed the halfway point of this decade, we should think of the artists that have woven the fabric of this era, and wonder if where they will be just five years from now.
