Taken from nme.com
Ex-SMASHING PUMPKINS singer BILLY CORGAN is rumoured to be collaborating with MARIANNE FAITHFULL on her forthcoming album, NME.COM can reveal.
A source close to the project told NME.COM today (March 1) that Corgan, who has remained out of the public eye since the split of the Smashing Pumpkins last year, is writing with Faithfull on her as-yet-untitled new album.
It is currently unclear whether he will sing on any of the songs, but Faithfull is said to be seeking a number of people to work with her on the record.
Beck has already committed to the project, and is planning to spend time in a US studio with Faithfull to work on a number of songs. Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart is also rumoured to be interested.
According to www.sonicnet.com, both Corgan and Faithfull are on the bill for a charity gig at the Chicago Metro on March 22. The show, which will benefit local homeless youth, will see each artist playing a handful of songs with a house band.
Faithfull has collaborated with other groups in the recent past, including Metallica, providing vocals on their 1997 single 'The Memory Remains'.
In other news, Corgan also features on a new live album by legendary rockers Cheap Trick. The record, 'Silver', celebrates their 25th anniversary. The album was recorded at a 'Silver Anniversary Homecoming' concert in Illinois and attended by 15,000 people. The record is available via the band's website at www.cheaptrick.com.
Thanks to Cpt Coconut from Netphoria for posting news about Billy playing a benefit at the Metro on March 22. Click here for the details from the Chicago Sun-Times' website!
Taken from mtv.com
Yes, that's a new Smashing Pumpkins song you may have heard on the radio. And, no, they're not back from the dead already.
The Pumpkins, who promised they were hanging it up after a final show at the Metro in Chicago on December 2, have an unlikely posthumous radio hit with a track that they're calling a farewell to fans.
"Untitled", was recorded in Chicago in late November by leader Billy Corgan and the remaining original members of the group, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Touring bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, who replaced original bassist D'arcy Wretzky, did not play on the song.
The swaying acoustic rock track debuted November 29 on Chicago alternative station Q101 (WKQX-FM) and later streamed on the station's site exclusively for a month. Now more than 50 stations have played the melancholy swan song — which is not commercially available — according to a spokesperson for the band.
Dave Richards, program director of Q101, said Corgan called him a few days before the Pumpkins' November 29 show at Chicago's United Center to discuss plans for a simulcast of that show.
"I went down to the studio, and he said, 'I have something I want to play for you,' " Richards said. "I had no idea they were working on new songs. He played it for me, and I asked if it was from one of the [album] sessions, and he said, 'No, we just finished it yesterday.' "
Corgan sent over a master of the song two days later, and Q101 debuted it on air just before the United Center show.
The track follows the patented loud-quiet dynamics that were the group's calling card on such multiplatinum albums as Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) and the 1993 breakthrough Siamese Dream.
"When you're young/ You can promise/ Anything that you wanted/ To be in love/ To feel love/ All around," Corgan sings in a hurried, joyful flow. As it fades out, "Untitled" crashes to earth with what is, in all likelihood, the final screaming Pumpkins guitar solo from Corgan.
The posting of the song on Q101's Web site is in keeping with the band's Web-centric final days. A sequel to last year's MACHINA/the Machines of God was released in September to the Web only. Twenty-five copies of Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music were distributed to fans and friends, packaged as three 10-inch EPs and one double 12-inch LP along with instructions to distribute the songs free online. The tunes have surfaced on various Web sites, FTP servers and on Napster.
As for what's next for the Great Pumpkin? Corgan is still on an extended vacation and no information is available on his next move, the group's spokesperson said. Following the final show, Iha said he would slowly begin work on a second solo album, with no release date in mind. No information on Chamberlin was available at press time.
Part of the Machina mystery has been revealed on the official site, with a scan of Billy's own diagram of how the Machina "play" was to work. To see it, go here. To read more about the whole thing behind the diagram, check out the previous article on this page.
Taken from rollingstone.com
Billy Corgan and Co. reflect on all things Pumpkins
"I feel pretty comfortable walking away from these songs," Billy Corgan says calmly. It is the afternoon of December 2nd, his last day as the singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Smashing Pumpkins. In a few hours, the band will play its final show for 1,100 adoring fans at Cabaret Metro, the Chicago club where the Pumpkins made their official debut on Oct. 5, 1988. But Corgan, thirty-three, speaks with the certainty of someone who -- after five studio albums and more than twenty-five million records sold worldwide -- has had enough. "I couldn't have gotten through these last two years," he says in his hotel suite, "if I didn't know it was going to come to some conclusion."
That night, Corgan is a different man. At the Metro, the Pumpkins play a four-hour, thirty-five-song marathon covering the extremes of their canon: the epic swirl of the 1991 B side "Starla"; the punk sizzle of "Cash Car Star," from the free Internet LP, Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music; a nine-song set of acoustic pathos. Special guests include pop-punk rascals the Frogs, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and Corgan's father, guitarist William Corgan, who plays with his son on Billy's memorial hymn for his late mother, "For Martha."
