WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: SMASHING PUMPKINS LIVE ON THE PULSE

01/09/26

To many, the Smashing Pumpkins are a gritty, grungy, hard-rocking, sometimes melancholic group essential to what American rock was in the '90s. I'm not sure Billy Corgan would entirely agree with the "grungy" part, but his definition of what his music is vastly differs from the general public. However, their sound was not always distinguished by a Big Muff punching through a Marshall JCM 800 (2203) layered over and over like the layers of Earth they wished to shatter with this wooly mammoth of a sound. Their first demo tape from 1988 was nowhere near the sound they would soon become famous for. Notably, Billy had taken influence from the goth and new wave bands of the '80s, melding it into the Smashing Pumpkins, though completely unlike the rock band we know them to be. 

The above video from October 1988 shows the Pumpkins on a Chicago TV show called The Pulse, performing songs from their demo tape and other material, mostly unheard until this footage was rereleased. The Pulse's local band segment was named Basement Jam. They did indeed jam in the basement of the studio. The show's producer, Lou Hinkhouse, listened to SP's demo tape and was blown away. He booked them immediately.

First things first. The AI 4K upscaling on this video is shite, but the music is great. Secondly, Billy, James Iha, and D'arcy Wretzky were only 20-ish years old in this video, Jimmy Chamberlain around 24. They were f**king young. Third off, we gear nerds immediately notice Billy and James are sporting Roland JC-120's, very commonly used by new wave and post-punk bands of the era, but not commonly used by SP. Their whole sound is very '80s. And their look. I remember seeing the original video before upscaling and laughing my ass off at Jimmy's quintessentially '80s mullet. 

Now to the first song. The set opens with "There It Goes". D'arcy's bass sound is straight off of Seventeen Seconds. James and Billy's guitars are spritely clean with enough spare JC-120 chorus to send to starving shoegazers. When the guitar riff comes in you can tell why the producer wanted to bring them into the studio. It's just a perfect riff. Billy sings like he does on Crush. Jimmy doesn't do anything spectacular but you can tell there's some flair there, odd bits and flourishes. The hook is the ebow that Billy plays during the solo. For those of you that don't know, an ebow is a little device that constantly vibrates a string like a bow would, but it's specifically designed for guitars. It makes the song that much better. Adds even more '80s to the track.

I doubt anyone could tell that this was Smashing Pumpkins without knowing it was the Smashing Pumpkins. I think the biggest giveaway is Billy's voice, but going in blind I'm not certain if you could tell it was them. The sound is just too different from what people have heard the band as, at least in the mainstream. That's the entire point of this post really...

"She" is another highlight. Another intoxicating riff. Another would be hit in 1981. The chorus is reminiscent of and strikingly similar to one of the verses in "Friday I'm In Love" by The Cure, released 4 years later. A-ha! Something else Billy Corgan can claim was stolen from him. The verses push the focus on the riff and Billy's melody. The drumming is basically only high-hat and kick, allowing it to be built up during the choruses. The bassline perfectly supplements the riff Billy plays, allowing the thin jangle to have a bit more drive to it.

The set gets a bit darker with "My Eternity". The intro is basically "A Forest", from the chorused bass to the chorused natural harmonics on the guitars. James steps into the limelight and plays this really f**king rad bendy riff. Just the right amount of tension. James' solo isn't all that great, but it's significantly underscored by the riff behind it, not to mention Jimmy's drumming. His drumming is phenomenal the entire song actually. "My Eternity" showcases the talent behind Billy Corgan in Smashing Pumpkins. And yes, I mean behind. Not in a literal sense, though I guess Jimmy is behind him while performing. By behind I mean that Billy is always in the front of the group, a spot he earned by being the frontman, the main songwriter, the band leader, and in his eyes (probably), by being the most talented. But you have to recognize that the rest of the band are just as talented as Billy is. James is a fantastic guitarist. He solos, he plays rhythm (both very well might I add), and he has this cool, calm attitude needed to offset Billy's ego. Jimmy is perhaps one of the best drummers I've personally seen live and I don't think he gets enough credit. His jazz drumming is a sight to behold. D'arcy held her own against so many other bass players of the era, contributing exactly what was needed, when it was needed. She's sort of like Ringo in that sense. 

