[ZivotSon]

Could have sworn I already responded to this, but don't see it. Must have been a similar thread. Probably will find it after I post this.

The first Pumpkins song I ever heard was Rhinoceros on kroq. But I didn't associate it with any band. It would just come on from time to time and I would turn it up. I have vague recollections of seeing Siva on MTV late at night as well. For some reason I found the video very disturbing and would change the channel. Again, I had no idea at the time that there was a band called Smashing Pumpkins.

Then I bought the Singles soundtrack and Drown blew me away. Loved the extended freeback solo. So that's when I came to know that SP existed. Then I learned that they did that Rhinoceros song that I liked as well. So when Cherub Rock came out that really grabbed me. I was aware of 3 of their songs at that point and loved them all. So I went out and bought SD. Pretty much became my favorite band at that point. Had been big into the Cure and Jane's Addiction right before then and I could relate a lot more to this band on a personal level.

So really it was Drown that was the catalyst for me.

[lemonscure]

'Tarantula'. I saw a clip on one of the music clip channels and was blown away by the sound of that song. So, I guess I'm a Zeitgeist kid :rolleyes:/>. Though, I've heard 'Today' in my childhood while watching 'Beavis & Butthead', but then the music was not so much important to me. The one, which grabbed my attention was 'Tarantula'. Then, I listened to whole Zeitgeist, even on that album I understood that this band, this singer is something special, different, so I've decided to listen to other studio albums. Got 'MACHINA', and liked it, was blown away by 'Siamese Dream' and 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness', enjoyed 'Adore'. The only album, that I'm yet to connect with is 'Gish'. I don't have a lot of feelings for that album, loved pre-Gish material, all those demos and so on. But the album, somehow -not so much.

[purelunasea80]

ZivotSon, on 13 May 2011 - 03:34 PM, said:

Could have sworn I already responded to this, but don't see it. Must have been a similar thread. Probably will find it after I post this.

The first Pumpkins song I ever heard was Rhinoceros on kroq. But I didn't associate it with any band. It would just come on from time to time and I would turn it up. I have vague recollections of seeing Siva on MTV late at night as well. For some reason I found the video very disturbing and would change the channel. Again, I had no idea at the time that there was a band called Smashing Pumpkins.

Then I bought the Singles soundtrack and Drown blew me away. Loved the extended freeback solo. So that's when I came to know that SP existed. Then I learned that they did that Rhinoceros song that I liked as well. So when Cherub Rock came out that really grabbed me. I was aware of 3 of their songs at that point and loved them all. So I went out and bought SD. Pretty much became my favorite band at that point. Had been big into the Cure and Jane's Addiction right before then and I could relate a lot more to this band on a personal level.

So really it was Drown that was the catalyst for me.

interesting, because the cure and jane's were both very personally relatable for me too, and if i had to distill SP's essence down to the influence and style of just 2 bands, those would be the 2. billy even once described the pumpkins as "the american cure", which makes perfect sense to me. my 2 favorite bands of all time.

[purelunasea80]

flippingsweet779, on 16 November 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I don't think it was ever one song for me. Just the whole Siamese Dream album. I had to listen through the whole thing in order to get it.

this for me too. spot on. i knew some of the gish stuff, we played them on my radio show (tristessa, la dolly vita, siva) but i wasn't blown away until hummer, soma, luna, geek, mayonaise all ruled my summer of 1994.

[purelunasea80]

blanket_skies, on 28 January 2010 - 11:35 AM, said:

<!--quoteo(post=362083:date=Jan 28 2010, 06:42 AM:name=blanket_skies)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(blanket_skies @ Jan 28 2010, 06:42 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I'm going to have to go with 1979 as well. I used to listen to Today and Disarm for a bit, and I had heard of the pumpkins since Gish was released but believe or not I thought they sucked, and mostly avoided their music until I heard 1979 when it first came out, then I thought wow maybe the pumpkins are good, so then I got into Bullet. Then I got Mellon Collie and was completely blown away, (I was about 16 years old at this time) they've been my favorite band ever since. But I didn't get until SD or Gish into 2000 when I met my wife who was a fan of all their music.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I should add even though it was 1979 the peeked my interest, once I listen to MCIS it was Zero (before it was released as a single) and Porcelina that got me hooked.

