Guitar World

Last Man Standing

By Brad Tolinski

"Death and pestilence," says Billy Corgan.

Come again?

"Death and pestilence," he obliges. "Shall we deal with them now, or later in the interview? I'd rather get them out of the way, if you don't mind."

Looking like an ultra-hip, Anne Rice-inspired version of Nosferatu, the surprisingly tall guitarist is cheekily referring to the two essential ingredients found in Adore, the Smashing Pumpkins' new release, and every other album in their catalog. But he is also alluding to the rotting corpse of the Alternative Revolution, the now-moribund movement that he and his band helped spearhead almost a decade ago.

Like a general who has survived battle, but is now forced to survey the subsequent devastation, Corgan observes what is left of his ragged and threadbare Nineties rock insurrection-and does not like what he sees.

His former brothers in arms-Soundgarden, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Hole, Pearl Jam-those once mighty warriors, are all either dead, defeated, defunct, demoralized or in complete disarray. Worse still are the new, fresh-faced volunteers. The starry-eyes young boys and girls so eager to fight the good alternative music fight, but never understanding the true significance of the original revolution.

The whole thing makes Billy ill.

"We blew it," says Corgan. "There was a real purity in the early nineties music scene that cut through everything like the white-hot blast of a laser gun. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Hole, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and the Pumpkins changed the rules overnight-heavy-duty fucking bites, man. But we screwed it up, because everybody got so caught up in it in the wrong way. Instead of taking over the world, we just gave it away. Kurt takes himself out. Pearl Jam doesn't tour. Soundgarden breaks up. Courtney decides she's not even going to start. I freak out on the world and have a nervous breakdown...

"Listen, I don't care if you like Pearl Jam or don't like Parl Jam. It's a shame they stopped making videos. It's a shame that Pearl Jam stopped touring and didn't get out there and let the world-not just America-see them. Don't forget, we were all ambassadors for America and American music.

"Our music should've become really, really important on a world stage. Now we're suffering the consequences. We're competing against all this schlock. We opened the doors for the disco era to come back in. And what do you think is going to happen? Who do you think is going to win?"

While Corgan leaves the question open-ended, it is clear that he is not going down without a fight. Over the last two years, the guitarist often made it a point to say that the Pumpkins didn't plan on making another album "as the band that most people know," and that "everything needs to change." Adore(Virgin), self-produced by Billy, makes good on those promises.

The band's new album is literally bursting at the seams with fresh ideas. Corgan, along with guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy, has created a brave, new Pumpkinland, where brooding industrial grooves rub shoulders with delicate folk ballads, and stark piano-driven confessionals collide with majestic, eight-minute epics.

The most surprising aspect of the album, however, is the conspicuous absence of the fuzzy, buzzy guitar bombast that defined the band's first three albums. The multi-layered guitar grunge that was so fashionably prominent a mere five years ago has been replaced with ambient synth pads, grainy drum loops and computer sequences. According to Corgan, the change was absolutely intentional.

"This album is definitely me saying goodbye to what I consider my rock and roll," says Corgan unapologetically. "Whatever our little generation's rock and roll was. I mean, it's done, there's no getting around it. You can try to recreate it, you can run it through more fuzz boxes, but it's done. It's time to move on."

In the following interview, Corgan, one of rock's most astute and honest observers, speaks at length about the past the future of alternative music, his friendship with Marilyn Manson, and the melancholy and infinite sadness of the Smashing Pumpkins' smashing new album.

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