Machina: The Machines of God

Machina/The Machines of God
Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins
Released	February 29, 2000 (2000-02-29)
Recorded	November 1998–October 1999 at Sadlands, Pumpkinland, Chicago Recording Company, Chicago, Illinois
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	73:13
Language	English
Label	Virgin
Producer	Billy Corgan and Flood
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (C+) link NME (6/10) link Pitchfork Media (4.2/10) link Rolling Stone link
The Smashing Pumpkins chronology
Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000)
Singles from Machina/The Machines of God
"The Everlasting Gaze" Released: December 9, 1999 (1999-12-09) "Stand Inside Your Love" Released: February 21, 2000 (2000-02-21) "I of the Mourning" Released: June 2000 (2000-06) "Try, Try, Try" Released: September 11, 2000 (2000-09-11)

Machina/The Machines of God is The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, released on February 29, 2000. A concept album,^[1] it marked the return of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and was intended to be the band's final official LP release prior to their first breakup in 2000. A sequel album—Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music—was later released independently via the Internet.

As with Adore, Machina represented a drastic image and sound change for the band. Nonetheless, Machina, like its predecessor, failed to reconnect The Smashing Pumpkins with chart-topping success. However, the band's tours in support of Machina, entitled Resume the Pose and The Sacred + Profane, were far more successful than the Adore tour, as fans responded to the return of Chamberlin and setlists that included far more of the Pumpkins' back catalog.^{[citation needed]}

Background

After the Adore tour ended in late summer 1998, Billy Corgan immediately began to work on new material, debuting new songs as early as October of that year.^[2] That same month, the four original band members convened, and it was decided that Jimmy Chamberlin would rejoin the band, and that a final album and tour would be mounted.^[3] The band began recording, in earnest, in November 1998.

Recording

Much like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the songs were first tracked acoustically at Sadlands in late 1998 before the band set to work on them at Pumpkinland and the Chicago Recording Company with Howard Willing, Bjorn Thorsrud and Flood.^[4] Corgan described the recording process for Machina:

The band took a break from recording in April 1999 to embark on the Arising! tour, which took the band to nine small clubs.^[6] At the tour's conclusion, D'arcy Wretzky left the band. Flood remembers,

Interviews at the time claimed that Wretzky had "completed her work" on the album, but the extent of her contributions on the final album are unknown.^[5] Corgan later downplayed her role in all Smashing Pumpkins recordings.^[8]

Marketing and release

Corgan has asserted that Machina was always intended to be the band's final album - this being the reason for recruiting Chamberlin back into the band.^[1] Corgan has also said it was meant to be a double album (with Machina II being the second disc) but that idea was not approved by Virgin Records as they didn't want to release a risky double album after the disappointing sales of Adore.^[9] Machina was finally released on February 29, 2000, with a bonus disc, Still Becoming Apart. After Machina proved even less successful than Adore, the band released Machina II on their own.

"I of the Mourning" promotional single cover

Many of the songs on the album refer to love and relationships (both romantic and otherwise) ending, most of them obvious references to the band themselves. According to Corgan, the album was structured so that the first eight tracks would be "more poppy," and the last five "more arty."^[10] Generally, Corgan appraised the sound of the album as "a rock 'n' roll approach with pop sensibility".^[11] After the demure Adore, Machina represented a return to the distorted guitar sound of prior albums, though synthesizers and acoustic guitars were still heavily used.

"Stand Inside Your Love" was released on January 21, 2000 as a commercially available single. "The Everlasting Gaze", however, was released at the last minute as the album's first promotional radio single in December 1999. Director Jonas Åkerlund shot videos for "The Everlasting Gaze" and album's last single "Try, Try, Try" which was released on September 11, 2000. The video for the latter single was not widely played, in part because of its explicit violence and drug use.^[12] "I of the Mourning" was also released as a promotional single and received limited airplay. "Heavy Metal Machine" was issued as a promotional cassette but was not distributed to radio stations.^[13]

Machina as a concept album

Billy Corgan's chart showing the loose story of Machina and Machina II

Although Machina is much more story-based than previous releases, which have sometimes hinted at concepts, it is not a story album in the vein of Tommy or The Wall, but is much more subtle. Corgan stated that many of the songs are written from the perspective of the band as the press and public viewed them, rather than Corgan himself.^[14] In this vein, it is a concept album about a rock star named Zero (based on the public persona of Corgan) hearing the voice of God, renaming himself Glass, and renaming his band The Machines of God.^[15] Fans of the band were referred to as the "Ghost Children," which has now become a term for Pumpkins fans.^[16]

According to Billy Corgan, the original plan was to stay in character as The Machines of God throughout the record's promotion, explaining, "When the re-formed band agreed to the concept in October 1998 as a way to bring the band to a close, everyone agreed to 'play their part' all the way down the line. I never envisioned that D'arcy would leave in April of '99, and that subsequently the 3 of us would try to finish. This put a stress obviously on the full integrity of the project. Because it was connected to the band not only bringing the music to fruition fully, but also the public component of being in character. I ended up in a broken band with a half-ass enthusiasm towards finishing a project already started."^[17]

