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Smashing Pumpkins: “Revamped and Rejuvenated”

Remember the good old days of ’90s alternative rock? Well of course you do, unless you’re way too young or you grew up under a rock (no pun intended), who could forget the 1990s, the decade of flannel shirts and teen spirit. Not since the 1970s has a decade produced such a quantity and such a quality of hard rock and alternative music.

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Remember the good old days of ’90s alternative rock? Well of course you do, unless you’re way too young or you grew up under a rock (no pun intended), who could forget the 1990s, the decade of flannel shirts and teen spirit. Not since the 1970s has a decade produced such a quantity and such a quality of hard rock and alternative music. Everyone remembers all the usual suspects of this generation (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, STP, etc…) and even in the year 2007, it still seems like we can’t get enough of Kurt, Courtney, Layne and company. With Pearl Jam being the only real exception, almost all of the class of the ’90s have either broken up or in some cases, passed away.

Many of the prominent artists of the generation are still making and releasing music (Foo Fighters, Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland with Velvet Revolver, etc…), but it still just doesn’t seem the same. Although it isn’t the same per se, one of the cornerstones of the ’90’s alt rock generation is set to return to rock your world for the summer of 2007 and beyond. Just about seven years after their official breakup, The Smashing Pumpkins are back, armed with a brand new album and a tour ready to sweep across the world. Since the breakup of the Pumpkins, so much has been documented over the years about their original history and formation so rather than dwell on the distant past, let’s take a look at the group’s recent history, the band’s reformation and the resulting new studio record Zeitgeist.

Since their formation in the late 1980s, the Smashing Pumpkins have been primarily driven by the one and only Billy Corgan. As the group’s lead singer and principle songwriter, Corgan was largely responsible for the band’s monster success. In 2000 after over a decade together and tens of millions of albums sold, Corgan decided to pull the plug on the Pumpkins for reasons which have never been crystal clear. The band played its final gig on December 2nd, 2000 at The Metro, the Chicago club that was the site of their first gig twelve years prior. In the over half decade since the disbanding of the group, none of the band members had any real success with their subsequent musical projects. Corgan, along with drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, formed the very forgettable and short-lived flop known as Zwan which released an album called Mary Star of the Sea in early 2003 before calling it quits less than a year later. Corgan followed this up with another flop in the form of his solo debut TheFutureEmbrace, an intensely personal album which had little commercial appeal. Guitarist James Iha briefly joined A Perfect Circle as a touring guitarist before they themselves broke up.

Despite Corgan’s affirmations at the time of The Pumpkins breakup that the band was finished for good, this all changed on the day of the release of his solo record in June, 2005. Corgan took out a full page advertisement in The Chicago Tribune to announce that he was reforming The Smashing Pumpkins. Details of the reformation were sketchy at first, but eventually Chamberlain confirmed his participation in the reunion and word leaked out that the band was back in the studio working on brand new material for a new studio record. At first it was speculated that Iha would also be apart of the band, but he later confirmed that he would not be participating. Things remained quiet for some time until April, 2006 when the band officially stated that they were back in the studio recording new material.

Now after two full years since Corgan revealed his secret to the world, The Smashing Pumpkins are back with the brand new record Zeitgeist. The release of Zeitgeist will mark the first Smashing Pumpkins album in seven years since 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God. The release of the album and the tour that will follow it will also mark the debut of the band’s brand new guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bass player Ginger Reyes who were unveiled to the world in a gig in Paris, France at the end of May, 2007. Rather than select one producer to handle production on Zeitgeist, Corgan opted for a production by committee approach as he and Chamberlain acted as producers along with Roy Thomas Baker and the very famous Terry Date who both worked on various individual tracks. Zeitgeist will consist of twelve brand new songs with titles such as “Doomsday Clock,” “Bleeding The Orchid,” and “United States.” The first single off the album is called “Tarantula” and has been out on radio now since the end of May.

On the touring side of things, the Pumpkins have been playing various shows around parts of Europe in the last month, but have just returned to North America to begin a string of dates right up until the beginning of September. The band will make its first appearance in over seven years in Canada at the end of the summer with a date in Montreal the day before headlining The Virgin Festival in Toronto. It’s never an easy thing reforming a famous rock band after several years, especially the way Corgan has decided to handle the Pumpkins reunion by writing a brand new album before doing any solid touring. It should be very interesting to see what the public reaction will be to the new album and tour, although word is that so far, fans have been reacting well to the new songs in a live setting. The Smashing Pumpkins rank as one of the great bands of the 1990s, a legacy that few bands have succeeded in carving out for themselves. Let’s just hope they add to that legacy with their new album and tour rather than take away from it.  [ END ]

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