The Smashing Pumpkins--Gish

*Snap* It’s now 1991. Michael Jackson tops the charts (but not for long), peace settles temporarily in Iraq after Desert Storm, the Soviet Union falls, Michael Jordan brings yet another NBA championship to Chicago, and a great force is brewing in underground rock. Oh, and your hair is just plain hideous. Yes, the grunge movement is in full swing. Nirvana has not yet exploded onto the pop scene, and the producer Butch Vig that would go on to cut Nevermind has just finished a project with a small Chicago group named after a vegetable. The Smashing Pumpkins would become a John the Baptist of sorts for the alternative explosion, warming the crowds and showing the potential that the future of music held. Gish - released in May - was more than just a grunge album, it combined elements of what was then mainstream rock and the underground scene into what would become alternative music. Songs like "Siva" and "I Am One" took the harsh edge from grunge and punk and wrapped it into a pop package, easily digestible and yet still in your face. The Smashing Pumpkins set themselves apart with inclusion of softer pieces, hinting at emotional fragility with honest lyrical confessions, something relatively new. Something that would become a standard in alternative music. Brilliantly layered guitars and Billy Corgan’s high-pitched, emotional vocals hinted at just where this Chicago four-piece could go. The impact of Gish would be overshadowed by the release of Nevermind several months later, and it wouldn’t be until 1993 that the Pumpkins would seize control of the direction of rock music with Siamese Dream. Yet here in 1991 Gish takes the grunge scene one step farther into the mainstream, and puts The Smashing Pumpkins in the minds of music-lovers everywhere, thirsting for change.

(Published at MusicEmissions.com)