Ah The Smashing Pumpkins… they amaze and erm... confuse, putting it politely, in equal measure. On the one hand a truly rocking band and on the other the biggest bunch of pretentious knob heads you’re likely to come across. Maybe I’m being a little harsh, it may be that 3 members of the band are decent down to earth people, who have the misfortune of being in a band with one of rocks biggest gobshites. So that aside let’s talk the music.
Once described as the melodic Nirvana, a description I always found to be wanting, it’s not like Nirvana were lacking in the melody area, in fact its where they ruled supreme. Where Nirvana sought inspiration from rocks underground The Smashing Pumpkins went searching in stadiums. The quite loud dynamic was there, the sludgy Black Sabbath tone was there, the themes of alienation were there, and of course the melody was there, but unfortunately for the Smashing Pumpkins so too was the prog rock and all its ugly pretentiousness.
But none of this stoped Kurt from claiming them ‘The real deal’ in a guest review for the Rolling Stone. Although this was during the Siamese Twins tour, a much loved record, it’s not hard to imagine what he might of thought about them by the time they released ‘Machines of Gods’, probably the same as most, a complete joke.
But for a brief period The Smashing Pumpkins were a truly awesome band that could blow the roof of any stadium whilst throwing some glorious pop songs in along the way.
Here's some proof: