Customer Reviews

Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits Video Collection

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The beauty of this dvd is not because it has all the videos from SP's career. It's not because the sound is great and the picture is excellent. It's not because two live performances were included, nor because the short film 'Try' is on there. It's not even because the menus are easy to use and understand.

Those things all add up to a great dvd, but the reason this dvd gets 5 stars is this: each and every song has 4 viewing options. First, you can select either the official video or an alternate 'outtakes' version; some videos have a making-of documentary in place of outtakes. Next, you can select either the music track or a commentary/documentary track for both the official video or the documentary/outtakes video. Also, some tracks have even more bonuses: '1979' has an extra 'Lost Tapes' track that tells the story of how the original video was lost.
If that was not enough, each commentary/documentary track has comments from each band member (though mostly Billy) as well as the directors.

This dvd is much, much better than the standard video-hits collection. This is not a thrown-together money maker. This is obviously an effort to give the fans what they want, and it delivers. Ever wonder why Jimmy is late to everything? Ever wonder what the band was playing at the house party in '1979'? Ever wonder how many guitars were smashed in 'The Everlasting Gaze'? Then this is the dvd for you. This is an absolute must for every Pumpkins fan.

With the release of this DVD pumpkins fans are finally able to watch the videoes any time they want. This is an awsome DVD and should not be missed by any puumpkins fan. I find it highly amusing that so many have reviewed this album without even seeing it!!! The track listing is as follows:

Siva
Rhinoceros
Cherub Rock
Today
Disarm
Rocket (Two versions)
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
1979
Zero
Tonight,Tonight
Thirty-Three
Ava Adore
Perfect
The Everlasting Gaze
Stand Inside Your Love
Try, Try, Try
Geek USA (live in Seattle)
An Ode to no One (live at the final metro performance)
I am One (live footage)
Try- A Short film by Jonas Akerlund
Untitled (?- will explain below)

In addition to the videos there is commentary about each video from the band and the directors. Also with the commentary are outtakes and unreleased footage. So basically there are two versions of each song (MTV version and unreleased footage version) and they can be played with just the music or with the music in the background and commentary on the videos. I Am One is a previously unreleased video of some live performances with the studio album music playing. The two live tracks are awsome!!
The short film is pretty cool...its a full length version of the story told in the Try, Try, Try by Jonas Akerlund. Kind of disturbing...very cool.

All the videos on here kick (...)!! The commentary and extra unrealesed footage of each video give insight into the videos and provide an interesting look at the band and thier career. The End is the Beginning is not here but personnally I could do without Batman Forever clips anyways. My only complaint (and hence 4 stars) is that I cant get to the Untitled video. It is either not there or there's some secret to getting to it- very weird. Besides this inconvenience I love it!! This is something that I (a huge pumpkins fan) will definately watch a lot. Several of these videos were scarcly (or never) seen on MTV. If you love the Pumpkins, thier music, or the videos, this is a must buy DVD.

P.S. I finally figured out "untitled": go to the extras and hit left with the directional function...its a behind the scenes making of video...not the official one for MTV....

