Pumpkins Mediaflash-Issue 4-,July 1998

Adore is exactly what the title of this article claims it to be, brave new pumpkins. It
is the Pumpkins first album in three years, and it was well worth wait. The album is an
eclectic masterpiece, that varies from soft piano-bass tunes to the powerful electronic
beats and samples. Adore is not acoustic or electronic album, it is a mix of both elements.
The album begins with soft and amazingly beautiful, "To Sheila", which sets the tone for
the album. Unlike its predecessors, the album exchanges screaming distortion guitars for
acoustic guitars, delay effects on electric guitars, piano, and synthetic drums. The whole
album is not synthetic though, drums on the album were also by Matt Walker-the former
Pumpkins touring drummer, Matt Cameron-former Soundgarden drummer, and Joey
Waronker-Beck's drummer. The album continues with the electronic "Ava Adore", which is
a pumping thrill ride, and is almost guaranteed to be a hit. The electronic beats are also
very noticeable in "Perfect"-a title which pretty well describes the song, "Appels +
Oranjes"- which sweeps you up from its start,and the almost new wave "Pug". On the
acoustic end of the spectrum comes the piano-bass song- "Annie-Dog", which has obvious
metaphors about drug use and the perils that come with it. The album has a lot of
haunting sounds as in "Behold! The Night Mare", a song very prominently about death. As
Billy Corgan as been quoted as saying this album uses good use of "space", as in "Tear"
which for the first verse is just a light computer beat but breaks into an electric gem. The
song that seems the most influenced by Jimmy Chamberlain's departure is "Shame", which
seems to be about the former drummer with lines like "You know you made us cry". The
album ends with epic "For Martha" which sports the only guitar solo on the album, and the
soft beauty-"Blank Page". The final track, "17", seems to be a tease of the album that is
suppose to begin recording in September, since the full song was played live with lyrics
and much more than the 17 second piano clip gives away. Adore is about love and loss,
and all its facets. This album is pure Pumpkin genius.


Josh Provost's SPAA was shut
down due to the recent
crackdown on MP3s.

An Editorial By David Pukin

  It started with videos and David R. Cho's site-in other
words the RIAA.  They said that full length videos hinder
record sales.  The newest crack down by the RIAA is
Mp3's.  This crack down led to Koh Shan Pin's(Soma)
university revoking his right to host people on his server.
This included our site and the popular Smashing Pumpkins
Audio Archive(run by Josh Provost).  SPAA was of course
the site who had the Mp3's that the RIAA wanted to get
rid of.  Unlike the RIAA I believe that Mp3's are beneficial
to an extent.  It should be alright for fan sites to have
Mp3's online.  The Mp3's give fans a chance to hear new
songs from their favorite artist, possibly before the album
is released.  This would entice fans to buy the new album.
not stop them from doing so.  On the other hand, there
are sites that have large Mp3 archives full of different
artists' songs, which is just piracy.  In general though, I
believe that Mp3's are truly for the fans.  If they are
used for this purpose, people like the RIAA shouldn't
penalize the fan sites for the abuse that may occur
within the some general sites whose purpose is to put up
large Mp3 archives for several artists and so on.  The
fans are the ones that ultimately suffer.

The Smashing Pumpkins began their tour in May with tour dates in Europe and an opener
spot for Cheap Trick at the Chicago Cabaret Metro. The Hamburg, Germany show which is
pictured above was just one of the unconvential shows. To hear what was brodcasted of
the show, click here. Other shows included a secret gig in Sydney,Australia and a concert
outside the Guggenheim. But even bigger things are to come including their North American
charity tour, where 100% of the revenues go to local youth charities. Also, they will be
playing a 10th anniversary show in Chicago, an appearance on Muchmusic's Intimate and
Interactive, and a free show in Minneapolis for the Aquatennial Festival. I will have a
indept reports/reviews of the show when I come from back from the Minneapolis free
concerts, so watch out for that. After the small tour, the Pumpkins will return to the 
recording studio in September to record their fifth album. With all this coming up this 
summer from the Pumpkins, the summer of '98 will for sure be the summer of the Pumpkins.


-According to sources, "Perfect" will be the next single off Adore in August '98
-On July 17,1998, SP will hold a free concert to kick off the Minneapolis Aquatennial
-The Pumpkins will be on Muchmusic's Intimate & Interactive on July 19,1998 in support of
the new album, Adore
-The Pumpkins will start recording the follow up album to Adore in September '98