[dmeyer]

What was the first SP song you heard that got you into the band, and what was the context of your hearing it? This interests me because it may show a cross section of the fan base.

For me, it was Snail and Rhino in winter 91 or 92.

[Mayfair]

Tristessa. '92.

[LostSoul]

I was 6 when MCIS came out. Too young to really embrace an album, or buy one for that matter. I did, however, watch the videos for 1979, Tonight Tonight & Bullet on MTV all the time. 1979 was the anthem for my childhood, as its the only song I really acknowledged as a kid.

Fast forward a good ways, and I heard Tonight Tonight blasting from my brother's room. Curious, I went upstairs & discovered that he had an old, scratched up copy of MCIS in his possession. Never knew he had it. Borrowed it, heard the first 3 tracks. Good stuff. Then Zero came on and blew me the hell away, Never heard such a bad-ass guitar riff before in my life. Hit repeat a few times, then I listened through and enjoyed a good handful of songs. Got Rotten Apples and heard songs I never heard. All the eras of the band...on one disc. I was amazed at the diversity of the band, and sought out their other albums. Bought Siamese Dream & Machina and fell in love. Got Adore, Gish, and Pisces Iscariot soon after. Then I discovered the amount of savory Pumpkins b-sides/rarities available to me (Judas O, Mashed Potatoes, TAFH, etc), not to mention an entire FREE album. Got those and pretty much friggin drowned, man.

[dmeyer]

I was 6 when MCIS came out.

You make me feel old. I was 25 when MCIS came out.

[easternmind]

I was 6 when MCIS came out. Too young to really embrace an album, or buy one for that matter. I did, however, watch the videos for 1979, Tonight Tonight & Bullet on MTV all the time. 1979 was the anthem for my childhood, as its the only song I really acknowledged as a kid.

Fast forward a good ways, and I heard Tonight Tonight blasting from my brother's room. Curious, I went upstairs & discovered that he had an old, scratched up copy of MCIS in his possession. Never knew he had it. Borrowed it, heard the first 3 tracks. Good stuff. Then Zero came on and blew me the hell away, Never heard such a bad-ass guitar riff before in my life. Hit repeat a few times, then I listened through and enjoyed a good handful of songs. Got Rotten Apples and heard songs I never heard. All the eras of the band...on one disc. I was amazed at the diversity of the band, and sought out their other albums. Bought Siamese Dream & Machina and fell in love. Got Adore, Gish, and Pisces Iscariot soon after. Then I discovered the amount of savory Pumpkins b-sides/rarities available to me (Judas O, Mashed Potatoes, TAFH, etc), not to mention an entire FREE album. Got those and pretty much friggin drowned, man.

Woah, I was near the same age as you, AND I found out about the band through my brother playing on his stereo in his room too!

But, the first time I REALLY listened to the band was when that same brother gave me Adore, because he didn't like it, haha. The first song I vividly remember really striking me was To Shiela, and then Crestfallen. After that my dad bought me Machina the year it came out, at that time I was ten or eleven. It was kind of like, "Wow, this band is amazing! But wait... They JUST broke up?" Then he found me Siamese Dream, next came Mellon Collie, etc.

The fact that I listened to Adore first really impressed upon me a different vision of the band. To me, the Adore and Machina sound is what I most associate with Smashing Pumpkins, and everything else kind of comes after that. Probably why I'm in to Teargarden so much!

[Imursister]

1979 got me in the door as a 10 year old. I remember the exact moment. I connected with it on a drive home from Baltimore after watching the Orioles win a playoff game back in October of 96. My dad thought it was the Rolling Stones. All I knew was that song was ME.

After buying Siamese Dream 2 years later, Hummer shut that door for good and 12 years later it is still my favorite song ever.

[showers]

Adore was my first album by them, so that

[marigold]

You make me feel old. I was 25 when MCIS came out.

I was 21 then.

But I first saw/heard Today in 1993, then a friend I knew back then lent me her Siamese Dream cassette tape - I copied it, made my own tape cassette cover/insert for it, but I didn't buy the actual CD until Mellon Collie came out, which was when I got really hooked.

[Mayfair]

gish tape.

11 years old.

