Where Pumpkins Fear to Tread
Call him arrogant, obstinate and bald, but don’t dare accuse Billy
Corgan of lacking civic pride. Late last year, the Smashing
Pumpkins frontman affirmed his love for Chicago by teaming up with
native sons Enuff Z’Nuff for a night of gratifying guitar rock.
Following the group’s Adore tour, Corgan accepted an invitation to
collaborate on new material for the spandexed metal group’s new
album.
Late last year, Corgan entered a Chicago studio to contribute
guitar to two tracks, however only the song “Everything Works If
You Let It” will appear on Enuff Z’Nuff’s forthcoming U.S. release,
Paraphernalia, due out April 20 on Spitfire Records. The
second song will most likely turn up on the next Enuff Z’Nuff
album, which is already underway.
Other album tracks will include “All Alone,” “Unemotional” and the
album’s first single, “Freak,” which all feature another notorious
Illinois guitarist — Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Nielsen shared
his studio time with James Young of Styx, who played on the tracks
“Invisible” and “Save Me.”
“We were blessed to have the biggest guns in Chicago on this
album,” says band leader Chip Z’Nuff. “We have been huge Cheap
Trick fans for years; they are one of our favorite bands after the
obvious — Queen and the Beatles.”
Those three influences poke their heads through the Enuff Z’Nuff
aesthetic, which most often falls into the same glam-metal category
as Def Leppard and Poison. Since forming fifteen years ago, Enuff
Z’Nuff tasted fame only once in 1989 with the single “Fly High
Michelle” from their self-titled debut. Shortly after, they fell
off the rock & roll radar in America.
“We needed [Corgan, Nielsen and Young] to show that, despite any
stigmas with the Enuff Z’Nuff name, we are the real McCoy,” says
Z’Nuff. “This is our chance to turn what was perceived as a
negative into a positive.”