"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" by the Smashing Pumpkins

Giving MACHINA/The Machines Of God right now. 'Glass And The Ghost Children' is a masterpiece, isn't it? Yes, it is! Some incredibly Jimmy Chamberlin drumming in the first part... and I love that weird section that links the two parts together.

*incredibly good

man waiting for this to leak suuuuhckxs

I feel like there's a Louis C.K. bit to be written about that

Omfg found the bonus discs dl'ing now will report back shortly

btw in case you missed it, here's what's on offer:

MORNING TEA
1. "Tonight, Tonight (Strings Alone mix)"
2. "Methusela (Sadlands demo)"
3. "X.Y.U. (Take 11)"
4. "Zero (Synth mix)"
5. "Feelium (Sadlands demo)"
6. "Autumn Nocturne (Sadlands demo)"
7. "Beautiful (Loop version)"
8. "Ugly (Sadlands demo)"
9. "Ascending Guitars (Sadlands demo)"
10. "By Starlight (Flood rough)"
11. "Medellia of the Gray Skies (Take 1)"
12. "Lover (Arrangement 1 demo)"
13. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby (Take 7)"
14. "In the Arms of Sleep (Early Live demo)"
15. "Lily (My One and Only) (Sadlands demo)"
16. "1979 (Sadlands demo)"
17. "Glamey Glamey (Sadlands demo)"
18. "Meladori Magpie"
19. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Home Piano version)"
20. "Galapagos (Instrumental/Sadlands demo)"
21. "To Forgive (Sadlands demo)"

HIGH TEA
1. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings (Sadlands demo)"
2. "Set the Ray to Jerry (vocal rough)"
3. "Thirty-Three (Sadlands demo)"
4. "Cupid de Locke (BT 2012 mix)"
5. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans (Live Studio rough)"
6. "Jellybelly (Instrumental/Pit mix 3)"
7. "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)"
8. "Jupiter’s Lament (Barbershop version)"
9. "Bagpipes Drone (Sadlands demo)"
10. "Tonight, Tonight (Band Version Only, No Strings)"
11. "Knuckles (Studio outtake)"
12. "Pennies"
13. "Here Is No Why (Pumpkinland demo)"
14. "Blast (Fuzz version)"
15. "Towers of Rabble (Live)"
16. "Rotten Apples"
17. "Fun Time (Sadlands demo)"
18. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby (Acoustic version)"
19. "Chinoise (Sadlands demo)"
20. "Speed"

SPECIAL TEA
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Nighttime version 1)"
2. "Galapagos (Sadlands demo)"
3. "Cherry (BT 2012 mix)"
4. "Love (Flood rough)"
5. "New Waver (Sadlands demo)"
6. "Fuck You (an ode to no one) (Production Master rough)"
7. "Isolation (BT 2012 mix)"
8. "Transformer (Early mix)"
9. "Dizzle (Sadlands demo)"
10. "Goodnight (Basic Vocal rough)"
11. "Eye (Soundworks demo)"
12. "Blank (Sadlands demo)"
13. "Beautiful (Instrumental-Middle 8)"
14. "My Blue Heaven (BT 2012 mix)"
15. "One and Two"
16. "Zoom (7 ips)"
17. "Pastichio Medley (Reversed extras)"
18. "Marquis in Spades (BT 2012 mix)"
19. "Tales of a Scorched Earth (Guitar Overdub mix)"
20. "Tonite Reprise (Version 1)"
21. "Wishing You Were Real (Home demo)"
22. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby (Pit mix 3)"
23. "Phang (Sadlands demo)"

This was the first album I ever bought that wasn't a Now! compilation. Rocking from an early age

That's a lot of tea, innit?

This thing is so ridiculous and wonderful:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/374489_10151316598296136_419070252_n.jpg

wow!!

Four decoupage sheets in total in a lovely envelope, the CD/DVD holder as noted, reproduction of the lyric booklet, full annotation booklet etc with photos and a slew of early art design concepts, the whole kept in that case in the upper right, which really looks lovely. Think I'll drown in the sound of this all week.

That indeed looks awesome! This album was all about excess and sprawl, and now it's got the packaging to match!

Need to pull the trigger and order that damn thing.

i would love a mix of just the rarities, WOW

again, i will say it, and loud: I WANT MY PISTACHIO MEDLEY BOX SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

yeah only 7 pistachio songs out of the 70-something pieces, none of my favorites either

And into the listen. Damn, it might just actually sound better, this remaster!

agreed, it cuts more and it's a little less muddy on the low end. all the heavy tracks sound glorious.

That box sort-of reminds me of the Andy Partridge "Fuzzy Warbles" total-box-set..

It has stamp-sheets, an envelope that says it contains 'hinges' but in fact it has another CD..

And 9 other CDs.

And a 'best-of' in a envelope..

And a book...

Listened to the first bonus disc yesterday, on the rest today. Loving all this. It'll never fully replace all the bootlegs because it's more like a wide sampling of so many different tracks as opposed to an every-last-track thing but it's just great hearing so many of these songs all the more cleanly now.

