November 26, 1999 Album Title, Auf Der Maur hired
The Smashing Pumpkins have unveiled the title of their upcoming album, MACHINA/the
machines of God, and reportedly they have divulged that former Hole bassist Melissa Auf
Der Maur will tour Europe with them.
The disc, due Feb. 29, was recorded by the Chicago rockers in the fall, prior to the
departure of bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, according to a spokesperson for the group, who
requested anonymity.
The venue for the European tour's Jan. 7 opener has not yet been determined, according to the source. MTV News reported on Wednesday that Auf
Der Maur would participate, but the band's official spokesperson, Annie Ohayon, would
not confirm that at press time.
The new Pumpkins album, the band's fifth studio release and the follow-up to 1998's
electronica-tinged Adore, was previewed for Virgin Records staffers and select radio
programmers Friday at the Whisky Bar in New York, according to the source. No official
track listing was available.
The co-host of the "Asleep at the Wheel" morning show on Boston's WFNX (101.7 FM),
Angie C., attended the listening party and described the 14 tracks she heard as
hard-rocking and slightly psychedelic.
She also applauded the return of the band's drummer, Jimmy Chamberlin, who did not
appear on Adore.
"Right away you can tell with the drums, those familiar drum fills, that Jimmy is back, and
it's a record that totally grabs you, which was what I was waiting for," said Angie C.,
who would only give her radio name. She also noted that the album was less like recent
Pumpkins efforts and more like the group's 1991 psychedelic rock debut, Gish, and its
breakthrough 1993 album, Siamese Dream. The latter featured such radio favorites as
"Cherub Rock" and "Today".
The DJ said the songs played on Friday included "Everlasting Gate," "Sunshowers," "Stand
Inside Your Love," "I of the Mourning," "The Sacred + Profane," "Try," "Heavy Metal
Machine," "This Time," "The Imploding Voice," "Glass + the Ghost Children," "Wound,"
"Crying Tree," "Blue Skies Bring Tears" and "With Every Light."
"There's more psychedelic stuff," Angie C. said. "It has a lot of those elements that have been
missing lately, but it's not too polished, which is what reminded me of Gish. It felt much
simpler, thematically, than Mellon Collie [and the Infinite Sadness]," the group's 1995
double album.
While D'Arcy, who left the band in September, plays on an undetermined number of tracks
on the album, the effort will represent a full reunion with prodigal drummer Chamberlin.
The drummer was ousted from the group following the fatal overdose of touring
keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin in July 1996.
Chamberlin was arrested and charged with heroin possession in connection with
Melvoin's death, and, after pleading guilty, he was ordered to attend a drug-rehabilitation
facility. During his absence, the band toured and recorded with a variety of session
drummers.
Bandleader Billy Corgan said in August that Chamberlin's return had boosted the band's
sound on an April club tour, taking it back to its previous heft.
Referring to the rampaging, over-the-top rock the band played with Chamberlin, Corgan
said, "When Jimmy left, we weren't that anymore, so we didn't try to be. Then Jimmy comes
back, and we literally went right back to where we left off because it has got something to
do with the four people."
At an April 12 show in Cincinnati, the group played a dozen new songs, some of which,
according to Angie C., made the cut for the new album. Among the new songs in the show
were the reverb-drenched, new-wave style "Stand Inside Your Love" and "Wound," a
hard-rock tune highlighting Chamberlin's throbbing drums that approached near
speed-metal velocity.
The grungey-rock tune "Blue Skies Bring Tears," the robotic space ballad "Glass + the
Ghost Children" and the lilting acoustic ballad "With Every Light," also were featured in
the show and played at the listening party.
Corgan was cryptic about the sound of the new album prior to its completion, but he
promised it would not rehash past glories.
"I'll make one declaration about the whole thing," Corgan said in August. "And that is that
we have no interest in going backward. ... We really feel we're on to something new and
something that's very different. Will you be able to hear influences in it? Absolutely. But it
does sound like Smashing Pumpkins 1999, not Smashing Pumpkins 1992. If it did sound like
Smashing Pumpkins 1992, it wouldn't come out."
