Anyone order a Smashing Pumpkins’s Tower Records pop-up?

A true blast from the past. [READER]( The Daily Reader September 20, 2023 Last Thursday, I ventured north with my buddy [Zach]( to visit Billy Corgan’s Highland Park tea shop, Madame Zuzu’s Cafe. Corgan’s spot had been a curiosity to me for years, but I didn’t have much to draw me before last week, when the shop hosted a 1990s Tower Records pop-up to belatedly celebrate the 30th anniversary of Smashing Pumpkins’s Siamese Dream. The album came out July 27, 1993, and late the night before, the Pumpkins gathered at Tower Records in Lincoln Park for an acoustic set that began promptly at midnight; WXRT broadcast it live. Madame Zuzu’s Tower Records pop-up climaxed with a Smashing Pumpkins in-store performance re-creating that 30-year-old set. I received several press releases about the pop-up a couple weeks ago, all of which had links to purchase tickets to the performance; the tickets appeared to have sold out within minutes of me receiving those emails. If I couldn’t make it to that show, I could at least experience the novelty of a Tower Records pop-up at Billy Corgan’s tea shop. I have mixed feelings about pop-ups. I’m a person who loves Halloween, and I can admit I can be won over by imaginative decorations and enough spirit that can help me reenvision an ordinary building as a place of plucky wonder for a couple days; pop-ups can sometimes achieve that. They can also be crass displays of capitalism, transparently functioning as a device to draw people into a business they might not otherwise want to visit with hastily designed posters and overpriced drinks. Most pop-ups I’ve witnessed fit in between these two poles. I’d thought the novelty of pop-ups had worn off for me, but that was before the north shore’s biggest alt-rock star decided to dress his tea shop like a corporate record store I’d barely thought of for almost two decades. In high school, I’d occasionally visit the Tower Records location in Rockville, Maryland. That store sat in a strip mall less than a mile south of [Yesterday & Today Records]( a storied vinyl hub that attracted practically every D.C. area punk of note (many of whom worked at the shop). Y&T had history and a personality, though I would largely come to enjoy it in retrospect, since it closed in 2002. The Tower branch, meanwhile, felt cavernous and impersonal; I saw it as an OK place to browse CDs, though most were too expensive for a high schooler with little to no income. Tower felt no different than any of the other big box stores nearby. Though it sold things that appealed to my sensibilities, I had about as much emotional attachment to it as I did Bed Bath & Beyond. Madame Zuzu’s pop-up did remind me a little of my own Tower experiences but with far more armed security guards. The scale was smaller, as was the stock of music, though I don’t remember seeing quite as large of a section devoted to Smashing Pumpkins’s records at any other Target. Zuzu’s employees displayed the band’s merch on a table and a couple standing racks, along with items brandishing Tower’s red fire-sale style logo. I could buy a Tower T-shirt for $40, a dad hat for $30, or a beanie for $25, all gear I never had much desire for before now, never mind a week ago. A sign at the top of a merch rack promised if I spent $300, I could get a vintage Tower bag, as if I’d need another reminder of acquiescing to financial recklessness. I make alt-weekly money, and as such, I made one modest purchase: a bag of [Dark Matter’s Siamese Dream coffee]( (folks, it’s good). I spent more time than I’d care to admit flipping through the tiny collection of records in stock, which were all organized with Tower Records-branded LP dividers. The same thought came back to me as I glanced at prices for, say, Billie Eilish LPs that were north of $40, or Smashing Pumpkins box sets that blew past $100. Now, as back in high school, I found Tower to be too expensive; I suppose that means the pop-up successfully provided me with an authentic experience. If you’re curious about Smashing Pumpkins’s 1993 Tower appearance, a [YouTuber recently uploaded a video]( from that set. If you want to hear something different, [try my weekly Reader newsletter playlist]( (which, as always, is also posted further down in this message). Sincerely, “[Talking with Fiddlehead's Pat Flynn about hardcore's historical record]( by David Anthony (Former Clarity) “[Soundcheck: Lil Peep & ILoveMakonnen Excavate ‘Diamonds,’]( by Donna-Claire (Passion of the Weiss) “[Crescendo and Allegro by Pilsen Classical,]( by Francisco Ramírez Pinedo (South Side Weekly) Mitski, [The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We]( Blind Equation, [Death Awaits]( AbStract JazZ, [Healing Sounds Vol. 3]( 🍎 Leor’s “[Mid-September 2023 playlist]( playlist [Melody Angel brings tough-minded, celebratory blues to Chicago Live! on Navy Pier]( by [David Whiteis]( [Read more]( → [Cold Waves XI presents four days of dark music to support mental health]( by [Jamie Ludwig]( [Read more]( → [Nurtured in two great jazz cities, the Instigation Festival celebrates the tradition’s adventurous offshoots]( by [Hannah Edgar]( | [Read more]( → [Hammered dulcimer player Joel Styzens celebrates a lushly orchestrated new solo album]( Plus: Rapper Matt Muse ends a four-year gap between major releases with two EPs this summer, including the brand-new So Far, So Decent. by [J.R. 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