Archive-name: music/smashing-pumpkins-faq/part3
Posting-Frequency: monthly (17th) Version: 4.6 URL: http://www.ualberta.ca/~michaelh/FAQ.txt See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge 4. -Merchandise- 4.1 Pricing/finding rarities Since prices vary from area to area, and everything changes over time, I can't give any pricing info here. If something sounds too expensive, ask why. If you doubt the numbers they're giving you, check around. Steve Hemming has a semi-accurate price guide for most releases at: http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/prices/index.html Finding items is also quite difficult at times, but recently, a site has appeared which lists stores where such rarities might be found. Also, suggested by Dave Asselin, check out the Goldmine magazine, which includes tons of trader info, or visit their web site at http://www.krause.com/goldmine/ 4.2 Books There are several books available on SP. Here's the info: Title: Smashing Pumpkins Author: Nick Wise Pub: Omnibus Press/Book Sales Ltd. ISBN: 0-7119-4166-1 Notes: 48 pages, color photos on each page. Price: ~$12 Title: Smashing Pumpkins Author: Jim Stapleton Pub: Carlton Books/Music Book Services ISBN: 1-85868-068-9 Notes: 120 pages, same size as a CD Price: ~$10 Title: Smashing Pumpkins - A Tear-Out Photo Book Author: none Pub: Oliver Books ISBN: 1-870049-92-6 Notes: 20 full-page photos, text on opposite sides Price: ~$12 Title: Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream Author: Aaron Stang Pub: CPP Belwin, Inc. ISBN: 0-89898-825-X Notes: Guitar tablature book, with intro and comments on each song by BC. Price: $20 Title: Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Author: Andy Aledort & Hemme Luttjeboer Pub: Warner Bros. ISBN: 1-57623-339-1 Notes: Guitar tablature book, includes 'Guitar Geek USA' articles written by BC for Guitar World Price: $30 Title: Smashing Pumpkins - Adore Author: Andy Aledort Pub: Warner Bros. ISBN: 0-7692-6396-8 Notes: Guitar tablature book, with complete solos and piano scores. Full-page pics of each members (like the cd). Price: $30 4.3 T-Shirts NOTE: If you have any official tour shirts that are not listed here, please send a description to michaelh@ualberta.ca :-) Thanks. Here's a text-based description of the t-shirts, roughly in order of appearance: 1. Devil shirt - Black with red/purple devil and gold glitter. Back says "Mission To Mars". 2. Angel shirt - White with blue/silver angel & globe. Back says "Altitude Not Attitude". 3. Gish picture shirt - White with b/w picture from inside Gish liner, with white "Smashing Pumpkins" and "gish" text from the cover. 4. SP Heart shirt - White with red/black SP heart logo. One version has city scene on back, with SD song titles as neon signs, other version has the following text: this is a smashing pumpkins t-shirt. rather than ask me why i'm wearing this ask yourself why am i reading this? the message is there is no message. one million souls tossing down their hard earned lettuce for a piece of the hot rock indie alternative pie. i've sold out. how about you? everybody's doing it even if they say they're not. don't ask me cause i don't know. rock saves. it's the next big thing. have you heard the next big thing? i'm part of the revolution. it's all coming down soon. hope you're there. 5. Disarm Smile shirt - White with red/black "Smile" picture on front, 1993-4 tour dates on back. 6. Siamese Dream cover shirt - White with SD promo poster (2 girls, one with a popsicle). Back has either tour dates for Midwest tour, or for entire fall tour. 7. Star shirt - Black with red star & "smashing pumpkins" written in white in the SD font. Back says "just say maybe". 8. Clown shirt 1 - Red with green clown in blue oval, 'smashing pumpkins' written around inside of oval. 9. Clown shirt 2 - Black with white/yellow clown, red stars, etc. Back has partial songlist in yellow & green. 10. Spaceboy shirt - Purple, with orange cartoon astronaut. Back has part of Starla lyrics. 11. MCIS shirt - Navy blue, MCIS cover image on front, back cover on back. Tie-dyed version also available. 