June-July 1996 – Soundworks

The June-July 1996 Soundworks sessions included various recordings for the last of the Mellon Collie B-sides, destined for either the "Thirty-Three" single or cover songs for The Aeroplane Flies High box set. James Iha's songs were largely recorded at his home but the rest were recorded at Soundworks, with D'Arcy Wretzky's vocal track being recorded at her home by Kerry Brown (which included audible smacking of bubble gum!).

The drums for the studio version of "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)" were recorded in Australia the previous March, while Corgan finished the rest during these sessions some time after Jimmy Chamberlin left the band.

The Pumpkins are doing their best to soldier on. Corgan says the cover tunes on The Aeroplane Flies High were recorded "right before we went back on tour and all that bullshit happened. We had about a two-week break and we recorded as a group for about five days. James had done his Cure cover, 'A Night Like This', on his own. I did the rest of the stuff: finished up the vocals and things. And D'Arcy did her vocals at her farm.

Every song has some kind of story behind it, like I had to go to a funeral and laid down the solo for The Aeroplane Flies High before I went. It was just supposed to be for a tonal reference. I didn't expect it to be any good. But when I came back, I was pretty floored by it. Almost everything in this box set was done haphazardly like that. The sessions were squeezed in around touring and other things. It wasn't like the clear space you would have for making the album.