deep thoughtz 023: MELLON COLLIE + THE INFINITE SADNESS - THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
Whaddup Pimpkins, this is YOUR boy your lonely boytoy Chiang Mai Erlvis presenting you with WHAT JUST MIGHT BE our LAST episode of deep thoughtz up in this bitch!!! Yes, it is unfortunately the time to say goodbye, maybe for a little bit maybe for awhile, but please take any potentially suicidal and nightmarish thoughts and funnel them into the dedicated pursuit of LISTENING to GOOD FUCKIN MUSIC. That is the ONLY mission that my blog has been dedicated to and if even just ONE of you pimps has accomplished THAT much then i think it's confirmed there's still faith enough for us all. Given that this is my sendoff to my beautiful audience, I had to think long and hard about what I could put up here that would properly accomodate the event. LIL UGLY MANE obviously came to mind, a huge influence on my lifestyle and manner of tonguemovement. TOM WAITS, jesus why did I never cover that pimp earlier? His music is perfect for bustin a fuckin sag mane, setting ancient Buddhist temples on fire shit like that. What about mewithoutYou?!?! The greatest live band still performing! Nah, they don't have any guitar solos anymore. The choice I did eventually settle on, I know might be controversial to many. Some might say this is sum CORPORATE ROCK BULLSHIT, some might say this is just GAAAAAAAAAAY, shit some might say this band is a buncha pretentious hipster shit or whatever, listen the fuck up these people have absolutely nothing going on between their ears. You should avoid people who can't listen to the fuckin SMASHING PUMPKINS. THE GREATEST BAND. OF ALL TIME. WITH SOME OF. THE GREATEST SONGS. OF ALL TIME.
El scorcho... Ay cabron!
Now I know a lotta people might be reading my posts and think "boy this silly sonofabeech sure spends a lotta time philosophizin bout metaphysical bullshit and not so much on the music!" so today and for today only I've decided to change up my strategy! That's right, we are about to dive into a TRACK-BY-TRACK blogpost. While ur down there in the trenches of Billy Corgan's demented imagination, I'll be ur unofficial NCO. I'll teach u right from wrong, i'll teach u how to RAWK and i'll teach u how to CRY. Let's! Fuckin! Goooooooo!
Aw yeah, might wanna hit some of dis piff b4 we continue
Dawn to Dusk
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - a cute little piano sequence leads into an absolutely sexy orchestral movement. Maybe these melodies are carried on throughout other songs throughout the album? Idk I'm not the most refined guy in the world. Can't tell the difference between ranch and bleu cheese, etc. Anyway, it's pretty enough to catch my attention and short enough to where I don't skip it when I listen to this shit. Reminds me of when I used to be excited about Christmas.
Tonight, Tonight - And look, we already got to the best song in the freakin world! Why go on? We've already peaked, an absolute lyrical and alt rock masterpiece in action here. The music video too is absolutely bitchin, I don't even really like music videos but the Pumpkins in their prime could do anything. Putting goddam Spongebob and Karen the Computer Wife in a German expressionist silent movie, man o man my little imagination was absolutely blown away that decade ago when I first saw it. There's a triumph to these kinds of song, like Cheap Trick's music. If you like this song also check out the Tonite Reprise from the Aeroplane comp. Something about those lines "and the embers never fade, in your city by the lake" and "as the wind-up toys wind down, muffling the sound of a life hidden underground" really encapsulate the hopelessness of small-town living if you're anywhere even a single fuckin PERCENT different from other people in your goals and desires in life. Not that it gets any easier when you move out to the city or wherever, but when you live in the small town you have hope it might be better which I guess makes it more tragic? Idk song is tight though.
Jellybelly - Oh yeah, we also do alt metal on this shit. Yeah you've spent a good amount of time crying by yourself because no one talked to you while you sulked at the Friday night football game, time to go speeding down the Interstate to Denny's to make those frycooks earn their paychecks! Yeah man, this that "yeah man" music you do covers of with your friends. Jimmy Chamberlain is easily my favorite rock drummer, this is just the first example why.