Also "Set the Ray to Jerry" remains one of the best things they ever, ever did.

Okay this 'barbershop' version of "Jupiter's Lament" is lovely.

favorites so far - Dizzle (didn't stand out to me on the gravity demos, but this home demo is just gorgeous), the 1979 demo (the one that billy made the afternoon after flood told him the song wasn't ready for the album and got to change his mind), Phang, Knuckles, Ruby take 7, Jellybelly pit mix, Bagpipes drone, Cherry remix, Wishing You Were Real, My Blue Heaven remix, Isolation cover, Autumn Nocturne.....so many great nuggets on here!

The first line of "Stumbleine" sounds like "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Ha!

ha! Johnny's in the basement, mixin' up the loose teeth....

could actually be a cool Dylanesque way of expressing that the guy was shooting dice down there actually

Ordered this last night, can't wait to get it.

Spazz can you make me a copy

I'm hoping Santa Claus drops the vinyl set in my stocking this christmas

i dug out mellon collie last night. it's a rare example of a double album with very very few bad moments on it.

yup, the only replacements i would make are "The Boy" instead of "Love," and "Meladori Magpie," "Jupiter's Lament," or "My Blue Heaven" instead of "Take Me Down."

i like both those songs. i always loved the guitar sound on Love especially. And Take Me Down is slight, but nice and it has Iha singing on it.

billy could've kept the band together by promising iha 2 songs no questions asked on all future albums. then he'd be able to say he gave him a shot, and that iha wasn't really a "repressed talent" like he thought and people would stop jumping to the conclusion that billy was an asshole for not putting any shite songs on his records.

xp Is it confirmed that all the Pistachio Medley bits were pulled from full-length songs?

i don't think the seeds of resentment against Billy from fans or bandmates really has much at all to do w/ whether he let other people write SP songs (xp)

-not all the pastichio medley bits are full songs, many are likely culled from longer jams
-most of james' resentment was a result of being put down by billy continually

if he was trying to get his songs on the albums all the time maybe he deserved to be put down?

xxp But it is interesting how much of the popular disdain for Smashing Pumpkins has to with Billy Corgan as a person, and the dysfunctionality inherent in the Smashing Pumpkins narrative. There's really nothing sexy about their story at all. We have a fairly unattractive egomaniac with a penchant for publicly berating his enemies, two people who supposedly couldn't play their instruments very well, a junkie drummer. There's really not a good story in there, and there are certainly no heroes-- unsung or otherwise; it's all ugly.

poliopolice...otm?

oh come on, i can be right some of the time

apparently!

Obviously, it's hard to have the right opinions on subjective things 100% of the time.

I can't understand how the dysfunctional relationships between band members, or really any of what you cite beyond "Billy Corgan as a person," could breed popular disdain. "Man, Billy had to play D'Arcy's bass lines? She's just like Craig at the office. I hate Craig. I hate this band now."

xp I don't agree, I find their story to be very romantic and almost regal. abused, misunderstood boy escapes the suburbs to make transcendent, spiritual, and extraordinarily evocative rock music thru unwavering dedication, gumption, force of will, and ballsiness. he finds three bandmates who's sensibilities add up to something greater than billy alone could ever be, the friction and edginess of those personalities together made the band what it was. chamberlin was a hard partier but he was and still is one of the best rock drummers in the world. watch any live show from 92-96 and tell me james and d'arcy don't hold their own even against billy's guitar histrionics. so they come close to breaking up after SD - they keep it together long enough to make what amounts to a final statement and epitaph, Mellon Collie. it's their biggest hit yet, and eight months into a huge worldwide arena tour, they implode, jimmy's fired, touring keyboardist dies, they keep on but the last four years of the band, 96-2000, are a sustained death march into oblivion as billy becomes totally disenchanted by being in a fractured, non-existent band. they went from being a dysfunctional family to not communicating as anything but business partners. Adore and Machina are funereal, elegies to billy's mom, the band, and the sadness of hope lost and what almost was. it's a beautiful story to me from beginning to end.

xxp and i'm not saying i agree that billy was wrong to leave james' songs off the records, but it was certainly a cause of resentment from james

maybe it's his voice then

People hates Corgan because he was pretty arrogant and outspoken about shit. After the band's popularity started to wane, he seemed to become ... Even more curmudeonly.

That interview he did with Q Magazine circa MACHINA/The Machines Of God which resulted in Sharon Osbourne calling Billy "a baldy twat in a dress" springs to mind.

Typed up here:

http://forums.netphoria.org/showthread.php?t=6225

interviewer also sounds a bit dickish - "nice skirt" is not a very warm introduction

interviewer just asked a bunch of celebrity culture bullshit, when clearly Billy wanted to talk about the music. Interviewer didn't get the hint.

agreed. you gotta talk some astrology with billy before you sprinkle in the celebrity stuff.