No Filler Music Podcast - No Filler Rewind: Psychedelic, Shimmering, Heavy - Smashing Pumpkin's Gish

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

No Filler Rewind: Just a few months before grunge took over the 90s, Smashing Pumpkins were carving out their own space in rock music with an album that perfectly bridged the alt-rock and post-punk sounds of the 80s with the heavy shift that was just around the corner. On this episode we talk Pumpkins' debut album Gish, and discuss the album's perfect blend of psychedelic, shoegaze, and hard rock fuzz, with Billy Corgan's sweet and sour vocal delivery tying it all together. Meticulously crafted in the studio by an obsessive Corgan and masterfully produced by Butch Vig just months before Nevermind, this album is a perfect example of rock's transition into the 90s, and a taste of where Corgan would take the band's unique sound throughout the decade. Tracklist Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros Smashing Pumpkins - Bury Me Smashing Pumpkins - Crush Smashing Pumpkins - Daydream Altın Gün - Yolcu Whitest Boy Alive - Serious Smashing Pumpkins - I Am One This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Welcome to No Filler. I'm Quentin. Got my brother Travis with me. As always, it's a No Filler Rewind once again. We're dropping our Smashing Pumpkins episode on you today.

I've had family in town, Traff. You're aware. We know. But it's been quite the dues. So I need a break. So when did we drop this one? Was that like a year ago? This came out in March of 2020.

So this was right around the time that the shit went down here. So yeah, it's been over a year since this one came out. So if you're a new listener, then hopefully this is new to you. But it's, this is a really good episode, man. I really enjoyed digging into this record. We talked about Gish, which was their debut record. Yeah, and we kind of dive into like where they fit in in that, you know, this is right when grunge and shoegaze was happening.

and they're such a perfect blend of that, I think. Yeah, they had a little bit of shoe gaze to them. They had a little bit of psychedelic in them. Yeah. And then they had some of that grunge flare too. So, yeah, this is a great record, man. So, yeah, dude, I'm going to peek behind the curtain. It's Sunday, May 23rd.

We're about to record our latest, what you heard episode. That's going to be the next full length that's coming out. So that'll be dropping. next week, or at least when you hear this, it's going to be coming at you next week. So we're going to throw together this smashing rewind. We'll drop that one tomorrow. None of that makes sense when you listen to this because it's coming out tomorrow. What is time? You know what I mean? And that's how PSAs work, because that's what this is. Just a little primer for you. But yeah, and then we'll be dropping our next What You heard

to round out the end of May. And yeah, we thought the Smashing would be an awesome way to kind of wrap up our 90s stint. Hopefully this is an episode that you haven't backtracked and listened to. And yeah, here is our episode on Smashing Pumpkins Gish. It's funny sometimes because you look out and you'll see, you know, death rockers standing next to college jocks, next to skinheads, you know, next to new wave girls. I mean, there's something about us that doesn't.

that brings all people in. It doesn't offend or it doesn't alienate or make somebody feel that just because they're not of the same style as us that somehow they can't understand. There's something about the emotion and the intensity of the band that transcends genre. And welcome back to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. Got my brother Quentin with me. as always, Q.

And today marks the start of our 90s marathon. We could spend forever in this decade. So we're just going to see how long we can take it as far as how many episodes we're going to devote to iconic 90s bands and records. And we decided to start with Smashing Pumpkin's debut record, Gish. came out in 1991. That was the voice of Billy Corgan talking about the diverse crowd that they would attract to their shows.

You know, speaking to just how varied their sound was, you know, obviously we're going to get into this big time today. You know, they were a grunge band. Yeah. They were right there alongside, you know, Nirvana and Stontyma Pilots and all the rest of him in the early 90s putting out this heavier rock music. But there's so much more to smashing pumpkins, right? It's, man, yeah, it's so different, dude. And it's not just his voice. I was going to say a lot of it. I think it's too. Well, yes, of course, there's more to it than just

his voice. But his voice had such a soft, like I was listening, I've been listening to a lot of pumpkins just the last couple weeks. His voice goes from like this soft sweetness to this like almost like sour, you know, sourness like that. Yeah, dude, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, I mean, and then compare that to Cobain's voice and, or Lane Staley of Alice and Chains. You know, that's the funny thing. Lane Staley also had a very beautiful voice, you know.

Yeah. Well, and Smashing Pumpkins also had Darcy in the mix. Right. And she would, she would, she actually has a track on Gets. So we're jumping the gun here. All right, right. So yeah. Okay.

So anyway, it's a great album. It really does showcase like, you know, again, 91 is the beginning of grunge. You know, it really does showcase how rock was transitioning, right? Like how you go from, you know, the alternative rock and stuff of the late 80s into, you know, including, including shoegaze into grunge, right? And the smashing puppets were a great, a great example of, of. of the bridge, you know. Yeah, and first time I've heard this album, dude. I listened to it for the first time.

It was probably three weeks ago now. I never listened to Gish. Well, you know, after Gish is Siamese Dream. And of course, that's when they explode, right? So, yeah, probably a lot of people. Their first album for Smashing was probably Siamese Dream. At least that's when people probably started to notice them. Yeah.