[BlueSkiesBringTears]

Spring '96, eighth grade field trip to Washington D.C., we're eating at Hard Rock Cafe, Bullet video comes on, I'm very, very stirred by it. (I never watched MTV or listened to any rock stations on the radio ... that's how I'd managed to not hear it during the several months before that. The only thing I listened to up to that point was Weird Al.) I w as sitting with old friends who I didn't have class or lunch with that year, and asked the kid sitting next to me, Tom, a friend of theirs who I didn't know, who the band was. He says, only slightly condescendingly, "It's The Smashing Pumpkins." The other kids at the table chide, "Ohhhh, Tom's pissed!" - turns out they're his favorite band. Got Mellon Collie that summer, wore my Zero shirt the first day of high school. That same kid, Tom, is somewhat antagonizing to me for a while, but one day there's a breakthrough when we start talking about how visionary Pumpkins are and that they trascend being a mere rock band, or whatever. We spent high school writing songs, forming a band, and talking about the high-concept albums we wanted to record and the operatic rock concerts we wanted to play. Throughout college and ever since, we've gone in different, but always strangely parallel directions, and now live across the country from one another, but remain best friends to this day.

[blanket_skies]

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.

[Facecloth]

I'd heard various songs by them on the radio, thought they were cool, got Siamese Dream from the library, heard Cherub Rock, and was hooked.

[BitterRootOfSelf]

Must have been around 1996 when i didnt really understand what music was and was listening to Aerosmith and video game sound tracks at the time, and my best friend was like oh you like that huh, well listen to this!.. and showed me Tales of a Scorched Earth... ugh yea for real. Then i took notice of Bullet w/ Butterfly Wings on the radio a few days later and i went out and bought MCIS the next day. Best decision ever. I was ten years old at the time... no wonder im so screwed up! in a good way of course

[LostSoul]

Yeah, Zero aside, what really drew me in was Rotten Apples. Singles or not, it showcases the evolution of the band, from Gish>SD>MCIS>Adore>Machina. I didn't realize a band could have so many sounds. And then when I got into deeper territory (Pisces, TAFH, Adore in full, Judas O, and the scattered rarities), I was blown further away. I like to play stuff for people to see if they can tell its the same band. ie: Window Paine, The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning, Silverfuck, XYU, I of the Mourning and Crestfallen for someone and see what happens. lol..

[Messimio]

Everlasting Gaze. Couldn't believe that fuzzed out riff. Started downloading their music, got to 1979, realized I've always loved the song and just never known who sang it, bought Mellon Collie and that was that. They were THE band for me in high school. Even though they broke up just as I got into them.

[TrumanCapote]

Zero, 1996.
I got Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness for Christmas.
I was 13.
I remember watching the MTV Rockumentary like 50 times that year.

[rosenkreuzer]

Rocket.
heared it as a little child in a car of older pupils.
i was around 12-13 years maybe, idk anymore...

[Facecloth]

Rocket is an incredible song to discover SP by.

That's to rosenkreuzer, by the way.

[RottingApples]

First heard Today as a little kid on the radio back in 93 on our way to the pumpkin patch (probably why the memory's stuck with me). I was way to young to give a shit about music, but the memory still stands in my mind as my first exposure to them. I remember seeing the 1979 and Tonight Tonight videos a lot in 1999/2000, but still didn't really care at the time. It wasn't until I heard Bullet again a few years later that I decided to go out and buy Rotten Apples in early 2003 and that's what did it for me.

[dgreenwolf]

Also Zero, in 1996, twelve years old. I saw them on the Simpsons and there's a cut to a scene while Zero is playing and it just blew me away. I hadn't really gotten into music yet, nothing more than what my parents listened to; I didn't have CDs of my own. I remembered the name Smashing Pumpkins from the Simpsons episode and the next time I was at Tower (Records, for those who might not know) my parents bought me Pisces Iscariot. I picked it out because it was green . Just on that one album the songs vary so much. I know that isn't really saying much. My dad listened to Beatles, Hendrix, Queen, the Doors, et., so it not like I was around bad music... Maybe it was because the Pumpkins were on my favorite TV show at the time that I felt a spark. I was hooked on Pisces. Shortly after that I bought Siamese Dream... the oldest CDs I own. Little later I bought Gish and I got Mellon Collie (with a busted case) from a friend who didn't really care for them--which I was fortunate for because it was like $40+ and my parents wouldn't get it for me.

