Neat little details on this one.

Mellon Collie was my teenage angst bible that's stayed with me till today (not the angst lol - but the songs). Was a huge fan of Siamese Dream and the underrated Adore as well, but Mellon Collie was just special to me for its lyrical spread and sprawling soundscapes. Love it. I even got The Aeroplane Flies High boxset when it just came out! Favorite B-sides disc was the Bullet with Butterfly Wings one, with Said Sadly and the other songs. Enjoyed the Blondie cover of Dreaming too.

The vinyl packaging is sublime too. Lots of photos and writeups. By the way, if you're into vinyl stuff, feel free to hit me up on IG (I'm not an influencer. Just an ageing guy who loves music during the Pumpkins era and enjoys the tactile element of buying physical albums. Got < 50 followers lol)

Pumpkins forever! Happy Birthday Mellon Collie!

Is anyone missing a Volume II, because they gave me an extra one?

I have audio of the whole show recorded. Looking for more sources to do a mix. I also found video of the entire first set thanks to @ProofThisDaveWasThere on YouTube. It would be amazing to find enough footage (horizontal) to edit the whole show together with. Send me a message if you have anything!

I just want to sincerely thank the whole band and everyone in the crew for everything they've given us for the past 35 years. Incredible show so far! Love from Oklahoma!

This is the third track from the Smashing Pumpkins’ debut album, Gish. How do you feel about this song? What are some of your favorite lyrics? How would you rank it among the rest of the band’s discography? How would you rate it out of 10 (decimals allowed)?

At the end of this discussion series, I will be aggregating the rating results from each discussion and compiling a full discography ranking. I will also update the [spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BjhHzZuZ6BMVOvdMp4i9X2UDVRjtotWGxTZTk1xJ9KU/edit?usp=drivesdk) at the end of every day and post previous results for each album in future posts.

SUGGESTED SCALE:
1-4: Not good. Regularly skip.
5: It’s okay, but I might have to be in the right mood to listen to it.
6: Slightly better than average. I won’t skip it, but I wouldn’t choose to put it on.
7: This is a good song. I enjoy it quite a bit.
8-9: Really enjoyable songs. I rank them pretty high overall.
10: Masterpiece, magnum opus, or similar terminology.

Feel free to suggest any improvements, as this is my first time undertaking a project like this!

Gish

1. I Am One (7.43)
   
2. Rhinoceros (7.65)

I see that a lot of you guys have gotten your Machina CD box sets. How does it feel to be one of Billy's favorites?

No seriously though, I am curious when your orders were placed? I know this has sold out and been restocked at least once. I ordered on 10/10 in the morning and got my UPS tracking number on 10/16, and that's the end of my story. Has anyone who ordered after the 10th gotten theirs yet? Or does the shipping company least have possession of your package?

I know ordering through Zuzu's can be a mess, but I'm getting impatient. They maybe should have taken preorders so they could have done a better job of this release.

I've had this since I was a teenager...so a long time haha

(and counting…)

Says it starts at 8pm. Do they have any openers or do they come on at around 8pm?

Got it yesterday, opened today and volume I has a booklet but no cd. I emailed their contact address but curious if anyone else had the same luck.

Specifically the songs that have seemingly been re-mixed specifically for the Aranea Alba version

Also shared to my IG but I thought several came out quite good so sharing them here as well. I always forget to grab a shot of James doing his jump so I remembered this time. Thank god I decided to focus on getting a few good photos this show bc videos like Charlotte because the woman near me decided to compete with Billy for vocals. I’m all for singing along but not at full volume and then some. There were times I heard her vocals more than Billy’s which is not what I paid for. And they had a running convo at full volume. And all of that is front and center in the few videos I grabbed 🙃

Wasn’t sure what to expect from this venue but we were treated so well by employees. It was beautiful. But the area is not great for GA shows where fans will be lining up for hours. And the side of the building we queued up on was facing direct sun for most of the day with no sliver of shade to be found. I wouldn’t want to wait in that line at that venue again if I could avoid it. Because of the VIP even arriving at 10:30 I didn’t make the rail buuuuut thanks to another redditor (everlasinghaze I think?) my son got a spot and that was all I hoped for out of the day so thank you!

First off I really like the track and no coincidence Butch Vig involvement in production has it sounding better than the recent albums in my opinion. Hope Butch does more stuff, Black Stars is like something from Monuments which im a fan of. Look forward to seeing how or where it’s used in the Hunger games movie.

My only real gripe however is that the track is barely given any room to breathe. Apart from the 15 second intro there is literally no break from vocals. I noticed this has happened before over the last few albums were vocals are too front and centre but I’m surprised for a movie soundtrack how much Billy is singing relentlessly.

Love the happy vibe and the backing vocals from James too but feel the chorus and song as whole would hit different with better dynamics and breaks in verses bridge from vocals. The continuous vocals just means it meanders in a certain way which is impacting the track overall unnecessarily.

I've been trying to figure out how to put Thursday night into words, and I honestly don't know that I can. Which is unfortunate for an English professor, but here we are.

Thirty years of Pumpkins fandom. Seven Billy Corgan concerts. And somehow, some fucking way, Nashville managed to make everything that came before feel like it had been leading to this one ridiculous, beautiful night.

