Smashing Pumpkins - Machina/The Machines of God

You know how sometimes you'll see a movie in the dollar theater that everyone tells you is awful, only you enjoy it because you didn't invest too much into it and went in with low expectations? That's Machina (That phenomenon also describes why I kinda like Hancock). I heard it was awful before buying it for a dollar on the Cambodian black market. I just wanted to own all the Pumpkins albums, so I picked it up out of duty if nothing else and was pleasantly surprised.

I won't say that Machina/The Machines of God is up there with Mellon Collie or even Adore. Some parts of this album are boring, but some of them are good enough to be part of the Smashing Pumpkins canon if there is such a thing. "The Everlasting Gaze" and "Try Try Try" are decent songs and they, along with a couple others, should satisfy the Pumpkins faithful. The rest of the album sounds disjointed and unfocused, which isn't surprising because the band was literally falling apart during the recording of this album. Take Machina for what it is.

Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 Single

I believe I mentioned before how the singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in a half-dozen different formats per single. This particular copy of "1979" is the exact same track listing as The Aeroplane Flies High box set single.

While I docked a few points from "Tonight, Tonight" for merely making me wish I was listening to Mellon Collie, "1979" is a banquet unto itself. It features 6 tracks, 5 of which are absolutely fantastic. Tracks like "Ugly" and "The Boy" are just as good as the title track if not better (on certain days of the week I absolutely prefer "The Boy" to "1979"). The feel of this single is very much in the same jangly-yet-slightly-discordant style of the title track. There are no true all-out rockers, but those aren't my favorite Pumpkins tunes anyway. This single lays out some of the better tracks from the Mellon Collie era, proving that for a short while Billy Corgan had an unquenchable well of great songs to draw from.

Pouring Some Out For My Homies

I've been making mixes since back in the day when I would lay them down on cassette. I've made mixes to try and impress girls, and I've made mixes to try and impress my music friends. Now that I got married and moved away, I don't get to make mixes for people very often. A few months ago, I started churning out mixes for no reason in particular. These mixes turned out to be pretty good and I wanted to share them, but I came to the sad realization that I've pretty much alienated all my old friends. I know I've offended some of you while others have just drifted away. The whole point of me inviting you to this blog (which I haven't told anyone about before now) is do something nice for all of you in one of the only ways I know how. Feel free to download or share any, all, or none of the mixes below. They are all made to fit onto a standard CD, so you can burn them if you like. If you need help unzipping the files, don't hesitate to ask.

This is a collection of cover songs that, in general, drastically change the songs they are covering. Most of them cover the songs in a completely different genre than the ones they were originally recorded in. I lost the track listing in a computer crash, so the songs aren't properly titled right now. I'll get you the titles when I get the chance. Of all the mixes, this one is probably my favorite.

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As a general rule, I hate mashups. The songs on this mix are not your standard mashups. They cross all genres and mix things that you probably didn't know could be mixed. It's a real mind-bender. Some of these songs make me say, "I can't believe someone thought of this" and others make me laugh out loud. This mix is also missing the correct tags, but I'll fix it.

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This one is called Warming Up. I made it to capture that early spring feeling you get when you're in love and the weather is beautiful. Most of these songs are pretty lovey-dovey, but they're also awesome. It's a pretty upbeat mix for a pretty upbeat time of year. Oh, and every mix from here on out will be tagged correctly.

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Back in the day Joel and I used to watch a lot of Time-Life music collection infomercials. I think my favorite was for the 70's soft rock collection. Anyway, this mix tries to capture that same 1970's AM radio soft rock sound. Even if the thought of soft rock makes you think this one might not be your bag, give it a chance. There's a lot of good music on here.

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When I was starting to review my albums (one of the primary purposes of this blog) I came across a similar blog called Emily's Albums A to Z. She has pretty solid taste in music, so I made a mix based on songs she mentioned on her blog that I had either never heard or forgotten about. It makes for a really good mix with some interesting twists and turns.

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I have no idea why I called this Playlist 23 other than the fact that I made a lot of mixes, some good and some not-so-good, and this was one of several. I guess I couldn't think of a better name. Anyway, I really like this mix a lot. It's kinda heavy on the indie, but there are some other things in there as well. Oh, and I may have mistagged a Phoenix song as "Drip." I don't know how that happened.

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So those are the mixes I wanted to share. There may be another if all goes well, but that remains to be seen. I mainly just want to share some good music with some people who've been good to me and that I used to be good to too.

Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

This album represents the only time that I went to one of those events where a record store stays open 'til midnight so eager consumers can get their hands on a new album as soon as it's available.

