Glass and The Machines of God

Not to be confused with Glass and the Ghost Children or Machina/The Machines of God.

Promotional poster in support of GATMOG

Glass and The Machines of God (or GATMOG for short) was an unfinished story by Billy Corgan of "a rock star gone mad" named Glass. It was intended to be a stage identity for the band, tantamount to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. In addition to songs that made Machina and Machina II, the story was told through a sequence of writings, starting with the Machina CD booklet and continuing over the internet and elsewhere. Sometime in mid 2000, Corgan posted a Modern Fable detailing the story on the Smashing Pumpkins' official website. Additional entries, under the name "Chards of Glass", were posted by the band while on tour. Corgan challenged fans to solve the "Machina mystery" hinted at through it all, and in December 2000 posted his favorite fan interpretations.

A Sony-backed animated web series was created to continue the story in 2001. Corgan said other artists would contribute reworked Machina songs for the series, including former drummer Matt Walker remixes. Ultimately, the GATMOG project was scrapped after Sony ditched their animation program, leaving some fans disappointed who falsely believed the band was reuniting.

Machina and Machina II

Billy Corgan's chart showing the loose story of Machina and Machina II

The albums Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music were originally intended to be a single concept album telling the story of "a rock star gone mad". The Machina booklet artwork, a series of paintings by Vasily Kafanov, loosely told the album's story while hinting at themes related to alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. It was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Recording Package.

A drawing by Corgan illustrates how some of the songs were connected. "Virex" was reworked into "The Imploding Voice", "Disco King" into "The Everlasting Gaze", and "Slow Song" into "The Crying Tree of Mercury".

Machina II continued the story, with songs like "Glass' Theme", "Cash Car Star", "Home" and "Speed Kills" clearly having a connection to the story.

Animated web series

"GATMOG" characters bearing a resemblance to The Smashing Pumpkins' band members

In June 2001, a viral marketing campaign written by Jim Evans and Division 13 was launched via the Smashing Pumpkins message board. A few members were sent mysterious video clips that pointed to a website called Black Wings Over the World. Thus began the "June Mystery". The first website held clues to find two other websites, also hiding the username/password for a site called The Paracell Corporation. Black Wings also hid another site’s address, Smash The System. Over the next two months more clues were dropped on the message board and more sites were found and codes cracked. Finally, all this frenzy of mystery and excitement climaxed with the announcement that Glass And The Machines Of God was being made as a web based animated series by Sony based on the Machina story. Using Song Screenblast software, fans could create their own characters and remixes for the series.

Due in part to the changing circumstances surrounding the album's rollout, the series was shelved before any episodes were completed, though several portions leaked to YouTube and have since been removed. In the first episode, the Zero character hears the Voice in the Radio and contacts his manager and friend Ruby. Their conversation is intercepted and patched through to the head of the Paracell Corp, Mr. Valentine – who has had a history with Zero. Episode two shows Zero's transformation into Glass while visiting Ruby and the subsequent negotiations to get The Machines of God their first gig. The third leaked episode saw how Glass affected the audience with his message of revolution.

Various rumors attribute the end of the project as lack of interest from Corgan and/or his fans. There has been debate as to whether the three leaked episodes were early drafts or final cuts. The first two episodes contain no credits, where the third episode shows credits at the beginning. There was also debate about whether or not background characters were in fact the Ghost Children created by the fans. However, one character – Maya, the Paracell psychic – is known to be a character created by a fan.

It has been debated whether the three leaked episodes are final cuts, but evidence suggests they were just drafts of what was to be. The first two episodes contained no credits, while the third had some credits in the beginning. There was also debate as to whether the background characters, the Ghost Children, were in fact created by the fans. However, at least one character – Maya, the Paracell psychic – is known to be a character created by a fan.

In a 2010 interview, Corgan commented on the abandoned cartoon, stating, "Yeah, I think you can find a few bits and pieces, but it never got finished unfortunately. That would've at least explained what the fuck I was trying to do [laughs]. I'm not even sure now what I was trying to do. But I was trying to do something."

Interviews

GATMOD interview, part one

GATMOD interview, part two