And another thing, too, you know, we were, four in 91. Right. So we weren't listening to our own music. We heard smashing pumpkins through our brother, our older brother, Spencer. I know I heard the singles from Siamese Dream, you know, like everyone else did. Right. Well, I have a distinct, distinct memory of sneaking in to Spencer's room.

And he had that, he had that CD tower, right? Oh, yeah. And I remember putting melancholy in the, infinite sadness on and listening to Bullet with Butterfly Wings. For some reason, I really like that song. I think we both did back when we were kids.

Yeah. You know, because I mean, think about it starts with him saying, you know, the world is a vampire, you know. Yeah, yeah, I remember listening to that too. But, you know, Siamese dream had today on it.

Yes. And disarm was pretty big, too. Right. But melancholy, you know, that's when they had, tonight, tonight was a big one, Zero was a big one. Did that have 1979 on it?

Yes, it did. God, dude, that is my all-time favorite. Like, top, maybe top 20 songs of all-time, like, favorite for me. I just, ugh, just something about that song, dude. There definitely is something about it. You're right about that. And that album came out in 1995, of course. Yeah.

So, but even between Gish and Siamese Dream, their sound kind of changed a little bit, I feel like. What I like about Gish, a lot of times it's got a really good shoegaze sound. Yes. I was reading an interview that, well, actually, and I'll tell the full story later, but the album Gish, the name Gish, has actually popped up. If you follow like Rolling Stone magazine or you're just a fan of the pumpkins and you follow them on Twitter and stuff. You may have noticed a story that popped up last year that talked about Billy Corgan

reuniting with his Gish era guitar. Oh yeah. I watched that a while ago now. Yeah, that was I think earlier last year. I remember watching that. Yeah. So anyway, he described their sound when it shifted when they wrote Gish. He was, you know, they were writing stuff before that as a band. But he said it went from goth, like a goth rock, to more heavy psychedelic sound. And I think there is some psychedelicness in early smashing pumpkins. But what's interesting is he said that one of the reasons that they were able to make that shift is that he's a left-handed guitar player, but he plays. He plays right-handed guitars, but he's left-handed.

And he said that the neck of this guitar, which was like a 50s-era Fender Stratica, caster, the neck just has more give to it. And he's able to bend the strings a little bit more. And he does that all over, gish. You know, that's one of, you know, part of his iconic sound is really aggressive, uh, string bending and, well, and yeah. And that reminds me of, um, I'll never commit his name to memory, but the, you know, the main guy behind the my bloody valentine that.

Yeah. That guitar style that he created was, was through a lot of bending of, of, of the strings. Yeah. So he says here that we started interpolating that style into what James was playing. And suddenly the sound of the band got way more beautiful, psychedelic, and wide. Yeah. So there you go.

So all things to that guitar. Yeah, that's really cool. And he said it's like he had been like reunited with it or something. Yeah. So the story is in 1992 they were playing at some venue and somebody stole the guitar and just walked out the back door. Wow. And so that's 1992. So 27 years later, somebody, some, some lady had found it in a yard sale and bought it because she thought that it would look cool hanging up in her den. Like, it wasn't even a guitar player. I want to know who

from, from that point, who found out or who realized, that's fucking Billy Corgan's guitar, by the way, you know, like, no, no, yeah. The story is one of her friends was a, was a, was a, fan of the pumpkins and saw some image or some like that of it. And she's like, I think, I'm pretty sure that's pretty Billy Corgan's 1991 era guitar. That must be a huge fan. But the funny thing is he put this, he had this paint job that he put on it to make it look psychedelic.

And that was one of the things that gave it away. Yeah. But anyway, I wasn't planning on telling that story this early on in the episode, but here we are. Sorry. So yeah, let's just, uh, So what do you want to do here? Do you want to give a brief background? Yeah, so I just wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, Billy as a guitarist early on, you know, and then kind of how they all found each other and formed

the band. So his dad was a professional jazz funk guitarist. So but along with that, his dad, you know, his dad wasn't around very often, you know, because of his professional career as a touring guitarist. So he was kind of self-taught. And when he was really young, do you remember those tests that they would give in school? It was like a hearing test and you, like, you raise your hand, you know, whatever. Yeah, they would play three different tones or, or, no, two, three tones, one of the two was different, you know, and so you raise your hand when you hear the different tone. And he apparently scored higher than anyone in the history of them administering that at his school, so much so that they had him come back and do it again.

And then the second time he took it, he scored even higher. So he was told early on, hey, you know, your son might be a musical savant or whatever. So anyways, you know, it's always something that was in his mind. Well, if your dad's a jazz funk guitar player, you know, that's probably one of those things that crosses your mind. Yeah, you know. So growing up in a musical household gets himself a guitar, starts playing around with, you know, filling with the guitar, laying down these really cool, like, guitar solo tracks and stuff. But here's a clip from Billy talking about this era. And it kind of what led to him wanting to start a band. As a guitar player in my mind, I wanted something to frame what I was doing in. So just being able to say play a good solo seemed to be worthless if they didn't have some context. So then I would start making these little songs. I took these little snippets of things like,

what if I took the lyricism of a Bob Dylan and combined it with the riffs of Black Sabbath and the atmosphere of love and rockets or something, can I put these things together? And I just kind of built my own world to where I had enough information and enough of a kind of a logic system in there that I at least started from a perspective of right.