At the time I bought this album, I was a little disappointed by it. Smashing Pumpkins had booted Jimmy Chamberlin, their drummer, due to his inability to handle his drug addiction (word has it he supplied the drugs that killed the Pumpkins touring keyboardist) and had not replaced him. Matt Walker of Filter played the Mellon Collie tour, but was not brought into the band as a permanent member. Adore finds Smashing Pumpkins relying on drum machines rather than an actual drummer, and this was a bridge too far for many fans.

Over time I have come to appreciate Adore. The songs tend to be pretty dark. They range from Joy Division-esque to Songs of Faith and Devotion era Depeche Mode. I think many fans were turned off by this album because they wanted Smashing Pumpkins to be the next Nirvana and this album is a world away from that. I can both dig this album and see why others might not. I don't think this is Smashing Pumpkins' best effort, but I don't think it's their worst either.

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight

One of the interesting/maddening things in the Mellon Collie era of Smashing Pumpkins was the singles. There were versions of the singles which had the single and nothing else. Other versions had a few b-sides (which shows that even though Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness had a staggering 28 tracks, it still didn't contain every song they wrote for the album). The Mellon Collie singles were released a third time in The Aeroplane Flies High box set and contained even more b-sides than the standard-issue singles.

This single is the standard-issue with b-sides. "Tonight Tonight" is one of the best songs from Mellon Collie. The b-sides are three ballads which compliment the single nicely. The only unfortunate thing for this single and the other two standard-issue Mellon Collie singles I own is that they just generally make me want to either listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in its entirety or take in all the discs in The Aeroplane Flies High.

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Everything about this album is an attempt to be bigger and better. You have to respect the Pumpkins for trying to top themselves when they had already churned out an all-time classic.

I was completely blown away by Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in 1995. These two discs are filled with every possible type of music Smashing Pumpkins are capable of making. I tend to prefer the softer side of Smashing Pumpkins (really, their ballads tend to be amazing) and there's plenty of it on these two discs. If you're more a fan of the harder-rocking Pumpkins sound, there's plenty of that as well. As I continue to listen to this double disc set over the years, I am constantly impressed by the scope of it all. Smashing Pumpkins were trying to make the next Quadrophenia or The Wall when everybody else was trying to make the next Nevermind. You have to give them major points just for vision alone if not for the overall high quality of music on these two discs.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

I bought this album because I heard "Today" at a party. It was one of those high school parties that could've been the big scene in the teen movie where everyone has their cathartic moment, the guy and the girl finally get together, and the jerk gets his/her comeuppance. Everyone in my school was there, and every clique was represented. Anyway, at one point, two guys put "Today" on and started doing this weird trance-like kneeling headbang to it.

For the first year that I owned this album, "Today" was the only song I listened to. For some reason I thought it was the only worthwhile song on the album. One day while working in the high school auditorium and sorting through a stack of cassette tapes, I came across a tape that one of the jocks recorded for his girlfriend (it was sort of a letter on tape. He would talk aimlessly for a while, and then play a song, and then talk aimlessly for another while. I have no idea how this tape came to be in the audio booth) and "Mayonnaise" was one of the songs he put on the tape. After owning Siamese Dream for over a year, I still hadn't heard that song. I was blown away and went straight home to listen to Siamese Dream  from top to bottom. I was ashamed when I found out how much I'd been missing with this album. It's one of the greatest rock albums ever made. It has some absolutely brutal hard rock, but also features some great anthems and some spaced-out melancholy ballads. This album put Smashing Pumpkins right up there with Nirvana and Pearl Jam as the best and most important bands of the decade.

Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot

Pisces Iscariot was a stopgap album that came at a time when Smashing Pumpkins could do no wrong. They had released Gish and Siamese Dream, but still had a stack of songs from this era that had not been released, so they stuck them all on Pisces Iscariot.

Pisces Iscariot, unsurprisingly, is not as cohesive an album as the Pumpkins' first two studio releases. It's an odds and ends compilation that contains a few really good songs (like the melancholy yet sweet "Blew Away" that hints at James Iha's eventual solo greatness) and a few that tell you everything you need to know about why they didn't make the cut on the first two albums. There's enough here to satisfy Pumpkins fans, but this is not an essential album for the casual listener.

Sloan - Pretty Together

Sloan is one of those bands that should be a bigger deal than they are given how good they've been for a long period of time. They're a pretty big deal in their native Canada because they're a very big and talented fish in a relatively small pond. In America they're hardly known at all despite being really really good at writing catchy songs with very clever lyrics.

Anyway, Pretty Together was my introduction to Sloan. I bought it because Joe, a Hoodlum's employee, handed me this disc when I asked if he could recommend something good that I probably hadn't heard. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this album and Sloan in general is the fact that all the members of the band share songwriting duties and yet each album works as a cohesive whole. Very few bands are as good at being a band as Sloan, and that really shows on this album. Pretty Together rocks, rolls, sighs wistfully, cries, and then rocks all over again. Just listen to it (or any other Sloan album because they're all great) and you'll know what I mean about wishing Sloan was bigger in America.

