THE SMASHING PUMPKINS’ longtime strong bond with their fans continues today (Tuesday, November 29 at 9:00AM) via The Smashing Pumpkins Record Club when the reissues of their first two albums–1991’s Gish and 1993’s Siamese Dream–become available.
According to the band’s website www.smashingpumpkins.com/reissues, fans will get five free unreleased demo tracks for download: “All orders of Gish and/or Siamese Dream include an instant download of the four tracks that have been previously available only through the Smashing Pumpkins Record Club (SPRC) – the 8-track demo of “Drown,” “Suicide Kiss Geek” (no vox), “Barb Wire” and “Rhinoceros Version 2,” plus one new exclusive. As a little bonus for purchasing these from the SPRC directly, we have found another little buried treasure for you. Enjoy the “Frail and Bedazzled Instrumental” — This is a Billy Corgan home demo from back in the day! While you are at it, be sure to sign up for the SPRC for future gems…Digital purchases will be delivered via download link at midnight on November 29. There are standard and deluxe versions available of each album, with different tracklists.”
Both albums, each with bonus content and special features that were curated from the band’s archives by founding member Billy Corgan, have been painstakingly remastered for the first time from the original master tapes by Bob Ludwig.
After touring America and Europe this fall–the trek launched October 5 in Los Angeles and wraps December 8 inLisbon–they will release OCEANIA, “an album within an album,” as part of their in-progress 44-song work TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE. Featuring 13 new songs, OCEANIA will be released in early 2012 (further details TBA).
Here is some of the early critical praise for the Gish and Siamese Dream reissues:
“Billy Corgan brought an auteur’s sensibility to Nineties alternative rock: he didn’t smash guitars, he stroked them into ecstatic swells of heaviosity as he cooed composition-book poetry. With 1993’s Siamese Dream–which, like the band’s debut, Gish, had been beautifully remastered and loaded with extras, including a hometown show on DVD–Corgan built a monument to art rock and OCD. His dizzy, acid-softened side lent songs like ‘Hummer’ their poignancy–and animates the best bonus material (12/8/11).” (Four-out-of five star review)
–Nick Catcucci, ROLLING STONE, 12/8/11 (regarding Siamese Dream)
“The outtakes show the work in progress. A rehearsal demo of ‘Today’ hums along like a perfectly agreeable hard-rock track that probably would’ve been played on emerging alternative-rock stations and then forgotten. But Corgan later came up with an intro guitar part that gave the song its chiming fragility, a sense that its beauty and optimism were just a cover-up…More than any moment, ‘Today’ is the pivot point of the Pumpkins’ career, a breakthrough song for a band that had been all about sound. Siamese Dream was loaded with melodies, from “Luna” (both in its gossamer studio version and its even more haunting “apartment demo”) to the scorched overdrive of ‘Cherub Rock,’ Corgan’s raised middle finger to the independent-rock scene that never embraced him…Corgan was a stoop-shouldered suburban misfit from a splintered household, much like many in his audience, and Siamese Dream became a soundtrack for a significant portion of his generation.” (4 out of 4 stars)
–Greg Kot, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/27/11 (regarding Siamese Dream)
“The remastered albums still sound potent–a testament to the rigorous attention to detail that Corgan and producer Butch Vig brought to the original sessions…Gish remains among the more sensual hard-rock albums of the decade…His voice rides the curve of the guitars, the arrangements swerving rather than stomping in typical hard-rock fashion, yielding surprises with each turn. For all its sensitivity to flow, the group could crush your skull when you least expected it, going from near-silence to a thunderclap. The ebb-and-surge dynamics in a track such as “Siva” still impress, as if Corgan were trying to compress a side-long suite by his beloved Rush into four minutes.” (regarding Gish, 3.5 out of 4 stars)
— Greg Kot, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/27/11
“…Siamese Dream‘s songs don’t blend into each other, but some transitions exist; each stands out in a brilliant sequence, forming perhaps the best concept album they ever made.” 10-out-of-10 rating
–Ned Raggett, PITCHFORK.COM, 11/28/11
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The Rock Tribune 