-- Gil Kaufman (SonicNet)
November 24, 1999 New Album Tracklisting
An ultra-secret, exclusive listening party for the new Smashing Pumpkins
album was held Friday (Nov. 19) evening at the Whiskey Bar in New York
City. In attendance were a number of Virgin Records personnel -- most of
whom were hearing the finished album for the first time -- and about 15
key modern rock radio programmers, who were flown in specially by the
label for the party.
The record -- which has yet to be titled -- was handed in to the label
earlier in the week, and comes on the heels of 1998’s disappointing Adore
set. A source at the party told allstar that the new album definitely rocks
harder than the electronica-tinged Adore with "more guitars and more
snarling vocals."
The album’s release date is Feb. 29, 2000 (pushed back from its original
date of Feb. 15) and the track listing goes as follows:
1."Everlasting Gate"
2."Sunshowers"
3."Stand Inside Your Love" (the first single)
4."I Of The Mourning"
5."The Sacred + Profane"
6."Try"
7."Heavy Metal Machine"
8."This Time"
9."The Imploding Voice"
10."Glass + The Ghost Children"
11."Wound"
12."Crying Tree"
13."Blue Skies Bring Tears"
14."With Every Light"
FROM CDNOW
November 23, 1999 Tour Dates
The following are *confirmed* tour dates. If your city is not listed below, it has not been confirmed by us. Please do not write to us asking about
additional tour dates, as we will not release any additional information until it has been confirmed.
Date - City, Country - Venue - On Sale
__________________________________________________________________
07/01/2000 - Stockholm, Sweden - Cirkus - 26/11/99
09/01/2000 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Cirkus 26/11/99
11/01/2000 - Munich, Germany - Muffathalle - 27/11/99
12/01/2000 - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz - 24/11/99
15/01/2000 - Lisbon, Portugal - Lisbon Coliseum - 24/11/99
16/01/2000 - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera - - 01/11/99
18/01/2000 - Paris, France - Elysee Montmarte - ??/??
19/01/2000 - Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royale - 23/11/99
21/01/2000 - Manchester, England - Apollo - 27/11/99
22/01/2000 - London, England - Dominion Theatre - 27/11/99
24/01/2000 - Utrecht, Holland - Music Centre - 27/11/99
This info was taken for http://www.spifc.org/
November 4, 1999 D'Arcy was fired?
Smashing Pumpkins fans may never know the real reason bassist D'Arcy left
the band just months before the release of their forthcoming album, but
rumor has it she was actually fired by Billy Corgan. Apparently, the
L.A.-based D'Arcy is also an aspiring actress and felt she was ready for her
close-up. A source claims she kept missing band practice because she was
too busy auditioning and Corgan, still reeling from the sales of the last
Pumpkins album, Adore, finally got fed up with the wannabe ingenue. The
band's label, Virgin Records, declined to comment.
FROM SPIN, via NETPHORIA.ORG
October 28, 1999 Bridge School Benefit Webcast
Intel will cybercast the 13th annual Bridge
School Benefit concert, which will be held
this weekend at the Shoreline Amphitheater in
Mountain View, Calif. The show -- which
will feature performances by the Who, Pearl
Jam, and Brian Wilson, among others -- will
go online starting at 5 p.m. PDT Saturday
and 2 p.m. PDT Sunday at www.intel.com,
music.yahoo.com, and
www.bridgeschool.org.
The event's musical lineup of is one of the
strongest in recent years. Aside from the
aforementioned acts, other performers will include Sheryl Crow,
Lucinda Williams, Billy Corgan and James Iha of Smashing
Pumpkins, Green Day, and Neil Young.
Young, a perennial performer at the event, founded the San
Francisco-based Bridge School in 1986 along with his wife, Pegi, and
Jim Forderer. The facility serves physically challenged and severely
speech-impaired children.
The Bridge School concert will be a rare chance to see many of the
participating groups perform live. For example, Pearl Jam has not
played out in over a year, while the Who have not performed live
since 1997, when its remaining three members toured the U.S. with
the rock opera "Quadrophenia."
The event webcast, which will not be archived, may be viewed with
either Real Player or Windows Media Player software. In between set
breaks, archival footage from past Bridge benefits and interviews with
Bridge School students and personnel will be shown.
