Thirty-five years after the release of “Gish”, Smashing Pumpkins celebrate their debut album with two new vinyl reissues available today. The album, released on May 28, 1991 for Caroline Records, represented the first step of a band destined to become one of the most influential groups of alternative rock of the nineties.
Two editions were created for the occasion: a limited version on 180 gram gray vinyl with a pink and purple splatter effect, proposed in the original 1991 packaging, and a standard version on 180 gram black vinyl, also faithful to the packaging of the time.
Recalling that period, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin said: “Gish embodies all of our hopes, aspirations and abilities during that extraordinary period, offering listeners a privileged glimpse into the insights and creative energy that would later define the artistic identity of the Smashing Pumpkins.”
Recorded at Smart Studios in Madison with producer Butch Vig, “Gish” helped redefine the role of independent labels in American alternative music. Although often compared to the grunge movement, Billy Corgan's band developed a personal language from the beginning in which rock, metal, psychedelia, pop and shoegaze coexisted.
Tracks such as “I Am One”, “Siva” and “Rhinoceros” helped the album grow to platinum certification, while the album's influence continues to be recognized by critics and audiences today as one of the seminal works of independent rock of the early 1990s.
The new editions of “Gish” are part of a broader series of initiatives dedicated to the group's historical catalogue. A reprint had been released in 2025 deluxe for the thirtieth anniversary of “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness”, enriched by unreleased live recordings and a special reinterpretation of the repertoire created together with the Lyric Opera Of Chicago. In the same period, the celebratory reissue of “Machina/The Machines Of God” also arrived on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary.
Smashing Pumpkins also announced their North American “Rats In A Cage” tour, scheduled for September through November. The tour will be divided into two parts: one dedicated to “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” and a second which will retrace almost forty years of career, from “Gish” to the latest studio album, “Aghori Mhori Mei”. Major stops include Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Nashville, Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Seattle and Los Angeles, where the tour concludes November 12 at the Kia Forum.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
