Plenty of dismantled rock bands — from Van Halen to Rage Against the Machine, the Police to Genesis, Led Zeppelin to the Sex Pistols — have chosen 2007 as the year to get the band back together and hit the road again.
Motivating factors include money, glory, fan demand or all of the above. Even so, the Smashing Pumpkins’ reunion may be the most curious of them all.
Singer/guitarist Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are the only returning band members; the Pumpkin patch is rounded out by hired hands. And the band did what none of the other reunited rockers deemed necessary: Record a new album. Did they not get the message that reunion tours are all about a quick paycheck with minimal creative gambles?
These two factors have posed an interesting dilemma for fans of the band, whose artsy ambition and arena-rock grandeur rendered them one of the biggest acts in the 1990s.
Many see the “reunion” as a glorified solo project for Corgan under the Pumpkins’ banner. Few clues to the reunion are found in the Pumpkins’ latest album, “Zeitgeist.” The album, which has sold about 300,000 copies since its July release, is a murky mix of loud guitars and thrashing drums, and is largely free of the psychedelia and idealism that was once the band’s calling card.
Corgan seems determined to ensure his band is more than a nostalgia act, but the new material leaves you longing for the oldies.
In 2005 — on the same day he released his solo album, “TheFutureEmbrace” — Corgan took out a full-page ad in the Tribune announcing the Pumpkins’ return. “I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams,” Corgan said.
That’s loftier than, say, your average cash-grab reunion. Corgan is still thinking big.
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Go to smashingpumpkins.com/audio to download free concerts from throughout the Smashing Pumpkins’ career.
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