Smashing Pumpkins

Nothing screams success quite like selling more than eight million copies of a challenging but captivating double album, which is exactly what the Smashing Pumpkins did with their modern-day masterpiece, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Our Basics sift the choicest selections from that sprawling set (the fire-breathing "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," the steam-powered synth-pop of "1979") along with such career highlights as the devastating ballad "Disarm," the sun-kissed alt-rock anthem "Today," and the majestic Fleetwood Mac cover "Landslide." Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone who's been in the Pumpkin patch since the group's Gish album — an awe-inspiring opening chapter that's spotlighted in our Next Steps.

Nirvana's Nevermind wasn't the only harbinger of alt-rock that manhandled the modern rock scene in 1991. While it's often overlooked by everyday fans, Gish — Smashing Pumpkins' bold, buzz-triggering debut — arrived a few months earlier than Kurt and company, featuring the same noise-pop producer (Garbage drummer Butch Vig) and a wholly unique blend of pressure-cooked guitars ("Siva"), arena-ready solos ("Rhinoceros"), and sudden detours, like the dewy folk of "Daydream" (featuring the lead vocals of former bassist D'Arcy Wretzky). That's just the beginning, though. As our Deep Cuts reveal, Smashing Pumpkins have existed in their own creative realm for the past two decades, tackling everything from electro-shocked rock ("Appels + Oranjes") to a dream-pop portrayal of Depeche Mode ("Never Let Me Down Again").

As if six full-length albums weren't enough to absorb and appreciate, Smashing Pumpkins unleashed 114 excellent but elusive tracks on their iTunes-exclusive Rarities and B-Sides collection. While that's compelling news for completists, the retrospective is a lot to leaf through — a daunting listen we distill in this best-of-the-rest rundown, from marrow-scrapping demos and snarling live performances to an echo chamber remix of "1979" that's begging to be bumped in beat-savvy rock 'n' roll clubs and black light-doused house parties.

On the surface, Smashing Pumpkins were at the forefront of the alternative rock uprising of the early '90s. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, frontman Billy Corgan refused to stay underground from the start — embracing a larger-than-life persona and a panoramic approach to songwriting that reaches well beyond bulldozer riffs and post-adolescent angst. Over the course of six studio albums (including the decade-defining smash Siamese Dream) and an endless array of B-sides and rarities, the Pumpkins have tap-danced around trends and taken listeners on a joyride through Corgan's subconscious — from the metallic bombast of Gish and Zeitgeist to the pale-faced synth pop of Adore and sheer mind-numbing ambition of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double-disc opus that skips from psychedelic rock to moonlit pop with bits of amp-imploding heavy metal caught somewhere in between.