Zeitgeist

There are a lot of things to look forward to July. First, there’s the long awaited Transformer movie(July 4), then Harry Potter movie version of the Book 5:Order of the Phoenix(July 13 in Phils) and the release of the last Harry Potter Book,Deathly Hallows(July 21). Those were reason enough to make me wanna fast forward time or teleport myself to the month of July. But just yesterday, my friend Neil told me that our favorite band in the world Smashing Pumpkins has reformed and is set to release a new album Zeitgeist this July 10. Smashing Pumpkins to those who don’t know is the uber cool and successful alternative rock band from Chicago formed in the late 80’s and flourished during the 90’s and disbanded in 2000. The band has released 7 major albums and 6 of which became platinum. The songs form these albums has topped the US and UK charts. I love the band because even if they are mainstream…they still manage to sound indie. Maybe it’s because of their diverse elements in their music like progressive rock, gothic, heavy metal, psychedelic and etc. I also love their cathartic lyrics which my friends and I used to memorize and sing during our care free days. The band has had a lot of members but the most prominent were Billy Corgan(vocals, guitars, songwriter), Jimmy Chamberlain(Drums/Percussion), James Iha(guitar, vocals) and D’Arcy Wretzky(bass, vocals). Sadly, only Corgan and Chamberlain from the original members will compose the reformed SP. Iha is now with Perfect Circle while Wretzky has been out of the music scene and was last heard battling with drugs. I’m pretty much excited to hear their new music and I’m pretty sure I won’t be disappointed whatever the band will come up with. Their new album is aptly named by the way since zeitgeist is a German expression which means “the spirit of age”