Zero - Songs to not put on that mix CD you're giving to that cute Christian pro-lifer girl you tryna corrupt #42. Hard to believe this ever became a radio hit, it's like that one stupid fuckin Sonic Youth song "Kool Thang". How the Hell did people ever sit around and be like "yeah, this the one"? Only difference is Zero is awesome and Kool Thing isn't. Kool Thing... is fucked. James Iha called this song its own genre, called it "cybermetal" and like yknow that's silly but yeah! This should be in every dystopian technomancer video game that comes out, and it just isn't! WTF?!?!
Here Is No Why - Okay now we're starting to see why I fucking love this album so much. Just banger! After banger! Oh my God! No bad songs! Put it on the list with Tonight, Tonight as songs that are perfect for the oh-so-tragic-and-unique suburban major case of minor depression teenagers that will ONE DAY give up on their leftist ambitions and work in finance. Plus the lyrics give insight into Corgan's views on the narrative of the aging rockstar, that guy was always smarter than he let on. Corgan's a complicated rock hero, because he's an unrepentent asshole and lets on that he's PRETTY DAMN SMART but he throws enough zingers that his knowledge actually proves valuable in recontextualizing the American rock n roll mythos
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Coolest song title ever, coolest opening line ever, coolest chorus ever, but overall just a pretty good rock song. Shame when they play it live they insist on butchering it. Seriously, excluding the Exit Under Burning Skies bootleg any fuckin footage of them playing this song just BLOWS man and I've seen them play it too! Maybe it's trickier to pull off in a stadium full of screaming idiot fans, but regardless we have the gem of the studio version. All those millions were clearly being put to good use here. When I make my millions embezzling money from the local Domino's restaurant I'll make an action violent cop gangster movie and I'll have this song in the trailer. Just like Dead Space 2. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah. LIKE OLD JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!
To Forgive - Oh man, too personal. I think they borrowed this melody on their next album on the song Tear actually? Unlike all the other songs on this shit which had like 70 motherfuckin guitar tracks, this was a one-take track I think. Holy shit, the pressure hitting those guitar strings is real. A nice breather between all the metal we're about to have unleashed, but frankly aside from the fact that it makes me cry I can't say much on it. It's Disarm pt. 2
Wanna go for a ride?
An Ode To No One (FUCK YOU) - If this is your favorite Pumpkins song and someone shits on you for it u should FUCK. Them. UP. THE HARDEST. Guitar solo on any Pumpkins song before or after this track. In my opinion of course. Check out their live version from the "final" tour back in the 2000's. Unbelievable. Why couldn't Machina been like this?
Love - Good the first few times you hear it. I love the MACHINE GUN BLUUUUEEEEES line too. Idk, songs about Courtney Love usually don't go that far for a guy like me tbh. Still a banger, that chorus is too catchy not to be qualified as a trunk-knocker at the midnight Denny's.
Cupid De Locke - This just might be, aside from Sweet Sweet on Siamese Dream, the first truly fucking weird Smashing Pumpkins song. Ever since this album they've thrown one on each album (Run2Me, Annie-Dog, One Diamond One Heart, etc.) but this is probably the only one that works in my opinion. It's so geniunely fuckin CUTE that it works in my book. Ever been in love man? Like actually hard, in a really childish way? It sounds like this. With the harp and everything!
Galapogos - Yeah the string of songs from Love to this one kinda blur in my opinion, which is a shame cuz this might be the best song of the trio. I used to be fascinated with Charles Darwin as a young, shameless atheist, and I still can see the appeal of the mythos behind him. Aside from Nietzsche, he's singlehandedly done more to kill God than any other man in the human race. Except maybe Mao, in a totally different way though. Reminds me of Tom Waits if he disavowed irony. The content remains the same; stories of people who bear the cross and the weight of it all.
Muzzle - Now here's what we don't get no more these days! A good, old fashioned rock n roll song! It just rocks! It just works! I remember hearing this on the XM radio after coming home from Outback Steakhouse as a young twelve year old and just having my proverbial SHIT. PUSHED. IN. Lyrically, I didn't know who this bald fuck was but LYRICALLY he WAS ME. EXACTLY. And this song was evidence of that. Looking back I have no idea how I came to that conclusion, it was probably the roaring guitars and lack of a unique personality in hindsight. But if you're twelve and you're reading this, listen to this shit.
