Platinum Pumpkins
Virgin Records reports that the Smashing Pumpkins have shipped a million copies of their second album, Siamese Dream, qualifying it for platinum status. (SoundScan, which monitors the number of records actually sold, has the Pumpkins down at 640,000.) Official platinum certification comes from the Record Industry Association of America after a waiting period for returned albums; that should come after the first of the year, says Pumpkins manager Andy Gershon. Sales were definitely given a boost after the band’s impressive October 30 appearance on Saturday Night Live, Gershon says; immediate MTV Buzz Bin status for the second video, the plangent “Today,” didn’t hurt either. The third video will be for “Disarm,” the album track of which is already in heavy rotation on some radio stations. (You can’t really call the songs “singles,” because the band’s not releasing singles in the U.S.) The Pumpkins’ current stateside tour ends December 10 in Chicago. Tix went on sale Saturday and were gone in five minutes. “That’s 300 seconds,” says Jam’s Andy Cirzan. “That’s got to be a record for the Aragon.” There’s no word yet on a second show.
