MCIS made my parents SP fans

Kristen Philadelphia, PA, US

I was 14 in 1995. When the tracklist for MCIS was made public before the album release, I was so excited, I printed it out & asked my mom if she’d drive me to the mall on release day to get the CD (she said yes). My dad found the printout, saw the track title “Fuck You” and said there was no way I was getting the album because of the profanity. A huge fight ensued. Long story short: I got the album on release day. The following summer, my dad drove my friend & I an hour to Philadelphia to see our first Pumpkins show, on the MCIS tour. Even he couldn’t deny how good the album was, and how happy the music made me. Over the years, he has been to 3 SP shows with me! I also still catch him & my mom singing “despite all my rage…” when they think nobody can hear them!

Music of my youth: 90s kid

Jinky Balame Great Yarmouth, GB

In 1995, I was 15 and I kept myself to myself. Music was my confidante. 

Smashing Pumpkins was my favourite band to listen to when I wanted to transcend to a diff dimension. 

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a double-album which was full of melodic, ethereal, trans music with a dash of electric guitars, drums and thick bass lines by D’arcy. Billy Corgan’s voice and his extraordinary songwriting skills helped me travel to cloud nine without drug consumption (I don’t do drugs. Never did. Never do. Never will.) 

Wedded Bliss

Kendra Neodesha, KS, US

Walked down the isle to marry my best friend while Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness played. I lost him 2 years ago to a fatal car accident. I always knew the day I got married I would walk down the isle to Smashing Pumpkins and that song ended up being the chosen one. 

My soundtrack

María Jesús Collado Rancagua, CL

This album is perfect in all ways. When I bought it, I was about 16 years old. Every song means something to me. It’s like the soundtrack of my life. The love song, the sad song, the happiness song. I am 40 years old now and I still get sentimental when I listen to Galapogos. I just love it. Thank you so much MCIS!! 

Muzzle air drumming

Sean Tamworth, NSW, AU

I used to love cranking up the song Muzzle in my bedroom as a teenager and playing air drums to Jimmy’s really cool drum fills in that song.

Young & Impressionable

Mike S. Colonia, NJ, US

The video for “Tonight, Tonight” captured my
imagination – hurtling in space and fighting space invaders while the jovial moon
watches overhead. I was only 11 and very impressionable. Though, even at that
age I knew it was special. To this day I cannot listen to that song without picturing
scenes from the video. I knew I had to own the album.

Since my brother worked at a local music store I asked him
to purchase me a copy. One morning I found it waiting for me at the foot of the
living room steps. I clutched the fatboy jewel case and inspected the contents and
waited to dive in after arriving home from school. That evening I was able to
unearth the music that would mark my soul forever. The first notes of the piano
perked up my ears. This is a rock album? I was too young to understand how
varied and nuanced an album could be. This was my coming of age. Its scope is broad
and yet every track is so focused. No detail is left to chance.

When I hear it now memories flood back to me of my youth.
Nostalgia drowns my thoughts more than any other musical recollection. It’s a
reminder of the awe-inspiring nature of music and why musicians dedicate their
lives to the cause. Reaching just one of us makes it all worth it. I am
evidence of that.

First purchase

Adrianne DeAlba Montclair, CA, US

MCIS was my first music purchase. I was 13 and I begged my mom to take me to Blockbuster. I brought the disks home and made my cousin listen to it with me all night. It’s music has been with me during the best of time and the darkest of times in my life. 25 years late the CD cover sits framed in my living room. 

Zero Regretz

Charlie Cullen Stittsville, Ontario, CA

Back in 1996 I had tickets to the September 13 show in Ottawa, Canada. My buddy dropped out at the last minute so I asked a girl that I worked with to go with me. I am now married to her and still  have the Zero shirt she bought me at the show! Such a great time. I’ll never forget it. Love you guys.

Picture Day

Shannon Stoner Norfolk, Virginia, US

Picture day 1995- 5th grade. We were told to bring our favorite thing to be photographed with. Most kids brought stuffed animals or baseballs. Mellon Collie was mine. The next year my dad would take me to my first concert- SP with Garbage in Hampton, VA. Still one of my favorite albums, 25 years later.