<!--quoteo(post=362266:date=Jan 28 2010, 04:48 PM:name=Mayfair)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mayfair @ Jan 28 2010, 04:48 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
and SD prepared us for MCIS.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I knew many of fans of Gish and SD who hated MCIS and dropped off the pumpkins because of it. For me it was the reverse though

"piqued" your interest. it didn't play peek-a-boo.

[purelunasea80]

dmeyer, on 27 January 2010 - 08:53 PM, said:

<!--quoteo(post=362053:date=Jan 28 2010, 04:50 AM:name=LostSoul)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LostSoul @ Jan 28 2010, 04:50 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I was 6 when MCIS came out.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You make me feel old. I was 25 when MCIS came out.

yeah, 23 for me. an OLD 23.

[Burma8]

I feel ashamed to say Tonight Tonight because I was 12'ish when SD came out. But I was sheltered and didn't begin seariously listening to modern music until 1995-96. But yeah - Tonight Tonight. And DAMN what a video!

[Brynnzo]

Maybe it was the "Rhinoceros" or the “Today” video on MTV….
In the early 90s I would listened to the Siamese Dream cassette in my 86’ Toyota 4x4 pickup along with Pearl Jam and Guns N Roses. But it wasn’t until I got my first CD player installed in that truck and I left Pisces Iscariot playing on eternal loop... at that point I was hooked for life.

[MSJPSU06]

I don't remember what the first pumpkins song I ever heard was, but 1979 was the song that got me hooked.

[CoolAsIceCream]

rat in a cage '95

[kirkthepug]

Maybe a strange one, but the song that got me hooked for life to the Pumpkins was "Vanity" from Machina 2. Only after hearing that did I start to listen to their better known songs from SD and MCIS.

[frednirv632]

kirkthepug, on 16 May 2011 - 03:48 AM, said:

Maybe a strange one, but the song that got me hooked for life to the Pumpkins was "Vanity" from Machina 2. Only after hearing that did I start to listen to their better known songs from SD and MCIS.

that's probably the weirdest one i've heard of so far. even weirder than mine (saturnine). just curious, how'd you come across vanity?

[novisad]

1979. Via MTV

[nickpancake]

I was 10 when I heard them from my older sister when Mellon Collie came out. I remember hearing Zero and Bullet coming from her room. Christmas 96 I got my first portable cd player and my sister got the areoplane box set. I listened to mellon collie and tafh all the time.

For school I was supposed to critique any song I wanted in front of the class and give a brief history of the band. This was in England when the spice girls were huge so I was the only one who had brought in rock music. .I chose Bodies. lol I think they were a bit shocked to hear a song like that. . they had never heard anything like it before. .the screams, words like suicide in music. I'm surprised I wasn't taken to the office. . but it probbaly didn't help my reputation with the kids at that school. Loved the pumpkins ever since. <3/>

[JSapp]

Pretty much just the singles from SD. I was about 13-14 at the time. Bought the album on cassette tape and was hooked for life

[Graceful_Swan]

I had always been familiar with the Pumpkins music as a child (I'm 25 this year) and when I was about 14 I remember recording the "Graceful Swans of Never" documentary by accident and watching it. And then watched it about three times again straight after. My parents bought me SD that day and I've not looked back since. I think Hummer is the song that got me absolutely hooked.

[themadcaplaughs]

"Zero" from the band's appearance on The Simpsons. Then "The End is the Beginning is the End" on the Batman & Robin soundtrack.

[dudehitscar]

the pumpkins were always there.. I enjoyed most of the singles when they were released (from disarm on).. but they had too many slow songs for me as a teenager. I never ever listened to SD or MCIS which I owned. Fast forward to when I was about 20 years old and had just gone a transformation musically to being much more interested in the lyrics and some slower stuff. I put in SD after hearing that the Pumpkins had broken up and was blown away by it. Hummer is the one that really did it for me. To this day it's my favorite song ever.

[Graceful_Swan]

dudehitscar, on 03 May 2012 - 04:20 AM, said:

Hummer is the one that really did it for me. To this day it's my favorite song ever.

Same!

[Chump]

i only really started listening to rock music in 2006. my dad had the smashing pumpkins greatest hits so i put it on my ipod as i knew the mcis singles from the radio. only listened to it rarely, usually only listening to zero. then i really began to like rhinoceros, drown and cherub rock and so bought siamese dream only last year and was blown away and had to get the rest of their music.

