Best Friends Birthday Gifts

Brandon Vineyard, UT, US

My best friend’s birthday is March 20th, two days before mine on March 22nd. On his birthday in 1996, we exchanged gifts and opened them in front of one another. Unknowing beforehand what the other one bought as a gift, we both opened our presents to our surprise that we gave each other MCIS🤘❤️

Childhood to Adulthood

Carmen Carver Asheville, NC, US

I was about 7, I was watching MTV music videos. Saw Tonight Tonight & fell in love with this band. From there, I bought my first CD, with my allowance – Melancholy. Best money EVER spent! I grew up listening to all of the album’s and enjoying the different moods each song and album portrayed. I attempted to get a ticket to the concert when they came to the orange peel. However, the website crashed and then refreshed to be sold out. I have always wanted nothing more then to see this band in concert but have never been so lucky. I’m mom now & my middle schooler also loves Pumpkins!

Thirty-Three

Santiago Suarez Morera Curridabat, CR

I am 16 years old and Thirty-Three has changed my whole life. Taught me how short life is, and every single day may be the last one. This song helped me in my toughest times. I learned to love what I have and appreciate it to the very last moment. I remembered when I was feeling sad, depressed and hopeless when my uncle introduced me to this song. I wanted to thank every single member who wrote and played the song. Thank you to the end of times.

First Show

Pat Pacifica,Ca, US

MCIS was my first CD I bought & My kids first concert – Can’t wait for next 25!  

Memories of Melancholy

Sarah Parker US

I listened to this album nonstop in high school and it will always be one of my favorites. It is just so soothing and got me through some tough times. The songs have a very unique and magical sound to them. I remember spending so much time playing video games with this album in the background on repeat. Loved every song but Thru The Eyes of Ruby is one of my all time favorite songs to this day.

MCIS Memory

Jennifer Lee Los Angeles, CA, US

I remember in high school I was obsessed with Smashing Pumpkins. From day to night that was all I listened to from Gish and Siamese Dreams. When MCIS was about to be released i convinced my dad into buying the album during the midnight of the release at Virgin Megastore on Sunset. I waited for him to come home that night to bring the album home. When I finally got the album in my hands I cried for joy and listened to it for years and years. It was the soundtrack to my high school years. I went through bullying and depression and it helped me thru some tough times. I am so grateful to have experienced such an amazing album from beginning to the end. It still stands the test of time. 

How MCIS introduced me to the wonderful SP’s music

Montserrat Baez Puebla, MX

I was a child when MCIS came out, but my first memory of the album is from 1998 when I heard “Tonight tonight” on MTV while swapping the channels. I was mesmerized for both the song and the video, and it was my very first experiencie listening to SP. Eventually, as I grew older, SP became my favorite band and every song means so much to me. I bought MCIS many years later but definitely it remains one of my favorite SP’s album ever.

1st Pickup & Crash

Garrett Buffington Walla Walla, WA, US

One day I was driving to school on my gravel road in my 1994 toyota pickup, and I was trying to get Bullet with Butterfly Wings to play. I got it playing, but I swerved then I flew in the air and my head landed on the roof of my pickup and I was upside down! It was totally worth it though.

A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky’s clarity.

Megan St. Paul, MN, US

My first Zero T-shirt was too large for me. Everything’s a metaphor. It took more than 2 decades before I fully “got” the album that defined my teenaged life. Because how can you “get” a song like TTEOR at 13? 

But that’s the beauty of the music, it moves in the spaces between. And when it’s really magical, it can transcend the limitations of the listener’s point of view. It can save you, hold you, pull you through an infinite sadness to the rest of your life.

Some objects of art are alchemy. Some play by different rules of space-time. Some hold the power to reshape narratives. Some are glimpses into other worlds. Some are god in a clay pot. 