I don't want to do anything that anybody else is doing. And it's only going to work going to work for me if I go down this path. So yeah, I'm glad that he mentioned Black Sabbath in that quote, because I've got something he said in a Rolling Stones interview here that he did in 1994. They asked him, what groups have you used as building blocks for your band? And he says, eight years old, I put on the Black Sabbath record and my life is forever changed. It sounded so fucking heavy. It rattled.

the bones. I wanted that feeling. With Bowhouse and the cure, it was the ability to create a mood in an atmosphere. The air gets heavier. With Jimmy Hendricks, it was the ability to translate this other level of guitar. Cheap trick, it was a vocal influence. Although Tom Peterson once told me that Rick Nielsen called us tuneless and non-melonic. It's kind of funny. So yeah, that, I mean, that's like early on that's that's that's kind of cool you know in his mind he's thinking like oh well let me just borrow like you know the lyricism or like the vocal delivery of like bob dillon right mix it in with with black Sabbath and jimmy hendricks and he's talking about here cheap trick you know the cure but yeah if you you know since eight years old he you know black Sabbath

influenced him from that early of an age yeah and that's the thing man i think everybody he remembers the first time they heard the self-titled Black Sabbath album, the very first record. At least I do, because I remember listening to it when I was a teenager.

And yeah, it's just one of those there's one of those transformative moments, or at least it can be if you're a fan of metal where it's like, man,

I get it, you know, these guys really were sort of the ones that started at all. But yeah, I've heard that Tony Iommi is a huge, huge influence on the heavier sound that Corgan tries to get out of his guitar.

You know, that's why he has so much fuzz and his amp and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. So, and like, you know, so kind of like what he was saying, you know, I could really only achieve this sound, you know, or these ideas that I have in my head of what I want to do as a musician by going down a certain path. Laying down these guitar solos and writing all this stuff is cool, but without a proper band or a proper vision, you know, there's no, there's no context behind it or whatever. It's basically it sounds like he's saying, you know, I can't just be an act of one or whatever, maybe not follow the path that my dad didn't just be a, you know, a guitarist for hire. So, jumped in 1988.

He's early 20s. He's back home in Chicago. And he takes a job at a record store. And that's where he meets guitarist James Iha. and pretty early on they decided to start a band. Early on, it was just them to and a drum machine. And their sound early on was heavily influenced by the cure and new order. You know, so like the gloomy kind of art rock stuff.

And I think like he was saying, that's probably the goth stuff that he was talking about. Yep. And so it's kind of funny story of how they eventually meet Darcy, who, is the bass player. Apparently, Corgan was at a concert in Chicago. So he was, you know, in the audience watching a concert. And Darcy was in the crowd and overheard Billy Corgan criticizing the band. And they had kind of an argument and had a discussion about the merits of the band. And then he found out that she plays bass and recruited her for the band. So it's funny that they were just, you know, side by side at a rock concert.

Neither of them knew each other. But she overheard Billy going like, ah, I don't like this band because of this and that. Or, oh, my God, I can't believe they just did that. And then she jumps in and they started discussion over the band that was playing. So they united on their dislike of a band they're saying together. Either their dislike or their disagreement on how they thought about the band. Apparently, the band was called. Disagreement.

Yeah, right. That would make for a better, you know. Let's just say that. Yeah. So it's the three of them now. They're a trio. They still just have a drum machine. The owner of some club that they wanted to play at basically agreed to book them on one condition.

They replaced the drum machine with a live drummer. That's a fair request. Yeah. So here's where Jimmy Chamberlain comes in. He's the eventual drummer for smashing pumpkin. and this is all around the same time. This is all happens pretty quickly. Chamberlain sees them as their, you know, as the trio and drum machine band.

He sees them play at a club in Chicago. And he says, man, did they sound horrible? They were atrocious. But the thing I noticed was that not only were the song structures good, but Billy's voice had a lot of drive to it like he was dying to succeed. And the funny thing is, here's what Corgan has to say about him reflecting back on meeting Jimmy for the first time. He says he was wearing a pink t-shirt, stone-washed jeans. He had a mullet haircut.

He was driving a 280Z, so a sports car, and he had yellow drums. We were all sort of looking at each other thinking, this ain't going to happen, man. This is not the guy. So. The irony, because Corgan played a yellow strata catcher. Maybe not at that time. But, well, but like, when you think of yellow drums, you know, like, you think of like, deaf leopard or like, I don't know.

