Taken from Sonicnet.com
Singer/guitarist says band hopes to stage farewell U.S. tour before packing it in at end of year.
Senior Writer Chris Nelson reports:
The Smashing Pumpkins said on Tuesday (May 23) they will break up at the end of the year, closing the door on an 11-year, seemingly cursed career that often found the band running counter to industry trends as they carried a torch for conceptual, artful rock.
"There's nothing wrong inside the band," founder and singer/guitarist Billy Corgan said on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM. "But the way the culture is and stuff, it's hard to keep trying to fight the good fight against the Britneys," he said, referring to Britney Spears and other teen pop sensations.
The band is on the West Coast leg of a U.S. tour that ends May 30. They play the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif., on Tuesday. They are scheduled to spend the second half of June on a tour of Japan.
Corgan said the band hopes to stage a farewell U.S. trek before year's end.
He added that the group knew before they released MACHINA/the machines of God on Feb. 29 that it would be their last album before breaking up, but did not announce it for fear the news would overshadow the music.
"I feel like a weight's been lifted off our shoulders," Corgan told KROQ.
He called the band's decision to forge a career pursuing challenging music "exhilarating" but "wearying."
"It will be nice to let the music be now," he told the station.
In addition, there will be more music from the Pumpkins, Corgan said. The band has several songs left over from the recording of MACHINA/the machines of God that they plan to finish this summer and release with additional material. But he said he didn't know whether they would come out before year's end or "two years from now."
The band also will tape a session of "VH1 Storytellers" in August, he said.
Taken from Yahoo Music:
Charges against former Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy Wretzky for possession of crack cocaine were dropped Friday (May 19) following her completion of a court-ordered drug prevention class.
Wretzky, 32, did not appear in Cook County District Court for the hearing, Jodee Fallon, a spokesperson for the Cook County, Ill., State's Attorney's office, said.
In February, Judge Nicholas Ford gave the bassist just more than three months to attend four drug-abuse prevention classes as part of a program offered to first-time offenders in lieu of a trial.
Wretzky maintained her innocence after that hearing. "I didn't do it," she said at the time. "I gave somebody a ride. That was it."
Her lawyer, Richard Brzeczek, said on Friday that he had not spoken to Wretzky since the February hearing and was not required to be in court because the classes were completed. He said he did not know when she finished the course, or where it took place.
Wretzky, who quit the Smashing Pumpkins in September, was arrested at 2:30 a.m. Jan. 25. She was accused of buying a third of a gram of crack cocaine from a housing complex on West Lake Street.
An officer dressed in street clothes watched Wretzky enter a car carrying two other people, police have said. The car then drove away with the headlights off and allegedly made several traffic violations, including two illegal U-turns.
Police said they found the drugs in three plastic bags in the pocket of the driver, identified as Tony Young, but that Wretzky claimed that the bags were hers.
Wretzky, a founding member of the superstar rock band, reportedly quit to begin a film career. She was replaced by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur.