New Wax Wednesday

Upon my first listen to the opening notes of The Smashing Pumpkins’ debut single “I Am One” in mid-1990, I was immediately hooked on the four-piece Chicagoland band’s conjoined drive hard but also play dreamy dynamic — which was even more in evidence on the next song I heard, “Siva,” which sported not one but two low-volume vocal/noodly guitar breaks before the band chaos returned to take the track back by storm. And don’t get me started on “Rhinoceros,” another volume-dynamic Pumpkins aural treasure.

The resultant debut album all three of those tracks appeared on, May 1991’s Gish, via the then-indie Caroline label (though it was on Hut in the UK), further cemented my love of the band’s inventive explosiveness — and when I first saw the Pumpkins play live on the cramped, low-ceiling stage in the hot, stuffy confines of Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey, on August 3, 1991, I became a fan for life.

Gish has seen its share of a few good LP releases over the years (more on that in a bit), and to celebrate the album’s impending 35th anniversary, multiple 180g 1LP vinyl variants via Martha’s Music/Virgin/UMe will mark the occasion on May 29, 2026, literally 35 years and a day after the album’s original release.

Here’s what’s what. The standard black 180g Gish LP sports a quite reasonable SRP of $29.99, and it’s available for preorder via Music Direct here, and/or the MD link graphic that appears ahead of the tracklisting section a little ways below. SP frontman Billy Corgan’s official Madame ZuZu’s online shop, along with select indie record stores, will be carrying the Gish color variant — 180g gray vinyl accented with pink and purple splatter — for an SRP of $35 (though that price is likely to vary, depending on the indie shop at hand). You can preorder that variant here, via RSD’s official indie story listing — just go to the “Preorder” column on the far right, and scroll down to see which indie locales are currently offering it. (As of this posting, there are at least six shops that have it listed as available.) Given certain other UMe-family SP LP reissues of late, the new Gish was likely pressed at Optimal in Germany (but I will update that info if I hear otherwise).

Madame ZuZu’s — an excellent online shop from where I’ve ordered various Pumpkins LP reissues, vinyl exclusives, and upgraded box sets more than a few times over the years can be checked out here. Usually, this is where you can find a limited number of exclusive LP copies signed by Corgan along with their related/associated color variants before the latter get listed elsewhere. Alas, those two particular Gish options are already sold out on Madame ZuZu’s as of this posting, but you can still preorder the black LP edition there (if you haven’t gone the MD route, that is). I preordered my color variant via one of the RSD-listed indie shops since I missed the tight ZuZu’s announcement window by a day or so.

As a Gish refresher, check out “Rhinoceros” (Side One, Track 3) via its official YouTube clip below, which features Jimmy Chamberlin’s ever-muscular drumming and Corgan’s blistering, verging-on-distortion, wide-panned guitar work, as buttressed by his most excellent guitar partner, James Iha. (“She knows, she knows, she knows. . .”)

The Smashing Pumpkins recorded Gish with co-producers Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage) and Corgan both credited for being behind the boards at Vig’s own Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in late 1990 and early 1991. The official press materials for the 2026 reissue state that Gish, quote, “channeled spirits of rock, metal, psychedelia, pop, and shoegaze into an alternative conjuration unlike anything before it — or after, for that matter.” That’s a relatively fair assessment, as the Pumpkins’ followup LP, their major-label debut on Virgin that was also co-produced by Vig, July 1993’s Siamese Dream, catapulted them into another stratosphere altogether. That said, without Gish as the template, the Pumpkins may have gotten up there quite differently, if at all.

I happened to first speak with Corgan in person at the St. Maritz Hotel on Central Park West in New York City in November 1991 for a story that appeared a few months later in Guitar Player magazine (et tu, RIP!). During that wide-ranging discussion at high noon in the band’s expansive room/suite on the 29th floor, Corgan told me, straight up, “I want the recording to be perfect. An album is a permanent work of art — and to me, nothing should detract from that. If you want to see us f--- up, come see us live.” (What he categorized as, er, live f---ups have been part of some of the best and most engaging gigs I’ve ever seen, but I digress.)

Corgan and I have done the interview thing together more than a few times over the ensuing years — most recently for a story that will eventually appear in full over on our sister site, Stereophile — and his passion for great sound, especially for how it comes across on vinyl, remains unwavering. “There’s just something about the cosmic warmth of analog that still denotes, in my mind, something very akin to nature and the stars, or something. I don’t think we’ve ever lost that,” Corgan told me. “I had the good fortune of being there when records were mixed in the analog realm, and whenever I would finally get the CD copy, there’d always be this little bit of heartache that would come because it would sound 10% worse. Some sort of compression and flattening would go on — particularly in the highs. It’s rare that you get to hear an album as it was intended to be made in a way that’s both consistent with modern listening and, let’s call it, the integrity of the original process. The good news is, the vinyl side of the equation is very robust right now, so that’s a great thing for everybody concerned.” (Needless to say, there will be much more insight to come from Corgan when that story emerges in full!)

