were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. Lead guitarist/songwriter
fashioned an amalgam of progressive rock, heavy metal, goth rock, psychedelia, and dream pop, creating a layered, powerful sound driven by swirling, distorted guitars.
was wise enough to exploit his angst-ridden lyrics, yet he never shied away from rock star posturing, even if he did cloak it in allegedly ironic gestures. In fact,
became the model for alternative rock success.
was too destructive.
, on the other hand, knew how to play the game, signing to a major-subsidized indie for underground credibility and moving to the major in time to make the group a multi-platinum act. And when
, they went a long way to legitimize heavy metal and orchestrated prog rock, helping move alternative rock even closer to '70s AOR, especially in the eyes of radio programmers and mainstream audiences. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they were able to withstand many internal problems and keep selling records, emerging as the longest-lasting and most successful alternative band of the early '90s.
The son of a jazz guitarist,
Billy Corgan grew up in a Chicago suburb, leaving home at the age of 19 to move to Florida with his fledgling goth metal band, the Marked. After the band failed down South, he returned to Chicago around 1988, where he began working at a used-record store. At the shop he met
James Iha (guitar), a graphic arts student at Loyola University, and the two began collaborating, performing, and recording songs with a drum machine.
Corgan met
D'Arcy Wretzky at a club show; after arguing about the merits of
the Dan Reed Network, the two became friends and she joined the group as a bassist. Soon, the bandmembers, who named themselves
Smashing Pumpkins, had gained a dedicated local following, which included the head of a local club who booked them to open for
Jane's Addiction. Before the pivotal concert, the band hired
Jimmy Chamberlin, a former jazz musician, as their full-time drummer.
In 1990,
Smashing Pumpkins released their debut single, "I Am One," on the local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single quickly sold out, and in December the band released "Tristessa" on Sub Pop. By this point,
Smashing Pumpkins had become the subject of a hot bidding war, and the group latched on to a clever way to move to a major label without losing indie credibility. They signed to Virgin Records, yet it was decided that the group's debut would be released on the Virgin subsidiary Caroline, and then the band would move to the majors. The strategy worked;
Gish, a majestic mix of
Black Sabbath and dream pop produced by
Butch Vig, became a huge college and modern rock hit upon its spring 1991 release. While it earned a large audience, many indie rock fans began to snipe at
Smashing Pumpkins, accusing them of being careerists. Such criticism did
the Pumpkins no harm and they embarked on an extensive supporting tour for
Gish, which lasted over a year and included opening slots for
Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Pearl Jam. During the
Gish tour, tensions between bandmembers began to escalate, as
Iha and
D'Arcy, who had been lovers, went through a messy breakup,
Chamberlin became addicted to drugs and alcohol, and
Corgan entered a heavy depression. These tensions hadn't been resolved by the time the group entered the studio with
Vig to record its second album.
Toward the beginning of the sessions,
the Pumpkins were given significant exposure through the inclusion of "Drown" on the
Singles soundtrack in the summer of 1992. As the sessions progressed,
Corgan relieved himself of his depression by working heavily -- not only did he write a surplus of songs, he played nearly all of the guitars and bass on each recording, which meant that its release was delayed several times. The resulting album,
Siamese Dream, was an immaculate production owing much to
Queen, yet it was embraced by critics upon its July 1993 release.
Siamese Dream became a blockbuster, debuting at number ten on the charts and establishing
Smashing Pumpkins as stars. "Cherub Rock," the first single, was a modern rock hit, yet it was "Today" and the acoustic "Disarm" that sent the album into the stratosphere, as well as the group's relentless touring.
Smashing Pumpkins became the headliners of Lollapalooza 1994, and following the tour's completion, the band went back into the studio to record a new album that
Corgan had already claimed would be a double-disc set. To tide fans over until then,
the Pumpkins released the B-sides and rarities album
Pisces Iscariot in October 1994.
