Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, the Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazer-style production and, in later recordings, electronica.
Frontman Billy Corgan is the group's primary songwriter—his grand musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land".
The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, Siamese Dream (1993). The group built its audience with extensive touring and their follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 18.75 million albums sold in the United States alone,The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up.
In 2006, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. The band toured with a lineup of between five and nine musicians through much of 2007 and 2008. Chamberlin left the band in 2009 and was replaced by Mike Byrne. Corgan, Byrne, returning guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and newest addition Nicole Fiorentino are currently recording the 44-song Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which has been released, one song at a time, since 2009.
"Disarm" is the third single and their sixth track from their second album, Siamese Dream. "Disarm" was written by Billy Corgan and is one of the band’s most highly regarded songs. Corgan considers it the most personally important song on Siamese Dream.
The BBC banned the song from appearing on Top of the Pops, because of the lyric "cut that little child", and it received little radio airplay in the United Kingdom. That lyric along with lyrics like "what I choose is my choice" and "the killer in me is the killer in you" has also led to some controversy, as some read it as implying that abortion is murder.
Corgan, however, has clearly asserted that the song is about the shaky relationship he had with his parents while growing up. However, even with the ban and the limited radio time, it still peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. In the U.S., the song failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number five on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number eight on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.
The music video, directed by Jake Scott, is black and white and shows the members of the band floating over images of a house, an old man walking through an underpass while home movie-esque, color footage shows a young boy (Sean Adams) playing outside. Billy Corgan has said that he didn't want the old man in the video, but Scott insisted.
The video premiered on MTV in late 1993 and was immediately placed into heavy rotation. In 1994, it was nominated for Best Alternative Video and Best Editing at the MTV Video Music Awards, the Pumpkins' first MTV Awards nominations.
" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm by EMI_Music
No comments:
Post a Comment