12. Blue SP Heart shirt - Navy blue with white SP heart logo outline. 13. Liner pic shirt - Black with picture of rabbits & rats smoking, white skull on back. 14. Discs shirt - MCIS CD images on front (pink/blue circles), tour dates on back. 15. ZERO shirt - Black with silver "ZERO" and star, small silver SP heart on left sleeve. Short or long-sleeved. 16. "Leave Me Alone" shirt - White with sketched smiley faces in a spiral with red bar codes on their foreheads. Back says "Leave Me Alone" in red 1979 font 17. Black SP Heart shirt - Black with silver SP heart logo. Back says "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and includes a tracklist. 18. Vegas Logo shirt - Black with "Smashing Pumpkins" written in a neon-like cursive, orange with yellow outline & dots. Background has silver stars and a planet. 19. "World is a Vampire" shirt - Black with large silver frowning face with fangs & horns, says "the world is a vampire" in MCIS liner font. Back says "The Smashing Pumpkins Infinite Sadness Tour" in the Mellon Collie font. 20. Baby Doll shirt - White with red SP heart logo. One size "Grrrl" shirt. 21. Thermal heart shirt - Black long-sleeve thermal-textured shirt with silver & white embroidered SP heart logo 22. 'Adore' cover shirt - cover of 'Adore' on front, back has tour dates from 1998 tour, and words, "The Smashing Pumpkins World Tour". 23. 'Adore' shirt #2 - trio of black & white pictures of individual band members, with "The Smashing Pumpkins" printed in silver in center. Back has pictureo of D'arcy in see-through shirt, from 'Adore' booklet. Older shirts are going to be somewhat difficult to track down, but they can be found. 4.4 Videos There are videos out for the following songs: Siva; Rhinoceros; Cherub Rock; Disarm; Today; Rocket; Bullet with Butterfly Wings; 1979; Zero; Tonight, Tonight; Thirty-Three; The End is the Beginning is the End; Ava Adore; and Perfect. Of course, MTV plays the most recent ones the most often (they're usually put into heavy rotation when they're first released), but occasionally you can catch one of the older ones late at night. Brief descriptions of the videos: Siva - band playing in a room, candles, flowers, weird makeup, etc. Rhino - band sitting & playing different instruments in a room, D'Arcy bouncing a ball, reverse footage, ornate fountains, & shots of the members outside Cherub Rock - band playing outside in the dark by some trees, weird color effects, lighting diagrams, etc. Disarm - black & white, closeups of members playing, aerial shots of buildings, etc. Today - Billy drives through a desert in an ice cream truck, picks up James (wearing a dress), stops at a gas station & finds other 2 members, they paint the truck all funky & then drive off, leaving Billy Rocket - a few kids build a rocket out of junk, blast off from their back yard, and land on another planet to find SP as an elderly band Bullet - band plays on a stage in the middle of a dry dirt field full of dirty workers. Billy has on the infamous Zero shirt & silver pants 1979 - shows a bunch of kids driving around, going to a party (at which SP is playing), wreaking havoc, and ransacking a convenience store Zero - dark colors, strange-looking people in odd makeup, closeups of band, etc. Rarely played Tonight Tonight - made to look like an old movie (flickery lights, etc.) includes recreation of George Melies' 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon", one of the first films to use special effects Thirty-Three - various shots done in stop-motion style, creating a jerky effect. Includes Billy by sunset and painting, and trio in suits TEITBITE - space-age costumes & props, members floating around, with shots from Batman and Robin in the background. Ava Adore - band is dressed up in Gothic costumes (Billy with long gown, heavy red eye make-up and white face...). Camera follows them through different rooms. Perfect - a so-called sequel to the 1979 video. A girl gets pregnant, some guy tapes a Pumpkin show (very cool), the tape falls off his car when driving, then he gets in an accident. For much more detailed descriptions of the videos, consult Marci's