For me the Pumpkins are a way of life. 10 years ago I bought Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and it’s easy to say that my life changed from that day. Yes I’d heard of the Smashing Pumpkins before that, in fact I’d seen the ‘Today’ video clip waay before then, but I was in a techno phase at the time and too damn busy listening to the likes of West Bam to really care.

I remember the day I bought Mellon Collie. I was 15 at the time. My money was obviously limited, and in my mind I reconned that a double album that was priced only slightly higher than that other album I was eyeing would undoubtedly give me more value for money. I mean ok so I liked one song on Mellon Collie, but I mean this beast of an album had 28 songs. The laws of statistics were on my side. Without a doubt the most important musical purchase of my life. The kind of buy I can think back on 10 years later and laugh to myself about how the mind of a teenager works and just what kind of impact subtle decisions have for the rest of your immediate life.

There was a time when I would listen to something by them every single day. Without fail. Without even thinking about it. It’s not so much that the music has been played to death for me, but every single time I listen to these albums I just can’t help but remember my school days, and my University days and it all just seems like such a long time ago for me.

I own just about every single cd I have ever come across that’s got the pumpkins name on it. It’s really rare for me to be so sure that I’ll enjoy a cd even before I’ve heard the actual thing. That is how good they were to me. No artist will ever reach that status I doubt.

I’ve been listening to the greatest hits album today, and the more I listen to that album the more I appreciate the amount of passion and reality those songs have in them. Honestly it’s been too long that I’ve felt like that about a new album. Oh sure there are other bands or artists that I follow with a passion, however it’s not too much of a stretch to actually say that none will ever reach the intensity of the pumpkins for me.

Their music inspired me in ways I can’t even begin to describe, and their impact on my creative work is always present. It’s soo rare for a musician to really touch me on all levels and inspire me. Billy Corgan seems to do it every time. What I love about the man is that he’s always willing to experiment with his web presence as well. Smashing Pumpkins dot Com (offline now since the Pumpkins broke up) was always a model of web excellence. That website was innovating with flash back when everyone was still in 56k modem diapers and Broadband was a distant dream.

I guess I’m lucky that I’m getting nostalgic around this time since he coming out with his solo album very soon, in fact sometime this spring apparently.

This kind of brings up my original idea to design the covers to the 4 lps that were released for the internet ONLY. Friends and Enemies of Modern Music was released in 2001 on the internet, 9 months before the band broke up. It’s raw, it’s scratchy, it’s completely underproduced, but it’s also brilliant at the same time.

I’m in the process of designing my own cover to this seminal work as it’s been in my mind since it came out. Yeah the site is going to get a bit of a beating with the high res images I’m thinking.

If you’ve not heard this essentially 2 CD collection I seriously recommend you do that.

If you want to read more about the album, go read the FAQ.

Other links of interest: Starla.org Smashing Pumpkins Fan Collaborative bCorgan.com