Smashing Pumpkins Try to Rekindle Magic of the ’90s
LOS ANGELES — In the nearly two decades since the original lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins succumbed to rock-star clichés, the band’s lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Corgan has kept himself plenty busy.
Mr. Corgan, 51, became a published poet; a professional wrestling executive; the proprietor of a Chicago-area tea shop; and a cat magazine cover star. There were also two solo albums and one with Zwan, as well as various iterations of the Smashing Pumpkins that he has kept afloat since declaring in a 2005 full-page newspaper ad: “I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams.”
Yet despite reviving the Pumpkins brand with additional albums and regular touring over the years, Mr. Corgan never achieved the success of the band’s heyday.
Amid four consecutive platinum albums in the 1990s, the group peaked by selling more than 10 million copies of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,” a 28- track opus with era- defining hits, including “Tonight, Tonight” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” Mr. Corgan realized that the Pumpkins were just not the same without the original guitarist James Iha, who helped found the group as a Chicago teenager in 1988; Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer who has been Mr. Corgan’s most frequent collaborator; and the bassist D’Arcy Wretzky. After emails and heartfelt discussions, Mr. Corgan finally got his band back. Almost.
Beginning in July, the original group — minus Ms. Wretzky — will set out on a tour titled “Shiny and Oh So Bright.” And though the shows will coincide with the Pumpkins’ 30th anniversary and feature songs from their first five albums, the band has been in the studio with the producer Rick Rubin at work on new songs, which likely will be released as two EPs before year’s end.
“I would say this is the happiest time of the band,” Mr. Corgan said. The question now is whether fans who have weathered years of his antics will care. And if they do, can this dysfunctional musical family hold it together?
Kevin Weatherly, the program di- rector of the alternative station KROQ in Los Angeles, said: “You can count the bands on one hand that really defined the ’90s alternative scene, and I would put the Pumpkins up there with the biggest from that era.”
The three original members are all fathers now and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to demonstrate newfound maturity. But with the exception of Mr. Chamberlin, 53, who seems to have fully evolved from a drug-addicted caricature of a rock drummer into a sober dad who plays jazz and does tech work on the side, the Pumpkins remained in their classic roles. Mr. Iha, 49, stayed mostly quiet, while Mr. Corgan could not help but do 90 percent of the talking.
“It’s a bit akin to trying to rekindle a romance almost two decades later,” Mr. Corgan said. “The love is there, but, you know, is the language? Is the magic there?”
In the studio, they decided, it was. They put out a demo of 15 songs with hopes of perfecting one single with Mr. Rubin; he ended up picking eight to record. Mr. Chamberlin said the group’s disagreements had never been musical, so upon reuniting, new songs “just poured out.”
Never as revered as Nirvana, as coolly disaffected as Sonic Youth or as overblown as Guns N’ Roses, the Smashing Pumpkins made their name with sprawling musical ambition and all- out rock ’n’ roll chaos. They were a moody band with volatile songs that alternated between pummeling hard-rock stubbornness and fuzzy dream- pop serenity, instantly recognizable by Mr. Corgan’s sulky, nasal shrieks. But at a certain point, the chaos eclipsed even singles as monumental as “1979.”
“If I kept my mouth shut, and if I kept my band together,” Mr. Corgan said, “we’d be playing a lot bigger venues and we would be a lot more successful.” Instead, he’d leaned into a role that he described as “bitter contrarian” and “carnival barker,” alienating even his collaborators.
But the Pumpkins realized that by playing only their most loved songs on this tour, they could be, for once, crowd pleasers. Mr. Corgan said, “We collectively need to rebuild the public trust in our brand.” He added that it’s probably a one-time thing.