Memories | Smashing Pumpkins

my favorite smashing pumpkins memories

David Gorman Dallas, TX, US

i heard i am one at a record store and I was hooked immediately. I streamed gish on Spotify. Unknowingly i played a song from siamese dream on rock band im pretty sure it was today. and that’s what got me into siamese dream. Which has classics like today, quiet, disarm, cherub rock, mayonaise etc. after siamese dream i heard zero and I got into mellon collie heavy. jellybelly, tonight tonight, zero, take me down, xyu, where boys fear to tread, 1979 etc. I love smashing pumpkins so much

First tour and MTV

Mark Philadelphia, PA, US

Seeing them on a bill for the first time opening for the chili Peppers in New York , with then unknown band Pearl Jam on the list, MTV interviewed people after the show asking what they thought of the opening act , I went on and raved about Smashing Pumpkins blowing everyone away , and they stopped me and they said “ no, we mean Pearl Jam” When Pearl Jam got famous first I realized the politics in the music biz was real, because Smashing Pumpkins blew everyone away and MTV only wanted to talk about Pearl Jam.

16th Birthday

David Piet Buffalo Grove, Illinois, US

July 19, 1997, Saturday afternoon… I got my driver’s license in the morning at the Libertyville DMV. My older sister was nice enough to let me take her car that day, a metallic green Jetta with a 6 disc changer in the trunk. I dropped Gish in and drove around listening to that album on repeat. I’d listened to it a zillion times before that day and certainly 10 zillion times since but for whatever reason, that day, that moment, a scorching hot, sunny summer afternoon, driving up and down Lake Cook Road, every time I hear Snail, I think of that day. It was perfect.

legacy

Megan clemson, SC, US

The smashing pumpkins have always eluded me, having been born a year after their debut album released. I grew up listening to rock music, following the footsteps of my older cousin who loved the pumpkins. Besides adoring “1979”, I was pretty intimidated by them. They seemed too.. intense and smart for me, even though no other band has ever seemed that way to me before. I think I projected the sort of reverence I felt for my cousin onto them. He was always a little too great for me to cling to, I admired him more than I could understand. He was always out of reach. He always wore his ZERO shirt in high school. He took his own life last summer, I was devastated. I got to keep one of the shirts in his closet, and I picked his ZERO shirt, though not really feeling much like a SP fan yet. It’s sat in the back of my closet for months until a few months ago, while looking for clothes, I felt hypnotically compelled to grab a hold of the shirt and just.. be with it. Later that week, amongst his old collection of books and dvd’s his family has kept, I found the music video collection and decided to watch it instinctively. I was immediately so impressed. I had no idea Gish was so beautiful. I’m so in love. I just wish I could ask him what he thought of these songs. The CD for Mellon Collie is kept in the cabinet with his ashes. I know their music comforted him a lot in his life. Thank you smashing pumpkins.

Trip to the Mall

Rizzo E Longmeadow, US

It was probably 1998… maybe ’97 so I was probably 12… I had fallen in love with the singles from Adore that were coming out and had gotten melon collie which was just such a juggernaut of an album… I was very quickly becoming a fan. My mom brought me to the mall because I had “earned” a new cd.. these mall trips back then served as a chance for me to fill in my pumpkins collection for what I had missed. I walked into Sam Goody and decided on Gish. Took it home and the rest is history. From that day (probably 12, in 6th grade), until now my very favorite song in the world is Rhinoceros.

Going Fishing

Alexander Mount Vernon, US

I was on vacation with my friends family in the summer 1999. We went to the Florida keys for week. We went fishing on the boat first time for me. We used live bait to catch Fish. On that trip I took my CD player with me and listened to Gish on the boat and at the condo. One day I felt like I was sick so I stayed in bed listening to Gish my friends mom said I needed to get out and enjoy the vacation…. I won’t forget feeling sea sick on the boat and.listening to Gish…. One of those memories.

Hot Vibes and College Converts

Tim W Washington, DC, US

I vividly remember hearing Cherub Rock on the radio in the summer of 93. My job that summer was running around Southern Illinois refilling and fixing various snow cone shacks that were set up in random parking lots all over the region. As I drove down the back roads the opening guitar riff and Billy’s voice sent electric chills through my body. The full Siamese Dreams CD was released soon after and I bought it the night it came out. Thank goodness the crappy minivan I drove through the blazing hot corn fields that summer had a CD player. I blasted that album over an over again getting a full left arm tan. When I got back to college in August, SD remained in my CD player for the first week until my ‘friends’ heard it and immediately stole it so they could play it on repeat. They weren’t even alternative rock fans. The album was that hard to ignore. When I finally got it back it was all scratched and I had to go get another copy. The only upside was we all trekked up to Kalamazoo that next spring to see them live. Epic! Thank you Billy, James , D’Arcy, and Jimmy!

Spark in a Routine

Alvin NYC, US

The routine of my morning commute through Queens NYC to midtown Manhattan quickly became a mundane tradition. The bustle of the city during the first phase of rush hour may seem exciting but it faded into the background of my mind as my headphones swallowed the subway noise and translated them into symphonies to my ears. But even then, Playlists get old. One particularly boring morning I heard the notes of cherub rock in my head and I immediately searched for the band. This would be my first thorough encounter with The Smashing Pumpkins. The nostalgic sound of the lyrics brought me back to my childhood, where I played guitar hero with my siblings. I clicked on Tristessa and never heard anything like it before. Much like many of my morning routines, at least one song from this album is played over coffee and is navigated through the tunnels of nyc. But I’ve yet to get bored of the sounds that sound so unique to me. As the album reaches a milestone of a birthday, tomorrow so will I.