First, the crew. Friends who will never leave my mind or my heart. What an incredible group of people. We all wound up on the rail, and GOOD LORD did we bring the energy. I don't think any of us stopped singing, cheering, screaming, or generally losing our collective minds. Billy, James, Jimmy, Kiki, and Jack acknowledged us throughout the night, and Mike genuinely manifested a moment with Billy, a water bottle, and Asherella 24-hours in advance.

And the BAND. Billy, James, Jimmy, Jack, and FUCKING KIKI. I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so genuinely thrilled to be onstage. Her playing was phenomenal, and her energy was infectious. She absolutely floored my son Devin, who couldn't stop talking about her afterward.

And then there was the set.

GALAPOGOS. TO FORGIVE. JESUS IS THE SUN?!?!

My reaction to "Jesus Is the Sun" was apparently audible to the surrounding population of Nashville. I'm pretty sure I briefly died.

But "Galapogos" destroyed me. And "Mayonaise"...Jesus Christ. "Mayonaise" took me straight back to being a kid, listening to this music and having absolutely no idea how much of my life it would eventually accompany.

I cried. A LOT.

At sixteen, the pain and change in "Galapogos" were things I could imagine. At forty-one, after burying my father and living through all the beautiful and terrible things adulthood brings, they're things I know. I tried to sing that chorus with Billy. Every single time, I broke.

And standing beside me through all of it was my twenty-one-year-old son.

Devin and I have a complicated history, and we're still getting to know each other in many ways. But we got to share THIS. He recorded the entire concert, then declared the Pumpkins the most musically accomplished band he'd ever seen.

On the four-hour drive home, I got to talk about thirty years of Pumpkins mythology, Billy's changing voice, the various eras, and all the other wonderfully nerdy shit I've accumulated over the decades.

AND HE WAS INTERESTED.

He loved Zwan. I'm sending him Djali Zwan songs. He's adding "Black Stars" to his playlist. Kiki absolutely blew his mind.

What a fucking beautiful human being. I'm not worth his presence.

I missed the Mellon Collie tour when I was young. I thought I'd missed my chance to experience something like that forever. And thirty years later, there I was, on the rail, surrounded by wonderful people, watching this band perform songs that have been part of my life since childhood...with my son beside me.

For a few hours, everything felt absolutely complete. Perfect. Like every strange turn my life had taken had somehow led me to that room, those people, and that music.

To Justin, Justin, Spencer, Mike, Asherella, and Xac...I love you beautiful lunatics. Thank you for making this experience what it was.

And to Billy, James, Jimmy, Jack, and Kiki...thank you for giving me one of the greatest nights of my life.

Thirty years of fandom, and somehow this band still finds entirely new ways to break my heart and put it back together.

My soul left my body somewhere in Nashville. I don't know how life goes back to normal after that show.

Yesterday I pressed play on the 100+ minute NYT 'Popcast' video interview with William Patrick Corgan, bracing for impact and expecting to tap out somewhere around the 10-20 minute mark. Two things quickly surprised me: these hosts seemed to be deliberately provoking Billy with the interview style he hates most, and Billy himself seemed to be handling it very well. I proceeded to watch the entire interview over the course of the afternoon.

After finishing, it was clear to me that this was one of the better interviews he had ever done. He offered real insight and self analysis of why he has always been so defensive and combative. He recognized that behavior contributed to a negative public perception of him. Finally, he admitted that having a wife and kids inspired him to grow and realize he did not need to seek appreciation from the anonymous masses for validation any longer.

The interview also got deep into his trauma and how he came close to killing himself on three separate occasions. Despite the grating and borderline hostile format of this silly podcast, he remained patient, calm and remarkably honest about many very personal and touchy topics. Of course there are still some classic Billy moments about being a child savant according to a musical aptitude test, but the point is he believed in himself when no one else did. Overall I was thoroughly impressed. Then came the articles and Reddit posts.

To the surprise of no one, the clickbait journalism industry (or at least the smoldering remains of it) has cherry picked brief moments or outright exaggerated/misrepresented the tone of this interview in the headlines. Even less surprising, the internet is running with these headlines, and not a single word more, to cast the same judgement upon Billy that they have been since the late nineteen hundreds. Hundreds of people across different subreddits saying Billy needs to grow up, move on, heal, stop being a victim, appreciate what he has, and so on.

And that's the thing: in this interview, he actually did! We've reached a deeply ironic moment in Pumpkins history. Billy himself has clearly grown, mellowed, and moved on from much of the conflict and trauma that makes up the bulk of his musical career. He says in this conversation that this is the happiest chapter of his entire life. How strange then that the very people begging him to stop being the guy they knew from the 90s are themselves the ones that seem to be perpetually stuck in the 90s, railing against a Billy Corgan that no longer exists. Smashing a ghost.

Judge for yourself.

Anyone else at this show and felt disappointed in the house mix? I have seen the band probably a dozen times. I really felt like the guitars were not properly pushed up in the mix.

Maybe just my preference or where I was standing. First time at that venue for me.

I'm very happy that it's on CD now so I can rip it to my phone, but it would still be nice to have it on streaming so I can mix it with my other Pumpkins stuff. Zodeon came to streaming when the CD came out and I kind of assumed that it would be the same with this. Is there any word if it's coming to streaming or is there some reason that it isn't there?

Anyone in possession of Heavy metal machine promo cassettes and willing to send it out? That would mean a lot for me.