Chow Down Chicago: Good Eats from the Windy City

The Smashing Pumpkins became a vital part of Chicago’s alternative-rock scene in the early 1990s. Their albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness met with great commercial success. Their combination of dreamy guitar melodies, angstful introspective lyrics, and lead singer Billy Corgan’s unique love-it-or-hate-it voice that vacillated wildly between gentle and fierce made them a grunge mainstay. The band has been through many lineup changes over the years, with Corgan being the constant driving force. The current lineup consists of Corgan, original guitarist James Iha, original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. The Smashing Pumpkins released Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts in 2022 and this year. The band pays homage to their hometown in the song “Tonight, Tonight”  which features the lyrics “The embers never fade in your city by the lake.” Their song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”   is featured on many a Halloween playlist with its opening