I remember when Adore was about to hit stores, all the hype and disappointment when it was released. I liked Ava Adore, Perfect, To Sheila and maybe a handful of others, but I eventually came around to liking the whole thing. I DO remember being real excited for a new album to come out, expecting the likes of what they'd done before and being really disappointed by their sudden departure from their past sound. Sometime around here I got TAFH box set, and was on napster downloading live shows before it got taken over.

Then Machina came out and I was a little excited by a more rock-ish album than Adore was (Everlasting Gaze, Heavy Metal Machine), but it STILL wasn't like their previous stuff. It has that wall of fuzzy sound that I just didn't like. Of course, Machina eventually grows on me--and then they break up. (Parents wouldn't let me go wait in line like a maniac where Leno's show was to see their last TV show appearance.)

Adore and Machina really helped expand my tastes in music and just all around made me a bigger fan of Billy. Mary Star of the Sea was all right. Totally could've seen their first show but didn't find out until it was too late (that friend who gave me Mellon Collie found out Billy had some new band and were playing at the Glass House). I still need to give the Future Embrace more time. I thought Zeitgeist was more of a return to rock/the old ways. Keeping in mind they had a pretty extensive back catalog, so no, it's not as good as Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie, etc., but there was a lot about it I readily enjoyed.

Sorry way too much information. Despite feeling like an idiot spending all that energy on something that was unnecessarily, I'd feel like an even bigger idiot having it go to waste.

[afroguy10]

Cherub Rock, looked at a list of the 100 best guitar solos and saw Cherub Rock in at like #93/94 or something like that and thought to myself I wonder what that solo sounds like. Downloaded the song and was blown away by every little second of the whole song, not just the solo. Suffice to say I listened to a few more songs and had both Siamese Dream and MCIS a few weeks later. After hearing Tonight, Tonight I also remembered hearing that as a young child when I was about 7 or 8, didn't know it was by the Pumpkins which sort of brought some nostalgia back and helped cement my love for SP.

That was in 2007 so been an SP fan for about 3 years now, mere peanuts compared to some of you guys lol .

[Deleted User]

Cherub Rock. My sister gave me their entire discography after that and I was hooked.

[Facecloth]

Do tell.

[machina5514]

Stand Inside Your Love, 2008.
Obsesses ever since.

Stand Inside Your Love, 2008.
Obsesses ever since.

[vixnix]

Today, when it was released - I was 13. Then Soma and Mayonnaise.

[pastup]

I think seeing Siva on MTV is what made me go out and buy Gish.

[mourningnoone]

I was born in 92, my father was a big SP fan and when MCIS came out Tonight Tonight was the only song I listened to.

[dregg419]

cherub rock on the radio late 1994 i was 15

[ae37jr]

I got into SP when I was 15, right after my father died unexpectedly. I was up all night listening to a walkman, staring out the window crying. Right as the sun was starting to come up... "Disarm" started to play. I know it's not what the song is about, but the lyrics "I used to be a little boy"...."What's a boy supposed to do" really struck a nerve. It was the first time I ever had an emotional connection to a song. A few months later, MCIS came out and I was hooked for life.

Technically, the first SP song I liked was "Siva". I heard it on a radio station and was amazed. But they never said the artist. A few years later when I bought Gish, I was like OMG, that's the song!

[melabonbon]

rhinoceros in 91.
i lived in detroit and we could pick up some canadian radio stations that played really good music. most of the radio stations in detroit were pretty behind the curve as far as new music went, except for some isolated late night once a week shows.
anyway, i heard this song on my car radio, from a canadian station, and fell in love immediately. it didn't sound like anything else and it was absolutely gorgeous.

[pumpkinland]

Disarm was the first Pumpkins song I had ever heard.
I remember that moment like a junky remembers his first hit.

[themadcaplaughs]

I had known the name Smashing Pumpkins for the better part of my life because of their appearance in The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza." The Simpsons was, and still is, my all-time favorite television show! Anyway, I remember finding their appearance very funny, and being impressed by the riff from "Zero" that was in the episode, but I never got around to actually listening to them.

