Smashing Pumpkins have already reissued their 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on several occasions, but another version will emerge Nov. 21 from UMe to celebrate the project’s 30th birthday.
Available digitally and in CD and vinyl incarnations, the anniversary set is highlighted by 80 minutes of previously unreleased live recordings from the Pumpkins’ 1996 tour — their last with the original lineup of vocalist/guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D’arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Sample “Geek U.S.A.” below.
“This isn’t the kind of double album you’ll mentally condense into one disc,” SPIN wrote of the chart-topping Mellon Collie, which features the singles “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Tonight, Tonight” and “1979.” “That’s partly because Smashing Pumpkins make music that rejects standard song shapes in favor of a more ambient, uncontainable sonic narrative.”
“Unearthing these live recordings from the original lineup’s true, last large-scale tour was a labor of love, and for me certainly bittersweet, as once we blew apart in 1996, we were never quite the same: be it emotionally or spiritually,” Corgan says. “Thankfully, I can say this as the band is now enjoying our greatest public success since that time, and one can hear in these tapes the raw power that such nascent faith afforded us, then, and the will and wisdom to persevere that followed.”
A limited-edition vinyl box will collect the original album plus the live audio across six LPs, Corgan’s new liner notes in a hardbound book, a custom tarot card deck and seven frameable lithographs contained in a velvet slipcase with a cloth carrying bag.
Corgan will also toast Mellon Collie as part of a seven-show collaboration with Chicago’s Lyric Opera from Nov. 21-30. “You’ll hear Billy Corgan and special guest artists along with the epic sound of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus in a completely new sonic and visual experience,” reads a message on the event’s web site. “Whether you love the Pumpkins and are excited to hear their music in a sumptuous new dimension, or you simply crave the opportunity to hear a new work inspired by the unexpected, this promises to be one of the can’t-miss cultural collaborations of the season.”
If that’s not enough, Corgan has also pacted with Vosges Haut-Chocolat for a “limited-edition chocolate boxed set” that will be available on Oct. 21. It includes a poster and two bars each of three different Pumpkins-inspired flavors: the “Zero” Black Raspberry Tea Bar combines dark chocolate and Forbidden Forest Lapsang Souchong tea from Corgan’s Madame Zuzu tea house, the “Tonight Tonight” Electric Blue Matcha Bar infuses vegan white chocolate with Madame Zuzu’s Electric Blue Matcha and the “1979” Kitchen Sink Bar blends pretzels, marshmallow and rice crunch with 72% dark chocolate.
The Pumpkins are presently on tour in Asia and will visit Jakarta tomorrow (Oct. 3).
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