Working with producers
Flood and
Alan Moulder,
Smashing Pumpkins recorded as a full band for their third album, which turned out to be, as
Corgan predicted, a double-disc set called
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Although many observers were skeptical about whether a double-disc set, especially one so ridiculously named, would be a commercial success,
Mellon Collie became an even bigger hit than
Siamese Dream, debuting at number one on the charts. On the strength of the singles "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," "1979," "Zero," and "Tonight, Tonight," it sold over four million copies in the U.S., eventually being certified platinum over eight times (each disc in the set counted separately toward certification).
The Pumpkins had graduated to stadium shows for the
Mellon Collie tour, and the band was at the peak of its popularity when things began to go wrong again. On July 12, prior to two shows at Madison Square Garden, the group's touring keyboardist,
Jonathan Melvoin, died from a heroin overdose; he was with
Jimmy Chamberlin, who survived his overdose. In the wake of the tragedy, the remaining
Pumpkins fired
Chamberlin and spent two months on hiatus as they recovered and searched for a new drummer. Early in August, they announced that
Filter member
Matt Walker would be their touring drummer and
Dennis Flemion, a member of
the Frogs, would be their touring keyboardist for the remainder of the year. They returned to the stage at the end of August and spent the next five months on tour. During this time,
Corgan contributed some music to
Ron Howard's
Ransom.
Early in 1997, once
the Pumpkins left the road,
Iha and
D'Arcy launched Scratchie Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. In the spring,
Smashing Pumpkins recorded two songs for the soundtrack of
Batman & Robin.
Iha's solo debut,
Let It Come Down, appeared in early 1998;
Adore, the new
Smashing Pumpkins LP, followed a few months later to disappointing sales and reviews.
Chamberlin returned to the group and
D'Arcy exited prior to the early-2000 release of
MACHINA: The Machines of God. Several months later,
Corgan announced his intentions to dissolve the band before the year was out. With former
Hole bassist
Melissa Auf der Maur replacing
D'Arcy, the band launched its farewell tour in 2000. Fans received one last treat when
Corgan and company worked feverishly to finish off tracks that were left over from the
MACHINA sessions. Surprisingly, Virgin Records balked at the idea of releasing the 25-track set so close to the release of their previous album, so the band put the entire album (going by the official title of
Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music) on the Internet for fans to download for free. On December 2 of the same year,
the Pumpkins played a mammoth final show at Chicago's Metro (also the venue at which the group played its first show back in 1988) before officially calling it quits.
But the former members of the band didn't wait long before carrying on with other projects --
Corgan spent the summer of 2001 playing guitar with
New Order on select concert dates, and later in the year unveiled his new band,
Zwan, including
Chamberlin on drums (as well as former
Chavez guitarist
Matt Sweeney and bassist David "Skullfisher" Pajo). The other two former
Pumpkins,
Iha and
Auf der Maur, began putting together an alt-rock supergroup dubbed
the Virgins. The same year, a pair of postmortem
Pumpkins collections were issued for the holiday season -- a double-disc collection and a DVD both called
Greatest Hits.
Corgan released his first solo album,
The Future Embrace, in 2005, and on the day it came out, he took out a full-page ad in The Chicago Tribune to announce that
Smashing Pumpkins were reuniting. He hadn't informed any of his past bandmates, and only
Chamberlin went along.
Zeitgeist, a heavier album than any past
Pumpkins album, was released in 2007.
Smashing Pumpkins promoted the album heavily well into 2008, but at the end of the year,
Corgan announced that the group would no longer record albums, and would instead only issue singles. It wasn't the only change in the band.
Corgan announced the departure of
Chamberlin in March 2009, making him the last remaining original member of the band that by then consisted of guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Nicole Fiorentino, and drummer Mike Byrne. Once the dust settled,
Corgan followed through on his promise to issue only short-form releases, putting out the track "A Song for a Son" in December of 2009. Scattered songs from the band's Teargarden by Kaleidyscope concept were released over the next two years as free downloads, with physical collections of the tracks released in 2010 by way of the EP boxed sets Songs for a Sailor and The Solstice Bare.
Corgan decided to take a break from the single-centric concept and went into the studio to begin work on 2012's Oceania, an "album within an album" that would be a part of the 44-track Teargarden concept.
– Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, Rovi