| 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 super grunge 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,"
alsorecorded 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 band mates 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 master mind 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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