Gish

About

Gish is the debut album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released in May 1991 through Caroline Records. Frontman Billy Corgan described Gish as a "very spiritual album".Despite initially peaking at only number 195 on the Billboard 200 upon its release, Gish was eventually certified platinum (one million copies shipped) by the RIAA. Gish was recorded from December 1990 to March 1991 in Butch Vig's Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin with a budget of $20,000.Vig and Billy Corgan worked together as co-producers. The inclusion of a massive production style reminiscent of ELO and Queen was unusual for an independent band at the time.Whereas many albums at the time used drum sampling and processing, Gish used unprocessed drum recordings, and an exacting, unique guitar sound.Billy Corgan also performed nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the record, which was confirmed by Vig in a later interview. The album's sessions, lasting 30 working days, were brisk by Pumpkins' standards, largely because of the group's inexperience.The recording sessions put an intense strain on the band, with bassist D'arcy Wretzky later commenting that she did not know how the band survived it, and Corgan explaining he suffered a nervous breakdown. Regarding the album's thematic content, Corgan would later say: "The album is about pain and spiritual ascension. People ask if it's a political album. It's not a political album, it's a personal album. In a weird kind of way, Gish is almost like an instrumental album - it just happens to have singing on it, but the music overpowers the band in a lot of places. I was trying to say a lot of things I couldn't really say in kind of intangible, unspeakable ways, so I was capable of doing that with the music, but I don't think I was capable of doing it with words." he album was named after silent film icon Lillian Gish. In an interview, Corgan said, "My grandmother used to tell me that one of the biggest things that ever happened was when Lillian Gish rode through town on a train, my grandmother lived in the middle of nowhere, so that was a big deal..."Later, Corgan joked that the album was originally going to be called "Fish", but was changed to "Gish" to avoid comparisons to jam band Phish.

via Last.fm