MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music
|
|
MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, released September 5 2000, is an internet-only compilation of recordings by The Smashing Pumpkins. The songs, outtakes from the MACHINA/The Machines of God sessions, were released to a select few to be placed on the internet as a parting gift to the band's fans, and as a parting thrust to the band's record company, Virgin, who had refused to release the recordings.
At the time the Smashing Pumpkins released Machina II, the band had already decided to split up. A limited run of 25 numbered vinyl albums, each accompanied by 3 10" vinyl EPs, were made available to specially chosen fans, with the express instruction that the music be encoded and placed on the Internet. This request was duly complied with, and the tracks were made available for downloading in time for the band's final European tour.
Machina II, the album proper, is a companion piece to Machina, continuing the theme of that record. The band had run a competition for fans, in which fans were asked to decipher the meaning hidden in the records, with the single hint that "June" is a woman. In part, the Machina records are a tribute to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona.
Machina II (the whole) contains several alternate versions of songs which originally appeared on Machina, including "Try, Try, Try", "Heavy Metal Machine", "Glass and the Ghost Children" and "Blue Skies Bring Tears".
The subtitle "The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music" is a reference to an experiment Billy Corgan carried out in April 2000, before the release of Machina II, where he gave a fan a tape containing some rare tracks, also with the instruction that the songs be distributed. The tracks on this cassette were "Glass' Theme", "The Everlasting Gaze (Disco King)", "Dross", "Blue Skies Bring Tears (Arising! version)", "If There Is a God", "Le Deux Machina (Mike Garson version)", "Heavy Metal Machine (Version I)", "Here's to the Atom Bomb", "Real Love", "Money (That's What I Want)", "X.Y.U.", "Once Upon a Time", "Crestfallen", and an untitled instrumental. "Here's to the Atom Bomb" and the untitled track are incomplete, as the tape was a 60 minute copy of a 90 minute cassette.
| Contents |
Track Listing
SPFC.org's (SPFC was one of the original distributors of the recordings) discography page mentions "As there was no tracklist included with the release, song titles are given as their standard name, and some were given additional descriptive comments in parentheses by SPFC. A press release issued later includes slightly different versions of the song titles, which are given in quotes as appropriate." This information is preserved here, as the songs in question are available under both titles. "Slow Dawn" is also listed elsewhere as "Slow Down".
EP 1
- "Slow Dawn"
- "Vanity"
- "Saturnine"/"Saturn9"
- "Glass' Theme (spacey version)"/"Glass/Alternate Version"
EP 2
- "Soul Power [James Brown]"
- "Cash Car Star"/"Version 1"
- "Lucky 13"
- "Speed Kills"/"Speed Kills But Beauty Lives Forever"
EP 3
- "If There Is a God (piano/vox)"
- "Try, Try, Try (alt. music/lyrics)"/"Try / Version 1"
- "Heavy Metal Machine (version I alt. mix)"
Machina II
- "Glass' Theme"/"Glass"
- "Cash Car Star"
- "Dross"
- "Real Love"
- "Go"
- "Let Me Give the World to You"
- "Innosense"
- "Home"
- "Blue Skies Bring Tears (heavy)"/"Blue Skies / Version Electronique"
- "White Spyder"
- "In My Body"
- "If There Is a God (full band)"
- "Le Deux Machina (synth)"
- "Here's to the Atom Bomb"/"Atom Bomb"
References
- SPFC Discography for Machina II (http://www.spfc.org/songs-releases/discog.html?discog_id=153)
- "Smashing Pumpkins Fans Take To The Internet On New Record (http://www.spfc.org/news-press/articles.html?content_id=1313)" (Mirror of CDNOW article).
- AntiNews article (http://www.antimusic.com/news/2000/sep/item5.shtml), explaining the motivations behind the release.
- The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music (http://www.spfc.org/songs-releases/boot.html?boot_id=165)