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Sep 6, 2008
COMMENTS
Why I'm A Fan
October 28, 2007, 6:39 pm - GeorgeGranade
Haha, time for an essay. Lots of fun for me, boring or possibly even kind of weird for you. Sorry! Here goes:
The first time I remember hearing Smashing Pumpkins was when I was 14 or 15 years old. My friend played Cherub Rock for me on his CD player. I didn't like it. I didn't like any rock music at the time except for Weezer, who I idolized like rock gods. Billy's vocals were too weird and I didn't really like rock music (except for Weezer!), anyway.
My best friend loved rock music and had lots of CD's: Nirvana, Cracker, Candlebox, Our Lady Peace, Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and many others, all of them "alternative." Since he was getting so involved in rock music, I decided to try to become interested, even though I didn't really like rock music at all. I was very methodical. I listened to several (5-6) CD's all of the way through (this took a long time) and wrote down track numbers that maybe I could like, if I had to like this stuff. Most of the CD's I listened to ended up with me only finding 1 or 2 tracks I could even come close to liking. Siamese Dream was a giant exception. Granted, I didn't like rock music, so it wasn't like I fell in love with the CD instantly. But out of 13 tracks I found something I considered interesting or worthwhile in 11 of them. Silver[bad word removed] and Geek U.S.A. were too scary for me to listen to.
So was born what became an obsession with The Smashing Pumpkins. I don't know why, but other bands didn't seem interesting to me. In all of my 16-year-old wisdom, I felt like Nevermind was just the same song over and over, with an acoustic one at the end. Other bands sounded either like a lot of posturing, or they were boring or uncreative. I don't know why I was fooled? by the Smashing Pumpkins. But they rocked AND they were artistic, something that was truly important to me, and which was something I didn't get from most of the other bands I heard on the radio. When Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness came out, the deal was sealed (as if I hadn't become obsessed with Siamese Dream before that). They were easily my favorite band of all time (in my limited experience): orchestral, grand, prolific, willing to experiment, honest, intense. I absolutely LOVED their approach to harmony and harmonic progression. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was like an emotional journey. Like a movie without video. The mixing somehow felt 3-dimensional and almost tangible sometimes. Not having much luck with women, I related to many of the lyrics a lot. Was I depressed because of repeatedly listening to the music or did I repeatedly listen to the music because I was depressed? Maybe it's just something to do with being 17 and socially isolated.
After starting to play guitar, I realized that I absolutely loved the guitar sound of the band, both the strummy, rhythmic acoustic sound and the buzzing yet clear electric sound. After starting to experiment with recording, I realized that making a sound like the Siamese Dream sound was not usual or very easy to replicate, somehow. Certainly not with cheap equipment. Even years later, working at recording studio with tube mics and tube mic pre's, playing through $3000 worth of guitar and amplifier, it was still difficult to make something similar. Eventually I bought an old Big Muff pedal and I was satisfied that I could make sounds that were fairly comparable to the sound of Siamese Dream (but still not quite the same!). All of this is just to say that I think their sound is unbelievable (in all of its many transformations over the years), and somewhat unattainable by ordinary people (haha), although in retrospect, for a long time I was kind of stupid about how I tried to replicate it. And you could always ask, why try to re-invent the past?
Anyway, Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins have consistently impressed and intrigued me for over 10 years now. While the music is usually comparatively accessible (this ain't Arnold Schoenberg), it is at the same time uncompromising in that Billy Corgan does what Billy Corgan wants, everyone else be damned.
It's through Smashing Pumpkins that I learned about My Bloody Valentine, also easily one of my favorite bands of all time, and based partly on things that Billy Corgan said in interviews I branched out and listened to things I might not have otherwise, all kinds of styles, from jazz to country to hip hop to techno to experimental music. I guess Napster helped me out a lot in that department.
It's not healthy to obsess about a band. People in bands are not gods. Who's to say if any of this music will truly stand the test of time? Will Billy Corgan be seen as a musical genius 50 or 100 years from now? I'd like to think so, but we'll see. That's kind of off the topic, isn't it? But I suppose I've answered the question of why I'm a fan well enough.