The story, while planned thoroughly by Corgan (see image), was only loosely implied in the album's lyrics, with the actual concept playing out in the band's performances and appearances, supported by additional writings and an animated web series.^[18]

Glass and The Machines of God: The animated web series

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009)

"GATMOG" characters bearing a clear resemblance to The Smashing Pumpkins' bandmembers

In June 2001, a viral marketing campaign was launched via the Smashing Pumpkins message board, encouraging users to seek out mysterious websites and video clips. This early example of an internet-based alternate reality game eventually unveiled the news of a new online animated series based on the Machina story. Although episodes began production, and plans were made to allow fan interactivity, the series was shelved before any episodes were released. Three of the episodes, which may or may not be complete, have been leaked to YouTube.^[19][20][21]

Artwork

The booklet artwork loosely tells the album's story through a series of plates featuring medieval-style paintings by Vasily Kafanov and text presented in a printing press font. The heavily symbolic artwork references the subjects of alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art.^{[citation needed]} "I of the Mourning" is the only release from the album that did not include cover art by Vasily Kafanov. The album was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Recording Package.{{Grammy Nominees - 2001.}}

Response

Machina is generally considered to be among The Smashing Pumpkins' least successful releases.^{[citation needed]} Although it entered the U.S. charts at #3 selling 165,000 copies in its first week,^[22] sales declined sixty percent the second week,^[23] and continued to slide. With U.S. sales of 583,000 units as of 2005,^[24] Machina was the lowest-selling commercially released Pumpkins album to date. Regarding the disappointing sales, Jimmy Chamberlin commented, "It was like watching your kid flunking out of school after getting straight A's for ten years."^[25] Billy Corgan, in 2008, summarized the failures of the album:

The album received mixed reviews - Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media heavily criticized the album's length, "Wall of Sound" production style, and Chamberlin's drumming.^[27] Others contend that Machina brought together the rock sensibilities of Smashing Pumpkins' early albums with the atmospherics and lyrical maturity of 1998's Adore - Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times called Machina "an exceedingly impressive and hard-driving record."^[28]

Track listing

All songs written by Billy Corgan.

1. "The Everlasting Gaze" – 4:00
2. "Raindrops + Sunshowers" – 4:39
3. "Stand Inside Your Love" – 4:14
4. "I of the Mourning" – 4:37
5. "The Sacred and Profane" – 4:22
6. "Try, Try, Try" – 5:09
7. "Heavy Metal Machine" – 5:52
8. "This Time" – 4:43
9. "The Imploding Voice" – 4:24
10. "Glass and the Ghost Children" – 9:56
11. "Wound" – 3:58
12. "The Crying Tree of Mercury" – 3:43
13. "With Every Light" – 3:56
14. "Blue Skies Bring Tears" – 5:45
15. "Age of Innocence" – 3:55

Bonus track

16. "Speed Kills"

Some releases—namely, European and Asian Hut Records versions, and all vinyl editions—have an added track, "Speed Kills". This version of "Speed Kills" is not the Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music version, but the version that appears on the "Stand Inside Your Love" single. On the international CDs, the song is edited to a cut nearly two minutes shorter than the original, and the last four tracks are resequenced. Some early promotional versions of the album have an extended version of "The Sacred and Profane" with two bars of electronic drum beat at the beginning of the song, and a slightly different mix of "Age of Innocence".

Chart positions

Album

Singles

Outtakes

A number of songs were recorded in some form or another during the Machina sessions but did not make either Machina/The Machines of God or Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music:^[31]

• "Autumn" (instrumental, not to be confused with the 1994 demo "Autumn Nocturne")
• "Death Boogie"^[32]
• "Drain"
• "Here I Am"
• "Laugh"
• "Lover"
• "Soot and Stars" (later released on Judas Ø)
• "Winterlong" (later released on Judas Ø)

Personnel

The Smashing Pumpkins

• Jimmy Chamberlin – Drums
• Billy Corgan – Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, producer, art direction, mixing
• James Iha – Guitar
• D'arcy Wretzky – Bass

Additional musicians

• Mike Garson – Piano on "Glass and the Ghost Children"

Production

• Bill Douglass – Mixing assistant
• Flood – Producer, mixing
• Vasily Kafanov – Paintings, etchings
• Tommy Lipnick – Technical assistance
• Tim "Gooch" Lougee – Technical assistance
• Jef Moll – Mixing assistant
• Alan Moulder – Mixing
• Andrew Nicholls – Mixing assistant
• Erin Piepergerdes – Mixing assistant
• Scott Schimpff – Technical assistance
• Greg Sylvester – Art direction
• Bjorn Thorsrud – Recording, mixing, digital editing, compilation, additional programming
• Howie Weinberg – Mastering
• Howard C. Willing – Recorder, mixing
• Thomas Wolfe – Art direction
• Yelena Yemchuk – Art direction
• Mike Zainer – Mixing assistant

References

External links

• Shattering Fast Alchemical Glass: Art & The Occult of The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina Mystery
• spfc.org : discography : Machina/the machines of God
• Machina: The Writings
• Chards of Glass: The Machina Blogs
• Machina Artist Vasily Kafanov