Biography on the Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
Band History
The band consists of Billy Corgan on lead vocals & guitar, James Iha on guitar, and D'Arcy on bass. The most recent touring drummer was Kenny Aronoff, formerly of John Mellencamp fame, who joined them during the spring of 1998. When their former drummer*, Jimmy Chamberlin, was released from the band to go into rehab. The Pumpkins hired drummer Matt Walker from Filter for the remainder of the Mellon Collie Tour. The Pumpkins have won many awards, gone on several major tours, appeared on several movie soundtracks, and released a rather large number of songs in a fairly short time.
Billy doesn't sing -every- song... Those featuring James on lead vocals are (these do not include James' solo album "Let It Come Down", 1998) : Believe, The Bells, Blew Away, The Boy, Farewell & Goodnight (1st verse, w/ Billy), A Night Like This, ...Said Sadly (w/ guest Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt), Take Me Down, and Terrapin. Of course, he's also sung a few songs live (Boys Don't Cry, Country Girl, I Feel You, Kooks, Germans in Leather Pants etc.) D'Arcy sings on Daydream (Gish), Dreamin' (TAFH box set), and in the second verse of Farewell and Goodnight (MCIS), as well as backup on many other songs. She's also featured in Catherine's "Four Leaf Clover" and "Punch Me Out", and on a few Fulflej songs. Jimmy Chamberlin, the band's former drummer, sings along with D'Arcy in the second verse of Farewell and Goodnight.
By now you're probably wondering how the band came up with their name. Well, actually here is how they came up with it: "Gene Simmons came to us in a dream and said: 'Joe Strummer is a pumpkin, drunken and smashed.'" This is one story from the Pumpkins of how they came up with the name. Of course, another version would be according to D'Arcy: "The name of the band is a stupid name, a dumb bad joke and a bad idea, OK?" she says. "Billy named the band before there even was a band. He was
like, 'I'm gonna have a band and it's gonna be called this.' 'Smashing'is not a verb, it's an adjective. It's not like we like to smash pumpkins or anything. And we are not amused by pumpkin jokes anymore."
In the summer of '95, the Chicago Reader ran an ad by the Pumpkins, seeking a touring keyboardist. 5-minute tape auditions (with a "please, no pumpkins songs" condition) were to be turned in by July 14th. On August 18, Entertainment Weekly ran the following: "...aspiring Pumpkins needn't wait by the phone. Two months later, a refrigerator box full of cassettes graces Chicago's Soundworks studios, and there's not a listening station in sight. 'We've been too busy to deal with them,' says Iha. 'I don't want to listen to a bunch of wack keyboard players. It sounds like a nightmare to me.'" The position was filled by Jonathan Melvoin, who played keyboards and acted as a second drummer for Silverfuck. He also appeared with SP on the American Music Awards. On July 12, 1996, Jonathan was found dead from a heroin overdose. He and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin had shot up the previous night, and Jimmy awoke to find Jonathan dead. Jimmy was charged with misdemeanor heroin possession, and the rest of the band were taken in for questioning, and later released. All tour dates through July 27th were postponed. A few days later, the band released a statement saying that Jimmy would no longer be the band's drummer. Private/closed auditions were held a while later to find a replacement drummer for the remainder of the tour. Matt Walker, former touring drummer for Filter, took over. While auditioning for Filter, he reportedly dropped a drumstick and finished with one- he was hired immediately. Dennis Flemion, founding member and drummer/keyboardist of The Frogs, was chosen to be the replacement keyboardist. A press release was issued on August 8th. During the recording of Adore, SP used several drummers, including Joey Waronker (Beck), Matt Walker (MCIS tour, Cupcake), and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden). Drum machine programming was done by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. For the recent Adore tour, the band hired a decent-sized backup band that consists of drummer Kenny Aronoff, keyboardist Mike Garson, and percussionists Stephen Hodges and Dan Morris.