I guess, yeah. So, Chamberlain was in a band called JP and the Cats. And they were kind of like, they were terrible, dude. I looked up a few clips of the band. They're basically, you know, a band that you hire to play at your wedding or something, which is, this is why Corgan's like, he takes one look at Jimmy Chamberlain. It's like, there's no fucking way, you know? But don't ever judge a book by its cover.

It's, yeah. Well, and it's funny too because when you listen to some of the guitar solos, well, and like the drumming, too. And like, there are times where it does sound like that kind of 80s, kind of like, I read a quote saying that that smashing pumpkins and this album throws down like guns and roses on a my bloody Valentine trip. Okay. I think that's pretty accurate, dude. especially so actually let's this is a good segue into our first clip the guitar solo in in bury me which is the first song I'm going to play is very like guns and roses kind of stuff or van halen yeah I mean we we we touched on this on our very first episode on alison chains that yeah I mean think about it I mean this is the these guys probably listened to some of that hair metal when they were when they were grown up or when they were learning how to play guitar and stuff because that was the quote unquote metal, or at least the popular metal that was happening back then, you know?

So especially, you remember we have talked about how if you look at older images of Pantera, I mean, they look exactly like those hair metal bands. Death leopard and twisted sister. So yeah. And this is what we were talking about with the bridge between the 80s sound and the start of the 90s grounds. Like you hear it in these early grunge albums. And it is cool with Smashing Pumpkins.

They are kind of like, they're a great. I mean, they're a bridge between like shoegaze and grunge and, you know, the kind of rock that came before it. Let's take a quick break. So let's play the first track, which is, what is it, track three? Yeah. Nope, track four. Who cares? We played a little bit of rhinoceros in the intro.

So for our first clip, we're going to jump down to track four, the next track on the record. It is called Barry Me. Great track, man. So yeah, I like that the little thing that he does with his voice during the chorus. He repeats like, hi, hi. Yeah, I think Darcy's doing back-a-book. I think that might be Darcy. I don't know, man.

That sounds like Horkin to me. I could have been him on the recording, but yeah. That's the thing. Corgan has such a high range with its vocals, you know. Yeah. But that guitar solo, right? I mean, that's straight out of the 80s. I will say, and I can't, I tried to look it up real quick just to verify it, but I would

say that Darcy's bass sound sounds a lot like the bass player from Allison Chains. His name is Mike Inez. But, you know, Alison Chains were, you know, Alison Chains were. We're active, you know, and I'd already produced, put out facelift. So maybe, you know, who knows? Maybe she was influenced by their sound. Yeah. Hard to say.

But anyway, it had that kind of, that sound. But yeah, it's a great track. And, you know, we were both talking earlier about this song. And like, there's just change that happens at the second half of the song. I love it, dude. One of those reasons that like, here we go, man. like the sweet, the sweet and the sour or whatever, if you want to call it that. And the way that it transitions to the next track.

Yes. A lot of them have almost like two movements, you know. So, yeah, that's why we split up this one into two clips. Let's fade into the last half of the song. So this is clip two from Barry Me. That's a little bit more sweet, man. I'd say he was a little more sour in the first clip. Love it.

Yeah, I just like that. I like that transition that they do there. Yeah, because like you said, it's like a whole separate. You could almost be a separate song, like the start of a new idea. I feel like we talked about this with My Bloody Valentine, and I'm sure a few other bands that we've covered on this podcast. Corgan pretty much shunned every major label that offered to record their music. Because to him, you know, he says, what the band does is so specific that we could not dilute it in any way. we couldn't put ourselves in the position where we were powerless.

So they eventually signed with an indie record label called Caroline Records. And, you know, that way they were able to maintain control of what they wanted in their sound. And they have Butch Vig to come in to produce the record. Later on that same year, Butch Vig ends up recording Nirvana's Nevermind. and he's also produced I mean he did the list is is insane now but he was still kind of making a name for himself back then he goes on to to produce a few sonic youth records he's he's worked with the foo fighters now dude it's funny that you said Sonic Youth because I wanted to mention Sonic Youth because I feel like the sound of that the second part of that song

kind of reminded me of the Sonic Youth sound which obviously Sonic Youth was well well into their, their, their music at that point, you know, they were very well known. Yeah. You know, the thing about it, like, I like, what I liked about that part is like, he's doing these like open, open string chords, like these open chords. He's very, but, but, you know, with a lot of, a lot of fuzz still on the, on the guitar. So it sounds, it just sounds really cool. Kind of reminded me of Sonic Youth, like I was saying, sort of that noise rock, you know,

And Sonic Youth had a lot of similarities to Shoe Gaze, but they, like, they predated Shugays. So anyway, you know, that's funny. I didn't realize that Butch Vig did Sonic Youth stuff too. Yeah. Yeah. So But Butch was recording and producing records at the time. But he was doing records for, for indie labels that had small budgets, you know, that only allowed for about three to four days of recording time. So he was just knocking him out, you know.

