exploremusic

There was a big difference between the Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins and the Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins .

The members were the same—vocalist/guitarist/ringmaster Billy Corgan, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist James Iha, and bassist D’arcy Wretzky—but a lot had changed in their relationships with each other.

Billy played a lot of the guitar and the bass for 1991’s Gish, but it seems like no one had a problem with that—in retrospect, that was a pretty peaceful period, with the band being naïve enough to just make the music they wanted to make.

During the recording for 1993’s Siamese Dream, however, there was a ton of pressure coming from the label to get things done by a certain time, and it fell on producer Butch Vig to put pressure on the band members to get it done. What ended up happening was Butch would talk to James and D’arcy about how fast they could learn and record their parts, and then he’d go to Billy saying that they could either wait a month or Billy could do it. Meanwhile, Jimmy being the only incredible drummer in the band led to no ultimatums.

What this situation resulted in was a divide with Billy and Jimmy on one side and James and D’arcy on the other.

The seeds of discontent that eventually resulted in the lineup splitting were sown back then, and a reunion, a lawsuit or two, and Jimmy’s departure later… Billy was the only member from that time left to work on the Gish and Siamese Dream reissues that come out today (November 29th).

It seems like Billy and the others involved in putting the new releases together really focused on creating a snapshot of the band at those times, and the newly unearthed songs, alternative versions, liner notes, and other stuff show just how brilliant a band the classic Pumpkins lineup was, no matter who played what and no matter how they felt about each other.