❤️

Victoria Trelew, Chubut, AR

My boyfriend showed me this album and i fell in love (with both)

Love at first sight

Annisa Jakarta, ID

I first saw the Tonight, Tonight v-clip on MTV Asia. I was 12-13 years old and was completely mesmerized by the music and performance. I fell in love with SP ever since and never looked back. MCIS CDs (and cassettes!) are among my most treasured collection and the songs always bring me back to that early adolescent days, happily finding my love for music. Thank you for being a soundtrack of my life. 

I Was Wrong

Mark Los Angeles, CA, US

I was a contrarian, and I thought I wouldn’t like the Pumpkins because I wasn’t into rock. A friend told me to borrow his CD, and try it before I wrote it off. I put it on, and I played the whole thing. Then I played it again, and again, and again… Bodies is my favorite.

A little girl found her way

Elisa Bologna , IT

I was 9 years old when MCIS came out. I went to the record shop and bought the cassette for my father birthday. He liked it so much, we used to listen to it eveyday. It shortly became MY cassette, i just couldn’t stop listening to it. That album made me become the woman i’m today. Thanks for meaning that much to me! Much love <3

Opened the door to myself

Ren Johnson London, GB

I was a lost, lonely teenager. This album sat me down and soothed me before holding my hand through the toughest time of my life. Thank you Smashing Pumpkins!

From the past making the future that never gets old.

Josue Stein Madrid, ES

Dear Congratulations on this great achievement. I remember seeing on the TV news, in Venezuela, the launch of Tonight Tonight in 1995. When listening to this whole album, I always discover something new, feelings, sounds, hidden melodies. Its sound is … I don’t know how to write it. It’s a very passive aggressive sound, a lot of sarcasm, the humor within a Big Muff slap. As a beautiful and intelligent woman, she always brings good things. Thanks a lot. Many good times while practicing aggressive skating, friends, feelings. I hope to see you in Madrid when it can be played again.

Early 20s visions, feelings and dreams

Javi Garcia Madrid, ES

MCIS simply reminds me quite clear those early twenty years old,… when I used to listen daily MCIS simply because it really was explaining what was happening to me … some kind of sadness, rage, strugle, broken beliefs, broken dreams, … with lots of strength and energy. Sons like bullet with butterfly wings, zero, an ode to no one, love, bodies, xyu, tonight tonight, 1979 where the “soul” of thoose days. 

Of course I can remember how MCIS came to me… lots of people, events, circunstances where pushing me to buy this misterious record.

Jay n Steph’s party

April Santa Rosa, CA, US

Ok, this is bad. And good. I remember looking at the album artwork at my friend’s party, realizing I never bought it. Me, who saw gish live on Haight St. I was a devout fan from the moment I heard SP. But this friend had sent my future husband in for a haircut. We lived music. We fell madly in love to music. Both secretly on drugs, til we confessed. The songs swirled through the air all around us, but in love on drugs I never bought it. It was larger than life, so I heard it. This friend and I traded SP stories that night. He loved music as much as I did. I think all of us connected on the way we loved music obsessively. This album is that friend, that era, that party, that realization that I missed buying music I loved because I was in love. The love drug. 

I write this now, so many years later. 1 month separated. Living in a rabbit hole of my own isolated creation. Solitude. I want to feel what that album conveyed. It’s time to buy that album.

I miss SF and Juanca, Dina and The Smile House. How does my house have no name? Where has my creativity gone? Lost but not dead yet, this will help revive. Me. Thank you for the music. 

MCIS Memories

Peter Toronto, ONT, CA

This was the first time I went to a concert with a friend from my baseball team opposed to going with my Dad. I remember the security check was intense, the most thorough check I have ever encountered till this day without a metal detector. Security even made us take off our shoes. Instead of the Zero shirt that Daniel bought, I went with white tour shirt. I loved that shirt and wore it out until it was no longer recognizable. The show was amazing and is still one of the best shows I have ever attended. I have listened to this album a million times over and it still resignates with me today. The album and its songs always triggers strong emotions in me and will continue to do so until im gone.

