machina

The fifth and last commercially-released Smashing Pumpkins album. It is also a concept album. Machina loosely follows the story of Glass, a rockstar, and June, a woman. In the story, Glass hears God speaking to him through his radio. Glass becomes a rock and roll messiah and starts a revolution of good against evil. Machina was originally meant to be a double-album, but Virgin refused to release another double album by the Smashing Pumpkins so soon after Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The band was unhappy with Virgin, so they had 25 copies of what was meant to be the second disc of Machina pressed on vinyl and released this as a double LP with three EPs of alternate versions and demos of various songs. The band gave this new release (Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music) to radio stations and online friends and told them to put it on the internet for free download. Machina marked Jimmy Chamberlin's return as the Smashing Pumpkins' drummer and the band's return to hard rock. It also has sold the least copies of any of the band's commercially-available albums. It is a kickass album.