"Way down deep within my heart,
Lies a soul that's torn apart"

Chiaroscuro, the light and the dark. A simple meaning of contrast. Some bands can be one or the other, rarely can a band do both and do it with such zest, vigor and efficacy. From 1988-2000, the Smashing Pumpkins, transcended genre and create their own vision and sound.

Led by frontman Billy Corgan, the band created and recreated the emotions felt by all. The joy, anger, sadness, apathy, the beauty and the ugly. All that is life. Never shy to show off his emotions, Billy hated the rock star life as much as he loved it. Corgan is the resident genious who's wild mood swings made him an icon for disenfranchised teens and twentynothings. He is a prefectionist-pure and simple. Billy lives by the motto, "if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself". Corgan is a visionary and an innovator who wears his heart on his sleeve.No apologies are made and none are needed, Billy's vision remains clear and true to himself and his fans. With textured rhythms and complicated songs the Pumpkins showed that they were different than contemporaries such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Corgan's girlish features and whiny voice melded with his sensitve lyrics and daunting music as he struggles to this day to create masterpieces. From the very beginning, the Chicago quartet was never about 'who' they were going to sound like, but 'what' they were going to sound like.
billy,james,jimmy and d'arcy
Along with Corgan, James Iha accompanies him in this musical catharsis. Sans souci, and ever smiling-he is the antithesis of Billy is almost every way imaginable. A gifted musician himself, he plays his guitar almost to himself and prefers to take the background and let attention deprived Billy take all the glory. A self acknowledged, "shy guy who wanted to be a rock guy", James has also helped compose some of the most beautiful songs in their repetoire, "Mayonaise" and "Soma". D'arcy Wretzky, the female outlet of the group. She is the voice of reason and the quiet glue in the foundation. She is independant and headstrong. While her and Corgan haven't always gotten along, D'arcy remains and integral part of the rhythm section and as a piece of the Pumpkins' puzzle. If she knows the secrets of rocks dysfunctional royal family, she's not telling. With former drummer, Jimmy Chamberlain, who's pounding drum fills and aggressive rock style became a signature trademark of the band. This group rose from the dives and Polish bars of Chicago to become on of the premiere bands of the 1990's.
Now, these three musicians follow their own vision and take their flock along for the ride. Creating energy in their songs. Their music is powerful, physically and emotionally. From heartfelt, lullaby soft lyrics to endless rage and back all in one song. This is pent up emotion shooting straight from Billy's heart. With intensely personal songs, he pulls no punches and tells no lies.

Always the outcast and constantly misunderstood while growing up, Billy recalls a painful childhood tainted by rejection and lack of love from his parents. He found music as an escape from the jaundiced eyes of the world. "To me, music was about being accepted and escaping from this crummy, mortal existence", he once told an interviewer. Billy confesses to reaching for "rock-god-dom...a means to become one with no pain."
The Smashing Pumpkins inspire ambience in their music, every composition is almost tangible in quality. Billy rides and emotional rollercoaster of extreme highs and dizzying lows, with anger at it's midpoint. On this rollercoaster, anger is not anger-it is rage, Love is not love without suffering in the process. Happiness is ecstatic pleasure, sadness is suicidal dysphoria. Billy's guitar playing done in almost cathartic abandon, every emotion is highlighted and taken to extremes in their music and concerts.

The Smashing Pumpkins never wanted to be the next anybody and they're not. They preach to the converted who follow wherever their leader takes them. Destroying boundaries and limitations, they 'seek the unseekable and they speak the unspeakable'.The Smashing Pumpkins are more than just music, that's just the medium their message is expressed in. As Billy puts it "Don't judge yourself by somebody else's standards. you will always lose". The Smashing Pumpkins are about freedom and individuality. No one is an outcast, it's fun for one and all at the Smashing Pumpkins party. Break out of your mold, out of the chains that bind you and join the fun. The Smashing Pumpkins speak for the forlorn, and those who can't speak for themselves. Their message about emotion and devotion, joy, sadness, fear, and love but more importantly, it is about honesty...

           
                -aM-

References:Stapleton,J.(1996). Smashing Pumpkins-The Unauthorized Edition.
           Carlton Books.
           Mundy,C.(1994). "Strange Fruit...Smashing Pumpkins
           Rolling Stone (RS 680). April 21,1994 p.43-46.

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