Actually, I'm going to let's, I'm going to. let Butch talk about this a little bit. I've got a clip of him kind of talking about recording Gish. Gish was the first record where I really had a chance to work on the sounds and to really try and make a great sounding statement. We spent about 30 days recording and mixing. Up until then, I think every record I'd done had been about three or four days. You know, track everything in one day, overdub all the vocals in the second day and then mix everything in the third day. And I did hundreds of records that way. It was good learning because you have to do things really quickly,

just make decisions really quickly and get things done because there was no time to even think about things like that if it was good enough or if it could be better. Gish was the first record why I could really spend time getting tones and really work with the band and with Billy Corgan specifically because he was very much a perfectionist like I was. And I loved it. we were sort of we would push each other but we were on the same wavelength them gish made a lot of

noise when it came out um the record kind of yeah man i like that made a lot of noise when it came out yeah yeah so like he was saying but before gish he was just cranking out records you know for for indie labels with small budgets um he thinks of both gish and obviously never mind you know looking back those were the two albums that kind of changed everything for him because after those two albums came out, the phone just wouldn't stop again. He was getting asked to produce everyone. Yeah, especially after, never mind, obviously. Yeah. So real quick, I just wanted to, you know, I didn't even think about this until just now, but I remember reading. So I had said that Corgan moved back to his hometown of Chicago in the late 80s. Well, he had moved down to Florida

before that to join a band called The Marked. And this was like that goth rock. kind of stuff that he was doing even before he met James. But I remember reading somewhere that that was a thing that he experienced too, because he recorded some stuff with the marked, and it was the same kind of thing. They only had about three or four days to make a record, you know, because there just wasn't any money in the budget for it. So I wonder how they were able to get that with Butch. You know, I'm wondering what it was that changed as far.

Because it's an indie record label. I'm wondering why they decided to, you know, spend a little bit more money and give them a little bit more time. Maybe it's just because they heard demos or they heard. Maybe you were saying that, like, you know, he was so meticulous about and a sort of perfectionist. Maybe it's part of that. Yeah, I guess Caroline Records is probably the only one that would give him. So, so butch said that they recorded it over 30 days.

So, I mean, that's, dude, just that's so much longer to, to what they were both used to in the past. just having to crank it out in three or four days versus 30 days. And both of them were kind of perfectionist. Like Butch was, like he said, like it was cool to find. He called him Comrade in Arms who wanted to push me and who really wanted me to push him back. So do you want to jump to the next song? Yeah, yeah. And so what I like about this pick here is that it's kind of the softer side.

of the sound. Dude, the first time I heard Crush, man. It got me. And we're going to play the whole song. And I want to, sometimes we like to play the very end of a track so that you can hear the transition between songs because it's, you know, for us, that's part of the, you know, beauty of listening to a record from start to finish is to enjoy those transitions and to see what the producer and the band

see how they wanted it to flow from song to song. So we're going to play the very end of Barry Me and then we're going to have it go straight into Crush. It's a beautiful song. And it's a love song. I mean, you look at the lyrics, it's a love song. There's this great billboard article that goes track by track. And the person who wrote it says,

as the bass tiptoes across the bedroom trying not to squeak a floorboard. Corgan whispers sweet nothings to his sleeping lover. Yeah. Yeah, and there's really no drums whatsoever. No, no, but he's got a little tambourine or something like that. I was going to say, dude, I'm a sucker for a well-placed tambourine, dude. For a good tambourine.

Yeah, so like, you know, there's acoustic guitar, and then there's the cleaner sounding electric guitar. So Corgan and James are kind of playing off each other in that regard. And there's definitely, he's got, you know, this probably plays. into the the psychedelic label that that he put on the on their early sound like he's got like a flanger pedal or like a phaser pedal or something like that for that that clean sound that he's getting that guitar that kind of tremolo almost sound i think that's like a phaser pedal or something like that or flange flanger pedal i feel like this song and this sound is kind of like a preview of what's to come with with with what corgan does with with the pumpkin sound yeah

moving forward. Yeah. Well, so like, you know, I feel like it's just so important that this came out in 91, and it came out before Nevermind came out. Because like, so there's a quote here from that, that 1994 interview that he did with Rolling Stones. Basically, they, they, the question is just like, it's not really a question. The interviewer says, so things changed drastically in 91, huh? And then Billy says, we can pretty much judge things by pre-Nirvana and post-Nirvana, at least for my generation and for my peers.

That was the absolute turning point. Now it's grown up to the point that the carpet's not going to be yanked out and we're not going to go disco anytime soon. This is not born of fashion. This is not born of fads. Basically talking about the staying power of gruns, right? and that in her Nirvana helped do that, right? But I think it's interesting that this album came out before, Nevermind, because had it come out after,

would it have been as successful? Because, like, nobody had heard Nirvana yet, or at least nobody had heard, Nevermind yet, right? Yeah, and it always makes you wonder. Just a few months later, really. Right, just a few months. Nevermind comes out in September. When did Gish come out?

Was it like June or July, I think? came out in May. Okay, yeah. Dude, so let's name off the top ten, shall we? Maybe not all ten, but here's the top of the charts for rock albums of 91. Well, not just rock, because Tribe Call Quest is on there with the low-end theory. Nevermind, Ten by Pearl Jam. There's a U-2 album on there.

