Smashing Pumpkins - The Unbearable Likeness of Manny

'The Unbearable Likeness of Manny' is a gem of the Smashing Pumpkins getting interviewed by Manny Chevrolet, while they were in the studio making Siamese Dream in early 1993. Produced by Butch Vig. This footage is found on the Vieuphoria DVD. Very funny.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN THIS VIDEO

[@_mytopfive]

Their laugh at "what do you think keeps a band together?" 😆 Priceless.

[@lakudzala195]

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream: The Search For the Yeti (1994)

[@tinytanks]

"jimmy chevrolet" lol

[@htomao]

"Bob Vance Vance Refrigeration"

[@pickmeupnowineedyousobad]

James iha cracking

[@DQ62992]

Funny thing is, jimmy had a camaro way back hahahah

[@werideatdusk]

This video proves that the Pumpkins band members drove themselves to the verge of insanity in order to achieve the meticulous sonics of Siamese Dream!!!

[@EdouardPicard0224]

"James ?" "....Yea"

[@throckmorton9321]

"This looks like a normal 4x4 Marshall cabinet, but inside is actually a small child" God I fucking love you Billy.

[@Noxas22]

Manny: What do you think keeps a band together? Everyone: Hahaha

[@porcelina]

James 8:09

[@vsmcax1007]

"We wanted to record someplace where there weren't any distractions..." ie Jimmy's dope dealers...

[@vikonja121]

lol @ butch saying "well probably be here for another 6 weeks to finish".. then staying in the studio for 5 months to finish

[@gabriel-ht4xr]

"but actually inside there's a small child"

[@shonkywonkydonkey]

'This record is very happy, there are a lot of happy songs' Either Butch wasn't listening to the songs at all or the songs still had a LONG way to go before they were finished

[@MooScree]

Or he's just being a smartass. lol

[@siddhant717]

o shit it's shonkywonkydonkey

[@cdreyes81]

This whole "interview" is so tongue in cheek....I wonder if you think the speaker actually had a small child in it

[@stoicnotsad]

@@cdreyes81 that was just his humour

[@AlexGordonMusic]

In this video, the smashing pumpkins get interviewed by Saul Goodman

[@US395Official]

"Don't you want to join our special man club?"

[@cannedkitty]

Elliot Nguyen I felt Billy’s awkwardness and disgust when talking to a normie in that moment.

[@pepsimaru]

The reporter sounds like a car dealer

[@shplog2]

Gem. I wish there was more. Seeing the vibe is much different than reading about it. I think they were around 24 yrs old here.

[@cannedkitty]

The thing is the pumpkins were having a lot turmoil when this was recorded.

[@adammichaelchannel]

Thanks for posting this. Billy's guitar at 5:08-5:41 looks like his famous "Bat Strat" before he painted it for the 1993-1994 tour. He supposedly used the same guitar during the recording of Mellon Collie.

[@kevinkibble8342]

I think so. He used a sunburst strat during a lot of 1993 shows, and the silver paint on the bat strat got so faded that you could see the original sunburst finish coming through

[@joshcollie9520]

Jimmy Chevrolet, Brilliant.

[@eqsheiky]

It's funny that the two guys in pig masks wound up on the cover of the video. I never saw this footage on my VHS copy from back in the day.

[@Mannimations]

Damn, I really wanted to see Billy's sitar.

[@youreallygotmenow4855]

Me too, man. Do you know if he ever used it for writing a tune?

[@Krukowest]

@@youreallygotmenow4855 Yes, you can hear it in Luna

[@alexmalch]

@@Krukowest and hummer

[@sub-jec-tiv]

It’s not on Luna or Hummer, that’s a sitar owned by another band in Atlanta. Corgan’s sitar wasn’t used on SD. Maybe it wasn’t in good shape.

[@rage8kage]

Jimmy is the best. The best

[@Ben_Septic_Tank]

It's kind of crazy seeing how tense things are between D'Arcy and James, almost makes me uncomfortable.

[@RandyRhoadsRules3]

PocketsFullOfSorrows depending on when this was filmed it might have been not long after they broke up. They went through a rough patch but they later decided to remain friends and became very close again.

