The Smashing Pumpkins land in Razzmatazz

Billy Corgan is one of a kind, beginning with his appearance. His considerable height is crowned with a shaven head that lends a certain magnetism to his persona. Corgan decided to shave his head to commemorate the publication of one of his seminal albums as leader of The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, from 1995.
 

Those were the glory days for the Chicago band, with sales of the double album reaching five million copies in the USA alone. Songs such as “Tonight, tonight” and “1979” became reference points for an entire generation. Their success, however, was not born from nothing.  During the first half of the nineties, the golden age of alternative rock, the band had already begun to experience increasing success with their first two projects, Gish (1992) and Siamese Dream (1993).
 

The Pumpkins took a break with the arrival of the turn of the century, but in 2006, Corgan reactivated the band and, together with original member Jimmy Chamberlain, published Zeitgeist in 2007. Chamberlain, however, left the band in 2009 and the leader was forced to assemble a new formation, which appears to have been a successful move as the band appear to have stabilised.
 

Their latest offering, titled Oceania (2012), which they will be presenting in Razzmatazz, is a record within a record, given that the 13 songs will also be included in Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, a project of more than 40 songs that they have been working on for the past four years.