Metallica is on there with the Black album, Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And then you've got a couple albums. by guns and roses, they released, I guess it was part one and two, Use Your Illusion. So, you know, that's the landscape at the time, dude. I think it says a lot that Black album came out in 91 too, because, you know, it's kind of the end of the thrash metal era, right? A lot of people would say the Black album is, you know, Metallica changing, you know, irreversibly, basically. the black album is when Metallica

stops being thrash they put out injustice for all which is like one of their most like complicated records as far as like what they were doing like song arrangements and stuff and then they go on a black album obviously and become even more successful

hit the mainstream and all that stuff but it's just funny because 91 thrash metal of the 80s is over you know even Metallica is changing and becoming more mainstream and then grunge hits the same year like 91 man what a huge year for rock oh yeah dude r em shows up on there with without time what shows up on out of time what shows up on out of time i got to say i'm not too familiar with their stuff from the from the 90s i'm a big fan of r em's losing my religion dude yeah and that's the thing man r em the r em sound is also very much 90s too

you know, obviously. You know, they were, they were hugely successful still in the 90s, putting on a ton of great stuff. Yeah, dude. Man, it really was an important time, dude, for music. Yeah. I mean, the 90s was the last, the last true, solid decade for rock and roll, you know? It just was. You know, moving forward, it just branches off into so many different genres from there.

It was the last decade for mainstream success in rock music, right? Yeah. If you want to put it that way. Yeah, because really, like, most, most, mainstream rock now really like blurs the lines between like pop yeah and disco even but basically from the 2000s on you know it's it's hip hop dominates right not hip hop music of general pop music right yeah and dude and we're in we're including tame impala in that now kings of leon is now a huge pop band sure you know but i'm just saying like as far as like the dominant the dominant music you know

rock and roll was still was still the dominant genre, I feel like, in the 90s. Yeah. All right, so if you got one more song that I want to play, I want to jump down to the last track on the album. It's called Daydream.

The reason I want to play it is because Darcy is the main singer for this one. And I like it because it's got a really awesome just straight up shoegaze, my bloody Valentine vibe. Big fan of it. I will say, I don't want to play it, but there is a,

secret track on the record that happens about 10 seconds after Daydream. It's just a weird little like two-verse song by Corgan. You're going to tease it and not play it. All right, we'll play it. Let's just play the whole song then. All right. Including the secret track. Some people say that the lyrics kind of allude to the splintering of the band from that

point on. So here's the last track on the record. it is called Daydream. Droms. Yeah, what the hell, dude? They could have left it on such a high note, you know, with that really pretty... The question is, Q, did he sneak it in? See, no, that's the thing, too, like...

Was that a hidden message? Think about how all the other record labels or producers who would have been like, no fucking way, dude, we're not going to put that in at the end. I bet Butch was just like, sure, man, why not? You know? That's what I'm saying, like, did... If he's got beef with his band members, did he sneak that in?

Yeah, I don't see. We're probably reading too much into it. Right. Well, and I purposely didn't want to even go down that road. Because that's like, because now Corgan is, you know, infamously like, it just, you know, bigheaded and. Yes. Kind of full himself. And I saw, I saw a quote that said that he hadn't, he hadn't been in the same room as Darcy in like well over a decade.

So, yeah. But like the lyrics there, like, I'm going crazy. I don't want feelings. your feelings. Yeah, yeah. Of course, we could, we could freaking like nitpick these lyrics. But yeah, let's talk about the song that we play here, the last track. You're right.

Like, it makes me want to hear more. I was trying to look to see if she was in any other band. And really, there's not much else out there that she's done. But yeah, her voice definitely, like you said, very, very shoegaze sounding voice, that kind of soft delivery. I liked it. I like the way she delivered that song. I like it.

Yeah. Well, and shout out to Butch Vig, too, for the way he, you know, mixed it and everything. Sure, yeah, sure. All right, so that's that. So before we dive into our What You Heard's, let's take a quick break. All right, we're back. So anything else, dude, do you want to throw anything else on there about the pumpkins before we dive into our beloved What You Heard segment?

I'm going to tease what we're going to do we know what we're going to cover next week for our side track? No, we do not. Yeah, we'll figure it out. So we'll try and find either a side project from one of these members or, you know, maybe a maybe we can play, you know, a huge influence band for them, something. We'll figure it out. Yeah, I think the only thing I want to add about the Smashery Pumpkins is like how

constant Dave, as far as like when I think back to to rock bands that have. I've been there since like the beginning of my starting to like starting to notice and listen to music. You know, they're one of them, dude. They're one of the bands. Because like I said, before I had my own records record collection by my own CDs, I would go and sneak into our older brother's room and listen to smashing pumpkins, you know? Yeah. Like this was one of those formative bands.

I may not have ever really dive, you know, I haven't really dove deep into them before. but I'm starting to, you know. But yeah, I would just say like you said, man, 1979 is, yeah, I'm with you. It's one of my favorite songs from that era, if not one of my favorite rock songs of all time. The stuff on Siamese Dream is just fucking killer, man. Yeah, dude.