My brother

Kellye hanna St Augustine, US

Just want to say thanks my brother and I shared a passion for music and mellin collie was one of our favorites to put in and listen to everytime I play the CD I think of gin he passed this feb from ms and he was my ride or die when it came to music concerts and just having someone to talk to I miss him everyday 

Ozzmosis

Barry Lafayette, US

I snuck out at midnight to go to the record store to buy this.  Ozzy had a album coming out same day so they were having a big opening at midnight for his album. I went in and bought Mellon collie, I was the only one there for the pumpkins holding the alternative torch lol.,.they took my pic and sent it to ozzys people as they thought it was kinda funny yet cool. Got it the second it came out. Awesome.

Growing Up

Ryan Tempe, AZ, US

MCIS came out when I was 8 years old. This was the MTV era, growing up with baby boomer parents who loved music I was always lucky enough to be enamored and ensconced in a house with rock and roll running through its veins.

I had seen the videos to Bullet and what I kept calling “1976” on accident. I learned of my mistake when I called our local radio station KUPD to request it, and was embarrassed by a radio employee who wanted the little kid off of the phone and had no problem correcting me haha.

My dad was always willing to listen to new music, even as my parents grew up on The Beatles and that amazing era of music he had no problem staying current. I saw the double-disc package of MCIS and was instatly intrigued. Once I snaked the album from my dad, I was off and running. There’s a song on that album for every mood or situation, happy or sad, loud or quiet. Two hours of music for me at that age, I felt like I had days worth of music. 

I don’t have some great story here, other than that album is my favorite album of all time. The music has stayed with me as I get older and everytime I crank it up I am instantly brought back to a time and place and a happiness of growing up, being innocent and discovering new things.

I took my wife to the Shiny tour and saw both Phoenix shows from the last couple of years, and what an exciting time it is to be a fan. Forever grateful to this band and the announcement from today had me anxious to tell my story of this album. I’ve gone way over 300 characters, but what can I say this album hit me with one cupid’s arrow from under it’s coat.

Take care

Brother’s First Concert

James Newport News, VA, US

I bought tickets to see the Smashing Pumpkins in Richmond, VA for my Younger Brother and I. It was canceled due to WPC having Laryngitis. But we got to go on the reschedule. It was his first concert.

A friend who keeps you up and running

Roberto Fulde Bautzen, Saxony, DE

MCIS was (and still is) like a friend. Whatever mood I was in, there was a song for it. In gym class we’re allowed to bring our own music. I made a tape with Zero as the first song. Hearing it in my school’s gym gave me so much energy. Some classmates were put off by this, but my teacher liked it.

The Great Discovery

Marcos Austin, TX, US

I was a full on Pumpkinhead by the time Mellon Collie came out. I was 15 and had been playing guitar and bass for about 2 years. This album became instrumental npt only in my development as a musician, but in helping me navigate the often confusing times of youth. I didn’t understand everything Billy’s lyrics meant, but I got enough to feel like someone understood how I felt. This album sounded like how I often felt – a roller coaster of emotions! The included picture is of me now, obviously, and of my original album which is still in excellent condition.

Best Witches at the Best Concert

Kelly Hermantown, US

It was September 22, 1996. I just remember us getting as orange as possible, and giggling and singing on our 3 hour ride to Minneapolis. The concert was perfect. Billy was mesmerizing. I remember the walk out with with what must have been a bazillion fans, was electrifying. Magic. All magic. 

Busted

Justin Durham, NC, US

When I was 14 (this would have been 1995) I shoplifted MCIS from a KMart in Winston Salem, NC. I got out to the parking lot before a pair of police officers stopped me and brought me back inside. The worst part was that my mom was with me. She was Christmas shopping (this was the weekend before Christmas). She cried in the car all the way home. She had refused to buy the album for me because of the presence of the track “Fuck You”. So I did what I felt I had to do. 

The next year I got a job at a grocery store and bought the album properly (quite possibly my first music purchase with my own money). So that’s the story of how I loved SP so much it made my mom cry 🙂