Various Artists - Ska Sucks

There aren't too many ska compilations worth owning, so take that fact into account when I tell you that this is the greatest ska compilation ever made.

I bought this album at Virgin Megastore back when such a thing existed (they may still be around, but not in Arizona). I was in desperate need of some good ska because that's what I was into at the time and I had come across more than a few duds. This compilation was very cheap and featured some ska bands I was partial to, so I picked it up and have always been glad that I did.

I can't say that every single song on this compilation is worth owning, but there are 30 tracks on this album so it's easy to overlook the 5 or so that aren't that great. Some of the songs on this album lean more toward punk than ska, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You get a broad view of the different ways that different bands were approaching ska, some integrating punk, some going for the classic two-tone sound, and some going for something a little more unique (I'm thinking Dance Hall Crashers). Most of the songs are at least good, some of them are really great, and only a couple aren't worth the bother.

Sixty Stories - Anthem Red

When I reviewed Kill Your Television, I said that it started off with some good synth rock, but just devolved into pop punk. Anthem Red suffers from the same problem, only more so.

Anthem Red isn't quite as remarkable as Kill Your Television, isn't nearly as enthusiastic, and by the time it devolves into pop punk, it isn't even good pop punk. This album goes from not-too-great to fairly bad. There are at least a dozen other bands in my collection that are better at doing what Sixty Stories attempts to do on this album.

Frank Sinatra - My Way: The Best of

Frank Sinatra is the cat's pajamas. How many guys can you name that were cool in their 20's and just as cool, if not more so, in their 60's? He was the kind of guy who made other people cool just by association. The man is a legend as is the music that made him what he was.

This compilation is a single disc with 24 of Sinatra's best cuts from the Capitol and Reprise years. Even if you don't think you know any Sinatra, you probably know several of these songs because they represent some of the best songs in the The Great American Songbook. As it is with most of his music, Frank Sinatra gives his unique take on these classic songs. In many cases, the Sinatra version of these songs are viewed as the definitive versions. I feel like I'm not really capturing how awesome Sinatra is or how great these songs are, so I'll stop writing.

Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest Hits

Simon and Garfunkel are amazing. They penned some of the best songs of their era and managed to churn out some of the most timeless music this ol' world has ever seen. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Simon and Garfunkel is the fact that the two artists, in and of themselves, are completely unremarkable. Art Garfunkel is Robin to Paul Simon's Batman in that nobody cares about him when he's doing things on his own. Paul Simon, on the other hand, has a bunch of fans who care about his solo work even though he has produced exactly one good song in the post-Simon and Garfunkel era ("Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard"). Fans and critics will tell me that he has produced entire albums worth of good material since S & G broke up, and they will generally point me to Graceland. I have listened to Graceland several times and don't care for a single note of it. So I stand by my statement: Art Garfunkel has done nothing of note on his own and Paul Simon has produced exactly one decent song on his own.

Now that I've properly knocked Paul Simon, let's talk about this album. Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits was originally pressed in 1972 and has sold a kazillion units since that time. The reason people went nuts for this album in 1972 and the reason people keep buying it now is simple: the songs are great. "Mrs. Robinson," "The Boxer," "The Sound of Silence," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "El Condor Pasa" are all among some of the most beautiful and poignant songs ever written. They never stop being fascinating, and I find that I enjoy them more as an adult even though I loved these songs as a kid. The fact that you can grow with this music and that it can take on different meanings throughout your life makes these songs timeless and essential listening for anyone who fancies music in any way.

Millenium Falcon of Unknown Origin

Few things in the galaxy are as awesome as the Millennium Falcon (it can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs). I picked up this awesome toy at Bookman's as soon as it hit the shelf. I think I only paid $5 for it, and it was worth every penny (or more likely, every bit of the store credit I used to buy it). I don't know who made this toy. The imprint on the bottom lists LFL (Lucasfilm Limited) and GTI (Likely Galoob Toys Inc.) but the Galoob Millennium Falcon is a Micro Machines playset that splits in half whereas this Falcon merely has many hatches. So I don't know where this toy comes from, what line it was in, or anything else about its origin other than the fact that it is officially licensed and was made in 1997.

As you can see in this picture, it has a lot of compartments. The back of the ship opens and a second hatch reveals the smuggling compartment, a nice touch. The turret in the middle of the ship opens and can seat one shooter, and the cockpit also opens to seat one. The landing gear is retractable, and both guns swivel as does the dish. There is a projectile which fits into the front of the Falcon, and a tiny button on the bottom of the ship releases it. When I bought this ship it had no projectile and came with the rebel pilot you see in the first picture. I don't know if the rebel pilot was shipped with this toy because it wouldn't make much sense. I know there are Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca figures in the same scale, so it's not unthinkable that this toy shipped with any combination of those figures.