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans - Just... Listen to it dude. I know what you're thinking, it's nine goddamn minutes. There's a long two minute quiet intro. Fuck that shit. For real. Listen to this shit. That bridge after the second or third chorus, it's the stuff this blog is made of. Real corny, yeah. But real REAL. I just... I'm sorry, I can't right now... I need a moment...
Take Me Down - Of all the James Iha songs... Okay this is a great fucking song! He's a great songwriter! But it's one of his harder to get into pop songs. It's like... spacey. Fitting with the vibe of the album, no doubt, but we should've had more of his songs! They're pretty and I like them! He doesn't overuse the orchestral elements, and they have this country twang to them. They sound ancient and contemporary all at once.
See if all furry fiction was JUST this and NOTHING ELSE i wouldn't have a problem with it
Twilight to Starlight
Where Boys Fear To Tread - Okay now this sounds like Machina. But even then, if more of that album sounded like this I guarantee it would've kept the band alive between 00-07. I'm pretty sure there's a DOOM sample in here too? Someone should fact check that for me. Look, I like this groove metal Pantera shit they're pulling here even though Corgan's voice really shows the beginning of the end that was around the corner. Something to play when the horror movie version of Candyland comes out.
Bodies - Goddamn they did this song with Chino Moreno live recently?? Guy's name sounds like an ice cream flavor! Okay but fr this is Smashing Pumpkins Goes Punk. All the other hard songs on this shit are Pumpkins Goes Metal, but this one is different. We celebrate diversity at $$CHIANG_MAI_ELVIS$$ and we celebrate Bodies. Love is suicide, yes indeed sir.
Thirty-Three - I have an ongoing debate with my dad about whether this is a love song or a song about Jesus. I think the latter personally, but as the years have passed it matters less and less what the song is about so long as it still sounds the way it did when I first heard it. Is it corny? Yes. Too corny? I don't think so. The piano melody is pretty repetitive but you didn't mind that when you were listening to post-punk so stfu. This is the stuff the Pumpkins were made of back in the day, something so genuinely heart-string pulling that we had to wonder if they really were magical or just the right band for the right time as an entire generation exited cultural adolescence. I always misheard one of the lyrics as "people got into my heart and home" instead of "steeple, guide me to my heart and home", I prefer the ones I heard when I was young and still hear today.
In The Arms Of Sleep - I remember nights when I couldn't sleep, not like today because whenever I'm not intoxicated I begin to suffocate myself with thoughts of envy and hatred, but because then nobody else could sleep as kids so we'd pass the time texting each other until the sun rose. Were things better then? Absolutely not, and yet I miss those times nonetheless. I love being alone in the morning darkness of my room; I feel like the dew droplets on a leaf of grass in that time. That ending coda, "suffer my desire...", captures that feeling pretty well.
1979 - Everyone loves this song. The homeless love this song, the CEOs of America love this song. The horny teenagers love this song, the abstinent Christians and Muslims love this song. Even your racist as shit grandparents would love this song if you played it for them. Kinda gets meme'd on cuz of how nasal Corgan's voice comes out in this song, and the drum machine for this song is perfect but once you know it's there it's really hard to ignore, but regardless this is one of those "perfect" songs. Captures the nihilism and idealism of life in a perfect duality. Only real problem I have with it? It's in GTA IV, and it's SUPER bizarre to be running over hookers while this song is playing.
Tales Of A Scorched Earth - Okay, if you hate this song... I get it. But c'mon maaaaaan. The speaker-shattering vocal effects were done by Frank Black like years before and you loved it then! And the breakdown between the intro and verse riffage is just disgusting. Oh man, anime OST music right here. Something like Baki!
