Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404130026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Smashing Pumpkins: a name that says nothing and means even less.
A sound that's an abrasive howl of despair, with song titles like "Geek U.S.A." and "Mayonaise."
A group that doesn't want to come across like rock stars, but does anyway, with a tortured leader who doesn't really want to be a spokesman, but can't help it.
And in the week that Cobain, Nirvana's tormented architect, killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head, the Smashing Pumpkins, which plays the Salem Civic Center tonight, are on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
Does it make any sense?
Probably not. What does anymore? "To me," the Pumpkins' frontman Bill Corgan told the Associated Press last year, "the newest generation of bands is not a reaction against something, but a reaction because there is nothing. It's like there's so much apathy and people are frustrated and we don't even know why."
As for Corgan, 26, his own Generation X angst was spawned in the suburbs of Chicago, under the thumb of his stepmother, with a musician father who was always gone.
He met up with his fellow Pumpkins in 1987: guitarist James Iha, bassist D'Arcy Wretsky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain.
Together, the group released several independent records, the last of which, "Gish," sold 300,000 copies in 1991.
That success, astounding for an independent release, got the band signed to a major label, Virgin Records, and poised the group for a breakthrough.
Music industry people and critics anticipated the second coming of Nirvana.
Corgan even had once dated Courtney Love, the lead singer of Hole, before she married Nirvana's Cobain.
Drummer Chamberlain underwent alcohol and heroin rehab, and as part of the rock soap opera, Iha and Wretsky were once a couple, although now they're not.
Last year, the band released "Siamese Dream," its Virgin debut, which was hailed by critics as masterful psychosis in motion - just what the '90s ordered.
As Corgan sings on the song, "Soma," "I'm all by myself, as I've always been."
Well, not exactly. This summer, the band is part of the Lollapalooza '94 Tour. So, the Pumpkins should have plenty of company.
Smashing Pumpkins plays tonight at 7:30 p.m., Salem Civic Center. With Red Red Meat. 375-3004.
by CNB