Like, some of those songs are just so iconic and Smash Republicans really do bring something different to the table, you know, for grunge music from that decade. Yeah. But yeah, like, you know, cherub rock. Get out of here, man. Well, 1979 was on melancholy. Oh, I know.

I'm just saying that the stuff on Siamy's dream is just as great as 1979, you know. Totally. But yeah. So, yeah, so that kicks off our stint into the 90s, dude. And we're going to try to cover a wide range of genres. But, I mean, it's going to be a lot of rock, you know. It's just how it is for us. What we decided, Q, is Stone Tip of Pilots Purple is going to be the next, the next full-length episode that we do.

So that's going to be a good one, man. That's another flavor in the spectrum of grunge music, you know. Yep. All right, man. So it's time for what you hurts. This is when we, you know, I just want to remind people what it's all about. Travis and I are listening to music all the time. And every week, I hear at least one.

new song or find a new band, you know. So we like to share, share these tunes with you all, just a way to get, get some more music into each episode. Travis, I think I know what you're going to play, unless you change it. Yes, you do. Okay. Well, let me, let me go first. Okay. Because I'm, I'm really excited about this band. I just found them, well, they found me. Someone shared them with me. They found you. Well, this was another, another post that someone did on the vinyl subreddit, which is great. I found a lot of great music through that, through that music community. This is a band called Alton Goon. They are a Turkish psychedelic rock band. The guy who formed the band has a huge fascination with Turkish sounds from the 70s. So he decided

to, to form a contemporary band and to combine the traditional Turkish sound with, Western rock influences. I had a really hard time picking what song to share with you, dude, so I'm just going to play the first track on the record. We're going to play it all the way through. It's just over two and a half minutes. I think it's pronounced Yulchu. That's a great track.

Very psychedelic. I love the way that they, like you said, the Turkish... They combine that traditional style, dude. Yeah, I love that. I love that stuff, man. You know, I like it when bands do that, man, because it's like... You know, I've talked about the band,

the Sepultera, the metal band, and how they used to incorporate kind of Brazilian stuff into their metal music. And it just, like, it's just, it adds that, that flavor that you haven't heard before or tasted before. What's great about it, it's like some, it's something that I didn't realize that I was missing in my life, you know? Well, yeah, it's like, because we're not going to hear that. It makes you appreciate that, that, that music and they're able to breathe new life into it. Anyways, the album is called Gichi, came out in 2019. Again, the band is called Alton Goon. And this entire album is great.

And there's also a female singer. And they kind of, it seems like they swap songs. I mean, like, there's no song where they're both singing at the same time. So that's why it was really hard for me to pick a song because her songs are also really, really awesome. Wow. If you liked what you heard, go check out the rest of the record. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, dude. I'm excited to hear your song again because as soon as you heard it, you shared it with me. And, dude, it's like dreams are coming true, bro. Yes. Dreams are coming true. This is one of those artists that you have to stop everything you're doing and listen, at least for us. Because of how important this particular fellow is, especially this side project. So I'm talking about Mr. Erland-Oria.

And of course, he is one-half of. of the folk duo Kings of Convenience. And we did an episode on them. We talked about right on an empty street. Or did we talk about Quiet as a new lab? We actually ended up releasing both. Remember? Because we covered.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, we've got both of their earlier albums. Yeah. We covered both of them. Yeah. The Norwegian sweethearts. Yes, that's right. So Ireland has a ton of side.

He's always involved with something. Yeah. But he had a side project that he did called The Whites Boy Alive. And it's just this, there's these two albums that they put out both in the, you know, over a decade ago. So like I just wasn't expecting it. And I was listening to my Spotify's release radar playlist, which comes out once a week, every time there's new music that comes out from a band that you follow. and I just I heard it and I was like this has got to be is this who I think it is you know and sure enough man oh man so good I thought for sure that all we were ever going to have

were those two albums from the early odds dude yeah well here you go cute according to wukipedia on March 5th 2020 the band released a brand new single serious officially beginning their comeback oh that's what I want man I want I want a full comeback. I want a full record. I'm sure they will. This can't be the only thing that they recorded when they were in the studio. But anyway, there's, man, there's the perfect 70s disco rock. Yes. Exactly. It's so good. It is so good. And his voice is just amazing. So anyway, let's, without further ado. Should we play the whole song? I don't care if this is a long episode. Let's play it. Let's play the whole song. Because there's so many cool parts in this song, especially like that that keyboard kind of solo at the end. So yeah, let's just play the whole song. song. So this song, again, it's super fresh. Came out March 5th. And the song is called

Sirius by The Whites Boy Alive. It's like they picked up right where they left off, man. Yeah, really. Yeah, exactly, man. Man, I just love the keyboard player, man. I think he plays like a Rhodes or something like that, like, you know, one of those older synthesizer things. But, yeah, yeah. So I would encourage you, if you like that, obviously go back and listen to their first two records. And we'll put this in the show notes on the website, no feelipodcast.com. There's this live concert video that I always remember of them playing in the storefront. Yes, I've seen that.