October 14, 1999 Pumpkins get new Management
If she can handle Ozzy, Billy should be no problem.
Osbourne Management, the company headed by Sharon Osbourne (the wife of
Ozzy), added a high-profile client to its roster this week when Smashing
Pumpkins signed on to the agency. Billy Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins
now join an Osbourne lineup that includes Ozzy, Black Sabbath, and Coal
Chamber.
The move brings an end to the Pumpkins' year-long search for new management
after the band left the stable of Q-Prime.
According to a spokesperson at Osbourne Management, the Pumpkins are
expected to release an as-yet-untitled album on February 15 with a world tour to
follow. From MTV
September 28, 1999 Siamese Dream to be Rereleased
Do you own a copy of Siamese Dream with one of those 4 panel foldouts?
Ever wonder what those little pictures look like, and what those tiny song
lyrics really say?
Now you can find out!
Siamese Dream is being re-released. The CD will contain the full 20 page
booklet, just like the initial US pressing and international versions.
The re-released CD will be available beginning November 15th, 1999.
September 14, 1999 D'Arcy's Split Won't Affect Pumpkins' Sound, Friends, Fans Say
FROM SONICNET:
Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:
Former Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy may have left the band to pursue acting, fans
and friends speculate, but few expect her departure to affect the group's signature sound.
When it was announced Thursday that D'Arcy had left the emotive Chicago rockers, most
expected it would leave the group's sound unchanged, pointing to the strong stewardship
of mastermind Billy Corgan. Others speculated that the group's often silent co-founder
had tired of the grind of touring.
"D'Arcy's clearly pursuing another aesthetic side of herself," said a source close to the
group who has known the members since their early days together. "She's been digging
deeper into her art background for acting and possibly directing."
The source said D'Arcy also is an entrepreneur who raises horses on her Michigan farm,
which is also the site of a recording studio used by many of the area's indie rock bands.
The Pumpkins' announcement of D'Arcy's departure came just six months after prodigal
drummer Jimmy Chamberlin returned to the group, which also includes guitarist James
Iha. Under the headline "D'Arcy's Gone!" the band's terse statement read, "D'Arcy has left
the Smashing Pumpkins. The band's new album is finished and will be released on
February 15, 2000, by Virgin Records. The Smashing Pumpkins will continue as a band
and will tour in support of the new record."
No reason was offered for the departure of the 31-year-old bassist, born D'Arcy Wretzky.
She co-founded the group with Corgan in Chicago in 1989, with the pair originally using a
drum machine as accompaniment. But in creative terms, the bassist — born in South
Haven, Mich. — always has taken a back seat to Corgan, who writes most of the band's
songs.
Former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, a friend of
D'Arcy, said he "wishes her all the best in her [pursuit of] acting."
Fans also wished the bassist well.
"When I heard first that she was leaving I was very little surprised," fan Adam Bosse wrote
in an e-mail. Bosse, a native of Caribou, Maine, said he thought D'Arcy no longer seemed
happy in the group when he saw her play during recent Smashing Pumpkins shows.
"D'Arcy leaving will damage the image of the band, but will only leave a small dent
musically," Bosse opined, adding that he thought the return of Chamberlin was more
significant. "Actually, one of the reasons I fell in love with the Pumpkins is because of her.
... I just liked watching an enchanting-looking girl rocking out on bass guitar.... It suited
the image well."
Bosse's vote for a replacement was Jimmy Flemion of oddball rockers the Frogs, with
whom the Pumpkins frequently have shared the stage.
No replacement for D'Arcy has been named, but the source said her departure isn't
expected to derail the band's plans for its next album.
"The record's going to come out in February, they've been working hard on it, D'Arcy's
parts are done," the source said. "She's a woman who has business and other interests
and she's not involved in the 100 percent priority nature that it takes to be in the Pumpkins
right now. I don't think anyone holds it against her.
"Billy, James and Jimmy are 100 percent Smashing Pumpkins right now."
D'Arcy has played on all of Smashing Pumpkins' albums, including their most recent,
Adore (1998), a low-key, electronic-influenced work that featured "Ava Adore" (RealAudio
excerpt). She also provided backing vocals during live performances and on some
Pumpkins records.
