The Rubano Tapes Vol. 1 is a live album by The Smashing Pumpkins documenting 18 songs from early live shows ranging from 1988 to 1991. It is the third archive release by the band, and as the name implies, the first of multiple volumes of The Rubano Tapes. Rubano refers to Billy Corgan's close friend, Mike Rubano (known to the band as "Cuz"), that accompanied the band and recorded their live shows and rehearsals from 1988 to 1991.
The album was available for presale on April 4, 2022. 2,000 units were pressed on ice blue vinyl and first made available for purchase in-store at Madame ZuZu's on June 18, 2022.[1] Online purchases started shipping in August, with the autographed copies some time afterward.
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It is with great joy, that we are able to finally offer these recordings to you. As many have said, why would an unknown band go so out of its way to document so many of its earliest shows and I think the answer is self evident: that's because we truly believed in what we were doing.