FWQ (Frequently Wondered Questions) file, found at: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/6663/FWQ.html 4.5 "Bootlegs" A bootleg can refer to one of two things: 1) an audience recording, traded around by fellow fans, or 2) a CD manufactured by a company not connected to the band, containing live or unreleased studio tracks. In both cases, the band makes no profit from these, while in the latter case, someone else -does-. CD boots, usually listed as "imports", generally run for $20-30, and can be somewhat difficult to track down (i.e. you won't find them at any large chain stores). Tapes recorded by fans are most often traded for other tapes, although some traders sell their tapes for cost. For more info, check out the FAQ for alt.music.bootlegs. 4.6 Trading The best way to trade is to have your list available on the web, and then to post to the list or newsgroup with the URL. It's usually not good to post a huge list to Listessa, although the newsgroup will do fine if you don't have web space. After that, just wait for people to email you with trade offers, as there isn't much else you can do. Posting your list every day or week is -not- a good idea, and will usually just turn people away or get you killfiled. There is also a large trading area set up on the Smashing Pumpkins Collection site: http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/ 4.7 Tape Trees Recently, the Smashing Pumpkins Live Recording Association (SPLRA) has either set up, or sponsored a number of "tape trees". This began with the Bridge School Benefit concert in October 1997. The show was taped, and the master was donated to the SPLRA for a tape tree. For those of you who don't know what a "tape tree" is, it's essentially like a family tree. The seed (someone with a good quality, master or 1st generation tape) posts to the newsgroup and Listessa, looking for people to sign up as "branches" and "leaves". Once the allotted time for sign-up to the tree has expired, the branches send one blank tape and a few dollars for postage to the seed. The seed then dubs the tapes for the branches and returns them. The branches each do the same for their leaves, which they have been assigned. For a better description, go to http://www.tapetrading.com/treehouse/ For more information on the goodness that is the SPLRA, go to: http://www.starla.org/splra/ 5. -News/Info/Net Resources- 5.1 Brief history/landmark events 1988/89- band forms, plays around Chicago, releases demo tapes 1990- I Am One 7", Tristessa 7" and 12" released 1991- Gish & Lull released; tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers & Pearl Jam 1992- "Singles" soundtrack; Reading Festival 1993- Siamese Dream released, selling millions; major tour 1994- band headlines Lollapalooza; Pisces Iscariot released 1995- Double Door concerts; another Reading Festival appearance; MCIS released, outselling SD 1996- American Music Awards; Simpsons "Hullabalooza" appearance; major tour; keyboardist dies, drummer fired (see 5.3); band wins 7 MTV Video Music Awards; Ransom & Lost Highway soundtracks; TAFH box set released 1997- Batman & Robin soundtrack; European festival concerts 1998- Adore released (June 2). Short promo tour follows. For a more detailed chronology, check out the one at Starla.org: http://www.starla.org/chrono/ 5.2 Double Door info In February of 1995, the Pumpkins played 4 shows (21, 22, 27, and 28) at the Double Door bar in Chicago. The tickets cost $5 each, all of which went to charity. The sets consisted entirely from new material from the then-upcoming album MCIS, and it's b-sides, and a few older b-sides played as encores. A few songs played have not been released, like "Speed" (from Pastichio Medley, from the Zero single), and "Towers of Rabble". While security was extremely tight, someone was able to record the 21st and 27th shows, although the quality is quite poor at times. A second recording of the 21st show, but a few songs are cut. 5.3 The keyboard/drummer events In the summer of '95, the Chicago Reader ran an ad by the Pumpkins, seeking a touring keyboardist. 