But Corgan, wearing a long silver tunic that makes him look like a papal Ziggy Stardust, can't bear to leave. He brings guitarist James Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur back onstage for half an hour of "Silverfuck," from 1993's Siamese Dream. "Let's rock one more time," Corgan yells before the last crash of drums and guitars. "Not for you" -- he beams at the crowd -- "because you get it. Let's rock one more time for all those people who don't get it, who don't understand that music overcomes all this fucking bullshit." As the other Pumpkins walk off, waving goodbye, Corgan stays to shake hands and bathe in the fans' love. He bows, hands over his face. When he straightens up and pulls his hands away, the sweat pouring down from his shaven head is overrun with tears. Chamberlin later says that he ran the gamut of emotions that night: "A myriad of everything the band is - the happiness, the sadness, all of the polar opposites of the heart." The drummer, 36, also started crying when Iha publicly thanked absent bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, who co-founded the band with Corgan and Iha but who left under clouded circumstances in 1999.
"I just wanted to mention her," Iha says a few days after the show. "Regardless of whether she's not playing with us, she's still with us. She was really important to the band." Otherwise, Iha, thirty-two, is not into the "mystification," as he calls it, of the Pumpkins' end. "It makes me self-conscious. I would have just announced it after the last concert. I would have sent out a fax: 'To whom it may concern. . . .' "
In his hotel suite, Corgan recalls the day, last May, near the end of a U.S. tour, when he decided to go public with the news on Los Angeles radio: "I called Kevin Weatherly, the program director at KROQ, and said, 'I have a favor to ask. I want to come in tomorrow and announce the band is breaking up.' He was like, 'Can you repeat that?'
"It was two things," Corgan goes on, running a hand thoughtfully over his clean white scalp. "The band was being judged by this idea that we were still trying to grasp the brass ring, which we knew we weren't." In fact, Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin and D'Arcy had agreed in late 1998 to disband after one more album, Machina/ The Machines of God, and a world tour. "And there were the constant rumors with kids. Every time I stepped out of a door, it was, 'Are you guys breaking up?' I'm not a good liar. It felt weird to look in a kid's eyes and say no." When Corgan talks of the "slowly deteriorating state" of the Pumpkins, he is not referring only to public history: the 1996 fatal overdose of touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin; Chamberlin's two years in exile for drug abuse; D'Arcy's exit. There were, Corgan says, "many unresolved issues - mainly, for me, musical. Being this paternal figure doesn't work. It's like, 'Now, class, please pay attention to this next chord sequence.' And the band doesn't rehearse as much as it used to. When we had no money, no nothing, there was nothing else to do but be grungy and be in a band. Now there are many other options: 'I could be skiing.' "I tried to take a progressive step with Adore," he says, referring to the band's 1998 album of gothic balladry, "and internally didn't get the support I needed. I got the support on a conscientious level: 'We're behind you on this.' But without Jimmy there, and James and D'Arcy not particularly motivated, for whatever reasons, we never got into that next complete musical agenda."
Machina was to be the Pumpkins' grand finale. Corgan wrote the songs on Machina and Machina II -- forty tracks in all -- as a "Ring Cycle" starring the Machines of God, a fictional band portrayed by the Pumpkins in much the same way that the Beatles played a marching orchestra on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Each Pumpkin was to have a tailor-made character. "James would have been this superaloof rock guy in high heels and a cape," Corgan says. "D'Arcy would have been this superspace queen. And it would have been 24/7" -- not just onstage and on record but in "all of the interviews and language." Corgan even drew a flow chart of the story's seven stages, with connecting arrows to each song title.
"Unfortunately, the band didn't completely follow through," he says with a sour laugh. When D'Arcy quit, the project "became more about survival - internal spiritual survival." (Auf Der Maur, formerly of Hole, replaced D'Arcy, knowing it would only be for a year of touring. "She's learned in the vicinity of fifty or sixty songs," Corgan says admiringly of Auf Der Maur. "She said that at the height of Hole, they knew fourteen songs.")
The Pumpkins briefly considered issuing a double CD of Machina material, a la 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and then offered their label, Virgin, a two-for-one concept: Anyone who bought Machina would get Machina II as a free download. Virgin passed, so Corgan decided to put Machina II on the Internet for anyone who wanted it. "I'm thinking, 'This is pretty fucking good, I want this music out,' " he says of the sequel. Twenty-five vinyl copies were pressed up as a limited-edition set -- an LP and three EPs ("Technically the B sides," Corgan says) -- and given away to fans. Looking back, Corgan believes some of the hard-pop songs on Machina II -- such as "Real Love," "Cash Car Star" and "Let Me Give the World to You" (first cut in a different version for Adore) -- would have made Machina a more commercial record. According to SoundScan, Machina has sold 510,000 copies in the U.S., a precipitous drop in sales from Mellon Collie (4.5 million) and Adore (1.1 million). "It was like watching your kid flunking out of school after getting straight A's for ten years," Chamberlin says sadly.
But at the last Metro show, ticket holders received a free CD that showed just how far the Pumpkins had come in those years: a recording of the quartet's first Metro gig, in 1988. The seven songs are rickety Cure-style indie rock with teasing hints of the double-guitar howl that would bloom on the Pumpkins' 1991 debut album, Gish. Within six months of that Metro date, the band had dumped that material, and Corgan had written all-new songs. By the mid-Nineties, the Pumpkins were the most consistent hitmakers of the alternative-rock explosion. Their December 2nd set list was packed with the evidence: "I Am One," "Today," "Disarm," "Cherub Rock," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "1979."
Corgan's ambition "was a phenomenal thing," says Metro owner Joe Shanahan, who booked that '88 show and was an early supporter of the Pumpkins. "Billy took flak from a lot of locals, because it looked like he was ego-driven. But he wanted something better for his band. He wanted to take it to the mountain."