Enter 9th grade. I am a HUGE Batman fan (have been my whole life) and am excited beyond belief about Batman & Robin (bear in mind this was before the world knew it was gonna be as absolutely terrible as it was). In an attempt to absorb everything Batman, I picked up a copy of the movie's soundtrack completely on impulse. The song "The End is the Beginning is the End" got me absolutely hooked.

I bought the first Smashing Pumpkins album I could find, which happened to be Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. I specifically remember my first impression on many of those songs. I loved "Zero" so much that I played it over and over...at least 5 times. I remember thinking "Bodies" and "Where Boys Fear to Tread" were some of the heaviest songs I'd ever heard. And "X.Y.U." was just an entity in and of itself. I had just come off a two-year Pink Floyd bender and found that Smashing Pumpkins were, sonically speaking, very similar to Pink Floyd in many ways. Songs like "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" and "Porcelina of the Vast Ocean" gave me the bombast and experimentation I'd come to expect from the Floyd. Furthermore, like Pink Floyd, they had an obscene amount of material...even before the advent of the Internet. I have been a fan ever since.

[videocody]

Drown, 1992. I was 11 years old, and my hipster cousin who liked to introduce my brother and I to lots of new music, brought over the Singles Soundtrack (one of my favorite soundtracks of all time). I dubbed the CD to a cassette so I could listen to it on my walkman. By the time I got to end of the album I was simply blown away by Drown. Unfortunately the cassette tape ran out at the end so I missed the final solo and feedback outro. Thats okay, I don't listen to cassette tapes or my walkman anymore:)

[doomsdayclock]

tonight, tonight back in 96

[Memoryloss]

The End Is the Beginning Is the End

I just Ran into it one day

[slunk_4ever]

Heard my first sp song summer of 91 down the beach. 19 years old and having fun.
sometime toward the end of 91 nov or dec I picked up my first sp ep lull and slunk was my song of choice. I actually bought lull first before gish, thinking it was gish. once I got gish snail was my #1, then the single's soundtrack came out and drown was money. it just seemed to progress from there, trying to get any pumpkins material I could get my hands on from then on out.

[dudehitscar]

Heard my first sp song summer of 91 down the beach. 19 years old and having fun.
sometime toward the end of 91 nov or dec I picked up my first sp ep lull and slunk was my song of choice. I actually bought lull first before gish, thinking it was gish. once I got gish snail was my #1, then the single's soundtrack came out and drown was money. it just seemed to progress from there, trying to get any pumpkins material I could get my hands on from then on out.

old school fan very cool.

What did you first think when you heard MCIS? Particularly the switch from dreamy to nasal screamy with the vocals?

[Mayfair]

old school fan very cool.

What did you first think when you heard MCIS? Particularly the switch from dreamy to nasal screamy with the vocals?

most of us regulars here are old school fans from 1992. when we still rocked the cassettes.

and SD prepared us for MCIS.

[melabonbon]

most of us regulars here are old school fans from 1992. when we still rocked the cassettes.

and SD prepared us for MCIS.

still plays.
it spent so much time in my car tape deck, i'm surprised it didn't get stuck in there.

[waltermcphilp]

That song where he is all "Toniiighhht Tooooonnight!"

I forget the name of it.


*serious answer = 1979*

[lucciola]

I was 15. Spring. 1992. My new boyfriend, an intern at the local college radio station with better taste in music than anyone I've ever known before or since, pulls up to the house. 6:30am. School. I stumble out, half asleep. "Hey, I know you love Jane's Addiction. I think you'll like this." Pops in a cassette. (remember cassettes?) Bury Me. Now I'm awake.

*sigh*

I fell in love ... but not with the boy.

[waltermcphilp]

I fell in love ... but not with the boy.

Life's a bummer, when you're a hummer.

[lucciola]

still plays.
it spent so much time in my car tape deck, i'm surprised it didn't get stuck in there.

Oh that's beautiful! I still have my SD and MCIS cassettes. My husband laughs at me unmercifully but I don't care. I'm refuse to toss them. Too many memories.

Life's a bummer, when you're a hummer.

Well, I figure by now he's probably over it.

[CourtJaster]

Borrowed MCIS CDs. Payed attention to 1979 when it came out as a single. Loved it.

Bought MCIS- and it was indeed the cassette tapes. Borrowed SD, fell in love with it.