In love

Justice Pittsburgh Pennsylvania , US

I remember I was with this girl in sophomore year. Me and her were really really close. One night her mother was taking me home and the song 1979 came on. I was instantly mesmerized by it. It became my anthem. My favorite song. It was playing during a lot of my firsts. I owe a lot to MCIS

leaving, losing, finding myself

Kim Tupponce King William, VA, US

That photo i submitted for me in the Zero shirt is actually from now. She is the self I’ve found after twenty five long years of searching. MCIS came out during my senior year of college, as I was contemplating and ultimately making a cross-country move, away from my family and a painful period, into a (not-so) shiny, brand new life. I still vividly remember that first winter in my new life in late 1996, when Thirty-three was playing on the radio in the cold morning on my way to work and it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. It represents for me the heartache and the joy and the fear and the suffering and ultimately the peace of growing older and wiser; of change, and also nostalgia. Namaste. 

MCIS

Em J Byron Center, MI, US

I didn’t know who I was. I had inklings. Ideas. Feelings. And then it happened. It wasn’t until I picked up Smashing Pumpkins/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness double disc set from Meijer on Alpine in 1995, in sixth grade, that I ever felt ‘connected’ in a real, fucking raw way to any musician or song. My love, my anger, my passion, my wonder, my questions, my suffering, my passion… it felt like I was finally able to FEEL all of those things, and connect it to music. And every emotion was captured. Every. Single. One. Emotion I didn’t realize existed. Tears- I didn’t know I needed to cry. Thoughts- I didn’t know I needed to think. Love- I didn’t know I needed to feel. Anger- I didn’t know I needed to experience. Songs- that immediately crept their fiery way into a young heart and old soul. Classical instruments gracefully danced behind luscious rocknroll rhythms, faraway feelings- driven by insane solos… lyrical brilliance… like I’d never heard and a heartfelt heaviness I’d never known- FLOODED my entire existence. I don’t know what could compare, fucking ever. I think everyone has their first kick into reality, musically, if they care enough, and this was mine. Had to get to a tattoo about it even, thank u @john.kurse Happy 25th anniversary Mellon Collie. I fucking love you. @williampcorgan @smashingpumpkins #MyFavoriteBandEver #melloncollieandtheinfinitesadness #smashingpumpkins @john.kurse

We are going tonight.

J. Escobar Los Angeles, US

On the evening of MCIS. I ask my parents to take me to Tower Records on Sunset. My parents said “NO” because the album was going to come out at midnight. I was so bum out about it. My kid brother ask me if it meant a lot to me if I got the album that night. I was like heck yeah! So he said we are going to get In trouble but I will take you. I said you don’t have a license. Then he said but I know it will make you happy if you get the album tonight. So he stole my dads car and he took me. Best time ever. Everyone in the parking lot was dancing and having a good time. At midnight Tower Records was playing the album in the parking lot. We stayed around till 2 maybe 2:30. But it was so worth it. I stay up all night listening to the album on repeat. It got me through really hard times. Dealing with my dads death my best friend in the hospital and dealing with suicide issues. MCIS got me to value life, my friends, and just people around me. Thank You Guys A Million. I Owe You Guys More Then You Will Ever Think!!! Forever A Pumpkin 🎃 Head…♥️

An Ode to No one

Jayde Melbourne, AU

I pinched my mum’s copy of the CD as a teen and it soon became my companion through every dark or hard time throughout the years.

It made such an impression that I have a piece of it tattooed on my body to forever remind me that “Destroy the mind, destroy the body but you cannot destroy the heart”.

Life changed at 8 years old

Melanie Keezer Huntsville, Ontario, CA

I was at my babysitters at the age of 8 watching much music and then came on a song that would be with me for life. 1979, billy singing in a car with a cute boy running around with friends.

1979 became my favorite life long song. Every scary change in my life, 1979 was there to comfort me. Moving across country after almost dying, 1979 was there. And in the best of times 1979 was there to cheer me on.

The pumpkins was what my big brother and i bonded over.

I will always be greatful for what 1979 did for me

First rock album ever

Indara Camarão Dias Uberlândia, MG, BR

I was 10, at this time here in Brazil, it was really hard to have access to good music. But, thanks to MTV, I saw the Bullet with Butterfly wings video clip. I remember of falling completly in love with the Song, strong and powerfull. I remember to find the record at a store at the mall and I bought it. Even though I couldn’t understand The lyrics, I loved the rythms and the Flow. This record shaped my intire taste in music so far. Thank you Smashing Pumpkins!!!!!

Hard to find

Catalina M Medellín , CO

MCIS was my first CD from SP, but not the first I had listened. I became it for my 16th birthday in 2001. My parents gave it to me and it was so hard to find, they were all over the city to find it. I was so happy and I felt so cool because my friends came to my house just to listen it. 

