I'm from Texas, but I have this strange connection with Chicago. As a city, as a world, there's nothing else like it. It has it's own brand of uniqueness that simply can't be replicated. Maybe it's in the orange sky that hangs over the city at night, illuminating it with the eerie hum of electricity buzzing in every corner of the city. Maybe it's the bitter cold of Michigan when it freezes over, the entire city turns from bright and colourful to thousands of shades of neutral whites and grays as the city becomes blanketed in snow. Maybe it's the vibrant musical scene that has always centred around this mysterious, violent, eclectic, stiff shouldered sort of town. One can continue to ponder.
I will be heading up to Chicago once more for the summer. It bodes to be a wonderful trip, as I've only seen the city wrought with the glacial cold of a Chicago winter. But I'm not the only Texan - it seems - who has his own personal infatuation with the Windy City. The homegrown, humble dude going by the name of Ben Kweller has his own unique perspective of one of the most legendary rock bands to creep out of Chicagoland.
"I grew up in a small town in Texas, called Greenville, and so my only real source for music was what was on mainstream radio and MTV. So when I got into the Pumpkins, it was when Siamese Dream came out... I was totally into it... it was so incredible." Smashing Pumpkins, alt-rock phenomenas of the 90s, have definitely left their own unique mark on the modern music we hear these days. And this Chicago bred band certainly had their influence on Kweller.
As a sort of tribute, for Spin Magazine late last year, Kweller filmed an acoustic set, covering The Smashing Pumpkins' "Today" on the river in New York City. There's even an accompanying interview where Ben Kweller muses about the Pumpkins while driving through the city. Definitely something for any Pumpkins or Kweller lovers, a treat hiding amidst the abyss that is YouTube. Check it out.
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