[BoSoxGirl75]

Chump, on 04 May 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

i only really started listening to rock music in 2006. my dad had the smashing pumpkins greatest hits so i put it on my ipod as i knew the mcis singles from the radio. only listened to it rarely, usually only listening to zero. then i really began to like rhinoceros, drown and cherub rock and so bought siamese dream only last year and was blown away and had to get the rest of their music.

I was around 13 years old when I heard Bullet and that changed everything. Prior to that I never listened to rock/alternative either, so it was a big change to go from Mariah Carey to Pumpkins, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, etc. There was something about Billy's voice that made me want to listen to more and so here I am many years later still addicted to SP!

[dudehitscar]

Graceful_Swan, on 03 May 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

Same!

:cheers:/>

[mkoasis]

I'd heard Tonight Tonight (liked it) and Bullet (didnt like it much, still not that keen on it) and I'd heard 1979 but didnt know who it was by, and this was back in the day when they first came out. But it wasn't until a friend turned me onto the band with STAND INSIDE YOUR LOVE, which I loved. So I went out and got Machina and worked my way backwards from there. That was in 2003, so I've always known the pumpkins but been a far for nearly 10 years now.

[DeepPurple]

Walked into a local record store in Atlanta when I was 14. The guy working there was playing Gish in its entirety over the stores speakers. I heard Siva, asked the guy who the band was, bought Gish, and they've been my favorite band ever since. I feel so old. :drama:/>

[james]

frednirv632, on 16 May 2011 - 04:24 AM, said:

that's probably the weirdest one i've heard of so far. even weirder than mine (saturnine). just curious, how'd you come across vanity?

the first thing i heard was the Glass' Theme remix on sp.com circa 2001. i didn't know what to make of it, but it spoke to me. then i watched the GATMOG interview with Billy and saw that SP was a really interesting, different kind of band and i identified with it instantly.

[gishlullmoon]

i was 13 and saw the ava adore video on mtv one day in the summer of 98 and in was in the afternoon. he captured the dark side i could relate to the song was was so dark i had to buy adore bought it and was kind of just like ok this is good, but kind thought it was out of my league. i bought gish shortly after and thought the same thing. then i bought lull and liked the song blue.... soon enough i bought mellon collie and went whoah this is great, and finally i bought sd and thought man this iss great, funny thing i actually bought the vhs of viuephoria BEFORE i boguht the cd of sd...........how many people can say that??!

[agent_cooper]

I borrowed Mellon Collie from my older nevue around 1999 or 2000 and thought it was amazing, but the song that really got me into them was The Everlasting Gaze. When mtv started playing the TEG video in rotation not much later, I thought it was surreal and rocked like I had never heard before. To a 15 year old, they looked like the coolest All-star band, just out of this world. One thing led to another and when I heard Siamese Dream and Adore my life was never really the same anymore

[Reichljuice]

I heard Siamese Dream as it was gaining momentum on MTV and a friends older brother was really into Gish, but I think it was right when Mellon Collie came out and the BWBW video came out that I went out and (for some reason) bought Siamese Dream first, then later MCIS.

[teacher]

Perfect made me buy Adore. Behold! The Night Mare made me buy everything else I could get my hands on.

[Catalina]

I don´t remember very well what was the song but i remember it was in 95- 96 because i was in senior highschool, and they came one of those years to mexico city but i couldn´t go :(/>

[Cherub Rocket]

I heard Zero on The Simpsons and thought i was cool, then stumbled upon it again a year later and wanted to hear more.. so after hearing mellon collie I bought everything I could !

[RDamage66]

It was Zero. I had a band in highschool (2008) (im 19) in which the drummer wanted to play zero, and i didn't know a song named that way by any band, so he sended me the link of the video and DAMN. I fell in love.

Then i was so adicted to Zero that i purchased tickets to the Coca Cola Zero Fest without knowing any other song, then 2 days before my mom gave to me the Zeitgeist album because it was the cheaper album of the discography here in Mexico (every album of the pumpkins costs like $35) and i became like idiotized by tarantula and doomsday clock, it was heavier than zero, but "new" to me. So i was ready to the concert! haha

I didn't knew any other songs apart from zero and the zeitgeist stuff so, the concert really blowed me away. I loved the rythm section of Tonight Tonight live, played by Jimmy of course. Loved the rawness of Bullet With Butterfly Wings and you know, a lot of other songs and i didn't knew at the time but later i found the setlist (when the oficial site updated setlists!) and purchased Mellon Collie, then falled more for the band. Later i purchased Adore and Siamese Dream and i founded really nice the diversity of the catalogue, then Gish, then Machina, then got into Zwan but they were not that heavy so didn't put a lot of attention haha.