San Diego, Sports Arena MCIS Tour

Kay Stasinos San Diego, CA, US

The Smashing Pumpkins music spoke to my soul & healed my wounds. MCIS was the soundtrack of my youth. I will never forget attending the small clubs tour at SOMA & then their arena tour at the Sports Arena. Thank you for making music & lyrics that are still in our hearts. “Come into my life forever.”

The First Double Album In My Existence

Max Los Angeles, CA, US

Even though the album was released in October of 1995, it didn’t really hit me across the face until April of 1996. With “1979”, “Tonight, Tonight” and “Zero” on the radio I finally had enough influence to beg my mother to buy me the album. At this time I just turned 8 years old. I was a fan of “Today” and “Cheurb Rock” from the previous album but I never owned it. I had been influenced by my mom’s bands/artists from the 60s and 70s during my infancy. I knew the Beatles, The Stones and Eagles front to back it seemed. However, in 1996 after watching my older cousins adore Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc. Mellon Collie arrived at the perfect time in my growing up. It felt like mine. I felt that I was on a wave with the promotion of music videos, live performances and everything Smashing Pumpkins. 

Years later, after music school and working in this industry for 12 years, you are still one of my favorite artists/bands of all time. You (Billy) influenced me beyond measure. There’s so much music that has come through the years and still nothing compares to the imagination, passion and influence Mellon Collie has had on my life. 

Billy is riding shotgun.

Matthew Dallas, Texas, US

1995 was a hard year for me.  I was 18, no idea where life was going and my mother passed to cancer.  During these challenging times one thing was my rock, this album. Through my sadness this album was on.  This album was the light in one of my darkest periods of life.  I’m forever grateful.   Thanks SP!

MCIS my first record of the 2000’s

Max Rosas Puebla, MX

I remember like time not pass, in July 2000 see this double CD with a lovely cover, only know a bunch of song but, when i put the cd in the player…It’s like my music world start over, a brand new sounds come and never leave. The worn out cover it’s a sample of how many times I listen this masterpiece…What a time to start musically the 2000’s

25 years of music inspiring my art- thank you ♥︎

Fonda Gunnedah, AU

This photo taken from my art diary as a teenager when I first heard Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and my life changed. Thr music spoke to my soul and art flowed… 25 years later I am still so moved by this album and make art as I listen. It takes me from the darkness and inspires me always. Thank you for this gift you have given us ♥︎

Halloween

Skye Owen Berick, AU

When I was eight years old, I was carving pumpkins with my dad, and he began playing The Smashing Pumpkins. And with that became a very long path of love for this band!

MCIS was my favourite album throughout my entire childhood, and even now I can’t go very long without listening to it! It’s helped me so much in the long run, as much as it has everyone else here I imagine!

This album, and this band, had inspired me to play bass, had inspired me in so many different ways!

The cornerstone of my relationship with music, and a map for coming of age

Adam Android Coeur D Alene Idaho, US

Growing up in Seattle, as a young musician I remember my friend playing me a snippet of a song over the phone attached to the wall. “The world is a vampire “. I had to hear more. Offering something, deeper & more musically sophisticated than the grunge I couldn’t escape this album changed my life. I remember the smell of the booklet. The way that record made me feel; understood- somehow not alone.  To this day that is my “stranded on an island” record. My greatest inspiration and an absolute masterpiece. The lyrical turn for something a bit more obvious cut through the noise, giving me an internal outlet for the heartbreak, the rejection, isolation, and angst I experienced. MCIS is hands down one of the most important records of all time, and it wouldn’t be SP if it wasn’t forever under-appreciated.  There is not enough space here for me to be able to fully describe how this album was MY LIFE for so many years, and still sees no equal in my eyes as far as the songs on it, and the variety , that paved the way for “alternative music” by definition.

The Discovery of Mellon Collie

Cristian Alva Chicago, IL, US

My first experience with Mellon Collie was through listening to the song “1979”. As soon as I heard that first line, “shakedown, 1979”, I immediately was hooked. Ever since that rainy day working in Hot Topic, I went on to listen to the entire album and immediately fell in love. Never in my life has a record become so important to me in such a short amount of time.

Zero ‘On The Beach’

Nick Coffman Philadelphia, PA, US

I hadn’t yet matured enough to appreciate the artistry or sonic complexity of MCIS, but I did wait up all night to catch a rerun of “Tonight, Tonight” on the nightly MTV music video loop and was subsequently hooked. I wore this t-shirt around through the summer of 1996 and likely through the end of that decade. I didn’t fully understand what it meant at the time, but I wanted to be a part of whatever it was. Hats courtesy of my Uncle Pete… (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 1996)