MTV used to be a station that you could watch by changing the channel every 15 minutes instead of every 5 minutes because of music videos by bands like the Smashing Pumpkins. I know I am rating the DVD before it is released but sometimes you know when a winner is on the way. Nirvana was the most influential band of the 90's and the Pumpkins are obviously the best on artistic terms. Billy Corgan is a man of utter genius, if you read any of his lyrics you will come to terms that he is one of the best song writers ever. The way the music videos beautifully and almost perfectly fit the lyrics and music everytime startles me. These videos range from expressing topics from despair, anger, love, and happiness; His heartfelt lyrics and deep insight of life have musically blessed me like no other band.
Tonight, Tonight is majestic, deserving the coveted music video of the year award from MTV. 1979 is hard to desribe in words, it is the only video that I can say I want to actually jump inside and be a part of. Today is good enough just for the song and Stand Inside Your Love is highly, highly underated. MTV labeled it as one of the worst videos ever, it shows how bad their taste has become. Cough . . . Cough 'Nsync. Excuse me, anyway if you are any fan of the Pumpkins or of music videos in general, buy this DVD, preorder it now. Heck, buy tons of them and give them to your friends and family for Christmas. I already have most of their videos in MPEG files but I'm gonna buy it for the extras. Trust me, this is tasteful, wonderful, meaningful art that many people have overlooked or forgotten since the mid 90's. If I help sell one of these DVD's and share the music and videos with one other person, I will be happy. Take into consideration that Corgan wants praise for his writing, not money. He released his last album strictly over the internet so people could listen to it. Their label is trying to milk the last drop out of the band but needless to say, it's working on me.
The music scene today is wretched. Why do people go and by CD's from say Britney Spears who is a tool used by the record company. She is created to sell records targeted at a specific audience. Why would you waste the great gift of music and buy CD's that some old men are concocting to make money from. They put a pretty face to their music and the idiotic hordes fall like lemmings into the sea for it. The Smashing Pumpkins did not need and image to make their music successful unlike the bands today. They made videos that created images for their music instead of themselves. Music is wonderful, go out and find the music that you can listen to that fills your heart and changes your life. Music that you can listen to day after day like I do with songs like Today and Mayonaisse. The Smashing Pumpkins are a band about the music, that is why they are the best.

The Pumpkins have been a band that lingers in that fine world between cult-status and commercial-giants, much like Radiohead and Weezer. Everyone's heard at least one Smashing Pumpkins song (whether it be the staple "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" or alt-pop of "1979"). And yes, the DVD features all of their videos with more options than you can shake a stick at, but if you judge it just by the videos themselves ... it's something incredible all together.

While their first videos were typical flash-edit rock sprees (similar to the Flaming Lips video for "Unconciously Screaming"). The Siamese Dream clips are pretty good, with "Today" being a highlight (ice cream!), "Disarm" being nice and simple, and "Rocket" being about as sell-out-looking as you've ever seen them.

Yet, the clips for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness are worth seeing. The "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" is a leap to maturity (especially following "Rocket"), "1979" remaining a classic, "Zero" being a little sub-par, and "Tonight Tonight" being nothing short of incredible.

And though the albums themselves started fumbling in sales and reviews, the "last videos" are their best. Adore lead-in "Ava Adore" is a wonderful creep-fest, and "Perfect" acting as a visually stimulating sequel to "1979". Then comes the Machina vids, which are astonishing. "The Everlasting Gaze" is a simple performance video, but is incredibly intense; "Stand Inside Your Love" is a lavish black-and-white spectacle of sheer emotion; and the incredibly underappreciated "Try Try Try", one of Machina's best songs, serving as an emotionally distrubing masterpiece of the format (the full length "Try" is even more harrowing).

The Pumpkins leave a massive, confusing, and beautiful legacy. Some may debate the merits of their songs, especially the latter ones, but few can deny the passion they brought to music videos. Even non-Pumpkin fans (like myself) would enjoy it immensely.

This video collection is fantastic. The pumpkins(in my opinion) are one of the greatest rock bands ever. The DVD includes the following:

1. Siva/4:20
2. Rhinoceros/5:47
3. Cherub Rock/5:01
4. Today/3:49
5. Disarm/3:19
6. Rocket(Two versions. Regular and alternate performance cut.)/4:07
7. Bullet With Butterfly Wings/4:21
8. 1979/4:21
9. Zero/2:46
10. Tonight, Tonight/4:19
11. Thirty - Three/4:07
12. Ava Adore/4:18
13. Perfect/3:31
14. The Everlasting Gaze/4:03
15. Stand Inside Your Love/4:33
16. Try, Try, Try/5:23
17. Geek U.S.A(LIVE)/5:50
18. An Ode To No One(LIVE)/4:21
19. * I Am One(previously un - released)/4:09
20. Try - A Short Film/15:09
21. Untitled( To view this video simply hilight the extras and press the left arrow button on your DVD remote)/4:21

It is so cool to be able to watch all of these videos any hour of any day. Also, every video features band commentary, narration by the directors, never - before - seen outtakes. All these videos have amazing picture. This is a must for all pumpkin fans.

