In my freshman year of high school, I would walk around campus with my CD player in my ears, listening to the first disc of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness over and over again. I was into a girl, who lived across the United States, who was into The Smashing Pumpkins, and aside from the music communicating directly to my angsty teenage heart, it made me feel a little closer to her.

I liked Cupid De Locke the most at that time. It would swirl around my head as I was walking and leave me feeling light headed and full of love for the whole world outside of the block that contained my school. It was escape. Every now and then I'd put the second disc on and listen to We Only Come Out at Night and rock out to Where Boys Fear to Tread (which really got to me because I played a lot of Doom and even now the sound of the rocket firing and exploding makes me a little wistful for opening a portal to hell), but for the most part the first disc is where I chose to spend my time.

How lucky do kids have it these days? Admittedly a generation before me can say that about cassette tapes, and before that they could say it about vinyl, and before that, radio, but kids these days, man, they can pick up a double album (for $15 on Amazon MP3! An album that probably cost at least $30 at Tower Records; I spent probably $300 on collecting the entire Pumpkins discography in 1999 when you can download it from Amazon MP3 for <$100 these days) and then pick and choose the songs they like and construct their own version of the album... or easily listen to both sides of the album without having to change discs. Lucky bastards.

The song prior to Cupid De Locke is this one, Love, which is the only Smashing Pumpkins song I can really stand these days. Billy Corgan's unapologetic pomposity over his supposed genius has ruined most Pumpkins material for me, his silly solo project brought shame upon him and all he deals with, and reports of how lousy they are live these days makes me extra sad. It's OK, though, I won't miss the Pumpkins much, because I have this song.

I get a lot of "Is this Smashing Pumpkins?" in my car when this plays. While I am no Pumpkins fan these days, I find this silly, that no one recognizes this song (which I consider to be superior to most of their singles). The Smashing Pumpkins are an important band from the 90's, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is an important album that everyone should listen to a couple times. Regardless of what I just said, the work here is genius and should be heard.

It's fifteen bones for two hours of music and a piece of grungy rock history! Who could ask for more.