William Corgan, fifty-three, can attest to that, saying, "From sixteen years old up, Billy knew exactly what he wanted to do, how he was going to do it." William points out that Billy, an honor-roll student in high school, chose not to go to college even though his grandmother left him a small inheritance for tuition when she died. Billy used the money to finance the Pumpkins' first single, a version of "I Am One" issued on the Limited Potential label in 1989.
"We had fights about it," William admits. He now feels nothing but pride. "Billy is very hard to deal with. But he expects that level of excellence in others. If you're not prepared to deal with that, there are going to be problems."
The Pumpkins' individual futures are up in the air. Chamberlin, an auto-racing enthusiast, has received an offer to race at the Sebring Grand Prix in Florida this year. But he has no plans to leap right back into rock drumming. Iha is opening a recording studio in New York with members of the bands Ivy and Fountains of Wayne. "I'll probably do another solo album," he says. His first, Let It Come Down, was released in 1998. "But I don't feel the need to hit the careerist high road right now."
Corgan insists he will take some time off: "I envision myself laying in a bed and not having to get up." But he has already met with record labels about a solo deal and talks of working in a musical language different from that of the Pumpkins. He also expresses little remorse for the passing of alternative rock. "My mourning of that era is over," he says. "Pick up the pieces and let's make something new."
Still, he could not resist one more fond goodbye to his first golden era. One night last year, before a European tour, Corgan wrote his final Pumpkins song, simply called "Untitled," which the band recorded and sent to Chicago radio shortly before the December 2nd Metro show. Although not available as a commercial single, "Untitled" sounds like a lost hit from Siamese Dream -- buzzing pop with thick layers of guitar and the soft-loud dynamics of classic alt-rock.
"I still believe in the Alternative Nation," Corgan insists, "even if MTV doesn't run the program anymore. I will stand for that, I will speak for that. If I'm your whipping boy or poster child, fine. But the one thing you can't take away from me is I was there. Our band was there. We fucking lived it."
The Smashing Pumpkins may have hung it up last week, but fans of the band haven't heard the last of the Chicago rockers.
Frontman Billy Corgan said he plans to reissue all of the group's albums within the next few years, with several of the reissues packaged with previously unreleased bonus tracks.
"There's tons of stuff — we can live posthumously for a long time. We recorded a lot," Corgan, 33, said, adding that the band has multitrack tapes of more than 400 live shows that he would like to make available to fans when a reliable online distribution scheme develops.
"The band's archives are pretty deep. From a fan point of view, the variations on how the band played the songs live give us a lot of leeway," he said. "It's not like we always played one version of 'Bullet [With Butterfly Wings]' — we have five different versions of 'Bullet,' seven versions of 'Silverfuck.' The band's sound and the band's attack always changed from year to year, so we can go pretty deep into our live catalog."
Among the unearthed gems that Corgan plans to bring to light are previously unreleased demos from the band's 1991 debut, Gish, as well the 28 additional songs recorded for the 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
The group's final, four-and-a-half hour show on Saturday at Chicago's Metro nightclub, as well as the five-hours-plus rehearsal the night before and a number of dates on their final European tour were videotaped. A spokesperson for the band said it has not yet been determined if those performances will be released commercially.
First, Sleep
As for what will become of Corgan next, the singer said he has no idea.
"I can sleep in for the first time in my life," he said, laughing, during rehearsals the night before the Pumpkins' final show.
Perched on the steps leading to the balcony of the 1,100-capacity Metro, dressed all in black, a slightly hoarse Corgan joked that for the first time since his teens he could think about spending a month in bed watching movies.
As tempting as that prospect was, though, Corgan said he could not rule out the significance of the band's last show, since it served as the final chapter in the first act of his musical life.
"This is the last time I will play all these songs for the rest of my life," Corgan said emphatically. "I don't want to play these songs with other people. I don't want to rely on the past to pave the future."
He said the members of the band — which also included guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin — had discussed their musical futures and agreed that they would never play live together again. "Other than that, all doors are open. If I'm working on an album and three songs need Jimmy, I'll call Jimmy," Corgan said.
Although he hasn't officially started work on a solo album yet, Corgan said it's possible he and Chamberlin will work together fairly soon. The duo, along with Pumpkins touring keyboardist Mike Garson (David Bowie), have discussed recording a prog-rock instrumental album under an as-yet-undetermined name.
During their 13-year career, the Pumpkins released six studio albums that sold more than 22 million copies. Although the group's signature mix of new-wave keyboards, heavy-metal guitars and prog-rock aesthetics pegged it as one of the most influential groups of the '90s, poor sales of the band's final album, MACHINA/the machines of God, helped convince Corgan that the time had come to pull the plug.
After the Pumpkins' label, Virgin Records, passed on the opportunity to release it, the Pumpkins offered their final album, MACHINA II/friends and enemies of modern music, for free on the Internet in September.
"It's a sad thing to see the Pumpkins finish, but I think it's something that had to be done," said Corgan's father, William Corgan Sr., following the Metro show. "The Pumpkins reached the top of their thing and they really said everything they could say, and Billy did the smartest thing by putting the band to bed at a high point."
'Completely Different Deal'
When he does record new material, Corgan promised that it wouldn't simply be a variation on the loud-quiet musical dynamics and lyrically cathartic themes of the Pumpkins. "It will be a completely different deal," he said, "a completely different part of my person — I want to look at my music with different eyes."
