Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness was released 4 days before my 8th birthday, but I wasn’t aware of SP or the album for another 7ish months. Early summer, ’96, I was at my babysitter’s house, where she always had Q101 or MTV playing. This day, it was MTV, and Tonight, Tonight’s ethereal video happened to come on.  I was hooked; the music, the aesthetic, everything was pleasing and new to me. I asked my sitter to play more SP for me, and we listened to MCIS on repeat for weeks, occasionally peppering in Gish and Siamese Dream. That year for my 9th birthday I received MCIS and Siamese Dream on cassette – I believe I still have these somewhere.