MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music

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MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is an album by The Smashing Pumpkins that was released for free on the Internet in 2000. A sequel to MACHINA/The Machines of God, it is the sixth and final album from the Pumpkins, though there are many fans who remain ignorant of its existence because it was never commercially released. It consists of three EPs full of B-Sides and alternate versions, and one LP being the actual album. Both MACHINA albums are concept albums.

Virgin Records was unwilling to release MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music so close to the first (and commercially unsuccessful) MACHINA. As is evident by the title, the band was fed up with Virgin. As a final farewell, and as a snub to the unsupportive label, it was released independently. Only 25 total copies were made. The vinyls were shipped via FedEx to several heavily active fans in the online community, with instructions to immediately redistribute it among the fans. Originally, the songs were intended to be the second disc of a double album instead of two separate releases. Virgin declined a double album from the band as the previous Pumpkins album, Adore, had not sold well.

Though not as well known among Pumpkins fans as the band's commercial releases, MACHINA II perhaps enjoys greater popularity among die-hard fans than its sister album, MACHINA. Its underground popularity can most likely be attributed to its hard, raw sound and rough energy. This sound was further defined by the manner of the album's release: the tracks were sourced from hand-cut vinyl records and then uploaded to the internet. The end result was a collection of heavy rock songs with a very raw, "lo-fi" sound intentionally characterized by pops, scratches, and other distortions. For fans left unsatisfied by the muted atmospherics of Adore and the sometimes over-processed and obtuse first MACHINA, MACHINA II was a welcome return to the band's hard rock roots.

The Pumpkins performed a track from the album ("Cash Car Star") on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which also ended up being the band's final television appearance. The performance was a rarity as "Cash Car Star" was not a single in any way, and MACHINA II was unavailable for purchase. (Leno even held up an actual vinyl hard copy of the album in true talk show performance tradition, with the comment "You can download it on the internet") The Pumpkins' Rotten Apples (Greatest Hits) 2001 release contains the MACHINA II track "Real Love." Two MACHINA II b-sides, "Lucky 13" and "Slow Dawn," were included on Judas 0 (which was packaged with some Greatest Hits pressings).

1 Track listing
- 1.1 EP 1
- 1.2 EP 2
- 1.3 EP 3
- 1.4 LP
2 Personnel
3 Download sites

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Track listing

Image:Machina II - EP1 Cover.jpg Image:Machina II - EP2 Cover.jpg Image:Machina II - EP3 Cover.jpg

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EP 1

"Slow Dawn" - 3:14
"Vanity" - 4:08
"Satur9" - 4:11
"Glass (Alternate Version)" - 2:55

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EP 2

"Soul Power" - 3:02
"Cash Car Star (Version 1)" - 3:41
"Lucky 13" - 3:05
"Speed Kills (But Beauty Lives Forever)" - 4:51

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EP 3

"If There Is a God (Piano and Voice)" - 2:34
"Try (Version 1)" - 4:23
"Heavy Metal Machine (Version 1 Alternate Mix)" - 6:47

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LP

"Glass" - 1:54
"Cash Car Star" - 3:18
"Dross" - 3:26
"Real Love" - 4:16
"Go" - 3:47
"Let Me Give the World to You" - 4:10
"Innosense" - 2:33
"Home" - 4:29
"Blue Skies (Version Electrique)" - 3:18
"White Spyder" - 3:37
"In My Body" - 6:50
"If There Is a God" - 2:08
"Le Deux Machina" - 1:54
"Atom Bomb" - 3:51

Had the album been crystallized as an "official" pressed release, the song "Let Me Give the World to You" was considered as a single. The original, as-yet-unsurfaced version, was produced by Rick Rubin. It was originally written and recorded for Adore.

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