I’m such a big Smashing Pumpkins fan! I really got into their music in high school starting with their Siamese Dream album. I was so hooked on the band after that album that I had to listen to the rest of their discography! It always seemed Gish was underappreciated and overlooked because of Grunge and The Smashing Pumpkins being an indie band at that point in their careers. But Gish is a very special album with a special sound. Even critics and fans didn’t know what to think or what to do with the album in the early 90s.

Billy Corgan was experimenting with LSD and really into psychedelic rock as well when recording the album, so it’s no wonder the sound was so trippy and distinct. Gish to me, has always been more of a shoegaze album than grunge. I was reading a recent Rolling Stone article with Corgan talking about Gish, and it’s really cool to read the people the album influenced like Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, and Queen of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme! Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine even took a liken to the album because of the song Daydream, a song The Smashing Pumpkins made because they were inspired by My Bloody Valentine so much. The article also talks in depth about legendary producer Butch Vig and the record industry’s attitude toward the band and alternative rock at the time.

Tristessa is probably my favorite song off the album. The riff is so fun and bubbly, and the breakdown is one of my favorites. I also liked the slower songs like Crush, Snail, and especially My Daydream. The Smashing Pumpkins were masters at crafting slow melodic and heavy distortion driven songs. I just think they’re easily one of the top 3 to 5 bands of the 90s with Soundgarden and Radiohead. Gish is so special because it laid the framework for The Smashing Pumpkins’ unique incredible sound and I seriously doubt a great album like Siamese Dream would have ever been possible without it.