The first time I remember hearing Smashing Pumpkins was when I was 14 or 15 years old. My friend played Cherub Rock for me on his CD player. I didn't like it. I didn't like any rock music at the time except for Weezer, who I idolized like rock gods. Billy's vocals were too weird and I didn't really like rock music (except for Weezer!), anyway.
My best friend loved rock music and had lots of CD's: Nirvana, Cracker, Candlebox, Our Lady Peace, Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and many others, all of them "alternative." Since he was getting so involved in rock music, I decided to try to become interested, even though I didn't really like rock music at all. I was very methodical. I listened to several (5-6) CD's all of the way through (this took a long time) and wrote down track numbers that maybe I could like, if I had to like this stuff. Most of the CD's I listened to ended up with me only finding 1 or 2 tracks I could even come close to liking. Siamese Dream was a giant exception. Granted, I didn't like rock music, so it wasn't like I fell in love with the CD instantly. But out of 13 tracks I found something I considered interesting or worthwhile in 11 of them. Silver[bad word removed] and Geek U.S.A. were too scary for me to listen to.
So was born what became an obsession with The Smashing Pumpkins. I don't know why, but other bands didn't seem interesting to me. In all of my 16-year-old wisdom, I felt like Nevermind was just the same song over and over, with an acoustic one at the end. Other bands sounded either like a lot of posturing, or they were boring or uncreative. I don't know why I was fooled? by the Smashing Pumpkins. But they rocked AND they were artistic, something that was truly important to me, and which was something I didn't get from most of the other bands I heard on the radio. When Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness came out, the deal was sealed (as if I hadn't become obsessed with Siamese Dream before that). They were easily my favorite band of all time (in my limited experience): orchestral, grand, prolific, willing to experiment, honest, intense. I absolutely LOVED their approach to harmony and harmonic progression. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was like an emotional journey. Like a movie without video. The mixing somehow felt 3-dimensional and almost tangible sometimes. Not having much luck with women, I related to many of the lyrics a lot. Was I depressed because of repeatedly listening to the music or did I repeatedly listen to the music because I was depressed? Maybe it's just something to do with being 17 and socially isolated.
After starting to play guitar, I realized that I absolutely loved the guitar sound of the band, both the strummy, rhythmic acoustic sound and the buzzing yet clear electric sound. After starting to experiment with recording, I realized that making a sound like the Siamese Dream sound was not usual or very easy to replicate, somehow. Certainly not with cheap equipment. Even years later, working at recording studio with tube mics and tube mic pre's, playing through $3000 worth of guitar and amplifier, it was still difficult to make something similar. Eventually I bought an old Big Muff pedal and I was satisfied that I could make sounds that were fairly comparable to the sound of Siamese Dream (but still not quite the same!). All of this is just to say that I think their sound is unbelievable (in all of its many transformations over the years), and somewhat unattainable by ordinary people (haha), although in retrospect, for a long time I was kind of stupid about how I tried to replicate it. And you could always ask, why try to re-invent the past?
Anyway, Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins have consistently impressed and intrigued me for over 10 years now. While the music is usually comparatively accessible (this ain't Arnold Schoenberg), it is at the same time uncompromising in that Billy Corgan does what Billy Corgan wants, everyone else be damned.
It's through Smashing Pumpkins that I learned about My Bloody Valentine, also easily one of my favorite bands of all time, and based partly on things that Billy Corgan said in interviews I branched out and listened to things I might not have otherwise, all kinds of styles, from jazz to country to hip hop to techno to experimental music. I guess Napster helped me out a lot in that department.
It's not healthy to obsess about a band. People in bands are not gods. Who's to say if any of this music will truly stand the test of time? Will Billy Corgan be seen as a musical genius 50 or 100 years from now? I'd like to think so, but we'll see. That's kind of off the topic, isn't it? But I suppose I've answered the question of why I'm a fan well enough.