Smashing Pumpkins > Siamese Dream –
I was a freshman in college the first time I heard the Pumpkins. We were driving back to school from Phoenix (about a two hour drive) and someone popped in a cassette (dubbed, damn music pirates!) of Gish. It seems important to note that it was night. The album blew me away. I had pretty much given up on most heavy shit. After Cliff Burton died I basically gave up on Metallica (sorry Jason, real bass players don’t use pics). Around this time I was listening more to early Dylan, James Taylor… that sorta stuff. This tape had everything though – melody, intensity, power, speed, aggression, beauty, and attitude.
Fast forward a couple of years later. I had put the band and the cassette in the back of my mind when I was watching MTV (I know this line is cliché… but this is back when they used to show music on tv, hence the name) and some toolbox vj was going through the new releases of the week and mentioned the new Pumpkins. So I picked it up on CD and basically didn’t stop listening to it for about two years. I think I am probably on my fourth or fifth actual copy of Siamese Dream currently. Mercifully, I have dropped it onto my hard drive now and don’t need to worry about killing it. I also play guitar, and I would sit in my room for hours playing the songs over and over again to learn every one. It was all consuming, and I believe it tortured my room-mates to death. You probably can't imagine this, but I listened to it about 4-6 hours a day. That is frightening, maybe this peice is the closure I need to move on.
At this point I am going to play the CD and ruminate. Since Shark was so upset about the brevity of my Appetite review, we are going to ride this one out to the end. If you have the CD, I think you know what to do
Cherub Rock, which just fucking kills! The song attacks with no mercy, and somehow while assaulting your senses, you realize the lyrics are screaming about what total bullshit being in a rock band is about. What is this guys problem? Who knows, but what a way to deliver the message. This was the first single released from the album, but nothing caught fire until Today.
Article comments
1 - Harald
I saw the Smashing Pumpkins in '92, on our local Metropolis festival. They all wore dresses. Only when James Iha said something did we realise he was a guy :)
2 - visualsimplicity
Am I taking crazy pills here or are those lyrics you linked for "Disarm" not the lyrics for "Disarm?"
3 - Tom Johnson
He is the best drummer of his era without peer, except the amazing Danny Carey from Tool. Everyone else is a pussy.
I would REALLY love to see people stop using aggrandizations like this. It's just stupid and fanboyish. Jimmy Chamberlain, as well as Danny Carey, is a killer drummer, but there's a TON of other equally skilled drummers (and better - look to jazz for the best drummers.) Here's a hint: there is no one "best" anything in the world. Anyone claiming one particular person is the best is suffering from hero-worship, unless he is somehow the only person in the entire world to engage in that behavior. All critics, and everyone in general, would do themselves a favor if we stopped saying and believing crap like this.
Anyways, yes, Siamese Dream is a great album.
4 - Mark Saleski
yea, 'best' is a pretty meaningless description. because everybody's looking for something different.
heck, i saw Pat Metheny play with Roy Haynes once...Haynes did a 'drum' solo using nothing but sticks and his hi-hat...and it was friggin' amazing.
but: i'm certain that others would have found it boring, 'lame', whatever.
5 - Lono
Though you may be taking crazy pills, those are absolutey NOT the lyrics to Disarm. Caught me doing a rush job. What is interesting is those lyrics look hauntingly familiar (and hauntingly bad).
6 - Eric Olsen
Chamberlain really IS one of the great rock drummers, though a total unreliable flake in the real world: Keith Moon anyone?
7 - particleman
Siamese Dream has been getting heavy rotation on my stereo as well. It's great at work too. I put on the headphones and go to town.
8 - visualsimplicity
Don't rush into what you're saying this time around either Lono. The so-called "Disarm" lyrics may not be lyrics of the song "Disarm," but are indeed Smashing Pumpkins' lyrics. They belong to "Daphne Descends" off of the Adore album.
9 - Bob A. Booey
I remember being a freshman in high school in Chicago and seeing the Pumpkins play Today on Saturday Night Live. That was when alternative rock was still edgy and dangerous and cool.
I mean, you know they had to be a great band if they seemed edgy on Saturday Night Live, of all places. They rocked the show and it reminds me of those early Nirvana appearances on MTV playing live in dresses with every other word bleeped.
"Today" was just the right mix of the grunge, hard guitars and the uplifting lyrics and it made Chicago seem like the coolest place in the world at the time. Everyone talked about it being the "next Seattle," although that never really happened. Everyone had a story about their older brother or sister growing up and meeting Billy, whom I've met a couple of times since. But it was different then: they were on their way to becoming the biggest band in America for a short while and represented the indie smart kids' triumph over commercial radio. That kind of vibe continued through Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, which was kind of the other bookend for my high school years, along with the Cobain suicide maybe a year or two earlier. I'm not really sure how the Pumpkins dropped off the cultural radar after that. Someone smarter than I should write that story.
10 - Lono
as an end note, I did finally get to meet Billy. I shook his hand and said thank you for Siamese Dream, it changed my life.
So, I'm all better now.
11 - Matt
D'arcy used a pick.