Once in a while there comes a band that has the power to really knock your socks off through their music and aesthetic image--Smashing Pumpkins is one of those bands. Their hits such as "Disarm", "Today", and "Cherub Rock" hearken back to the halycon days of alternative rock. While their darker more cynical songs "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "Zero", and "1979" prove that they indeed had the chops to hang with the rest of the alt-rock gods. It's just too bad that the Pumpkins broke up when they did; I strongly believe that if they had just stuck together through the drudgery of Adore and the absolutely tedious Machina album, they could've made a huge comeback. I mean, just look at what Green Day achieved: they managed to make a great new album while cementing themselves among younger fans for years to come! Who knows, maybe if they had stuck together, Zero t-shirts might've been brought back into style and Billy Corgan's face might be the one plastered on this month's Rolling Stone. Instead, what do we fans get? Two lackluster experimental albums and a really crappy solo effort from Corgan. But back to the videos. My personal favorites are "Today" and "1979." Why? Because each video is done in such a relaxed, carefree way that you will find yourself just drifting off to sleep as the melodies carry you away. Yeah, I guess production-values on "Today" suck, but that's what makes it so great. "1979" on the other hand, delivers a Dazed and Confused-esquire "story" about kids on summer vacation (all though, they all where jackets and long pants throughout the video), who decide to cause mischief because they're bored. What's interesting about the video, is that even though it's supposed to take place in 1979, all the kids look like grunge-rockers (clearly the result of taking out an ad looking for teens for the video). Also, in the convenience store scene, if you look carefully enough you can pick out products that didn't exist until after 1979. But who the heck cares about this technical crap anyway? It's a freakin' music video! God, I wish they still made them like this, instead of all the "punk-rock" videos that have become a permanent fixture on FUSE and MTV. Whatever happened to real rock, instead of this well-I-flunked-out-of-college-guess-I'll-go-start-a-punk-band crap? It seems like MTV totally discourages music from artists like the Pumpkins; thanks, Good Charlotte. Well, anyway, if you're fan of alt-rock, pick this up--you won't regret it.