This is a great DVD, showcasing all of the Pumpkins artistic and soulful videos. This DVD also includes a bonus short film called "try" that is absolutely heartbreaking, that got me pretty misty (and being a 17 year old male, that doesn't happen much). As the title says, I'm not really even a fan of the Punpkins, but you don't need to be to enjoy this throughly enjoyable disk.

This DVD collection is a really good tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins. They're one my all time favorite rock bands.I've been following their music since the Gish era, when they were an "indie-band." Billy Corgan is the most talented and the most original song writer of all time. Anyway, on to the DVD. I was a bit disappoited with this. One, the video for The Beginning is the End is the Beginning is not on there because of Warner Bros. owning the rights to that song. Two, the so-call "propose glyich" on The Everlasting Gaze video. Three, there should have been more live footage of their last performance at last year's Metro show. These are the disappointments of the DVD. In all, it's is a real good DVD because it has almost all their music videos, starting from the Gish era to the Machina era + the Untitled video. I'd stongly recommend it to any Pumpkins fan. If those of you who has the DVD already, here's a tip on unlocking the Untitled video: highlight "Extra" and push the left directional button on your DVD remote.

That's what I'd have to say about this DVD from the Smashing Pumpkins. I mean, the music was excellent, but then there's the music videos which nearly rival that quality. But there's just so much in it that you will wonder why you haven't bought it yet already if you haven't and rejoice in that you have it if you do. There are 21 music videos; one of them an easter egg. The "Untitled" video is nothing special even though nice if you're as much of a Pumpkins fan as I am. It's just a studio performance. By the way, you get it if you press the left button after being on "Extras".

The commentary is a nice addition. It talks about how most of these music videos were made. The directors for respective videos appear on all of the commentaries as well as Billy and James. Jimmy is on most of them as well, save for the "Adore"-era ones. There are FOUR options in the commentary of "1979". One of them is about the funny Lost Tapes story; the other are the typical commentary, but there's one that has the audio of the performance part of the music video. Also, you get to see the outtake/documentary footages as an option for each of the music videos, as well as a "live" performance on "Rocket".

The extras have the "I Am One" music video, which was basically just performance; still kind of good even though pale in comparison to the other music videos. Then there's the short film "Try" by an occasional music video Jonas Ackerlund. It's a heartbreaking story and is worth seeing a few times.

Even when they weren't huge they had some great music videos. It seems like they had a lot of fun in that park on the "Rhinoceros" music video, as well as the members playing instruments. Naturally, D'arcy makes it for me in some of these because I think that she is really gorgeous. Especially when she looks a bit different from the norm. I kind of find it humorous how in the guitar solo of "Zero", it goes to showing the keyboards rather than guitar. That's the really nicely done Roman-style music video. In the times when the songs represent the themes they were really good. People who don't see Smashing Pumpkins music videos don't know what good music videos are supposed to be like, from how I see it. I especially love looking at the outtake video of "The Everlasting Gaze", seeing them all destroy the equipment (one of them with Melissa Auf der Maur in them). I could go on and on but I'm sure you're already bored.

I think the only single flaw with this DVD is that it did not have "The End Is the Beginning is the End". Darned rights of Warner Bros. But in the end, you'll be more than happy that you bought this great video collection. Who wouldn't want great visuals and great options? I think you'll be happy even if you generally don't care for the Pumpkins.