Iha said he has plans to release another solo album, the sequel to his melodic, acoustic 1998 debut, Let It Come Down.
"First I'm taking a vacation and getting some shock therapy," Iha said with a grin after the Metro show as fans seeking autographs descended upon him. "Maybe write some songs on the acoustic guitar and listen to some techno. I'll do another solo record, not immediately, but eventually."
A spokesperson for touring bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur said her future plans were not yet known.
Although he didn't know what the future would hold, Corgan was in a reflective mood just prior to the final show. "I would like to think we'd be remembered more like the Doors or the Velvet Underground," he said of his group's legacy.
"We've shot ourselves in the foot [sometimes], but sometimes shooting yourselves in the foot is the most exciting and bravest thing to do," he said. "That's why breaking up the band is like when Obi Wan Kenobi falls on his sword [in 'Star Wars']. Sometimes the hero has to fall on his sword.
"With MACHINA I and MACHINA II, we fell on our swords. We literally died for rock and roll, and it will mean something 20 years from now."
Ok, I know this is kind of old news [maybe about 3 days old], but the Pumpkins released a brand new song November 29th on Chicago rock station Q101. I don't think it has a title, but you can go and listen to it if you have a Windows Media Player at their website. It's probably also circulating around Napster already.
SINGER REFLECTS ON LIFE BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
Billy Corgan sits in the penthouse of a posh North Side hotel, a visitor in the town he has called home since he was born here, in 1967.
"It is kind of weird," he says as he welcomes me into his suite, then glances out the window at the gray city by the lake that has been the setting for countless Smashing Pumpkins songs.
"Technically, I'm outta here already."
Corgan looks particularly slender, almost feminine, on this beastly cold November morning, his shaven head protruding from a woolen turtleneck sweater. In a few days he will leave for destinations unrevealed to figure out the rest of his life, a life he has resolved will not include the Pumpkins, the quartet he turned into one of the most artistically accomplished, commercially successful rock bands this city has ever known.
But first there is the matter of a pair of farewell shows, Wednesday at the United Center and Saturday at the club where it all began, Metro. The concerts will close the books on the Pumpkins saga: 13 years, 17 million albums sold and a music community divided between those who see Corgan and the Pumpkins as a pathbreaking band and those who see them as careerist caricatures.
One thing is certain: The Pumpkins are leaving on an artistic high. The music on their two latest releases, "Machina/The Machines of God" (Virgin) and "Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music" (available only via MP3 download at various Web sites, including www.spfc.org and www.metrochicago.com), is a densely detailed rock opera that finds the band in peak form, mixing rich, Goth-rock atmospherics with scorched-earth guitars, fragile folk ballads, electronic experiments and hallucinatory excursions that go far beyond the psychedelia of the Pumpkins' 1991 debut, "Gish."
Corgan is happy with the work that he and the Pumpkins -- drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky (replaced on the current tour by Melissa Auf Der Maur) -- have accomplished in their waning days. He is less certain about what lies ahead. "I haven't been this unstable in seven, eight years," he says. "The band coming to an end is a very stressful idea to me. I know it's the right thing, but I'm wondering what it means."
As Corgan poured hot tea, the singer-guitarist who defined Chicago rock in the last decade pondered where he's been with Chamberlin, Iha and Wretzky, and where he might go without them.
Tribune -- What next?
Corgan -- I plan on publicly taking the year off. I need to create a little bit of space between me and
what people think of me. I want to be sure if I play music again that I'm really confident about what
I'm doing. Because whatever I do first, that's what I'm going to be labeled as. Just like with the
Pumpkins -- the first impression we made still exists in a lot of cases.
Q -- Was that a good thing?
A -- On the artistic, musical end, it was the right thing to do. On the personal end, it's always been a
pain in the ass.
Q -- But the band seems less like a dysfunctional family these days.
A -- I think it's beyond dysfunctional [laughs]. The things that are broken will never be fixed. I
wasn't lying a year ago when I said that things were pretty good in the band -- they are. But like any
band, the friction in the band, the volatile nature of the band, is oftentimes the spark. Finding that
spark without D'Arcy [who left the band after "Machina" was completed to pursue an acting career]
hasn't been as easy. More than anything the band's inability to maintain a consistent lineup of four
people is the No. 1 factor why we're breaking up. First we lost Jimmy [he was fired in 1996 for
drug abuse, and reinstated in 1998]. He was the engine in the band, and everybody could hear on
"Adore" [the one album the band made without him] how Jimmy's lack of presence changed the
musical picture. And D'Arcy had a balancing effect within the band, and it's not the same without
her. The four Pumpkins had something, and having to go the last four years over the last two
albums with an incomplete lineup in my mind has really drained me down.
Q -- Why did you release "Machina II" for free on the Internet? It has some of your best music, but
only the die-hards are going to hear it.
A --Yes, we've used the system. Yes, we've used MTV. Yes, we've sold lots of records. But at the end
of the day, it's still about music and it's still about the way we want to put things across. When
"Adore" didn't do as well as the previous albums, it put us in a public hole, like the band had lost a
step, but it also created an atmosphere where the band could do anything it wanted. Would I rather
have sold 10 million records and have everyone tell me how smart I am, again? Yeah. But it didn't
work out. So we went to Plan B.
Q -- The two "Machina" records are meant to play off each other, right?
A -- Everything is tied together. I purposely chose not to divulge the story at the start of the record,
and now the Internet is full of speculation about it. We just ran an essay contest for fans to figure
out the "Machina" story, and we had more than 1,000 entries, three pages each of theories.
Unbelievable. At first, a lot of people thought I was singing about myself on these records. People
were thrown off by lines like, "If I was dead, would my record sell?" I was criticized: "Who the hell
does he think he is to sing such a dumb line?" I've become so caricatured that people don't actually
believe that I can speak through another character. As much as I seem desperate and out of my
mind, I can still rise above the fray and comment on my own kiddie mortality and immaturity, and
also realize how ridiculous it is. The quick synopsis of "Machina" is that the band portrayed in the
album is a caricature of what people think the Pumpkins are. The fans ultimately figured that out.
Q -- That's an example of how your writing has changed, on "Adore" and the two "Machina"
albums. The themes are broader, more open-hearted and optimistic, and less about Billy Corgan the
tortured artist walking through the firestorm. How much of that was brought on by your mother's
death in 1997?
A -- My mother's death has been the most cataclysmic event in my adult life. Right behind that is
Jimmy's departure and what happened to him, which was very traumatic, and my getting a divorce,
which was the end of whatever idealism I had. And massive fame. They all met at the same moment.
When my mother died, I was still on tour, still enjoying the crest of the success that came after
"Mellon Collie" ["Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," released in 1995, became one of the
biggest selling double-CDs of all time]. When those three, four roads converged at one point, it turned me into more of a human being.
Q -- You recently revealed that you contemplated suicide shortly after "Gish" was released, and
"Today" is the song and "Siamese Dream" is the album that came out of that experience. It was a
breakthrough album commercially for the band, but on a personal level was it more like a form of
therapy?
A -- That was the turning point in my life, the point where I decided to fight to be who I am. And the
fight continues. It's so hard to put into words, but when you're an abused child, the confidence to
express yourself is so low, and you're worried that if you do express how you feel that you're going
to get killed. It's like life and death. So breaking that threshold at that time, really speaking my mind
on "Siamese Dream," of how I really really felt, was like a life-and-death issue for me at the time.
Choosing to finally speak my mind was my way of saying I wanted to live. But it was terrifying. It
was totally terrifying. If you look at some of the lyrics on "Siamese Dream" and "Mellon Collie,"
there are some heavy indictments of my family, my self, my eventual wife. It was hard to write that
stuff and then go back into life. It's one thing to be an arty songwriter and say all this stuff, it was
another thing to show up for Christmas and my mother would be holding Spin and asking, "What did you say here?" That wasn't easy.
Q -- Yet you've talked about feeling more emotionally disengaged from the music now.
A -- Absolutely. It has to do with what's going on inside the band. The moment we stopped fighting
is the moment that the band began to end. The moment we stopped fighting for something better.
Q -- Isn't that also a function of maturing?
A -- Yes. But you have to believe in the highest things. And with that comes a vulnerability and a
level of pain that is very hard to live in all the time. To be in this band since [it hit the public eye in]
1991 has been a very, very vulnerable time for all of us. We're not asking for sympathy, but it took
its toll. You've got to gamble to win, and rock 'n' roll is not about taking the easy way. Nobody
wants to see conservative moves. They want to see boldness. They want to see death-defying acts,
and that's what you have to give them.
Q -- You talk about the band's psychological casualties, but there was also a very real casualty:
Jonathan Melvoin [a keyboardist hired for the "Mellon Collie" tour who died in July 1996 of a heroin overdose]. Where does he fit in with the band's legacy?
A -- He doesn't fit in at all.
Q -- Why not?
A--Because he was a friend, and nothing more than that. There are a lot of things I'll never talk
about, but he doesn't fit into the band. He was a person who came into our lives for a very short
time, and he left good things and bad things. But as far as I'm concerned he's not a part of the
history of the band. The history of the band is James, D'Arcy, Jimmy and Billy.
Q -- But his death had a huge effect on the band. It led to Jimmy Chamberlin leaving the Pumpkins
for two years.
A -- It's not something we talk about, and it's not something we talk about because it doesn't have
much bearing on the band. It had a bearing on us personally, but not on the band.
Q -- Was the decision to hire a new drummer and carry on with touring after Jonathan's death the
right one?
A -- No. We should have stopped and taken a deep breath, and six months later talked about
whether we really want to continue. The decision to move quickly back into touring . . . a lot of that
blame rests on our former management's shoulders. They gave us the kiddie version of "you can't
let this moment slip by." They said the best rock 'n' roll mind-set is to keep going. Now that you
look back on it, it was completely ludicrous that we kept going. We did a lot of damage to ourselves,
a lot of damage to our reputation, by trying to say the show must go on. We should have parked it,
let everybody decompress, sat down with Jimmy and talked through the issues. Instead we reacted
very quickly and made stupid decisions that we are still paying for.
Q -- What changed your thinking?
A -- Just time. You see things more clearly. It's obvious to me now that was a mistake. Does
anybody really remember the touring that we did in that four, five months after? No. Was it critical?
No. Did we make some money? Yeah. But did it change the course of the band? Only for the
negative as far as I'm concerned. This is one of those moments where we should have sought
professional help, and we would have been told, "You're in shock. You can't fully comprehend all the
issues at this time. You need to stop. Go sit in a forest and think about what's happened." There
were a lot of issues. And that was quickly followed by my mother being diagnosed with cancer.
