BANDS REVIEW (2)

The Smashing Pumpkins were darlings of alternative rock during the 90's. Cool people remember their first album, Gish, produced by Butch Vig. I was not a fan of the Pumpkins at that point and did not really have an interest in them then. My interest in the Pumpkins came with Siamese Dream. Interestingly the first track I heard was Cherub Rock which to this day I cannot stand. But the follow-up song that got airplay on alt radio was "Disarm". My how I loved that song. To this day I can count it as one of my all time favorite songs.

 Siamese Dream became one of the great alt rock albums during the heydey. The Pumpkins followed it with the smash hit, double album, MTV friendly Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. My favorite song as well as a young daughter's was "Bullet With Butterfly Wings". Other hits followed: "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight", and "Thirty-Three". They were a constant on alt radio from 1995-1997.
        One of the better songs that followed the Mellon collie years was for the crappy Batman and Robin movie called "The End is the Beginning is the End". It actually won a Grammy which doesn't always mean the song sounds good but in this case it may have been deserved.

This is one of single from Smashing Pumkins,check out :)



The Pumpkins finished out the decade with two more albums that were mostly ignored but were actually very strong performances: Adore and Machina. One of my favorite Pumpkins song was from Adore called "Ave Adore". It is a nice rocker with a slick beat.
       Corgan kept the Pumpkins together off and on throughout the 2,000's to the present but like most grunge/alt rockers hasn't found his groove again.
        I have to confess to being a little ambivalent towards the Smashing Pumpkins. I just could not get into Corgan's whiny singing voice. There were only a handful of songs I liked but I admit to ranking "Disarm" as one of my all-time faves



Billy Corgan (vocal)

  As fans of alt rock know the Smashing Pumpkins consisted of James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin. The band was and has always been Corgan's. The music and lyrics all claim his signature. The original band was always talented and made great music.