Yeah. And I always remember the bass players like green. He was wearing a green shirt and green pants of the same color. I don't know why I always remember that. But anyway, man, these guys put it on a fucking show. And, of course, they're playing 1517, which is like one of their freaking bangers. That's such a good song. Anyway, yeah, we'll put that on the show notes for you.

But yeah, man, like you said, disco. There's a little bit of disco in it, but like it's dance music, a lot of it. Maybe not necessarily that song, but there's just something about, and the funny thing is like the songs are simple, too. They're kind of simple. They're very simple. At least with Dreams, their first album. Yeah. You can tell from the recording and what they left.

They leave in countants and stuff. It was recorded live. I wonder if they're sticking with that because it sounds almost like no time has passed at all in between. You're right. Their first two albums in this new release. And I'm not knocking him for that. And you know what, dude, that's the same with Kings of Convenience. Yes.

You know, as far as like, it doesn't matter how long between albums, you know, when they come back together and do something, it's just the sparks start to fly again. Right. So when you look at their Wikipedia page, you can kind of follow along here of how people like you and me, huge fans, kind of lost all hope. It says here in June 2014, the band announced via their Facebook page that they are no longer composing or playing together as the YS Boy Live. I remember reading that, dude. Yeah, yeah. And then in August of 2017, they said they're going to perform a 45-minute one-off reunion show. in Syracusa, Italy.

And then in 2019, they announced via their Facebook page. You got to follow them on Facebook if you want to stay in touch, it sounds like, that they would play the Fana Festival in Chile and expressed an interest in booking further shows. That was September of 2019. So, you know, basically, you know, they said they were no longer composing together. Obviously, you know, when these guys get together, they can't help it. Yeah, they must have just been like, why did we ever stop? Right.

So obviously, I bet you when they did that reunion show, a few years later, and then they're like, hey, you know, we could book a few more shows maybe. And then there you go. They're back in the studio making new music. So anyway, I'm sure as they put out more singles or if they put out a full length record, we'll be talking about it. And we've talked about covering one of their records at some point, talking about doing an episode on them. It's kind of, you kind of have to. Yeah. It's one of those required albums for you and me, you know, to talk about it. Oh, yeah. So, all right, man, let's wrap this up. Yes. So, Q, where can they find us, man? Aside from our website, no filler podcast.com, where you can find show notes in all of our previous episodes and track listing for each episode, where else could they find us? Well, we're, yeah. Yeah.

Well, we're part of the Pantheon podcast network. It is an awesome group of like-minded, music lovers. And we all just kind of geek out about music. Yes. It's probably like 20, 30 different shows now in the network, man. It's, it's kind of crazy how varied it is, too. There's a bunch of great content. Dude, we just brought on a new, a new show called the Dad Bod Rap Pod. Dude, I love that name. What a great name. I love that name. So yeah. Yeah, dude. More than just rock and roll. We talk about, we try to talk about everything on this network. Obviously, you and I, we lean toward rock on the spectrum of music that we love. But, you know, if there's a band that you like or a type of music that you like, surely there's something on the podcast network, the Pantheon podcast network for you. There's podcasts that focus on one artist, and that's the entirety of every single episode.

Like, is it Rolling Bob, talking Dylan, the shout out loud podcast? It's a Kiss podcast. Nothing but Kiss. Yeah, dude. Just hop on to the Pantheon podcast network. That's Pantheonpodcast.com, or you can just find it on any way that you get your podcasts. If you subscribe to that network, then you'll get our weekly show in the feed as well as every show. You'll get the newest episode.

And if you like pods in particular, you can follow them individually. But you can listen to everything by following the Pantheon. Anthion Podcast Networks feed. Yeah. I think that's the coolest thing about the network, dude. You know, there's, you can either listen to the podcast as if it's, you know, like a TV station and you can press play. Yes.

And you listen. It's just going to give you each new episode, you know, from one, from one podcast to the next. Or you can actually, you can find each one of our podcasts as it's, as its own separate thing. I think that's a really cool way to do it. Yeah, definitely. All right, anyways, man. So kicking off our 90s stint here, I thought it was appropriate for us to cover

Smashing Pumpkins because like you said, this is one of those bands that kind of defined what kind of music. This may have been, honestly, cute, pumpkins may have been the first grunge music that we heard. Yeah, I think it's possible. It's very possible. Yeah, absolutely. So again, we're going to cover Stone Tempillar. pilots next will be our next full-length episode. But before that, next week we'll cut,

we'll shout at you with a little sidetrack. Something pumpkin's related. We'll figure that out in the next week. Until then, thank you as always so much for listening. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis. Y'all take care. It's not just you. News is moving faster than ever. And I'm hoping that I can help you make sense of it all. My name is Jamie Plo and I host Canada's most popular daily news podcast, it's called Frontburner. We break down one story each day and talk to the reporters, the politicians, and people at the heart of it. Our goal is to help you stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. You can find and follow Frontburner on Spotify.