Corgan’s embedded, striving-for-perfection DNA continues right on through to this day. Smashing Pumpkins’ most recent studio effort, August 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei (Martha’s Music/Thirty Tigers), is a masterclass in that aesthetic — just check out that LP’s bookend tracks, “Edin” (Side A, Track 1) and “Murnau” (Side B, Track 5), and you’ll know exactly why I said so. Not only that, but the man’s reissue acumen is also spot on, as evidenced by the lavishly expanded 30th anniversary 180g 6LP super deluxe edition box set on Martha’s Music/Capitol/Virgin/UMe that was pressed at GZ and released at the end of November 2025 that fetes October 1995’s seminal double-LP extravaganza, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. (Footnote 1)

I currently have three versions of Gish on vinyl: 1) my original 1991 Caroline LP (CAR 1705), and two copies of the remastered 180g reissue LP with the glossier, wordless alternate cover art (5099990959615) — the first copy having been issued on Virgin in 2011, and the second one being a 2021 repress. The latter Virgin reissue does have a more impactful guitar punch and wider soundstage edge over the Caroline edition, for what it’s worth. While I, of course, can’t offer a Sound rating for the coming-in-May version of Gish until I have it in hand, I can say that the Music gets a 10.5 regardless (i.e., some tracks go up to 11, and a few hit 10). In case you’re wondering, the Caroline LP gets an 8 for Sound, while the Virgin reissue gets a 9.

Before I sign off, I should note that Corgan continues to test the limits with the scope of his recordings, and both his solo artist and SP live appearances alike. (I saw his mind-bending “A Return to Zero” solo tour at the newly opened History club in Toronto on June 12, 2025, but that’s a story for another post.) On record, Corgan recently produced a new 45 that sports a collaboration with Yungblud on a powerful reimagining of his song “Zombie,” marking the first time the Smashing Pumpkins have appeared on another artist’s recording. (Footnote 2)

Corgan’s cross-generational influence also extends to his deservedly praised podcast, “The Magnificent Others With Billy Corgan,” which just celebrated its one-year anniversary this month. Featured conversationalists have included the likes of Tom Morello, Gene Simmons, Sharon Osbourne, and Nancy Wilson of Heart, who most recently appeared on the pod for a candid conversation about her nomadic upbringing and how she’s handled all the ever-shifting trends and egos in rock music. Next week, Corgan sits down with David Draiman of Disturbed. The TMO podcast is a fascinating listening/viewing experience from my POV, as Corgan blends his mixed mien of being both a knowledgeable fan of music in general and his specific expertise as an instrumentalist/producer in such a way that gets even the most seasoned of artists to open up in ways they wouldn’t usually with other interviewers. You can check out all eps of “The Magnificent Others” on its official YouTube channel here.

And with that, I can only semi-patiently await the arrival of the 35th anniversary Gish LP some three months from now. Well, I kinda take that back. To quote a pivotal “Siva” line, “I just wanna get there faster” — meaning that I’m now going to cue up both the original Caroline LP and the 180g Gish reissue on my turntable back-to-back in order to get my fix of that special brand of Pumpkins spice.

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Author bio: Mike Mettler is the editor of Analog Planet in addition to being the Sound Chaser columnist and contributing music editor to one of our other sister sites, Stereophile, in addition to being the regular Vinyl Icons column scribe (and occasional Opinion columnist) for Hi-Fi News and author of numerous box set liner notes. Plus, he’s quite partial to vintage 1967 Mustang fastbacks, but that’s yet another story for a different time and place.

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Footnote 1: For my detailed review of that most magnificent 6LP Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness mondo deluxe box set, go here, over on our late, great sister site Sound & Vision, which posted on November 29, 2025.

Footnote 2: Yungblud (or YUNGBLUD in all caps, which appears to be his preference) remains a face/voice to watch. Check out my take on his collaborations with Aerosmith on their joint One More Time EP here, which posted in this column back on December 2, 2025.

SMASHING PUMPKINS
GISH
180g 1LP (Martha’s Music/Virgin/UMe)

Side One
1. I Am One
2. Siva
3. Rhinoceros
4. Bury Me
5. Crush

Side Two
1. Suffer
2. Snail
3. Tristessa
4. Window Paine
5. Daydream