The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins have particular importance to me because they were the first band I ever listened to as "my own" when my parents bought me Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie as a kid back in the mid 90s. It's interesting to wonder where my musical tastes would have developed if I had never been given those albums. Billy Corgan has consistently been the creative force behind the band, but even with his constant presence despite the changing lineup of the other musicians, I felt the Pumpkins' music started to falter after the group's first real change, when 1998's Adore was made without their drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Maybe it was the transition out of the 90s grungy alternative sound that I subconsciously expected out of rock bands, but while anything the group produced before '97-'98 is a complete essential to me and are some of my most listened songs of all time, it's been hard to get into any of their recent material. Such is the curse of bands with legendary discographies, I guess.

The Smashing Pumpkins have existed and endured under several iterations, but the key component of all of those variations is Billy Corrigan, always at the helm. Growing up in Chicago these guys were a home town band so it’s still a bit weird for me to think of the Pumpkins without Iha shredding and Chamberlin pounding his elaborate beats across his kit, but I have to admit, in spite of their lesser degree of popularity these days, the Pumpkins as they exist now are still rocking hard. I haven’t been able to catch them live in the past few years but I watched a concert on Palladium recently and the new members (especially their really young, new drummer) seemed to keep the Pumpkins vibe alive and well. 90’s rock lives on.