[@riainmcclanahan916]

@@RandyRhoadsRules3 they didn't break up during that period. They certainly had a rough patch there but they never officially ended the band until 2000. Billy was depressed as hell, james and Darcy broke up, and Jimmy was getting more and more into his drugs which really skewed his punctuality (being strung out and going missing, in a sense, days at a time: all of this during their recording sessions).

[@RandyRhoadsRules3]

@@riainmcclanahan916 I meant James and D’Arcy had broken up not the band.

[@iditarod4081]

@@RandyRhoadsRules3 I doubt they ever dated Darcy has a druggie personality and James seems pretty straightlaced

[@RandyRhoadsRules3]

@@iditarod4081 They’re literally confirmed as having dated lmao. Look it up. Google is your friend.

[@johnmulhausen2322]

5:25 "Jimmy Chevrolet" is the best joke I ever saw Jimmy land lmao

[@User-jk8wq]

9:22 *points to James’ favourite guitar* “This guitar emits only painful noises”

[@kymberlishea2036]

Wow this was a gem to stumble on this morning!! Thank you!! 🤘

[@WillCorg]

Manny forgot to turn his chair around backwards to "rap" with the band...

[@kevinkibble8342]

3:10 Something about hearing Billy play the Quiet riff clean is so good

[@TheDeviantPro]

Siamese Dream: The Search for the Yeti is a much better album name.

[@superhill08]

Thanks for the upload! I've never seen the full version before. :)

[@swmorgan515]

Wow the interview is so awkward with slick, hyper-friendly cool record label guy and angst-ridden, anti-establishment alternative band. It really personifies the whole dichotomy of the early nineties "alternative music" craze.

[@nowthatswhaticallmusic8973]

that fucking fill @ 4:45 :OOOOOO

[@eqsheiky]

I bought Vieuphoria on VHS right after it came out and this footage was mostly not there. Maybe it was laser disc exclusive. Either way, it was an amazing video to which one of the most amazing nights of my life ever happened.(based around the video).

[@PROD.NIGHTCRAWLER777]

"End of the charade, get the fuck out of here!'' 😂

[@ToneSherpa]

HA! I knew I could hear another hi-hat on the right side on some of these songs.

[@fantasticalfacades2262]

Really great footage and gems of info on the album production I just wish Virgin records got a better interviewer for such a momentous album and moment in time in rock history

[@RunOfTheHind]

James and D'Arcy NOT having a good day.

[@franklynchacha803]

how so?

[@RunOfTheHind]

@@franklynchacha803 You're right. They're always that surly and ungrateful.

[@E4Al56EX8]

05.29 that handshake! truly a man among men!

[@U2BE79]

Billy looks like a middle-aged Amish woman.

[@sub-jec-tiv]

These days he looks like Doctor Evil

[@gothfather8741]

No he doesn't.

[@ferabra8939]

The 90s were like the 60s all over again, only with more distorted guitars and louder drums. There were more classic records, classic bands and great music in the 90s than any period since the 60s. Psychedelia and 60s sounds were revisited and updated. This is a classic album by a classic band made in 1993. I miss those years.

[@julesl6910]

That's a sweet idea, I agree that people were inspired a lot by 60's music in the 90's. But these decades have a lot more different than in common, totally different time and society was very different. People dressed funky and grew their hair out in the 60's, to the shock of the establishment. By the 90s, you didn't have to belong to the establishment - if anything 90's music is slow jam Punk Rock or Heavy Metal music, with the grunge style.

[@ferabra8939]

Sure, the 90s and 60s have nothing to do socially-wise, politically-wise. I meant just musically. Musically, the 90s era defining trends were grunge and britpop. Of course grunge had lots of other influences, such as punk rock and heavy metal, but Kurt Cobain's main songwriting influence (and I mean melody-wise, structure-wise) were the Beatles. This is very obvious on lots of songs (About a Girl, Lithium, All Apologies,...). Pop songs, played with punk attitude. The Smashing Pumpkins psychedelic influences are there to hear on their first albums. Britpop is even more obvious. All the bands from Oasis, to Blur, to Supergrass, to The Verve,etc are really into 60s music, clothes,...Cool Britannia was a revival of Swinging London. That covers from 1991 until 1997. From 1997 onwards, both grunge and britpop were basically over.

