I had the release date for Mellon Collie marked on my calendar, and set myself the mission of saving enough money by that date to buy the double cassette. I was 12 years old at the time. I raked a neighbor’s lawn for a few dollars, helped an old woman take out her trash for fifty cents, stole change from my parents’ change jar, and kept lunch money to save enough for the album. 

When the album was released, my parents bought it for me as a suprise. I spent some of the money I had saved on an issue of Guitar World with Corgan and Iha on the cover. The weekend after the album came out, my family went on a road trip, and I spent the whole eight hour drive (both ways, so sixteen hours total in a weekend) listening to MCIS over and over again while reading and rereading the Guitar World interview. It became my favorite album very quickly, and still is, 25 years later.