Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music | ||
 |
||
| Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins | ||
| Released | September 5, 2000 | |
| Recorded | 1999-2000 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | EPs 43:12, LPs 51:11, Total 94:23 | |
| Label | Constantinople | |
| Producer(s) | Billy Corgan | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
|
||
| The Smashing Pumpkins chronology | ||
| Machina/The Machines of God (2000) |
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) |
Rotten Apples/Judas 0 (2001) |
| EP covers | ||
 |
||
| EP one (CR-01) | ||
 |
||
| EP two (CR-02) | ||
 |
||
| EP three (CR-03) | ||
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is an album by The Smashing Pumpkins that was released for free on the Internet on September 5, 2000. A sequel to Machina/The Machines of God, it has thusfar not had a commercial release. It consists of three EPs full of B-sides and alternate versions, and one double LP which is the actual album. Both Machina albums are concept albums. At the time the album was released it was to be the final Smashing Pumpkins studio album, but as of the summer of 2006 the band has reformed and is in the process of writing a new album.
Virgin Records was unwilling to release Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music so close to the first (and commercially unsuccessful) Machina. As is evident by the title, the band was fed up with Virgin. As a final farewell, and as a snub to the unsupportive label, it was released independently. The album was released by The Smashing Pumpkin's own label Constantinople Records. Only 25 total copies were made. The vinyls were shipped via FedEx to several heavily active fans in the online community, with instructions to immediately redistribute it among the fans. Originally, the songs were intended to be the second disc of a double album instead of two separate releases. Virgin declined a double album from the band as the previous Pumpkins album, Adore, had not sold well.
Though not as well known among Pumpkins fans as the band's commercial releases, Machina II perhaps enjoys greater popularity among die-hard fans than its sister album, Machina. Its underground popularity can most likely be attributed to its hard, raw sound and rough energy. This sound was further defined by the manner of the album's release: the tracks were sourced from hand-cut vinyl records and then uploaded to the Internet. The end result was a collection of heavy rock songs with a very raw, "lo-fi" sound intentionally characterized by pops, scratches, and other distortions. For fans left unsatisfied by the muted atmospherics of Adore and the sometimes over-processed and obtuse first Machina, Machina II was a welcome return to the band's hard rock roots.
The Pumpkins performed a track from the album ("Cash Car Star") on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which also ended up being the band's final television appearance. The performance was a rarity as "Cash Car Star" was not a single in any way, and Machina II was unavailable for purchase. (Leno even held up an actual vinyl hard copy of the album in true talk show performance tradition, with the comment "You can download it on the Internet") A previous live performance of the song had been broadcast as a portion of Kiss' 1998 Psycho Circus Halloween special, where the Pumpkins served as the opening act. The Pumpkins' Rotten Apples 2001 release contains the Machina II track "Real Love." Two Machina II B-sides, "Lucky 13" and "Slow Dawn," were included on Judas 0 (which was packaged with some Greatest Hits pressings).
On August 5, 2005 the Q101 copy (#19) was put up for sale on eBay. The seller decided to end the auction four days early when the bidding had reached $10,000 from a bidder in France. This bidder has since disclosed that there was a mutual agreement after the auction was ended to cancel the sale transaction. It remains to be seen if this copy (or any other) will go up for sale again publicly in the near future, but the episode suggests that an original vinyl copy could fetch a five-figure sum.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
[edit] EP one (CR-01)
- "Slow Dawn" – 3:14
- "Vanity" – 4:08
- "Saturnine" – 4:11
- "Glass' Theme (Spacey)" – 2:55
Total time: 14:08
[edit] EP two (CR-02)
- "Soul Power" (James Brown cover) – 3:02
- "Cash Car Star (Version 1)" – 3:41
- "Lucky 13" – 3:05
- "Speed Kills(Alternate Take)" – 4:51
Total time: 15:01
[edit] EP three (CR-03)
- "If There Is a God (Piano and Voice)" – 2:34
- "Try, Try, Try (Version 1 Alternate Text)" – 4:23
- "Heavy Metal Machine (Version 1 Alternate Mix)" – 6:47
Total time: 14:03
[edit] LP (CR-04)
- "Glass' Theme" – 1:54
- "Cash Car Star" – 3:18
- "Dross" – 3:26
- "Real Love" – 4:16
- "Go" – 3:47
- "Let Me Give the World to You" – 4:10
- "Innosense" – 2:33
- "Home" – 4:29
- "Blue Skies Bring Tears (Version Electrique)" – 3:18
- "White Spyder" – 3:37
- "In My Body" – 6:50
- "If There Is a God (Full Band)" – 2:08
- "Le Deux Machina" – 1:54
- "Here's to the Atom Bomb (New Wave Version)" – 3:51
Had the album been crystallized as an "official" pressed release, the song "Let Me Give the World to You" was considered as a single. The original, as-yet-unsurfaced version, was produced by Rick Rubin. It was originally written and recorded for Adore.
[edit] Personnel
- Jimmy Chamberlin - Drums
- Billy Corgan - Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals
- James Iha - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
- D'Arcy Wretzky - Bass, Vocals
- Mike Garson - keyboard on "Le Deux Machina"
[edit] Release sources
A number of a release sources exist for Machina II. All of them are sourced from vinyl.
Virgin Promos - This source is from in-house promo CDs made at Virgin Records (sourced from the vinyls), made before Machina II was released to the public over the Internet. Two versions of the promos exist, a UK (type I) and U.S. (type II) version, both with 4 CDs corresponding to the vinyl copies.[1] As it was done in-house at a record company it generally assumed to be a high-quality transfer, though some of the faint voices which can be heard in the background before some of the EP songs are cut off, and in general it is missing a considerable amount of audio between song transitions.
Q101 Transfer - As mentioned above, the radio station Q101 received one of the 25 vinyl copies. It was subsequently transferred to 2 CDs by the station (one CD containing the EP tracks and one containing the LP tracks). Because the transfer was done by a high profile radio station (presumably with high-end equipment and professional oversight) many assume the transfer to be of good quality. Copies were given away as prizes from the station.
SPIFC Transfer - The SPIFC transfer was produced from a vinyl copy by a member of the SPIFC. A transfer was eventually performed onto two CDs with "high-end" equipment. The SPIFC offers MP3 downloads of the transfer to members and held a contest giving away CD-R copies. When analyzed the audio from the SPIFC transfer shows a 21 kHz tone which casts some doubt on the quality of the transfer.
MP3 Web Releases - Following the vinyl release a number of MP3 versions quickly surfaced on the web. A select number of people involved in the Smashing Pumpkins online fan community received one of the 25 releases. Using audio equipment they had immediate access to these were recorded onto computer, encoded to MP3 and quickly released for the masses. Later MP3 releases may be from one of the CD sources listed above or newer lesser known transfers.
Commercial Releases - Four tracks from Machina II have been released commercially. These are of specific note, because these versions were sourced from the master tapes rather than amateur vinyl transfers. "Real Love" was featured on the Rotten Apples compilation. "Lucky 13" and "Slow Dawn" appeared on Judas O, which was included with early copies of Rotten Apples. The Machina II version of "Try, Try, Try" was one of the B-sides to the "Untitled" single, titled "Try, Try, Try (Alternate Version)." The studio banter that preceeds "Try, Try, Try" on Machina II has been removed from this version.
[edit] Download sites
- Billy-Corgan.com (320kbps CBR MP3)
- ThePumpkins.net (192kbps CBR MP3)
- MetroChicago.com (192kbps CBR MP3)
- Archive.org (192kbps CBR MP3)
