By Jack Sipes and Nate Burdette:
We're separated by 8 years and 5 months and yet we share the same favorite album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Which is INSANE to think about (we would've been besties in HS). I (Nate) remember sitting in my mom’s passenger seat on the way home from a track meet freshmen year of high school listening to 1979, headphones on but quickly taking them out to play the song for mom because it seemed to transcend to another plain of existence. I (Jack) remember despising the Smashing Pumpkins for years until listening to Siamese Dream, thinking it was a great album but definitely needed more to fully love Pumpkins and Mellon Collie gave me all I needed and more.
For both of us, Mellon Collie was the bridge to good music, introducing us to the subtlety of good instrumentation and artistry. The day I (Nate) got my iPod in 8th grade I uploaded Mellon Collie, and by the time my iPod took its final breath of life and finally died my senior year, Smashing Pumpkins had taken me from a library full of bands like Linkin Park, Alien Ant Farm, and Avenged Sevenfold and introduced me to bands like Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Weezer, Modest Mouse, and the Cure. Mellon Collie was the reason (still love those first bands though).
We say all this to say . . . it's Mellon Collie season ya'll. There comes a span of a few weeks every fall where the only thing we listen to is Smashing Pumpkins. They capture the essence of fall--there's just something about them this band that walks hand-in-hand with fall, and nothing encapsulates these synchronicities quite like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
No, it’s not an album anniversary date or a tribute to any deceased bandmembers. We think Mellon Collie deserves to be celebrated every fall, perennially resurrected for a concentrated listening once a year to sink your teeth into and take you back to a familiar hotbed of emotion.
P.S. we're pretty proud of the songs we picked (it was HARD) and feel like this arrangement could be an album. Thouuuuuuuuuughts?
Art by our friend, artist, drummer of Problem of Pain, and all around funny guy, Jake Beaver. Check out his band's album, Burn What My Hands Wrought by Problem of Pain, because it will make a lot of year-end lists (like MINE). Anyone know what song those Smashing Pumpkins lyrics come from?
Tracks and album credits:
- "Rhinoceros," on Gish
- "Soothe (Demo)" on Pisces Iscariot
- "Galapogos" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- "Disarm" on Siamese Dream
- "Landslide" on Pisces Iscariot
- "Drown" on Greatest Hits (not on Spotify)
- "Stumbleine" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- "Cupid De Locke" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- "Luna" on Siamese Dream
- "1979" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- "Annie-Dog" on Adore
- "To Forgive" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- "Daydream" on Gish
- "Mayonaise" on Siamese Dream