New Smashing Pumpkins?

In the latest Rolling Stone, there is a picture of Billy Corgan and Pete Townsend playing guitar together, and the caption read “Billy Corgan took a break from recording the new Smashing Pumpkins album…” and that’s all I needed to see. New Smashing Pumpkins album!? YES!!!!!!

I have vague memories of first acquiring “Siamese Dream” back when it came out, but I believe I was at Sunday School, of all things, and an older headbanger-type cranked it up for me during a break. As “Cherub Rock” began, I was immediately enthralled:

Drum roll x 2.
Cue the guitars.
Cue the bass.
Cue the light drums.
Cue the CRASH!!!

It really didn’t matter what I heard afterward, because I was already sold. The fact that the album turned out to be one of my favorites of all time only added to the legend. I became borderline obsessed with it. In 6th grade, my friend Chris and I would sit in our rooms listening to the album over and over again, trying to figure out what Billy Corgan was saying (Remember, this is before the internet gave us lyrics at the tip of our fingers). I became so obsessed with knowing what he was saying that I answered a “send $5 to (address) to join the fan club and get lyrics.” I put $5 cash in an envelope and sent it out into the void for “Siamese Dream” lyrics.

4 months later I got the lyrics in the mail and was euphoric. Chris and I pored through them – it was like finding the Holy Grail. I memorized them and listened to “Siamese Dream” another 4,000 times (I’m having slight déjà vu at this moment, because I think I may have written about this before, but can’t specifically remember. Moving on…).

Fast-forward to this morning, listening to “Machina – The Machines of God” in my car on the way to work. To me, its scatterbrained nature symbolizes the scattering of the band in different directions, although it has enough high points to require ownership, particularly “I of the Mourning,” which must be their most underrated song since I’ve never seen a word written about it, but it’s one of their best. It’s a song about Corgan pleading for direction in his music – at least that’s the way I interpret it. In the grand finale, he asks the “radio” (or us) – “What is it you want to change?” – I want Smashing Pumpkins to come out with a new album, and apparently it’s going to happen soon.

In the meantime, if you don’t have “Siamese Dream” in particular, I suggest you pick it up and start letting it soak in. After a few thousand more listens, you may start to appreciate it as much as I do.