But the Pumpkins’ supposed alternativeness, or lack of, is really by the by, as Billy Corgan’s songwriting during this period still stands up remarkably well today. Stephen Malkmus was also unconvinced by the band’s status, famously referencing the band in the song ‘Range Life’. Most notably Steve Albini, who, in a letter to the Chicago Reader, described the band as the REO Speedwagon of the generation. Not everyone agrees, of course, and some members of the indie community would accuse the Pumpkins of careerism and conforming to popular sounds. It was the tangible proof that the music industry might just have a space for your weirdo subculture. This was an album of outsider music with stadium-filling sonics, and wall of sound psychadelia with genuine intimacy. Released four months before the meteoric success of Nirvana’s Nevermind, The Smashing Pumpkins' debut album, Gish, was an oddball surprise-hit representative of a peculiar period of musical history. Okay, so I was three years old, but having spent my teenage years obsessing over Pumpkins bootlegs and rarities, let’s also put aside the unfortunate year of my birth.
For a moment, let’s put talk of line-up changes, wrestling leagues and teargarden kaleidyscopes to one side, and cast our minds back to The Smashing Pumpkins in 1991.
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