While mostly mute in interviews and recordings, D'Arcy's mellifluous, girlish voice
sporadically could be heard on the recordings of such bands as husband Kerry Brown's
Catherine. D'Arcy sang a duet with Catherine frontman Mark Rew on "Four Leaf Clover"
, from the band's Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories (1996).
Fan Aaron Grant, 21, of Flint, Mich., is the webmaster of the unofficial Pumpkins site Siva.
Grant agreed with Bosse's assertion that D'Arcy no longer seemed happy in the group. He
also thought her defection would not hurt as much as Chamberlin's absence affected the
sound of the sedate Adore.
"I think D'Arcy will be missed as a personality," Grant wrote in an e-mail. "She had quite the
attitude and a lot of wittiness. Some people said she was the glue of the band and kept
their sanity.
Grant said that despite her low profile, he thought D'Arcy had been an inspiration to many
of the band's female fans. "D'Arcy actually was a big role model for a lot of the girl fans on
my site," he wrote. "I've seen tons of post[s] of girls saying they picked up the bass to be
just like D'Arcy and how they did their hair just like D'Arcy."
Last month, speaking in connection with the release of his score for the film "Stigmata,"
Corgan said each member was essential to the band's sound.
"If I played with three other people, that wouldn't have been the sound," Corgan said.
"There's something about the four characters coming together that created that sound. I
can't take credit for all that."
September 9, 1999 The Saddest Day
Two bits of bad news today. The worst of it is that D'Arcy is parting with the band after being with it for more then ten years. No reason for the parting has yet been given.
Second piece of bad news: The Smashing Pumpkins new as-yet untitled album has been delayed for two more weeks.
Thats a hard lot to swallow.
September 4, 1999 D'Arcy Rumors
CDNow's gossip reporter "Miss Truth" has reported the following:
"Although a spokesperson for the
band at Virgin Records refused to
comment at press time, rumors are
amok that longtime Smashing
Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy
Wretzky is no longer in the band.
According to a report on Rolling
Stone Online as well as
throughout several fan-based Web
sites and message boards, D'Arcy
hasn't been putting in her fair share
in the studio during recording
sessions for the band's upcoming
as-yet-untitled album with guitarist
James Iha picking up the slack."
I for one refuse to believe anything but an official press release.
August 19, 1999 Corgan Says new album may surprise fans
Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan says the rock band's fifth studio album, which will feature the return of prodigal drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, will
surprise even those fans who heard the Pumpkins play more than a dozen new songs on their spring club tour.
From the band's Chicago studio, singer/guitarist Corgan confirmed Chamberlin is back in the fold after a three-year exile and said the drummer brought back a
booming, signature percussion style that the band lacked in his absence. But Corgan added that fans should expect the unexpected from the next Pumpkins
project. "We have no interest in going backwards," Corgan said, referring to the 21 songs he and his bandmates — Chamberlin, guitarist James Iha and bassist
D'arcy Wretzky — recorded at their studio this year. The still-untitled album is slated for a February release.
"When we released Mellon Collie, we told people that it was the end of the band as people knew it," Corgan said, referring to 1995's Mellon Collie and the
Infinite Sadness, the band's third album. "If you take all those things into context you can guess whatever you want. We really feel we're onto something new
and something that's kind of very different."
"It does sound like Smashing Pumpkins 1999, not Smashing Pumpkins 1992, and if it did sound like Smashing Pumpkins 1992, it wouldn't come out."
During an April tour of U.S. clubs, the Pumpkins previewed 13 songs. But Corgan said the material unveiled on the tour was not representative of the new
album's sound, since it was only one-third of the songs. He added that the band left out the most intricate compositions.
"We purposely chose not to play some of the more sophisticated material, because we just didn't think it would, not so much go over, but it would be hard for us
to pull off," he said. "We just wanted to go and have fun and just rock."
From his seat in the studio, Corgan said he could look at a bulletin board with 10 of the new songs played on tour and see that seven of them had been completely
reworked in the interim.
Guitarist Iha was equally vague about the album's sound when interviewed in March. "We're actually just recording in our practice space right now. ... It's going
OK," Iha said. "It's actually going really well, and I don't really know what else to say other than it's good, and we're getting along, and it rocks."
Chamberlin, an original member of the group, was kicked out following the fatal July 1996 drug overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. The
drummer was arrested for heroin possession in connection with Melvoin's death. After pleading guilty on the possession charge, he was ordered to attend a
drug-rehabilitation facility.
The Pumpkins used a number of drummers for recording and touring afterward, including Matt Walker (Filter), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden), Joey Waronker
(Beck, R.E.M.) and, on last year's Adore tour, ex-John Mellencamp percussionist Kenny Aronoff.
"The most notable thing about Jimmy coming back [is that the music now has] an explosive quality and the ability to move internally in a way only Jimmy can
do," Corgan said. "I'm really excited, and I feel really good that we've managed to pull it together to make the Pumpkins what it's supposed to be."
Corgan recently completed the soundtrack to the upcoming thriller "Stigmata" (Aug. 24), including a collaboration with Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia on
the song "Identify."
During an April 12 show at Bogart's in Cincinnati, the Pumpkins played nine new songs in a row. They ranged from the blistering, Black Sabbath-like heavy
metal of "Glass' Theme" to the ominous, sludgy ballad "Speed Kills" to the reverb-drenched "Stand Inside Your Love." Other new tracks previewed during the
show included the grinding "Dross" as well as "Wound," "Virex," "Blue Skies Bring Tears," "Home," "If There Is a God," "Glass + the Ghost," "With Every
Light" and the cathartic "Cash Car Star."
Corgan said he felt torn by comments made last year by the group's ex-manager Cliff Burnstein, who promised the next Pumpkins album would be "the greatest
f---ing rock album" ever.
"I don't know what to tell anybody," Corgan said. "I feel like I'm almost in a straitjacket. ... I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. Even the songs you might
remember from the show you saw, if you heard the album in the state it's in now, you wouldn't even recognize. ... I don't want to create a false sense of what it is
or isn't"
Formed in Chicago in 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins rose to stardom with their second album, Siamese Dream (1994), which spawned the hit "Cherub Rock".
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the multiplatinum two-CD follow-up, added to the Pumpkins' popularity with the hits "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and
"Tonight, Tonight."
Their next album, the quiet, electronica-inspired Adore (1998), was considered a relative sales disappointment, even though it sold more than 1 million copies.
The official Smashing Pumpkins website (www.thesmashingpumpkins.com) recently hosted a monthlong tribute to the group's stomping 1991 debut Gish, but
Corgan warned against taking that as a clue to the direction of the upcoming album.
"The people that do care, they're guessing and wondering and trying to out-guess the Pumpkins," Corgan said. "I think if you take each album, subsequently, you
really couldn't have guessed what the next album would have been about."
From Sonicnet
August 6, 1999 (t)here magazine info
For those having difficultly finding a copy of (t)here magazine at their
favorite bookseller, check out:
Subscription information, and scans of the magazine contents, including a
scan of a hand written submission by Billy Corgan, can all be found at the
(t)here website
From the SPIFC
July 28, 1999 Album Release date Pushed Back!
The highly anticipated upcoming release of the as-of-yet untitled Smashing
Pumpkins album has been pushed back. Sources indicate that the recording
of the new album is "very complicated" and is therefore taking longer than
was originally expected. The new date scheduled for release is the 1st of
February, 2000.
Taken from the SPFC.
July 22, 1999 billy corgan and yelena yemchuk collaborate for (t)here magazine premiere issue - summer 1999
(t)here - a new magazine with pictures and words dedicated to collaborations between artists - will feature a collaborative effort between billy corgan
+ yelena yemchuk in its premiere issue. four stories written by billy will appear alongside their inspiration...four photos shot by yelena.
(t)here asks artists to work together on projects that complement their style. the magazine focuses on photography, architecture, writing, fashion,
sculpture and painting and the way the various forms interact.
the premiere issue will also feature photographs by carter smith, len prince, dah-len and timothy greenfield-sanders; writing by whitley strieber, tom
wheeler and yuko otomo; sculptures by alain kirili; fashion by marithe & francois girbaud and agnes b; also a trip to the canary islands that feels like
a short film. guests include quentin crisp, leonard lopate and beatrice dupire.
premiere issue hits july 25, 1999 and will be on sale for 3 months in bookstores as well as galleries and coffeehouses.
Taken from www.smashingpumpkins.com
July 12, 1999 More Stigmata Tracks Surface
The long-awaited soundtrack to Stigmata finally has a confirmed track listing, with 10
tracks composed by Billy Corgan leading the way. All but seven songs on the album
were scored by the Smashing Pumpkins frontman (along with composer-jazz artist Mike
Garson) -- his first major foray into music scoring (allstar, May 11).
In addition to previously confirmed tracks by Massive Attack ("Inertia Creeps"), Remy
Zero ("Gramarye"), Chumbawamba ("Mary Mary"), David Bowie ("The Pretty Things Are
Going to Hell"), and the Afro Celt Sound System featuring Sinead O'Connor ("Release"),
Natalie Imbruglia has added a Corgan-penned track, "Identify," to the album's lineup.
The soundtrack to Stigmata will hit stores on Aug. 24 on Virgin Records. The film,
starring Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne, will hit theaters in August.
Here is the track listing for the soundtrack to Stigmata (*denotes tracks written by Mike
Garson):
1. "Mary Mary," Chumbawamba
2. "Gramarye," Remy Zero
3. "All Is Full of Love," Bjork
4. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell," David Bowie
5. "Release," Afro Celt Sound System featuring Sinead O'Connor
6. "Inertia Creeps," Massive Attack
7. "Identify"
8. "Identify (Dust)," "1,000,000 Voices," Billy Corgan
9. "Pop Pop," "Await*," "Reflect (Pretty)," Billy Corgan
10. "Reflect (Clouds)," "Truth," Billy Corgan
11. "Of Square Waves," "Random Thought," Billy Corgan
12. "Reflection/Possession," Billy Corgan
13. "Reflect (Gray)," "Of Sine Waves," Billy Corgan
14. "Distrbnce(After Sckhausen)*," "Reflect (Pause)*," "Orah," Billy Corgan
15. "Sustain," "Identify (Affectation)*," Billy Corgan
16. "All Answers Revealed*," "Reflect (Devotion)*"
17. "Purge," "10,000,000 Voices," "Reflect (Purity)," "Identify (Peace)*," Billy Corgan
18. "Reflect (Time)," "Tree Whispers," Billy Corgan
From CDNow
June 24, 1999 New Album Update
we've been pestering the band ceaselessly for an update, and we finally have one for you. the good news is the new record is now
more than 60% completed, with approximately 21 songs still being considered along with a few select instrumentals. 11 of the songs
you might recognize from the arising! tour, and 10 more additional songs that have yet to be played live by the band. the pumpkins
hope to be finished in the first couple weeks of august, and are still planning a late fall release. and contrary to published rumours that
the record is a return to the band's older styles, we ask and gently remind, when have the smashing pumpkins ever repeated
themselves?
From The Offical Smashing Pumpkins website June 12, 1999 Stigmata Delayed
it appears as though we are all going to have to wait a little longer for
the STIGMATA soundtrack...it seems as though the movie has been pushed
back to a september release, which means the soundtrack will now be coming
out in mid to late august.
From The Offical Smashing Pumpkins website From the Official Site.
June 7, 1999 D'Arcy on the Bigscreen
Crossover star? Following the foosteps of fellow hard rocker Courtnet Love, bassist D'arcy is hoping to make the leap into feature film. The outspoken
alternative musician has signed with Jason Weinberg's Untitled Entertainment for management representation in the acting arena. D'arcy, a founding member of
the multplatinum rock group Smashing Pumpkins recently finished a club tour with the group and is putting the final touches on the next Pumpkins' release. From the Smashing Pumpkins Collection.
May 28, 1999 Natalie Imbruglia to Sing Corgan Song
natalie imbruglia has just completed billy corgan and mike garson's song "identify" for the mgm movie STIGMATA. the song will be released on the
soundtrack along with 41 minutes of the dynamic duo's instrumental score. recorded by natalie in london, the track was executive produced by nigel
goodrich, he of radiohead fame
From www.smashingpumpkins.com
May 14, 1999 Adore Documentary
This fall the smashing pumpkins are set to release an as yet untitled documentary shot during the entire course of their groundbreaking adore tour. filmed over
roughly 5 months of rehearsing, recording, and touring around the world, this will be the pumpkins first home video release since vieuphoria in 1994. the video
will be directed by jesse ignjatovic, a producer for mtv who took a leave of absence to travel with the band. covering may to september of 1998, the adore tour
saw the pumpkins playing in european amusement parks, botanical gardens, ports of call, and even parking garages. also featured will be the unprecedented
american charity tour, that covered 14 cities and raised over 2.7 million dollars.
