Synopsis

Set in a remote Northern California forest, the clip presents the Smashing Pumpkins performing amid rain, darkness, colored flashes, trees, and rough handheld imagery. The performance is repeatedly interrupted by smeared frames, blown-out light, damaged-looking film, and abstract inserts, creating a feverish Super 8 collage rather than a conventional concert video. Its raw, unstable surface mirrors the song's aggressive charge while placing the band between underground immediacy and the larger MTV stage they were entering with Siamese Dream.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Cherub Rock" was the Smashing Pumpkins' first music video after moving from the independent Caroline label to Virgin Records.

• The video was filmed outside San Francisco in the Mount Tamalpais area of Northern California. The production took place in wet, cold conditions, with the forest transformed into a dark, flashing performance environment.

• The entire clip was shot on Super 8 film. The deliberately rough format was intended to recall the guerrilla filmmaking associated with the independent music scene.

• The film was hand-processed in a bathtub. The process damaged portions of the image, leaving some frames with torn, smeared, or missing details that became part of the video's finished look.

• Billy Corgan was unhappy with both the filming experience and the final result, according to later band commentary and interviews.

• The video received its world premiere on MTV's 120 Minutes on July 11, 1993.

• The clip was later included on The Smashing Pumpkins 1991-2000: Greatest Hits Video Collection, released in 2001.