Talking Heads - Melody Attack (1981)

 

Side A:
1. Big Business - David Byrne
2. Things Fall Apart - Jerry Harrison
3. Wordy Rappinghood - Tina Weymouth
4. My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks) - David Byrne
5. Slink - Jerry Harrison
6. Genius of Love - Tina Weymouth

Side B:
7. Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open) - David Byrne
8. The New Adventure - Jerry Harrison
9. As Above, So Below - Tina Weymouth
10. What a Day That Was - David Byrne
11. Magic Hymie - Jerry Harrison
12. Lorelei - Tina Weymouth

The Talking Heads didn't release an album this year, but they all released solo albums which could be combined to make an album. David Byrne released The Catherine Wheel soundtrack although he only sings on a couple of the tracks. Jerry Harrison also released an album called The Red and the Black and Tina Weymouth started a side project called Tom Tom Club with TH drummer Chris Frantz and released their first album that year. So I thought if I didn't have a lot of David material to include I could make it a more collaborative album, which would be unusual for a TH album. Although these songs never made it onto a TH album, the band did perform them live and some songs made it onto Stop Making Sense. 

Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu (2011)

 

1. Brandenburg Gate
2. The View
3. Pumping Blood
4. Mistress Dread
5. Iced Honey
6. Hate Train
7. Just a Bullet Away
8. Frustration
9. Little Dog
10. Hell and Back
11. Rebel of Babylon

When Metallica released their collaboration record with Lou Reed in 2011, it was called even worse than St. Anger, and indeed one of the worst albums of all time. But it would also turn out to be Lou's last album before his death in 2013. It spans across two discs and is longer than the length of a single disc. So I thought how could we improve it? Three of the album's ten tracks are longer than 10 minutes, and later that year they released an EP of outtakes from Death Magnetic. So I thought I could take out the three tracks longer than 10 minutes and replace them with the four tracks from the EP and now it's short enough to fit on a CD!

Sonic Youth - Chelsea Light Moving (2013)

 

1. Sleeping Where I Fall - Thurston Moore
2. By the Window - Lee Ranaldo
3. Alighted - Thurston Moore 
4. Last Mistress - Kim Gordon
5. Empires of Time - Thurston Moore
6. Ambulancer - Lee Ranaldo
7. Groovy and Linda - Thurston Moore
8. Actress - Kim Gordon
9. Burroughs - Thurston Moore
10. Home Chds - Lee Ranaldo
11. Frank O'Hara Hit - Thurston Moore

Sonic Youth broke up in 2011 but their last album was released in 2009. When they broke up they had been around for 40 years and were one of the longest running bands in alternative. And yet what if they didn't break up and made one more album? In 2013 Thurston and his band Chelsea Light Moving released their only album. But also this year Kim released the album Coming Apart with her band Body/Head and Lee released an album called Last Night on Earth as Lee Ranaldo and the Dust which features SY drummer Steve Shelley. Lee was known for having the fewest songs on their albums but since Kim's album is experimental he gets a step up.

Smashing Pumpkins - Judas O (2001)

 

1. Lucky 13
2. Because You Are
3. Slow Dawn
4. My Mistake
5. Waiting
6. Saturnine
7. Blissed and Gone
8. The End is the Beginning is the End
9. Eye
10. Summer
11. Vanity
12. Speed Kills
13. Untitled
14. The Aeroplane Flies High

This compilation album mostly features outtakes from the Adore and Machina albums. It was originally included with copies of their greatest hits album Rotten Apples but in my universe it's included with copies of my version of the Machina albums. It includes a couple songs that were originally released on The Aeroplane Flies High so I took out the songs I already used. I also took out all the solo acoustic tracks. The album is more electronic than prior ones though I still like it.

Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide (EP) + Rocket (EP) (1994)

1. Landslide (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
2. Soothe
3. Purr Snickety
4. Apathy's Last Kiss
5. Bye June
6. Siamese Dream

1. Rocket
2. Glynis
3. Spaced

The compilation album Pisces Iscariot didn't yield any singles but it scored one big hit with the cover of Landslide by Fleetwood Mac which was originally included on the Disarm single. It was the only track from the album to be included on the Rotten Apples greatest hits album. Also there were a couple acoustic songs that I excluded from the album. So I thought I'd make Landslide a single and since their EPs are so long I can include all the acoustic bonus tracks. After that I found out that Rocket was a promotional single, and I had some heavy bonus tracks.

