I always listened to the radio while going to sleep. 93XRT … the last bit of a tune I caught grabbed my ear and wouldn’t let go. I was a budding drummer, freshman in high school at the time. The announcer said something about ‘smashing pumpkins’ and ‘local’. What was this ‘smashing pumpkins’ – was this a band?
I ran with a few kids who were up on music and my friend Gina’s dad had a great record collection. So I asked her about them … she was hip – she said she thought her dad had that record. Soon I found myself with a duped tape of Gish.
As a young drummer, having just joined the high school drum line, what was happening on this record was so arresting and fresh yet slightly familiar compared to the musical landscape we were leaving behind. Goodbye hair bands … hello new, artful, musical 90s rock! I became enamored and obsessed with Gish and the Smashing Pumpkins. Gish’s dreamy, yet aggressive nature – portions unapologetically rock while others tastefully quiet – the guitars and drums seemed to marry in a way unlike other bands I’d heard at the time. I wanted to learn to play the entire record, top to bottom. The drumming had wonderful references I felt akin to: Mitch Mitchell meets drum corps chops … a loose yet disciplined tight style that suited the songs in a way I’ve never heard before and I wanted to dissect and learn all I could. So, that’s what I did.
I spent hours in my bedroom rewinding tape and woodshedding. The Pumpkins were my teacher in a formative moment where I was taking my hair metal chops to a new musical space along with my school band education.
After I got a good handle on Gish, I waited with bated breath for the next release. Every time I went to Red Tower Records by Orland Mall, I would bother my older brother’s friends Tony or Bob at the counter, “You know when a new Smashing Pumpkins record is coming?” Over, and over, and over again … they must have gotten tired of me asking.
I had to have more of this music. No internet, no inside news, too young for the city … it was a vacuum of information. So I kept honing my Gish skills behind the kit. Then, finally – an EP! Tony or Bob pointed out LULL!
Back at the kit – learn this top to bottom!
Wait some more … I waited in agony for what would become Siamese.
In the meantime, by senior year, my Pumpkins study and admiration had become widely known and my drum line nickname became Jimmy C.
That was praise enough for me.
Smashing Pumpkins was more than just music I loved. It was a new grade level of my own, personal ‘school of rock.’ A study of drumming, a study in arrangement and performance. Gish and that little radio clip (likely from Richard Milne) I heard started me on a new track as a musician and music fan.
Thanks SP!
xoxo
Bret