[@dragonno6587]

imo 90s was the decade what alt/indie rock died.. The real explosion of this type of sound and creativity was in the late 70s' and carried through all the 80s' up to the 90's went it was brought to mainstream and became way oversaturated and streamlined and then died..

[@potatoheadhaoy]

I wouldn't say indie rock died, so much as it's in a void where it doesn't seem to know where to go after Loveless. I wouldn't say that claim holds true entirely, either, although if you asked me if there is a more cutting-edge band than Coaltar of the Deepers in the modern era I'd have to bite my tongue. On the one hand, I think bands like Pity Sex and Ringo Deathstarr are just rehashing old ideas that came from the scene that celebrated itself (not to say they don't do it well), but on the other, bands like Deafheaven actually have something new and interesting to show.

[@potatoheadhaoy]

I wouldn't say indie rock died, so much as it's in a void where it doesn't seem to know where to go after Loveless. I wouldn't say that claim holds true entirely, either, although if you asked me if there is a more cutting-edge band than Coaltar of the Deepers in the modern era I'd have to bite my tongue. On the one hand, I think bands like Pity Sex and Ringo Deathstarr are just rehashing old ideas that came from the scene that celebrated itself (not to say they don't do it well), but on the other, bands like Deafheaven actually have something new and interesting to show.

[@prb85]

Lol Jimmy sums up their feelings at 3:00

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

Best album ever

[@00Grunk]

You know you're cool when you have a sitar that you can't open.

[@tutsybassista]

Back when I had a life! 💔

[@jcarterize]

8:23 End of the charade Now get the fuck out of here! lol

[@ledbowman]

artie fufkin, polymer records

[@veerchasm1]

Manny Chevrolet needs to go

[@username0928]

james is hilarious

[@ledbowman]

the sustain, listen to it

[@jorgemello780]

The producer is so good at what he does that he should consider to start a Band of his own and called it something like, I don't know, Trash, rubbish...

[@TKB-gd6do]

Garbage sounds like it too, tho...

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Recorded with him and Steve Marker in the 80s, they are generous super brilliant dudes and richly deserve all the success they’ve found. Not an accident their wonderful weird little studio was called ‘Smart,’ if you ask me.

[@emergencyexit1120]

8:03 it’s like they knew what was coming

[@ronaldolaquidara64]

Those Pumpkins are very funny Oh yeah..Billy before he became bald and so freaking serious and a control freak.. supposedly he did all the guitar work idk really

[@GizmoTheMonkey]

Ronaldo Lacradria did the bass too lol

[@danellae.perezschmieloz5958]

But it was to save studio money

[@ultravirez]

Wonder if the knew they were creating one of the most awesome albums ever?

[@dailleursstraits]

how does billy's guitar sound so sick at 3:10 when its just clean? is there still some effect on?

[@smileswrappedingauze]

i know right, billy has the sickest clean tones. granted its probably the couple thousand dollars worth 1979 strat through a marshall with new tubes he just put in.

[@comradethoth9629]

Probably just a compressor.

[@GiantBaba84]

I believe that's the guitar that became the 'bat strat' shortly after this video was filmed. a 1990 reissue of a '57.

[@Shabbled]

lace sensor red silver blue pickups through a marshal jcm800 with kt88 power tubes

[@777Lateralus]

Compression? But it can just be the way the mic on the camcorder picks it up. Being in that room sounds worlds different than what’s being picked up on camera

[@luke7711]

Anyone know what model Jame's yellow SG is?

[@themusicjar7211]

'91 30th anniversary with the triple pickups

[@nondescriptbeing5944]

Lmao, Jimmy giving the finger

[@user-ub8vx8zd1d]

Jimmy must've hit way too hard on the splash cymbal, lol.