Smashing Pumpkins - Rawk (1994)

 

1. There It Goes
2. Jennifer Ever
3. East
4. Nothing and Everything
5. Sun
6. My Dahlia
7. With You
8. Stars Fall In
9. Psychedelic
10. Jesus is the Sun
11. Translucent
12. Jesus Loves His Babies
13. STP
14. Moleasskiss

Admittedly I had a lot of fun going through Smashing Pumpkins' discography for this month. I wanted to see what other songs they had buried in the cracks, and it turned out to be a lot! This can be seen as a chronological history of the band up to Siamese Dream, but most of these tracks can be found on reissues of their first two albums and Pisces Iscariot. 

Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot (1994)

 

1. Daughter
2. Frail and Bedazzled

3. Plume
4. Whir
5. Blew Away
6. Pissant
7. Hello Kitty Kat
8. Obscured
9. Not Worth Asking
10. Honey Spider
11. Blue
12. Smiley
13. La Vita Dolly
14. Slunk
15. Drown
16. Speed

Hey did know that Billy Corgan once said that he almost had enough material to make Siamese Dream a double album? That's apparently true since in between Siamese Dream and MCIS they released a compilation album called Pisces Iscariot. Though it didn't include all of their early work and included a few covers instead. 

Smashing Pumpkins - Pistachio (1996)

 

1. Knuckles
2. Zoom
3. New Waver
4. So Very Sad About Us
5. Phang
6. The Groover
7. Blast
8. U.S.A.
9. Tribute to Johnny
10. Feelium
11. Weeping Willowly
12. Rings
13. So So Pretty
14. Lucky Lad
15. Jackboot
16. Star Song

This is a fictitious second album that would be included with copies of my version of The Aeroplane Flies High. It includes most of the instrumentals from the Pastichio Medley that would be later released on reissues of TAFH and MCIS. Speed is the only song from the medley to have vocals though the last song technically has a bit of vocals from James Iha. 

Smashing Pumpkins - The Aeroplane Flies High (1996)

 

1. Cherry
2. The Boy
3. Set the Ray to Jerry
4. God
5. Mouths of Babes
6. Ugly
7. Marquis in Spades
8. Pennies
9. Transformer
10. Meladori Magpie
11. …Said Sadly
12. Rotten Apples
13. Believe
14. Medallia and the Gray Skies
15. The Bells
16. Jupiter's Lament
17. Blank
18. The Last Song

The Aeroplane Flies High was a five disc box set released by the Smashing Pumpkins after the release of the two disc album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. This included the Zero EP which included the Pastichio Medley which was a medley of 73 songs that the band recorded during this time in various states of availability. So the album contained 28 songs, followed by a further 19 songs from the box set not including covers or duplicates, and of the 73 songs from the medley 23 were found. That gives us a total of 70 songs which is more than the 57 songs that were recorded for the album. Nevertheless it means we have a lot of material to go through. The first half of the album is all electric and mostly includes the 1979 and Zero EPs. The second half of the album is all acoustic and mostly includes the Tonight, Tonight & Thirty-Three EPs. 

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (2 CD) (1995)

 

Disc 1:
1. Tonight, Tonight
2. Jellybelly
3. Zero
4. Here is No Why
5. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
6. Fuck You (An Ode to No One)
7. Love
8. Muzzle
9. X.Y.U.
10. Where Boys Fear to Tread
11. Bodies
12. Tales of a Scorched Earth
13. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans

Disc 2:
14. To Forgive
15. Cupid de Locke
16. Galapagos
17. Take Me Down
18. Thirty-Three
19. In the Arms of Sleep
20. 1979
21. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
22. Stumbleine
23. We Only Come Out at Night
24. Beautiful
25. Lily (My One and Only)
26. By Starlight
27. Farewell and Goodnight

The Smashing Pumpkins' third album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a double album that came out to critical acclaim and generated many songs and hits for the band. I rearranged it so all the heavy songs are on the first disc and all the mellow songs are on the second disc. I also took out the instrumental intro track.