Machina II
| Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins | ||||
| Released | September 5, 2000 | |||
| Recorded | 1999–2000 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 92:23 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Constantinople | |||
| Producer | ||||
| The Smashing Pumpkins chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | favorable |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10 |
| The Tech | favorable |
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was released for free on the Internet on September 5, 2000. Plans for a standard physical release, bundled with the first part Machina/The Machines of God, were revealed to happen sometime in 2013, but has since been postponed indefinitely.
The album itself, a double LP, was packaged with three EPs full of B-sides and alternate versions. Both Machina albums are loose concept albums telling the story of "a rock star gone mad".Machina II was the last Smashing Pumpkins studio album until the band reformed in 2006, and also their last album to feature original member James Iha.
Near the conclusion of the Machina sessions, it was Billy Corgan's wish to release a double album of material, but Virgin Records was unwilling to do that following the disappointing sales of Adore. After the release and poor sales of the single-disc Machina/The Machines of God, Corgan then wanted to release the second Machina album separately, but Virgin declined to do this as well. The band nonetheless returned to the Chicago Recording Company in July 2000 to finish what would become Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, which was subsequently released on Corgan's own label Constantinople Records. Only twenty-five copies were made, and were given mostly to friends of the band in addition to radio station Q101. A few of the 25 copies were purposely shipped to prominent fans in the online community, with instructions to immediately redistribute it on the Internet free of charge.
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 until their 2007 revival. A previous live performance of the song, in an earlier and slightly different-than-final-version form, had been broadcast as a portion of Kiss' 1998 Psycho Circus Halloween special, where The Smashing Pumpkins served as the opening act.
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