July 1996 – Chicago

July 1996 – Chicago
Studio session of The Smashing Pumpkins
Artist	The Smashing Pumpkins
Date	July 1996

The July 1996 sessions in Chicago (unclear exactly where) were the first sessions for Adore, held shortly after Jimmy Chamerblin's departure from the band. The Smashing Pumpkins functioned as a trio during this session. With about 10 songs hastily recorded in a week, the session was scrapped as the finished product seemed more like demos. This may or may not be a part of the Summer 1996 – Soundworks session.

“ The first sessions for the album were held shortly after we fired Jimmy [Chamberlin, drummer] from the band. We went right in the studio and worked for about a week as a trio. Initially, we were very excited and pleased with the results. The whole point was to kind of be very spontaneous. It was literally a case of me writing songs in the morning and us recording them that day. I wanted to get away from the cerebral part of it. During those initial sessions we wrote and recorded "To Sheila," "Ava Adore" and "Daphne Descends." It was like two or three days, boom, it's done-overdubs, everything. That sat well for a little while. But then, the initial euphoria of working so quickly started to wear off. James took some time off to finish his solo album, so I had a moment to give myself a reality check. And I started to realize that the quality level of those first sessions was not what I wanted it to be. My worst suspicions were confirmed when my friends reacted by saying things like "nice direction, interesting song, da, da, da." But I could tell that they weren't being blown away. And that's when the album officially started to take shape. I started to think about the things that the Pumpkins had accomplished, and the high standards that we've held ourselves to throughout our whole career. That led me to decide against working so quickly. I just couldn't put out an album of "demos." The Pumpkins have never been about that. You know, I think our fans would've known the difference. There wouldn't be the depth that existed in the earlier recordings. So when that was all settled, it became really apparent to me that I needed to just roll up my sleeves and get down to business. At the same time, I think I was just starting to really come to grips with the fact that Jimmy wasn't coming back and we needed to find a new way to work. ” — Billy Corgan, Guitar World, June 1998

Tracks recorded

• "Ava Adore"
• "Daphne Descends"
• "To Sheila"
• [about 7 more songs]