Album Review: Earphoria

Smashing Pumpkins - Earphoria (1994/2002)

Flashback to 04.01-03.1994: in what is historically considered one of Nyet Jones's exemplary candidates for shortlist inclusion for the "Best Weekends Ever" award, I spent a Friday evening at a hormonally-charged birthday party with my superb friend Marisa, Saturday night at my first ever got-to-go-by-myself-concert at the Sunken Garden Amiptheatre in San Antonio w/ Smashing Pumpkins*, and Sunday night at the AlamoDome checking out the superstaged theatrics of Division Bell-era Pink Floyd. And with all apologies to Marisa and the flying pigs, the Smashing Pumpkins concert was the highlight of the weekend. They hit us with the following setlist:

* - note that the band is named after the activity of pumpkin-smashing, not like they are a group of attractive gourds i.e. *The* Smashing Pumpkins. I think this may have been changed at some later date, but I've always liked the idea of bands named after activities or phenomena (Talking Heads, anyone?) as opposed to, say, Article Verbing Nouns.

4.02.94 - Sunken Garden Theatre, San Antonio, TX

Soma, Rocket, Geek U.S.A., Disarm, Today, I Am One*, Drown, Hummer, Luna, Siva, Cherub Rock, Starla, Dancing in the Moonlight**, Silverfuck***, Sweet Sweet

* - With, I';m told, standard bitch-fest rant from one B. Corgan
** - Thin Lizzy cover
*** - w/ "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" vocal bridge add-on

Anyways, that Soma opening, with the subdued concert opening awash in blue lights and the explosion into distortion, established a marrow-level lust for the band. The concert sizzled, and I spent many years looking for some live SP. That year, the band had released Earphoria, the soundtrack to a live documentary/concert footage VHS tape, in extremely limited press - only 1000 copies were available nationwide. With my limited access to all-things-indie via the San Antonio suburban music scene, I never got the copy for which I longed. I spent much of the ensuing years with SP as a favorite band, deeply digging the excesses of Mellon Collie, the amelodic industry of the Ransom soundtrack and their later moves into less-good album areas. I even begged for the single / B-side box set The Aeroplane Flies High...: I was big-timed hooked, and as has been said, selling depression to teenagers is like selling depression to me.

I was all set to drive to a concert in Austin sometime in the mid-nineties when a touring keyboardist died and the drummer was all but kicked out of the band. That was a good of a marker as any for when the "SP can do no wrong" sentiment died in me; their later albums just didn't kick as much, and Corgan's indulgences got past whatever threshold I found tolerable. I still loved (and still love) the early discs, though, so when I stumbled upon a copy of Earphoria in a used album bin in 2004 - the disc having been re-released and pressed in mass in 2002 - I put down those seven dollars with gusto.

Um... yeah. I figured out some time ago that what you hear in concert does not often match what was actually played in concert - it's pretty easy to get caught up in the energy and not notice the sloppiness with which you're being aurally assaulted. The energy is still there in a big way, but it's at the cost of sludgery, screeched vocals and angsty silly vocal improvisations. Muddy is the adjective that comes to mind. Positive reviews harp on the energy and the difference in sound between the live show and the (over)-produced albums, and I get that; I just don't think the added energy and uniqueness of the experience quite compensates for the upfront impression of slop I get when I hear these cuts. Throw on the top that an already whiney-in-style Corgan comes across as raspy and shrill in concert, and you've got something to which I am not tempted to listen in lieu of the original album tracks.

It's not all bad, and notably, the good cuts of the album are crisp acoustic takes on songs that 1, dramatically differ from the original and are thus worthwhile in an alternative-to-studio-cut sense, and 2, don't suffer the muddiness of overdrive and fuzzed out amps. Both "Mayonaise" and "Cherub Rock" get the unplugged treatment, with the latter - one of my favorite SP songs - being a welcome addition to the catalog. Still, it's not enough to save a really, really die-hards only disc, and as highly as I thought of this band back in the day - and considered myself a die-hard - this ten year awaited disc certainly disappointed.

Status: Not Recommended
Nyet's Fave: "Cherub Rock"