5-minute tape auditions (with a "please, no pumpkins songs" condition) were to be turned in by July 14th. On August 18, Entertainment Weekly ran the following: "...aspiring Pumpkins needn't wait by the phone. Two months later, a refrigerator box full of cassettes graces Chicago's Soundworks studios, and there's not a listening station in sight. 'We've been too busy to deal with them,' says Iha. 'I don't want to listen to a bunch of wack keyboard players. It sounds like a nightmare to me.'" The position was filled by Jonathan Melvoin, who played keyboards and acted as a second drummer for Silverfuck. He also appeared with SP on the American Music Awards. On July 12, 1996, Jonathan was found dead from a heroin overdose. He and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin had shot up the previous night, and Jimmy awoke to find Jonathan dead. Jimmy was charged with misdemeanor heroin possession, and the rest of the band were taken in for questioning, and later released. All tour dates through July 27th were postponed. A few days later, the band released a statement saying that Jimmy would no longer be the band's drummer. Private/closed auditions were held a while later to find a replacement drummer for the remainder of the tour. Matt Walker, former touring drummer for Filter, took over. While auditioning for Filter, he reportedly dropped a drumstick and finished with one- he was hired immediately. Dennis Flemion, founding member and drummer/keyboardist of The Frogs, was chosen to be the replacement keyboardist. A press release was issued on August 8th. The band played a surprise warmup show at the Metro on August 23rd with the two new touring members, and resumed the MCIS tour after that. During the recording of Adore, SP used several drummers, including Joey Waronker (Beck), Matt Walker (MCIS tour, Cupcake), and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden). Drum machine programming was done by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. For the recent Adore tour, the band hired a decent-sized backup band that consists of drummer Kenny Aronoff, keyboardist Mike Garson, and percussionists Stephen Hodges and Dan Morris. Recently, Rolling Stone and Mtv reported that Jimmy was back with the band, recording a new album. However, Virgin Records has not yet issued an official press release regarding the issue. When and if this does happen, it will no doubt be posted to Listessa and the newsgroup, as well as most websites. (See section 1.1 above). 5.4 Tour info Tour dates are kept current at the Smashing Pumpkins Live Recording Association. Go to http://www.starla.org/splra/ for more information. Occaisional special concerts (ie: Billy solo at Chicago's Metro club) are still slowly coming out of the woodwork and will be put up on Josh Provost's site (the Smashing Pumpkins Live Recording Association, SPLRA) when they become available. 5.5 IRC info There are several IRC channels for pumpkin-heads: #smashing_pumpkins on Undernet, EFnet, and IRCnet, #smashing_pumpkins and #pumpkins on EFnet, and #smashing-pumpkins on DALnet. #smashing_pumpkins on oz.org is also a popular place for Aussie SP fans. To use IRC, you must have a client program. For more info, check out the mIRC homepage at http://www.mirc.com 5.6 Web links for cool stuff Since there are hundreds of web sites devoted to SP, it may be difficult, at first, to find what you're looking for. Here are the best sites I'm aware of for specific features: Tour info - http://www.starla.org/splra/ Tour History (archive only, no updates) - http://www.spyral.net/avatar/ Trading - http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/ Links - http://www.starla.org/ Listessa - http://www.spifc.org/spifc/ Discog (visual) - http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/ Discog (text info) - http://www.xero.com/sp/spdiscog.txt Bootlist - http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~daher/boot.html - http://www.starla.org/jackboot/ Recording Sessions - http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/recording/index.html Tab - http://www.starla.org/pumpkinsoup/ General - http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/ - http://www.netphoria.org/ Official sites - http://www.jamesiha.com/ - http://www.virginrecords.com/xspx/ If you're creating a new site, keep in mind that simply copying someone else's site is NOT a good idea, as you will likely get a lot of complaints. Try to come up with something novel and original, and remember that content is more important than how many "hits" you get. Do -not- post your URL 10 times a day to the newsgroup. Announcing it only once upon creation, or after a time of extreme upgrade/change, and including the URL in your .sig is the best way to go. If it's good, people will visit it. If not, perhaps it could use some improvement. :-) 5.7 Other recommended sources Frequently Wondered Questions - written as a supplement to this FAQ by Marci. Found at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/6663/FWQ.html Discography - exhaustive text version maintained by Dave Asselin, contains everything you wanted to know about every official SP release. http://www.xero.com/sp/spdiscog.txt - in depth visual discography has a scan of every known release. Even has a lot of bootleg scans. http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/discography/disco.html Bootlist - includes tracklists & info on all known bootleg CDs. http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~daher/boot.html Text-based (by Karl Daher) http://www.starla.org/jackboot/ HTML-based (oh, it's very hi-tech) 6. -Miscellaneous/Semi-Related- 6.1 '666' Bootleg Video A completely new FAQ has been created for this subject. Please consult that FAQ for information pertaining to the subject of the 666 bootleg. http://www.ualberta.ca/~michaelh/666FAQ.html 6.2 Starchildren The Starchildren is a side-project band consisting of Billy and various other people. There have also been "secret" pumpkin shows under the name. Starchildren have released a split 7" with Catherine (Delusions of Candor/ Flight of the Eagle, b/w Songs About Girls), and covered "Isolation" for the Joy Division tribute album, "Means to an End." Rotating members of Starchildren have included James, Jimmy, and D'Arcy, Bob English, and Mark Rew, Neil Jendon, Cliff Fox, and Kerry Brown of Catherine. Starchildren has not made an appearance as of late. 6.3 Catherine Catherine is, unfortunately, usually thought of as "D'Arcy's husband's band." However, despite poor marketing from TVT, they're definitely a cool band to check out. The band consists of Mark Rew (guitar/vocals), Fever (guitar), Gus (percussion/keyboards), Keith Brown (bass), and Kerry Brown (drums). Former members include Neil Jendon, Jerome Brown, and Cliff Fox. Catherine's releases are: the split 7" with Starchildren (Songs About Girls/Delusions of Candor - TVT 4612-7); the Sparkle/Charmed (for Taylor) 7" on Limited Potential (LimP 011); an EP "Sleepy" (March Records MAR 005, reissued TVT 4610); Songs About Girls/It's No Lie 7" on Rough Trade (45rev35); and albums "Sorry" (TVT 4620-2) and "Hot Saki & Bedtime Stories" (TVT 9020-2). There's also a track "End of Something" on the Absolute Middle of Nowhere #17 compilation. Videos are available for It's No Lie, Songs About Girls, Saint, and Four-Leaf Clover. Earlier releases are very guitar-heavy (3 guitars), and the final songs on Sleepy and Sorry feature extended feedback jams similar to "Drown"- the latest release is more poppy. Billy Corgan co-produced the 2 7" releases and Sleepy EP. D'Arcy sings on "Four-Leaf Clover" and "Punch Me Out" from "Hot Saki & Bedtime Stories", on which James Iha & Jimmy Chamberlin are also credited for "additional equipment". "Blew Away" (Disarm (smile) single, Pisces Iscariot) features Kerry Brown on drums. Kerry is also a co-owner of Scratchie Records, and has helped record and produce a number of SP songs. For more info, join the Catherine mailing list (send "subscribe catherine" to majordomo@jade-v.com), and/or check out the following web sites: http://pages.prodigy.net/heutchy/catherin.htm (includes a FAQ) http://www.halcyon.com/cantwell/cat/catherin.html http://www.smashing-pumpkins.net/catherine/ http://www.catherine.org/ 6.4 The Frogs The