A whirlwind of hair and sweat

Jeroen Halle, BE

It was my first festival in 1992 I could attend in Belgium (Torhout/Werchter). Pearl Jam cancelled their show and replaced by the Smashing Pumpkins. Didn’t know the band, but as from the first note I was sold to their whirlwind vibe. The week after I bought Gish on CD and a ticket to see them in Vooruit, Ghent. The whirlwind was back. I still have a shirt we ripped from Billy s body while he was crowdsurfing. (Sorry Billy, we were young I guess). The Pumpkins are a band I experienced about nine times in the 90s in Belgium and I will never forget the pumpin bass, drums and snearing guitars and voices creating a whirlwind of hair and in sweat covered bodies. It was the power of Gish.

From 70’s prog to TSP

James in Canada Hamilton, Ontario, CA

I grew up listening to 70’s prog music. I loved the long, complex songs, the multi-layers and the musicianship. Although I liked a lot of music in the 80’s I could not find that first love in the music I was hearing. Then in 1990 a cute girl I liked was listening to her cassette walkman in the high school cafeteria and I asked her what she was listening to. She handed me her headphones and I heard a song that did absolutely nothing for me. But the next song changed my life. I would later find out it was called ‘Tristessa’ and she had taped it off the radio. That song got stuck in my head right away. It had what I had been looking for: a prog sensibility. I wanted to hear more. I went to my local record store and asked about it. They were able to track down the band with the strange name and they said they could order me two releases. Those releases were the ‘Tristessa’ single on SubPop and the ‘I Am One’ single on Limited Potential. When they finally came in, I was hooked. Then the ‘Gish’ album soon followed, on cassette first, then vinyl (currently framed and hanging on my wall as it was signed by WPC and JC at the 20th anniversary show at Massey Hall). The music spoke to me throughout and it really connected with my prop sensibilities. My friends called it grunge but I called it prog. They thought I was crazy and they moved on from TSP, but I have been here ever since. I saw the band live for the first time in 1991 and I have not missed a TSP or WPC tour since.

Forklift Jesus

James Brown BIRMINGHAM, AL, US

July of 1991, I was in my first year slinging salmon in Anchorage, AK – a summer job to pay for college in Alabama. Forklift driver was the golden job, because you got to sit down, instead of standing all day. Plus the driver always had on headphones, and was always jamming out to something. (I assume OSHA frowned on this, but we were kids.) Anyway, one day that summer, Mr. Forklift paused, slapped the ‘phones from his sport Walkman on my ears, and said “Dude, listen to this.” It was Gish. And my brain woke up that day.

After my shift, I went to the record store and bought my first copy. A tape. And I listened constantly throughout the summer to my new favorite album, and what turned out to be my favorite band of all time. I picked up the CD once I was back at school, then Lull, and so on. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to hang with the band, see a bunch of shows, and hear and love a ton of great music. All thanks to Forklift Jesus.

Rapha Forever

Jorge Madrid, ES

It was April 1997.

I was 13 and I already discovered the band through The Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness the year before, which became my first cd ever.

A friend of mine also liked The Smashing Pumpkins as much as I do and I lent him my Gish cd.

Me and my friends were waiting the bus that would pick us up to head a skatepark. While we were waiting, after a trick try, my friend’s skateboard went out of control crossing the road so my friend ran after it. All of the sudden, a car hit him and he passed away.

A few days after this fatal accident that marked us forever, some of my friends went to his mother house showing care and respect. She gave them back some stuff he borrowed from us as video games, skateboard magazines, VHS tapes, couple of cds… Gish was among the items.

His name was Rafael.

The Gish break-up vinyl.

3ric 3acon Seattle, US

Bought this back in 2006. First pressing of Gish, signed by the band the week D’arcy and James broke up. The band mentions it in their signatures, D’arcy says she’s single. Billy says disaster on it. The record was signed at Tower Records in LA, they were doing a radio interview. The journalist wrote the notes on a piece of paper using the record as a hardback, so you can see the indents of the notes taken still. Later, in my own break-up, the record cover got torn apart, but I taped it back together, and I still have it in a frame. If y’all want a closer shot of it, I’d be more than happy to send. It’s a piece of band history that changed the direction of who showed up to practice and when, ya know?

change

jeff US

i was a metalhead, sabbath, priest, megadeth, metallica, etc. i did mushrooms and went to the Moon bar in New Haven and heard songs from a new band called smashing pumpkins. went to Cutlers Records and bought GISH the next day. Instant fan, it sent me down the road of janes addiction, nirvana, pearl jam, pixies, cult, cure. 80’s alt music. forever thankful Billy C and SP opened my eyes to so much great new music. Lights go out in Hartford Civic Center, fans cheer for a while, a spotlight shines on this giant man dressed in all silver on stage as he sings “the world is a vampire,” one of my favorite concert moments. Thanks for Gish !

Smashing Pumpkins - Memories!

Smashing Pumpkins Reunion Tour

Penny Queens, NY, US

Teenage angst

Ferran Gimeno València, ES

Playing it out

Gilberto Morales San Juan, Puerto Rico, PR

Family ties

Jollie San Francisco CA, US

Tonight, tonight

Chiara Guidobaldi Foligno, IT

my favorite smashing pumpkins memories

David Gorman Dallas, TX, US

my daydreams

wang xin shenyang, CN

mirror

Reza Medan, ID