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'''D'arcy Elizabeth Wretzky (born May 1, 1968 in South Haven, Michigan) is a rock musician best known for her work as a bass player with the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins.
BiographyEarly lifeWretzky was born and raised in Michigan, where her mother, a musician working as a lounge singer,[IMDB biography page for D'arcy Wretzky.] encouraged D'arcy and her sisters to perform music. Growing up, she played the violin and oboe, and performed in choirs. She also performed gymnastics.[Marks, Craig. "Zero Worship." Spin Magazine: June 1996.] She would later refer to her father, a pipefitter, with a love of horseback riding, as "a very strange man." The young Wretzky was a self-described "tomboy", and had a contentious relationship with her sister. She attended South Haven's L.C. Mohr High School, where she grew interested in post-punk and played in cover bands. After high school, she moved to France to join a band, but the band had already disbanded upon her arrival, prompting her to return to the United States. She then moved to Chicago and spent the summer living with friends and attending concerts.
The Smashing PumpkinsAfter a concert at a big Chicago rock club, Billy Corgan overheard Wretzky criticizing the band that had performed
. An argument and discussion followed, and Corgan recruited her into his band, the nascent Smashing Pumpkins, which, at the time, was merely Corgan, James Iha, and a drum machine. Wretzky accepted, and Jimmy Chamberlin completed the lineup a few months later, after Joe Shanahan encouraged Corgan to add a live drummer.
Wretzky is the credited bassist on the Smashing Pumpkins' first five studio albums: Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, and Machina/The Machines of God. It was confirmed by both her and Corgan, however, that Corgan recorded the bass tracks for Siamese Dream because he could complete them in far fewer takes. Wretzky often contributed backing vocals in concert, and on studio albums. She contributes vocally in some Smashing Pumpkins songs including "Daydream" from Gish, many songs on Siamese Dream, "1979", "Cupid De Locke", "Farewell and Goodnight", "Beautiful" and "Where Boys Fear To Tread" from Mellon Collie, "Dreaming" and "The Bells" from The Aeroplane Flies High, and many songs from Adore. Wretzky also cowrote one Smashing Pumpkins song, "Daughter".
Wretzky's time in the band was marked by alternating periods of happiness and discomfort. Corgan considered her the "moral authority" and "moral conscience" of the band. In the aftermath of the success of 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Corgan said she began an "apparent slow descent into insanity and/or drugs (take your pick)." In 1999, Wretzky left the band to pursue an acting careerCitation needed
Other musical work Wretzky joined Catherine as a second vocalist for their final album Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories. She also appeared in the video for Four Leaf Clover.
D'arcy was in Filter for only a short while in 1999. She contributed vocals on two songs, "Cancer" and "Take A Picture". She never toured with the band. While she was in the band she worked with cellist Eric Remschneider, whom she had worked with when he had recorded with The Smashing Pumpkins.
Wretzky contributed vocals to the track "One and Two" on James Iha's 1998 solo album, Let It Come Down.
Post-Smashing PumpkinsWretzky did not participate in the Smashing Pumpkins' reunion. In 2008, D'arcy and her former bandmate James Iha filed a lawsuit against Virgin Records for selling ringtones of Smashing Pumpkins songs without their consent.
After many years out of the spotlight, Wretzky resurfaced in July 2009 by calling in unexpectedly on Chicago's Q101 FM with Ryan Manno.[pitchfork.com/news/35930-smashing-pumpkins-darcy-speaks/] During the interview, she stated that she wasn't "healthy" enough to be a musician, and repeatedly professed her love for Monkees frontman Davy Jones. She also mentioned that she now lived on a farm in Michigan, and had briefly lived in Austin, Texas, sometime during the previous decade, and that former lover Wendell Green had died.
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