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The Smashing Pumpkins
The Aeroplane Flies High
1996, As far as I can recall, this was the first box set I ever owned by a band. As such, it felt totally monumental to me. And the original packaging was gorgeous, mimicking a box for old 45 RPM singles. Some many years later I picked up this bootleg that condensed all the b-sides from the box set down to just two discs. This just felt more convenient for listening purposes. Though being a bootleg, it's not perfect. While it excludes the a-sides (except it does include "Thirty Three" for some reason), it tacks on a handful of other b-sides that weren't originally on the box. It also mixes up the order in which the EP's were originally released. It would have been nice to just literally have the full contents of the box in their original release order, but this still serves as a nice enough set. But nitpicking aside, let's just talk about the actual slew of Aeroplane b-sides as this is truly a treasure trove for SP fans. The "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" EP was the covers EP and it's awesome. Well actually "Said Sadly" is a James Iha original that has Nina Gordon from Veruca Salt singing! But the covers of The Cars' "You're All I've Got Tonight" and Blondie's "Dreaming" are total standouts. The take on "Destination Unknown" is at least interesting in its foreshadowing of Adore. The "Tonight Tonight" EP goes quiet, and I enjoyed that one a lot. "Blank" and the reprise of "Tonight" are great, and "Maladori Magpie" sounds like Pumpkins doing George Harrison. The title-track to this collection comes from the "Thirty Three" EP and holy shit do I love that song. It's so weird... it rocks hard and has weird clips from what I presume was a Corgan interview that's full of tape hiss and it goes on for eight minutes and I just love it. Elsewhere we've got the "Pistachio Medley," which is admittedly a total mess. At twenty-three minutes it is beyond self-indulgent and I'm not sure anyone would sit through it more than once. But my favorite track on this whole box set is "The Boy," an upbeat and simple love song by James Iha. So good. At the end of the day this is a set for huge SP fans with a few misfires, but with tons of great rarities to keep coming back to.