That issue took over. In hindsight, it was terrible, the worst thing we could have done. And I told
Jimmy that.
Q -- How is Jimmy doing now that he's back in the band?
A -- He's a lot more mature. In the time away from the band he got a perspective on life that James,
D'Arcy and I didn't. He got to see the band from the outside and gained a deeper appreciation for
what the band meant, and he brought that appreciation back in and showed us in his own way that
what we have and what we had is something you can't buy.
Q -- Will you keep working with him?
A -- Yes. Jimmy, [current tour keyboardist] Mike Garson and I are going to do an all-instrumental
progressive-rock band. We're not looking for a record deal . . . we'll do something on our own,
indulge our '70s fixation.
Q -- So you're really not going away?
A -- [Laughs.] I'm not going to stop working. The question is what does that mean: in public or in private? Am I still going to try to be a rock star, or just declassify myself into a lower ring of hell?
PUMPKINS THROUGH YEARS
A Smashing Pumpkins timeline:
1988: The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'Arcy Wretzky and Jimmy Chamberlin play their first show as a four-piece rock band, at Metro.
1989: The quartet's debut single, "I Am One," is released.
1990: Seattle inde-rock label Sub Pop releases Pumpkins' "Tristessa" as single of the month.
1991: Pumpkins' debut album, "Gish," is released, instantly splashing some new psychedelic colors on the emerging alternative-rock movement. Later they tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and another rising band, Pearl Jam, and command the stage at their biggest hometown show yet, at the Aragon Ballroom.
1992: "Drown" appears on the soundtrack for Cameron Crowe's grunge-era romantic comedy "Singles."
1993: "Siamese Dream" is released, debuts in the Top 10 and goes on to sell more than 4 million copies in the U.S. The record's dense multitracked guitars and Corgan's introspective lyrics make it an alternative-rock landmark.
1994: Pumpkins headline Lollapalooza tour, succeeding Jane's Addiction, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alice in Chains. Later, the rarities collection "Pisces Iscariot" is released.
1995: "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is released, a two-disc rock opera that stands as one of the decade's defining albums. It is honored as album of the year in Time, Rolling Stone and Spin and goes on to sell 11 million worldwide.
1996: The band fires Chamberlin for drug abuse, soon after touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin dies of a heroin overdose in a New York City hotel room. Later, the band releases "The Aeroplane Flies High" box set, containing tracks recording during the "Mellon Collie" sessions.
1997: "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" receives a Grammy Award for best hard-rock performance.
1998: "Adore" is released. The album's low-key introspection and spiritual bent represent creative growth, but sales are sluggish compared to earlier releases. A subsequent tour raises more than $2 million for North American charities. Band wins second hard-rock Grammy, for "The End is the Beginning is the End."
1999: Chamberlin is back on drums for a brief tour of North American clubs. After the reunited band records its final albums, Wretzky departs and is replaced on bass by Melissa Auf Der Maur, formerly of Hole.
2000: "Machina/The Machines of God" is released, the band's final album for Virgin Records, and is followed by "Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music," which is made available for free download on the Internet. The band announces it will play its final show Dec. 2 at Metro.
-- Greg Kot
There will be a live webcast from the United Center in Chicago courtesy of Chicago rawk station Q101's website [November 29th]. Click here for all the details!
It seems that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is taking all the election drama to heart. In an interview with the Irish Times this week, he says he's worried about America's political system because it is so corrupt. "I'm worried that Bush will change the social focus of the country [and] bring us back to the days of a strong military and promote some American vision idea which was never real in the first place." Corgan says that if Bush wins there is a good chance he will leave the country and move to Italy, for now you can catch him with the rest of the band at their last show at the Metro on December 2nd.
Well, there's not that much going on as far as news goes, but according to Suvi, Billy bought a piano from Finland while he was on tour there. I wonder how much the shipping is on that? ;) Anyway, thanks for the info, Suvi!
After wrapping up their exhaustive Sacred and Profane European tour, the soon-to-be-defunct Smashing Pumpkins have announced they will be playing two very special farewell shows-the last of their career as the Pumpkins-in the band's Chicago homeland. Yes, on Nov. 29, the lot will play at the 20,000-seater United Center, and Dec. 2 they'll be performing at the intimate Cabaret Metro-the 1,100-capacity setting of the first-ever Smashing Pumpkins show in October 1988. Excuse me whilst I brush away a tearÖSo, dear reader, if you'd like to wish the Pumpkins a final farewell, or just gaze longingly on Billy's bald head, you better get your arse in gear this Saturday when tickets for both shows go on sale (via Ticketmaster and also at the United Center box office). The band announced this May that they would be splitting up following their promotional duties surrounding their latest album, MACHINA/The Machines of God. See, you knew it was coming, so don't be a ninny. Last month the Pumpkins did the nasty, and slyly released a sixth album of new material, which they said would be their last studio effort, titled MACHINA II/friends and enemies of modern music. The 25-track limited pressing was released on vinyl only (on three 10"s and two LPs) to friends of the band and to select Pumpkins websites, who were encouraged to upload the tracks so that fans could download them off the net for free. All the tracks are available on the Napster file-swapping service. After wrapping up their current European tour, the Pumpkins will play three dates in South Africa, and thenÖ the end.
Vocalist BILLY CORGAN has revealed that, following the imminent split of THE SMASHING PUMPKINS, he will release music via the Internet as MP3 files.
As revealed on nme.com in August this year, The Smashing Pumpkins prepared and released a new album, 'MACHINA/The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music', only via the Internet. They encouraged fans to bootleg the limited edition 25-track record and spread it around the globe in MP3 format.
The album is made up of tracks recorded during the sessions for their last album proper 'MACHINA/The Machines Of God' over the last couple of years. Only 25 copies of the album were pressed, on a double LP with three 10" EPs, on hand-cut, hand-numbered, non-lacquered vinyl. These were sent to friends and established Smashing Pumpkins fan websites.
Now speaking to the Radio 1 website www.bbc.co.uk/radio1, Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan has said that, following the imminent break-up of the Pumpkins, this is how he will continue to release music. He said: "So far it's been a great, amazing and exciting thing. I intend on continuing to release music this way. I'm an alternative artist who straddles the pop mainstream.
"I'm often faced with conflicting issues. In this case, there's no compromise. I do exactly what I want, the way I want. And I don't have to pay anybody and they don't have to pay me."
Smashing Pumpkins are preparing for their last ever UK tour, which calls at:
Glasgow SECC (October 30)
Manchester Apollo (31)
Birmingham NEC (November 1)
London Wembley Arena (3-4)
Look for the Smashing Pumpkins on VH1. Beginning November 13th, VH1 will countdown the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" as chosen by a panel of critics, industry insiders, and artists. The show will air for an hour each night for five consecutive nights. It features tons of new interviews with some of the biggest names in rock and lots of great performance footage and photos from the heaviest and hardest bands in rock history. Check your local listings for more details.
BILLY CORGAN, DAVE GROHL, HENRY ROLLINS and IAN ASTBURY have all teamed up with BLACK SABBATH guitarist TONY IOMMI for his new solo album 'Iommi', released on October 16 through Divine/Priority Records.
Iommi is also reunited with Ozzy Osbourne on the record, which features brand new material penned by the legendary heavy metal guitarist.
The full tracklisting for the album is: 'Laughing Man (In The Devil Mask)' with Henry Rollins, 'Meat' with Skunk Anansie's Skin, 'Goodbye Lament' with Dave Grohl, 'Time Is Mine' with Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, 'Patterns' with System Of A Down's Serj Tankian, 'Black Oblivion' with Ian Astbury, 'Just Say No!' with Type O Negative's Peter Steele, 'Who's Fooling Who' with Ozzy Osbourne and 'Into The Night' with Billy Idol.
The Smashing Pumpkins may be gearing up for their goodbye, but they're shaking up the music industry on the way out--and giving fans some exquisite new music as a free parting gift.
Earlier this week, the band's final album, "Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music," began appearing on the Web as free MP3 files available for downloading. This represents one of the most high-profile examples yet of an artist coming out in favor of distributing music on the Internet via services like Napster, the controversial file-sharing program.
Comprising a little over an hour and a half of music--two discs' worth for fans who own home CD burners--the 25 songs are mostly tunes that were recorded for but did not make the final cut on last year's brilliant "Machina/The Machines of God," plus a few radical reworkings of songs familiar from that album.
"[This is] a followup to `Machina,' and the last album from the band," reads a note from bandleader Billy Corgan. "As a final farewell, and a f - - - you to a record label [Virgin] that didn't give them the support they deserved, a limited-pressing album was made and given away to be bootlegged out among the fans."
Among the highlights on "Machina II": the roaring rockers "Soul Power," "Cash Car Star" and "Dross"; the gorgeous acoustic ballad "Slow Down," which opens the album; "If There Is a God," an introspective piano musing that could be Corgan's version of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows," and "Let Me Give You the World," a touching and irresistibly catchy love song. The album continues the playful sonic inventiveness of "Adore" and "Machina," the Pumpkins' strongest recordings. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin ranges from funky James Brown rhythms to pounding heavy-metal beats, often in the space of two measures, and Corgan and James Iha create some of the band's lushest guitar backdrops.
Through it all, the Great Pumpkin continues to challenge himself as a vocalist, pushing his nasal whine to new levels of expressiveness, and baring his emotions without the irony he so often hid behind on earlier discs.
Generally speaking, rare is the double album that wouldn't have been stronger as a single disc. Astonishingly, these outtakes prove that "Machina" could have been an incredibly effective triple album.
Where did this extraordinary music come from, and why is it being given away?
Apparently, Corgan used his down time in Chicago last month before the start of the band's final European tour to compile these songs on three 10-inch vinyl EPs and two 12-inch LPs. Twenty-five copies of these records were given to the band's closest friends, with instructions that they should post the songs on the Internet.
Although the MP3 files represent digital re-recordings of analog originals, the sound quality is excellent, and the vinyl actually adds an endearing "warmth" and "you-are-there" roughness. But there was another reason for the Pumpkins to take this circuitous route for distributing the music.
According to a posting on the Pumpkins' official web site (www.smashingpumpkins.com), "Virgin was not interested in releasing a followup to `Machina,' so rather than pack up their gear and go home, [the group] recorded and released it themselves. It will not and cannot be officially released on CD, as their contract with Virgin includes a non-compete clause, which prevents them from releasing anything Virgin holds rights to under another label for one year."
So far, Virgin has had no comment--the head of publicity did not return calls--but music-industry sources say that a lawsuit is almost certain to follow.
While the band's sales have diminished since the heyday of alternative rock, an earlier collection of rarities, "Pisces Iscariot," became a platinum-seller, and Virgin isn't likely to sacrifice its claims to the "Machina II" music.