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Jimmy had great balance with striking drums and cymbals; he’s a super pro. If it sounds too loud it’s because the lousy video mic recording the room is a small mic and is capturing more highs than other ranges

[@user-ub8vx8zd1d]

@@sub-jec-tiv this was a while ago but i think i was making a joke about the trashformer on his cymbal stand LMAO

[@AJV55]

Anyone thinking BC has no sense of humour should check his studio tour!

[@wsdasda]

Whats the name of the first song there Jamming out

[@8ulls3y3]

Quiet

[@beachhouse81]

So I'm guessing they called James and D'Arcy in just for this day because the cameras were rolling.

[@ccgrey8731]

4 years late reply, wrong smart ass! Darcy and James played on the recording it's just that Billy then chose to re-record their parts because he was obsessed with making it perfect.

[@karinaf8326]

CC Grey I think he only did it for the Adore record not for Siamese Dreams.

[@grimabsolssbm]

Karina F He did it for all of their albums lol just did it less depending on the record and it was definitely done a lot

[@dynjarren7523]

No wonder they were pissed. Can you imagine spending time recording all those tracks and then someone comes in and re-records over your parts so nothing you did was on the record. That would really make me angry. But apparently Corgan and Vig didn’t think it was good enough and being a control freak, he had to do everything. Except for the drumming. I just recently found out Corgan played everything on Gish too except the drums.

[@davidwile1277]

@@dynjarren7523 billy didn't want to re record butch forced him to

[@DQ62992]

3:00

[@operatorjeffdeathstar7759]

8:24

[@Ethan-yz6tj]

this album was recorded in ATL thats awesome

[@patrickwoods2213]

If Darcy didn’t play bass on Siamese Dream, then what was she doing in the studio? Did Billy suddenly decide half-way through that he should record her parts?

[@sub-jec-tiv]

She was there putting on a bass part during the drum recording/scratch vocal tracking. (This was early on in the recording sessions.) Her bass part (and James’ track) were wiped pretty much immediately afterward once Corgan and Vig started overdubs. Basically, they played a rough version together while recording the drum take, but everything besides the drums would get wiped and re-done by Corgan because nothing was perfect enough for him. Vig went along with it because Corgan felt strongly that it was crucial for them to make a ‘perfect’ album to cement their importance in the music business. Honestly from hearing them live, i really liked James’ guitar sound and Darcy’s bass sound was vibey too. It’s a drag half the band barely appears on the album. But it is a beautiful album, the best they ever made (besides Gish which is arguably better depending on how much a rock or pop person you are).

[@patrickwoods2213]

@@sub-jec-tiv Makes sense now, thanks.

[@k_ir3868]

​@@sub-jec-tivspot on. There are people to this day pissing on darcy and her bass skills with the argument thst she isnt on there, not realizing James isnt neither and that it probably has a lot more to do with corgan being corgan than their lack of skills.

[@jcarterize]

What's that pedal at 9:53? any ideas?

[@joesampson2322]

It's a Maestro Stage Phaser, amazing pedals. effectsfreak.com/effect/maestro/msp_stage_phaser/

[@joesampson2322]

It could be a Fuzztain...

[@alexmalch]

it is a fuzztain i’m pretty sure

[@cristianandrade9987]

Device @ 10:27?

[@DFGHOUSE]

Vertical extrapulator

[@jipsasac]

the two ghosts of the smashing pumpkins!!! James Iha and Darcy WRETSKY , they did not work on their parts the six months before being actually " recorded" on this "album recording"

[@SantiagoLunaful]

What songs are the ones they're jamming?

[@photofriend44]

Quiet and Geek USA.

[@SantiagoLunaful]

@@photofriend44 thank you

[@alexmalch]

i think they also played hello kitty kat not sure

[@synthhero1347]

Cringe moment when the singer is trying to explain to the drummer what he wants

[@1vlaadchamp198]

I mean… he wrote the songs, and he wasn’t wrong. For all his little Napoleon bs he knew what sounded good at that time

[@veerchasm1]

The 90’s were like the 2010’s but with better guitar players 😏

[@GABRIEL_CRAFT]

sp × =w= 2024

[@blankplanet]

The most cringe band interview ive ever seen