I'm really pro-reunion and i was very receptive of the Teargarden stuff even showing the songs to my girlfriends at the time (one that lasted until the second EP, the other from owata to Oceania haha) and the pumpkins became a part of my daily basis of music, even the production of the albums made me study musical production.

[Aprils Thorns]

I was 13 when MCIS came out, BWBW was the first song I have heard.

I had never really listened to alternative before the Pumpkins.

I guess that's the transition from the last years of elementary school where I had listened to what is now called Old Skool Hip Hop to listening to, The Smashing Pumpkins as I went into Middle School/High School

I had seen the video for BWBW and I was just so amazed with the sound of the song and the style of their dress in the video.

I always said after I had claimed them to be my fav. band that they will always forever be my favorite band no matter what!! It's funny the little promises you make when you are younger. But honestly, I do not regret it one bit.

The tie between SP, my teen years and my father has played a huge part in my life. I don't think I could ever let the SP go.

[Friginator]

I first heard them during the "Pumkinmania" years (1993-1996), when they were a big sensation and every radio station in the world was playing them. People talked and talked about how great Siamese Dream and Gish were, and how cool the band was.

So I bought the tapes and listened to them I wasn't crazy about Gish, even after sitting in my room and listening to it on my BIG FANCY EXPENSIVE PORTABLE BOOMBOX over and over again (though it's grown on me since), and while Siamese Dream was better, less liquid and more solid, I still wasn't hooked until it got to "Disarm." It was so different from anything else I had ever heard in my life. That was the song that convinced me that the band wasn't JUST the fad it was at the time, and that they actually had the talent to take their music in more than one direction. Which, ironically, was the talent that lost them all of their fame.

[playerone]

I've really enjoyed reading every response to this thread... and the entire time I've been reading, I've also been listening to some of the picks other people have mentioned [Drown, Stand Inside Your Love, Cherub Rock, BWBW].

For me... I really vividly watching the video for Rocket when I was about 11. I found it really entertaining... and stylish.

Then MCIS came out when I was about 14... and Bullet with Butterfly Wings shot through me.

It was amazing, and I think it was really the first song that compelled me to think about lyrics... ["jesus was an only son? what's that all about?"]

I've owned MCIS on cassette twice and CD four times over... I've switched formats, had them stolen or lost... but it's always an album I come back to.

I would always fast forward to Galapogos on the album.... That's a song I always think of as underrated.

[Mega Flare]

back in like 2005 my brother randomly comes up to me and tells me to listen to a song. It was Disarm... I dont know what happend but i fell in love I listend to it.... listen to that one song for like 6 hours straight lol.

[saintrenee]

I Fell in love with his music from the moment I heard Disarm and Tonight Tonight, instantly .

[dreams of glass]

It was either the video for Siva or Rhinoceros, which I saw on MTV in the early 90's (apparently I am the old guy here)

I went down to the local record store, found the CD and proceeded to play the shit out of that thing.

That was the beginning of a long love affair with this band, with all the ups and downs of any relationship.

[ergo]

The video for Siva. It was shown on dutch television in a documentary about the Chili Peppers (Hit or Shit) and Flea and Anthony said upon watching Siva: "That's Billy and James, we just toured with these guys", and I bought Gish the next day. Took me maybe a week to get into it, but then I was hooked...

[Deano186]

I was aware of SP through hearing 1979 and Tonight, Tonight. Wasn't until I heard Stand Inside Your Love that i became truly hooked.

[M9R]

Disarm. (still remember when I heard it on the radio for the first time)

[saintrenee]

M9R, on 03 October 2012 - 10:10 AM, said:

Disarm. (still remember when I heard it on the radio for the first time)

Yeah...For some reason that puts a smile on my face. It's such a magical song isn't it.

[M9R]

Disarm you with a smile...
and cut you like you want me to...
cut that little child inside of me and such a part of you...

The years burn, burn, Burn....

[saintrenee]

M9R, on 03 October 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Disarm you with a smile...
and cut you like you want me to...
cut that little child inside of me and such a part of you...

The years burn, burn, Burn....

You're the best.