May 23rd, 2012 
Michael McCarron 
On this day in 2000, the Smashing Pumpkins called it a day after twelve years and six albums. The breakup of the influential alternative rock quartet has been a mystery ever since their final, four-hour Chicago show in December of 2000. Singer Billy Corgan blamed anyone and everyone he could for the Smashing Pumpkins’ demise. He called bassist D’arcy Wretzky a “mean-spirited drug addict,” and later stated that guitarist James Iha was to blame. However, Iha would respond by stating, “No, I didn’t break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy.” Corgan even went as far as placing the blame on the legendary Ms. Britney Spears opining that the Pumpkins were tired of “fighting the good fight against the Britney’s of the world.” Oh Billy, if only you slapped on some red spandex footy-pajamas and pranced around a horrendously CGI’d Mars replication…
The Smashing Pumpkins’ self-imposed exile ended in 2005 when Corgan brought in new members to fill out a lineup that was as much the Smashing Pumpkins as it was Corgan’s backing band. Alas, just like his antithesis, Axl Rose, Corgan soldiered on and under the Smashing Pumpkins moniker the band has released two more albums. Their forthcoming third-post-breakup record, Oceania, is set to drop on 19 June of this year, a continuation of their ongoing 44-song concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which the Pumpkins began in December of 2009. That is, assuming Corgan does not blow up the band again, blaming the Carly Rae Jepsen’s of the world.
Written by Michael Meeze (follow him on Twitter)
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