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby - Greatest rock song ever made. Corgan knows it, I don't know how soul crushing it must've been that whenever they play this one live it doesn't get as much hype as Today or even any shit from Gish. Seriously, I heard this song I never listened to Gish or Siamese Dream ever again. It does not. Matter anymore. I've had psychedelic trips far less interesting than this song. Seriously. I think the explosion at the two minute mark speaks for itself. And if you are actually the kind of person who doesn't like loud music, the last two minutes will take you there. Yes, I'm talking about there. Out there, where it's safe and everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Only thing that kinda bums me out is that it's pretty explicitly about marriage; nothing wrong with that but knowing all of Corgan's relationship problems before and after this song is a little too real for me. It's real shit, every single one of us feels the same way when it comes to things like love, but it's painful. Ey, song is good enough to power through the pain. There's maybe only twenty songs that're that good.
yknow in hindsight i can see why people roasted me when i brought this album to school. Too late to give a fuck now!
Stumbleine - I used to love this song and now I hate it. I got the message with the coda of Ruby, and that "Jukebox fuckup" line is so jarring, sorry I can't do it. I did use to love it though!
X.Y.U. - One last jawdropper of a fuckin song before the album's closed out with a string of gentle little ballads to write your erotic medieval fanfiction to. This is more like something to listen to while watching... Hmm not Blade Runner but some sick horror sci-fi movie. Maybe one of those yandere anime girl shows where the bitch goes HAM all throughout. No, wait, this song reminds me of Devilman Crybaby. It slays, it's dark, it's pretty demented, it's absolutely necessary for the human psyche to confront the violence on display here. Do you want to know if your band is any good? Try getting the guys n gals together to pull a song like this off, trust me you'll know if you really rock or not. It's not hard to play at all, it just demands blood. Blood from the fingertips, blood dripping from the sticks, blood in the throat. Blood enough for us all. Also it demands cringe. If you guys think you're cringe, play this song and you'll find out right away. Yes, you are not allowed to skip the Mary had a little lamb part. It is essential.
We Only Come Out At Night - Alright now that we got the toxic masculinity out the way, medieval fanfiction music! I'll bet most people will hear this shit and skip it, it's not as quaint as Cupid De Locke so the classical instrumentation combined with the electronic elements is a bit more unbearable tbh. That said, if people are willing to listen to Gerard Way dick around at the end of The Black Parade and/or claim they know a single THING about the dreaded "camp" then they have no reason to not listen to this all of the time.
Beautiful - Now I've yet to have met a muse in my life, but when I do I'll be thinking about that line of having my face pressed up against the glass. Pure desire, distilled into 90's electronic pop music. I think Disney movies are pretty shit, ngl, but when I meet people who would literally KILL people to preserve them into the upcoming apocalypse I like to pretend movies like Peter Pan or Snow White are actually this song and I start to understand it all a little better.
Lily (My One And Only) - It's cute! It's a cute song bout stalkin the neighbor ladies late at night and then being caught! When people complain about the filler on Mellon Collie they're usually referring to songs like this one or We Only Come Out At Night or Cupid De Locke, but they're also the type o people who probably like Arctic Monkeys or something. They wouldn't get it, why would you listen to their opinions? This single shitty little song that probably took twenty minutes to make is a thousand times better than all of the Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes and whatever. Plus I've never had a crush on a girl named Lily yet so this song isn't ruined for me yet.
By Starlight - Now, full disclosure, I'd always skip this song as a kid. Yeah I know I've been fronting this whole time, I don't listen to every song on this album. But, I do now! And you would think after decades of listening to music that isn't grunge or alternative rock from the 90's that I'd discover new songs from that era and be like "woooooow I was an idiot" but yknow what? I was right then, and I'm right now! By Starlight sounds just as good as any song by Boston, or even Prince(!!!) It stands the ultimate test, and that is... the test of time.
Farewell And Goodnight - I remember this one girl I used to have a crush on back in the Midwest would listen to this song to fall to sleep. That is really all you need to know about this track to get why you need to hear it. Everybody's been somebody's long lost love at one point or another, this song goes out to you ya crazy bastards!
And with that, an adiuex to you fine people and a farewell to the state of the music industry now that I'm dedicating my life to cleaning toilets, shooting guns, and fallin in and out of love every day. It's been fun, so it goes. E. T. C.
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