Smashing Pumkins - Machina II

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Anxiously awaiting final offering from the Smashing Pumpkins, one of the few bands still around after the alt rock explosion of the early 90’s? Wait no longer it is out and available now. In fact it’s been out since the middle of Sept. However don’t run to your local music store to get it. Instead run to the nearest computer with a fast Internet connection. The final Smashing Pumpkins album titled Machina II/friends and enemies of modern music was sent to twenty-five of the bands closest friends and fans in a vinyl-only set. It consists of three 10-inch EPS and one 12-inch LP. Fans receiving the album were instructed to distribute the songs free online in mp3 form. The album will NOT be released on cd or any other commercial format for purchase. So this is one album you can download from Napster, and burn to a cd-r totally guilt free, in fact the band is hoping for such behavior. Machina II is the follow up album to MACHINA/the machines of god, which was released in Feb. and quickly sank to the bottom of the charts like it’s predecessor Adore. The Pumpkins blamed the poor sales on the lack of a push by their record label. So included with the vinyl pressings, the band included a special valintine stating that MACHINA II was issued in such an unorthodox manner as a final “fuck you” to a record label that they felt didn't give them the marketing support they so rightly deserved.

The band had been performing a few of the new track appearing on the new disc on their 1999 club tour, including "Glass' Theme," "Cash Car Star," "Speed Kills," "White Spider" and "Let Me Give the World to You."

The MACHINA II songs range from light acoustic ballads like "Innocence" and "Go", to more explosive hard-rocking tracks like "White Spider" their are also a few radio ready pop songs like "Let Me Give the World to You" and "Home". Several of the tracks appear twice on the album. “Glass Theme” comes in a regular version and a “spacey version” and “Crash Car Star” resurfaces later in the album as “Cash Car Star”. "If there is a God" comes as both a full-band version and a slower stripped-down version featuring only piano and vocals. Also featured on the album are remixes and alternate versions of “Try, Try, Try”, “Heavy Metal Machine”, and “Blue Skies Bring Tears”. The album also contains the Pumpkins taking a stab at James Brown’s “Soul Power”.

The album on a whole isn’t as cohesive as one would like, but that’s to be expected with an album that consists of alternate mixes and studio outtakes from the last few years, along with the doubling up of a few tracks.

Another thing that is a pain is that since it’s only being released through bootlegs via the mp3 format is the sound quality. The mp3’s can only be made from the vinyl recordings and I don’t know about you but my computer does not come with a built in turn table. I’m sure the computers that the 25 friends and fans owning the originals also don’t have them so when they try recording from vinyl to the computer, sound quality is sacrificed. Hopefully down the line someone will get around to making better sounding copies, but until then if you can look past the poor sound quality you have a very solid one and a half hours of new Pumpkins music to enjoy.


	Steamer Trunk \| home stuff about me \| album reviews \| PS2 game reviews \| pictures \| web watch \| getting in touch Rilo Kiley - Take Offs and Landings \| Slipknot - Iowa \| Ozma - Rock and Roll Part Three \| Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs \| Lit - Atomic \| Garbage - Beautifulgarbage \| The Strokes - Is This It \| Live - V \| Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls \| Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American \| Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket \| Weezer - The Green Album \| Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary \| Alkaline Trio - Hell Yes \| American Hi-Fi \| Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines \| Aerosmith - Just Push Play \| Dave Matthews Band - Everyday \| Blue Meanies - Post Wave \| Weston - The Massed Albert Sounds \| U2 - All That You Cant Leave Behind \| Green Day - Warning \| Offspring - Conspiracy of One \| Everclear - Songs from an American Movie Vol. 2 \| Radiohead - Kid A \| Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water \| Smashing Pumkins - Machina II \| Superdrag - In The Valley Of Dying Stars \| Voodoo Music Festival Smashing Pumkins - Machina II Anxiously awaiting final offering from the Smashing Pumpkins, one of the few bands still around after the alt rock explosion of the early 90’s? Wait no longer it is out and available now. In fact it’s been out since the middle of Sept. However don’t run to your local music store to get it. Instead run to the nearest computer with a fast Internet connection. The final Smashing Pumpkins album titled Machina II/friends and enemies of modern music was sent to twenty-five of the bands closest friends and fans in a vinyl-only set. It consists of three 10-inch EPS and one 12-inch LP. Fans receiving the album were instructed to distribute the songs free online in mp3 form. The album will NOT be released on cd or any other commercial format for purchase. So this is one album you can download from Napster, and burn to a cd-r totally guilt free, in fact the band is hoping for such behavior. Machina II is the follow up album to MACHINA/the machines of god, which was released in Feb. and quickly sank to the bottom of the charts like it’s predecessor Adore. The Pumpkins blamed the poor sales on the lack of a push by their record label. So included with the vinyl pressings, the band included a special valintine stating that MACHINA II was issued in such an unorthodox manner as a final “fuck you” to a record label that they felt didn't give them the marketing support they so rightly deserved. The band had been performing a few of the new track appearing on the new disc on their 1999 club tour, including "Glass' Theme," "Cash Car Star," "Speed Kills," "White Spider" and "Let Me Give the World to You." The MACHINA II songs range from light acoustic ballads like "Innocence" and "Go", to more explosive hard-rocking tracks like "White Spider" their are also a few radio ready pop songs like "Let Me Give the World to You" and "Home". Several of the tracks appear twice on the album. “Glass Theme” comes in a regular version and a “spacey version” and “Crash Car Star” resurfaces later in the album as “Cash Car Star”. "If there is a God" comes as both a full-band version and a slower stripped-down version featuring only piano and vocals. Also featured on the album are remixes and alternate versions of “Try, Try, Try”, “Heavy Metal Machine”, and “Blue Skies Bring Tears”. The album also contains the Pumpkins taking a stab at James Brown’s “Soul Power”. The album on a whole isn’t as cohesive as one would like, but that’s to be expected with an album that consists of alternate mixes and studio outtakes from the last few years, along with the doubling up of a few tracks. Another thing that is a pain is that since it’s only being released through bootlegs via the mp3 format is the sound quality. The mp3’s can only be made from the vinyl recordings and I don’t know about you but my computer does not come with a built in turn table. I’m sure the computers that the 25 friends and fans owning the originals also don’t have them so when they try recording from vinyl to the computer, sound quality is sacrificed. Hopefully down the line someone will get around to making better sounding copies, but until then if you can look past the poor sound quality you have a very solid one and a half hours of new Pumpkins music to enjoy.