The Smashing Pumpkins weren't just the greatest rock band of the 90s, they were the best video band as well. Their videos, like their music, were diverse, creative and never EVER followed
the usual MTV/VH1 video cliches. Nearly every one of the 20 videos here is an absolute gem, to be watched over and over again. The early Gish videos have an appealing "underground" quality to them; the low-budget psychedelic effects for "Siva" and "Rhinoceros" remind one of the film style of "Easy Rider".
With the Siamese era, the budget and ideas on display become more refined and elaborate: from the breakthrough video "Today"
with Billy as an ice-cream truck driver and Iha in a dress to the soaring video for "Rocket", which finds the group decked as a silver-suited rock band from another planet, one can see the group's fame escalate with each new release. The Mellon Collie era represents the stratospheric peak of their output, with all five videos crystallizing the different mood of each classic single: "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"'s pointed parody of grunge-rock cliches; "1979"'s spirited nostalgia; the intense Bacchanalian splendor of "Zero"; the charming (and famous) homage to Melies' turn-of-the-century films in "Tonight Tonight"; and finally, the haunting "33" which uses photography
to literally capture each line in the song. Adore is well-represented by the single-set video for "Ava Adore", with Corgan made up as a vampiric figure whose movements are dazzlingly choreographed thanks to the miracles of video technology. The underrated and overlooked Machina album packs a big punch with an electric performance video for "The Everlasting Gaze" and the awesome, Beardsley-esque black-and-white narrative that accompanies "Stand Inside Your Love". The opulent, gothic and dreamy splendor of "Stand Inside Your Love" represents the Pumpkins at their absolute artistic zenith, and encapsulates much of what made them so entrancing. The set is topped off by two jaw-dropping live clips (a hilarious romp with 50 clowns for "Geek USA" and a paint-peeling rendition of "An Ode To No One" from their final show at the Metro)--and as an added bonus exclusive to the DVD, one can also find the unreleased video for "I Am One" (a performance clip), the 15-minute long version of "Try Try Try" and the hidden video for "Untitled" (their last recorded song and a classic in its own right).

As if the quality of the videos themselves weren't enough, as other reviewers have mentioned the DVD is packed with enough options to keep one busy for hours: each video comes in two versions (regular and outtakes), as well as the option of an audio commentary which serves as a documentary of how it was made. The insights given by Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin and the directors (D'arcy is noticeably absent from the proceedings) are a delight to any Pumpkin fan: one truly gets a sense of the group's creative juices, inter-band dynamics and also how all those innovative effects were achieved.

In all, "Greatest Hits: 1991-2000" serves not just as an adequate collection, but due to the quality of the music and visuals as well as the evolution of the band over the years, also
serves as a cultural document of all that was worthwhile about the 90s (a decade where worthwhile art was few and far between). Much as The Beatles' growth both fostered and mirrored the evolution of the 60s, so The Smashing Pumpkins were at the center of the cultural changes of the 90s (a bold statement to compare them to the Fab Four, to be sure, but one which does hold some truth, if not on quite the same immense scale as the Fabs). And I can think of no better introduction to the band, and (so far) no better treat for the hardcore fan, than this.
Now all we need is the long-promised DVD of the final Metro show, and their legacy will be complete!

The genius that was, and is, and always will be, of the Smashing Pumpkins is completely evident throughout this chronicle of sorts. The videos, live performances, commentary's, short film, outtakes are all powerful and when played in succession are amazingly powerful. I regard Billy Corgan as the premier artist alive today, with an undeniable zest for creating. The early videos from Gish are interesting (not only b/c of Billy's hair), but because of the darkness, low budget and seeming naivity the band portrays. In stark contrast, the creative process capitualizes itself when the Mellon Collie videos are shown. 1979, Tonight Tonight, Zero and 33 show the hand Billy plays in creating the artistic statement of the band.
I had not seen many of the late videos before, and of course had not seen the live performances here. All were nothing short of producing pure joy. The commentary's along with every video are sublime, interesting, incredibly insightful and most of the time funny as hell. I love Billy's story about the old ice cream man that inspired the Today video. For me one of the biggest highlights is the short film "TRY," which uses Machina's greatest song Try, Try, Try as a nucleus and produces a gut wrenching, captivating film about two junkies and the love they have for one another. Mostly it's about trying to hold on...to anything you have...to a future. I'm holding on to the future Corgan has in store for us, his loyal and unwavering fans. This collection is unbelievable...so good that if you dont have a DVD player yet, go get one so you can enjoy the benefits it offers.