Getting to the mid-way point of the video, however, explains why Billy is as egotistical as he is. Honestly, he could and still can backup most of what he rambles about in interviews. "Nothing and Everything" is the most rocking track on the entire setlist. Billy rips, and I mean really RIPS, a guitar solo. I personally think his solo in "Bury Me" from Gish is one of his best, and the solo in "Nothing and Everything" is sorta similar. Actually, it's not that similar. His style is so distinct though. That's what makes his solos so good. Try to find a standalone clip of "Nothing and Everything", the audio gets all wacked out at a few points. 

From what I can gather, "Jennifer Ever" is the most well-known track from their initial demo tape. All in all, it makes a ton of sense. It's a f**king catchy tune. Straight from The Cure, which seems to be a running theme here. The version in the video has been through hell and back via sketchy tape transfers, digitizing, and over-compression. Definitely seek it out though. A damn good song.

From what I can remember, the reason Smashing Pumpkins moved on from this material was because Jimmy Chamberlain was a goddamn, bonafide powerhouse of a drummer. In the beginning of their documentary/film entitled, Vieuphoria, Billy explains that he'd always wanted to front a rock band but couldn't because it wasn't "in vogue". Once they had Jimmy, Billy knew that they had something special. I will say, some of the material that is a little "harder", so-to-speak, isn't terribly far off from what would be put on Gish. However, it is extremely important to note that the band developed into a different beast in the span of 3 years and defined a sound that continues to influence an entire generation of musicians. To sum that up, the band's early material is not influential, but represents how they themselves were influenced by the generation of musicians before them.

I'm not sure what would've happened if Smashing Pumpkins remained a new wave/post punk band. Clearly, we wouldn't have gotten Gish or Siamese Dream, arguably 2 of the best albums of the '90s. I can't say whether or not they would've "made it". Like most genres, post punk had an initial stint in the early '80s, died out to a degree (sorry I'm not an expert on post punk-enlighten me), and had a revivial within the last 20 years. New wave was gone by the time the Pumpkins came onto the scene. As much as I like the tracks in the video, I think Billy and the band made the right decision to revamp themselves. 

By the way, several sources confirm that this footage was originally released (not originally on-air!) as a bonus DVD that came with the deluxe reissue of Pisces Iscariot. The videos on YouTube have been remastered, compressed, and destroyed with AI. I'm not telling you to track down one of those DVDs, but maybe watch the Internet Archive version.

I'm actually sort of surprised that this post was written. I was going to do a post in regard to the downfall of Smashing Pumpkins and why their new music is shit, but I found this video again and decided that it would be a bit more interesting than the former. It's kind of bizarre to see the band with songs that never made it to any album, let alone being a starkly different genre. Take the old Oasis demos for example (I'll definitely write a post about these). The songs demoed early in their career had a different sound to them, both pre and post Noel. However, they still sounded like Oasis to an extent. They still had the attitude, the swagger, and the rock 'n' roll, heavily inspired by the Stone Roses. Smashing Pumpkins was not the same by any means. They flipped their whole vibe. Billy and crew had a vast enough influences to allow for an intense genre shift. 

Hope you had fun reading. Give the few songs I mentioned a listen. I omitted some so that I didn't get terribly and awfully bored and to save my fingers from having to write about songs that I don't care too much about. Let me know what you think of their sound before and after. Give me a testimonial for how much you like, dislike, or feel indifferent about the switch. Show me how dedicated you are to Cosmic Smell DOT Com...

Smell you later. See you next week...

Cheers,

Jack