From www.smashingpumpkins.com
Older News
Pumpkins Sued
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Reuters) - A Princeton University music professor claims his hearing
was damaged by an ear-splitting performance by the rock band Smashing Pumpkins, even
though he was wearing earplugs, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Peter Jeffrey, 45, is suing the members of the million-album-selling alternative rock band, the
city of New Haven and the New Haven Coliseum, where the concert took place in January
1997.
Also named in the suit, filed in New Haven Superior Court, are the bands Fountains of Wayne
and the Frogs and earplug maker Siebe North Inc., lawyer Anthony Wallace told Reuters.
Jeffrey ``has chronic tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears) and also suffers from sleep
deprivation,'' Wallace said. ''He's a music professor at Princeton, so the effect on his research
is (severe).''
The suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages. ``There's definitely a breach of duty by either the bands or the
coliseum, so I think we've got a good case,'' Wallace said.
Smashing Pumpkins could not immediately be reached for comment, according to a spokeswoman for their label, Virgin
Records. Neither could New Haven officials or a representative of the earplug company.
Jeffrey, who specializes in Gregorian chant, attended the rock show for about 20 minutes to look for his son, Wallace
said. He was wearing earplugs. After leaving the auditorium, the professor felt a sharp pain in his left ear, followed by nausea and dizziness, Wallace said.
Jeffrey, who lives in Guilford, Connecticut, hopes his suit will make young people more aware of the dangers of loud
music, Wallace said. [From Yahoo! News]
Jimmy's Return:
From MTV- Well, it's official -- finally. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has rejoined the Smashing Pumpkins, approximately three and a half years after being ousted
from the group for his involvement in the fatal overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.
A representative from Virgin Records confirmed the long-rumored reunion to MTV News adding that Chamberlin and the rest of the Pumpkins are
currently in a Chicago studio working on a new album together.
The prodigal drummer hasn't recorded with the band since the B-side sessions for 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" -- tracks which turned
up on the following year's "The Aeroplane Flies High" collection.
Chamberlain was arrested for heroin possession following the death of Melvoin in July of 1996 and was subsequently fired from the Pumpkins. He pled
guilty to disorderly conduct in a plea bargain that was based on him staying in a rehabilitation center five months.
He received day passes late that year and recorded with The Last Hard Men, a band put together by Kelley Deal of the Breeders with Skid Row Singer
Sebastian Bach, and Frogs keyboardist and long-time Pumpkins cohort Jimmy Flemion. The group's album was never released, however, although a
single was featured on the soundtrack to the movie "Scream."
Chamberlin then left for an extended vacation in Africa following his release from rehab, but the drummer was noticeably absent the following year when
the Last Hard Men recorded a Rod Stewart tribute track in Chicago at the home studio belonging to Pumpkins' bassist D'Arcy.
At that point it was revealed that Chamberlin had not spoken to his former bandmates since his dismissal, although he had been keeping in close
contact with the group's tour manager. Chamberlin subsequently quit music and reportedly spent the majority of his time following his second love,
autosports.
Chamberlin told the Chicago Tribune last year that he did not expect to rejoin the band. "There's a lot of water under the bridge," he said at the time.
"We're not the type of band that would do a reunion just for the financial ramifications."
The Pumpkins have employed a rotating cast on the drumkit since Chamberlain's dismissal (see "Pumpkins Can Drummer"), including Matt Walker, Matt
Cameron, Joey Waronker and Kenny Aronoff -- both on tour and on the group's last record, "Adore."
The reunited band will take a few days this week, as frontman Billy Corgan has announced that he will attend this year's Grammy Awards on Wednesday
night, as the Pumpkins have been nominated for Best Alternative Music Performance for its recent album.