Frogs are a Milwaukee-based band that Billy is both a fan of and close friends with. Consisting of brothers Jimmy and Dennis Flemion and bassist Damian Strigens, The Frogs can best be described as satirical. Though largely underground, The Frogs have developed a sort of cult following, and their live show is simply unforgettable. The Frogs have opened for the Pumpkins and Pearl Jam, and played second stage at Lollapalooza in 1994, with Billy coming out on a few occasions. Dennis was chosen as the replacement keyboardist for the pumpkins' MCIS tour, and appeared with them from August '96 on. Jimmy took a roadie job with the tour, and came out on stage in his green-sequined, winged costume to play along for 1979 and choose audience members to dance on stage. The Frogs have released 2 albums ("It's Only Right And Natural", Homestead [HMS169-2], and "My Daughter the Broad", Matador [ole 155-2]), several 7" singles ("Now You Know You're Black", "Here Comes Santa's Pussy", and a split 7" with Wesley Willis), a cover of Pearl Jam's "rearviewmirror" (found on PJ's "Immortality" CDS), and an EP "Starjob" on Scratchie Records [314 534 838-2], produced by Billy Corgan. The pumpkins' home video, Vieuphoria, includes a brief "Meet the Frogs" segment, including bits of live shows, and featuring excerpts of "Homos" and "I Only Play 4 Money" (found on "It's Only Right And Natural" and "Starjob", respectively). For more info, check out one of the two Frogs web sites at: http://www.northcoast.com/~alora/frogs http://www.thefuton.com/frogs (includes text discography, Real Audio, Real Video, and pictures.) 6.5 Scratchie Records Scratchie Records is a label co-owned by James Iha & D'Arcy, as well as Jeremy Freeman, Kerry Brown, and others. The label puts out cool music & does really cool stuff for its customers & fans. :-) Check their web site out at http://www.scratchie.com/ The label occaisionally posts to the newsgroup, announcing Scratchie-related news, so watch for these announcements. 6.7 Cabal (...) / Junta (...) Although scarcely mentioned nowadays, the Cabal (there is no Cabal) and Junta (there is a Junta, I know, they suck) were two "secret organizations" that were brought up occasionally a while back. Their mention provided amusement for some, annoyance to others, and is included here purely for nostalgia. :-) 7. -Conclusion- 7.1 Acknowledgments This work could not have been made possible without the generous contributions (info and otherwise) from the following people: ERIC AGNEW. Adam Bellinger; Adam Cutler; Adam Newman; Allison Baird; Andrew Miller; Ankh Raid; Badfish; Brian McCall; Brandon; BuGG; Chris Carman; Christine Henry; Damian Strigens, and Dennis & Jimmy Flemion; Dave Asselin; Davin Mehrbani; Emmy Bristow; Eric Heutchy; Henry Bent; Jamie Halle; Jason Petrait; Jason Ting; Jenn Miller; Jeremy Adams; Jeremy Freeman; Jesse Miller; Josh Sherman; Joshua Provost; Karl Daher; Kim Wisniewski; Kristen Kapica; Laura Ann (SPFC); Looselucy9; Marci; Mark Gillis; Mark Andrew Hamilton; all the Matts and Mikes; Matthius Rheaume; Nikki Christoff; Onica; Phil Herring; Pissant; Roger Janssen; Saira Hussain; Scott Carpenter; Scott Spencer; Steve Hamel; Steve Hemming; Tariq Hussain; Tom Jackson; Wristy; all the other people who've sent in info, plugged the FAQ; everyone who's taken the time to create a cool, info-packed web site; and, of course, the band, for their inspiration & all that awesome music. :-) 7.2 Disclaimer Anything that you think should be included in this FAQ should be mailed to me (Mike Hamilton) at michaelh@ualberta.ca. Please keep in mind that I'm a full-time University student, and I do have a social life, so I don't always e-mail you back immediately. Be patient. Thanks. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- |--[mike*hamilton]--(michaelh@ualberta.ca)--| |--please stop loving me, please stop loving me, I am none of these things--| |--[smashing*pumpkins*faq]--(http://www.ualberta.ca/~michaelh/FAQ.txt)--| |--[lifepoint*mp3*files]--(http://members.tripod.com/PegRecs/index.html--| User Contributions: |
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