Anyway, this toy is about as fully featured as you could ever expect for its size (7" from bow to stern and 5" from port to starboard) and I don't begrudge the missing pieces and/or personnel one bit. I got this sweet puppy for a song and have been glad to have it. I may eventually track down some of the figures that actually go with this ship, but I doubt I'll ever find the projectile on its own. Even so, I don't want it. I hate projectiles in toys. They always go off when you least expect it and never add to the toy ownership experience. So yeah, that's about it as far as this particular toy is concerned.

Marvel Heroics

So I just reviewed the DC Heroics one by one and now it's time to do the same thing for all the Marvel Heroics.

Because of the angle at which the Cap is standing, this is by far the least stable figure in the entire Heroics line. Even so, Captain America looks great on my display shelf. More than almost any other character in the series he looks like he's in the thick of some serious world-saving action. The most important part of the figure, the shield, is very nicely painted. Some of the details on the figure aren't quite as well-painted (the stripes on his torso vary in thickness and straightness), but that's pretty nit-picky. This is a great figure and I don't want to knock it too much. Grade: A

The Hulk figures are some of the best in the Heroics line because their large surface area allows for plenty of detailing in the muscles. They only take two colors to paint (three if you count the little dab of white for the teeth), so they're pretty uniform from figure to figure. I also love the fact that the Hulk is almost too big for his base. The arms are a little too big and it looks like he'd be a real knuckle dragger if he ever ut them down, but I just noticed that as I was writing this review, so I can't let that take too many points away. I love these Hulk figures and I collected a zillion of them in trying to get the chase figure. Grade: A

The Red Hulk, or Rulk if you're into calling him that, is one of three chase figures in the Marvel Heroics line (the third being the now-discontinued and somewhat rare Black Spider-Man). As with the other chase figures, this is just the non-chase Hulk with a red paint job. He actually looks a lot different in red, so I don't mind the fact that he uses the same pose as the other Hulk. Grade: A

I'm not sure which version of the Iron Man armor this is supposed to be, but I'm guess it's the MK V as seen on this site. I'm perfectly fine with Iron Man having little power pods on his hips, but something about the way they're executed on this figure makes him look like he's got birthing hips. Maybe I'm just crazy. I generally dig this figure, but I'm always a little put off by the femininity of the hips. Grade: B+

This is one of three (four if you count the discontinued one) Spider-Man figures in the Marvel Heroics line. This is a classic Spidey pose and he's even starting to shoot some web with his left hand. It has a nice paint job and some very fine detailing (the spider web pattern on his suit is molded into the plastic itself). You really can't do much better with a 1" Spider-Man. Grade: A+

 This is the second Spider-Man figure in the series, and it's just slightly less interesting than the first. The detailing and paint job are just as nice as they are on the first figure, but I prefer the pose of the first figure to this one. Even so, this figure still deserves high marks. Grade: A

 This was actually the first Heroics figure I ever opened, and I thought it was a mistake. I figured they forgot the paint, but it wasn't until later that I found out that this is one of the chase figures and the replacement for the now-rare and discontinued black Spider-Man. It seems really lazy to just not paint a figure and call it a chase figure, but I guess that's what they wanted to do. Even though it's lazy, I still love seeing this clear guy in my collection because it just seems like a cool thing to have. It looks way different than all my other figures, so there's something to be said for that. Grade: A

I like this Thor figure because, unlike the Thor in the recent movies, he wears the winged helmet, which is a nice part of the Thor costume. With Mjölnir held aloft and the wind sweeping his cape to the side, this Thor looks like he means business. I love every little detail on this figure as well as the action it implies. Grade: A+

Everybody's favorite mutant makes a very nice 1" figure. Yes, it would absolutely be too much to ask for a little separation between the claws given the size of this figure, so I won't knock it there. The colors are exactly right, and the figure stands in a nice pose, although it is slightly less nice than the one I'll review next. This is a solid figure and well deserving of...Grade: A

The last figure in this series is Wolverine in an attack pose, which I happen to like. The figure in the picture (I just grabbed the first one off the shelf) doesn't have the same crisp paint job as the others in my collection. At any rate, the attack Wolverine has the same nice coloring as the standing Wolverine (the picture just looks darker because I'm a lousy photographer). The attack pose puts him over the top. Grade: A+






So that's every figure in the Marvel Heroics line. Word has it that certain toy stores that don't exist in my home state have already started shipping out special Avengers Heroics. I'll probably have to hit ebay to make my collection complete. At any rate, I give the Marvel Heroics a slight edge over the DC Heroics in design, coloring, and overall quality. It's still pretty close, but I think the Marvel Heroics are just a tad bit better. If pressed, I would admit that I tend to be a bit of a Marvel fanboy, so my judgement may not be a pure reflection of truth. Here's the overall rating for the Marvel series: