“Thatnight, thatnight”
Pavel Reyes Bayamo, Granma, CU
In the late 90´s, back when I was a kid, Rock music was kind of forbidden in my country for political reasons, there was only one show on TV that included every once in a while a couple of Hard Rock video clips late at night, but I was already in love with Rock and Heavy Metal by
then and that music healed me from the tough days I had, becoming an adolescent and living the worst economic crisis we have ever had in this country before or after.
One of those nights watching the show, waiting for the new clips late at night, there appeared a new band I didn´t know that started to play a song making use of Georges Méliés´ paraphernalia in his classic film “A Trip to the Moon”, right there my world stopped for about 4 minutes. It was simply amazing, I loved their music from that moment on, that song spoke straight to my heart and the visuals caught my attention equally. I took my notebook in a rush and wrote down: The Smashing Pumpkins – “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” and started from that day on a hunt to see where I could find a copy on a cassette of the whole album or at least that incredible song. Some years later I met a girl who had it on a tape that brought her father from the U.S. and then I knew what I suspected: I just enjoyed and LOVED the whole album and it made me a HUGE fan of the band until today.
Almost 20 years later I had the chance to travel to Germany and go for the first time in my life to a Rock Music Store. You may guess which was the first CD I bought there…
When I was young
Hallie Corvallis, OR , US
When I was 11 or so, I was in my dads garage when Bullet with Butterfly Wings came on the radio, I thought, I’ve always loved this song and will always remember it. I never thought it would open up this huge creative side of me, all my art work and everything I put my mind to I always think of this album and creativity flies, it’s just so inspiring for me and I’m sure other people as well.
Believe in me as I believe in you
Gloria MacKinnon Hamilton, Ontario, CA
Born in 84, when this album released I was coming of age, developing my own musical taste, form of expression and personhood. This album shaped that. With my babysitting money I got the double cassette and wore it out. With my earbuds in, it was the first time I heard music as art and it became one of the soundtracks of my life. It will always be. I’ve celebrated with it, I cried with it, I’ve loved with it, I’ve lost with it. This album is a part of me til the end.
High School and a Record Shop
Duncan Lang Toronto, Ontario, CA
Back in high school, my parents separated. On a weekend I was spending with my dad, he took me to a big record shop in Toronto and I stumbled across the CD. He told me he thought I’d like it based on the music I’d been really jiving with at the time, so he bought it for me. The album helped me through some of the toughest periods in my teenage years and I still think of that day in the record shop with my dad every time I listen to the album.
The perfect mixtape
Tu Montréal, Québec, CA
Having no CD player in ’96, I made a mixtape at my friend’s place. I was constantly listening to Here Is No Why and Muzzle back-to-back because they are the same length and they were exactly on the opposite side of each other… They still are to this my favorite Pumpkins songs.
A melancholy October
samantha OH, US
In the summer of 1996, my parents met. My Dad was nineteen years old; musically into post-grunge, nu-metal, and horrorcore rap. My Mom was thirty-six, just recently went through a very bad divorce. Her ex-husband was a real asshole who left her for another woman (he had cheated on her with) because she was willing to have numerous threesomes with any female at the local bar. Well, despite the age gap, they fell in love. My Mom’s favorites artists were Bob Dylan and The Moody Blues. My Dad, fond of the Smashing Pumpkins unconsciously created a bond between their music tastes. Probably like most boomer parents of the 1990s; she admired the ’70s nostalgia of the pumpkins. She always collected vintage antiques and toys; victorian aesthetics were always a part of her. So to no surprise, the album also caught her attention. “That album was the soundtrack to our life, that played as we fell in love.”
She used to draw pictures of him with his exact features before he was ever born. He resembled a young Chino Moreno from Deftones, in my opinion. We have a home video from october of 1996 and during the last few seconds, a recording of the local radio announces the popularity of ‘mellon collie & the infinite sadness’ as the camera focuses on him working on an automobile. Years later, as I claim mellon collie as my favorite album (and smashing pumpkins being my favorite band) I can’t help but feel it was always fated.
Time is never time at all
Noah Sidel Montreal, Quebec, CA
Johanna and I met in camp 1997 & didn’t see each other for exactly 10 years. We re-connected & our first date was to see SP play Osheaga in Montreal in 2007.
They played Tonight, Tonight and I said randomly “Time is never time at all, you can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth” was my high school yearbook quote… she looked at me at said “me too!” We didn’t go to the same school and had no idea.
13 years and 3 kids later, we’ve been all over North America to see the Pumpkins (Seattle, Boston, Toronto & of course Montreal).
Our story will always be connected to MCIS.