Yes, you heard right. The "sequel" to Machina/the machines of God has been released. However, you won't find it anywhere, unless you received a copy from the band. Reasons: 1) 25 copies were made and 2) there will not be a CD pressing. This info is all taken from the spifc.org but I've paraphrased a bit cos I'm a little lazy to cut and paste right now. :)
-25 copies were made. Each copy is composed of 5 vinyl records: 3 10" and 2 12". There are 25 songs in all.
-There are no plans to have a CD pressing of this "album."
-A story was written by Billy for the album, titled "The Story of June."
-The album was released on Constantinople Records, which is supposedly Billy's new record label.
Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan has spent most of the past decade sharing his most intimate secrets with his audience. The only problem was in the translation: The language was one only Corgan could fully understand.
But Corgan said that on an upcoming episode of VH1's "Storytellers" program, he will for the first time reveal the inspiration behind some of the Chicago band's most beloved, but admittedly cryptic, songs. (Sonicnet.com's parent company, Viacom, also owns VH1.)
"I've given it a lot of thought, and I've pretty much decided I'm going to tell the truth," Corgan, 33, said during rehearsals for the long-running series in which songwriters alternate live performances with explanations of their compositions. The singer added that while he has purposely kept his fans in the dark about the dramas behind his often intense, emotional songs in the past, the show's format will allow him finally to pull back the curtain on his creative process.
"I think in a way I'm attracted to [revealing the stories] because I think people will be really surprised where a lot of this stuff comes from," Corgan said. "I know exactly where everything comes from, and I know the context, so it will be really easy to talk about."
As a preview of some of the untold tales fans can expect on the show, tentatively set to air Nov. 4, Corgan discussed the eerily prescient origin of the song "Thirty-Three."
The bittersweet tale, which features the lines "As the cluttered streets greet me once again/ I know I can't be late, supper's waiting on the table/ Tomorrow's just an excuse away," is from the band's 1995 double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
"When I wrote that song I was just moving into my house, I had just gotten married, and in some ways the song talks about me entering a new phase in my life," he said. "But it also talks about how I don't really necessarily trust that part of my life. Obviously it has more relevance now that I'm divorced and I'm out of my house. ... So the song has a different poignancy for me now, both because I foreshadowed the future and I was also hopeful that that sort of future was going to work out."
Media Provoke Silence
Corgan said that while he was open to interpreting publicly his band's songs early in the Pumpkins' career, he began to clam up after he felt one of his most personal efforts got corrupted in the press. The soaring rock song "Spaceboy", from Siamese Dream (1993), was written about Corgan's disabled younger brother, Jesse, who has a rare genetic chromosomal disorder.
"In the beginning I was really willing to explain everything; then it started to turn against me, and that's when I stopped," he said. "I revealed that that song was about my brother's disability and growing up and watching him struggle with life, and [the story] got so bastardized that it started ruining my brother's life. People started saying he was crippled. ... You know how things happen in the media. By the 18th interview he was mangled and dead and it became very, very painful [for both of us]."
The Pumpkins ?whose lineup also includes guitarist James Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur ?announced in May that the group's decade-long career would come to a close at the end of the year. The "Storytellers" show might be the last chance U.S. fans have to see the band, according to Corgan, who said a final U.S. tour is not currently planned.
While fans are excited about what may be their last chance to see the Pumpkins live, they are even more eager to hear Corgan explain his complex lyrics.
"Pretty much every [other fan] I've talked to is unbelievably excited," Maria Krajewski, 19, of New York said.
"Some of those questions we've always wondered about should be answered," she said. "Just to see whether his lyrics might mean something different to me than they do to him will be interesting."
It's Not Over Yet
In addition to planned farewell shows in Europe, South Africa and South America, Corgan said he plans to unveil in December the complicated concept behind the band's most recent studio album, this year's MACHINA/the machines of god.
"There's more surprises coming, more music, more stuff, more surprises," Corgan said without elaborating, hinting at the ongoing recording sessions chronicled on the band's Web site.
One of the immediate surprises is the graphic director's cut of the video for the MACHINA love ballad "Try, Try, Try," available on the band's Web site (www.smashingpumpkins.com) in its uncut form. The eye-popping clip, directed by controversial video auteur Jonas Akerlund (Madonna, the Prodigy) centers around a homeless, drug-addicted couple in search of the next fix.
Joey Styles and Joel Gertner came out to do the opening for TNN to a thunderous ovation. Joey brought out Steve Corino who made a grand entrance. Not through the entranceway, but through the crowd. Steve came through the crowd with Billy Corgan playing "New York, New York" on his guitar.
Corino then said how he cheated his way to all the victories he holds and he won't apologize for it. Corino then added that he won't apologize tomorrow night when he defeats Justin Credible for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
Lou E. Dangerously then hit the ring and faced off with Corino and Corgan.
Justin Credible then snuck into the ring and hit Corino with his Singapore Cane. Justin then dropped his cane and stood over Corino.
Corgan then picked up that cane, chased away Lou E. Dangerously, and began to choke the self proclaimed Hardcore Icon, Justin Credible away in the corner.
Corgan then stood over Justin. Lou E. then came back into the ring and from behind cracked his cell phone over Corgan's head.
Justin and Lou E. stood over the fallen bodies of Corino & Corgan as Justin said "That's not just the coolest, That's not just the best" then Lou E. added "that's from the Network."
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