Smashing Pumpkins

[tim_m]

He sure writes in a very interesting way.

[GeraldFord]

New Blog from billy. Brand new EP out January 2nd on Itunes called "American Gothic" also, notice how billy never mentioned god once in this blog entry!! LOL

I emerge from my seemingly eternal self-imposed silence to bring good news! The collective We is happy to announce that We have just finished a new acoustic e.p. entitled 'American Gothic' that features 4 new songs:

* The Rose March
* Again, Again, Again (the crux)
* POX
* Sunkissed


Even better is the news that these songs will be available on i-tunes starting January 2nd...the collective We looks forward to you hearing these new songs afresh and us playing them to you anew on the upcoming European and Australian tours...

Since the holidays are upon us, the collective I would like to take this opportunity to give gratitude where it is due, and that is to those that are not hypnotized, or so numbed by darkness that they cannot hear the chime in my words...I wish you a warm holiday and a brilliant New Year to come, and may you get all you deserve! (again) From my heart to yours, sincerely, I hope you feel the love that we have for all of you, even for those of you who are lost and seeking, bruised and still keeping...i hope these words find you as well...

The new day has finally come as we turn the corner on the end of one energy that no longer serves us and begin to embrace the new dawn that will...and no, I am not speaking about the band or the music business...what is past is passed, and we all wear the black arm bands in honor of, but life happily, as it should, marches on...hopefully to a good beat...

Thanks to New Orleans for showing Us the meaning of hope...and thanks to the old guard for showing the same dull move, you know the one that never works? Art band that said old guard wishes they were in so bad that they wish importance upon it? Check! No matter what you crutches all dream up, Led Zep is still a 100 times better! Go Zep! Go Team! Rock on! Long Live the Mighty SP!
And...

Thank YOU for showing up! And yes, I mean YOU

lovingness, happiness, BC

http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/blog

You have to buy it as an import if you want an actual copy! 

[ToEachesOwn]

i didnt realize how awesome most of the residency songs are!!

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVsLdU5NYWM&feature=related


(during their residencies billy wrote some new song for every concert.)

cant wait for the new material, whether it be new, or properly recorded residency songs.

Yea, I was at two of the Asheville, NC residencies and it was amazing.  30 song varied sets (with a couple songs like you said written during the residencies), open taping policy, and a small venue at $20 a ticket so you could get right up close to the band.  I must have taken like 300 pics those two nights.



They played the Rose March in the SF residencies.  I hope one of those songs is a renamed 99 Floors because that song is amazing.

[GnFnR87]

i'm downloading American Gothic now. this better fucking be good!!! [crosses fingers] 

[ToEachesOwn]

i'm downloading American Gothic now. this better fucking be good!!! [crosses fingers] 

It's kind of disappointing.  Billy Corgan needs to get depressed again.  POX is pretty hot though!

[GnFnR87]

i'm downloading American Gothic now. this better fucking be good!!! [crosses fingers]?

It's kind of disappointing.? Billy Corgan needs to get depressed again.? POX is pretty hot though!

i like the EP alot. The Rose March is gorgeous, the rest of the songs are pretty solid as well. although "again, again again" is on the weak side.

my only complaint is that 99 Floors isnt on it.

[ToEachesOwn]

my only complaint is that 99 Floors isnt on it.

I completely agree.  Sunkissed has really grown on me though.  It feels like it has some sort of atmosphere within it much like a lot of the Adore era songs.

[GnFnR87]

my only complaint is that 99 Floors isnt on it.

I completely agree.? Sunkissed has really grown on me though.? It feels like it has some sort of atmosphere within it much like a lot of the Adore era songs.

yeah sunkissed is great. love the atmosphere too.

i just got incredible quality versions of pretty much all of the new residency songs if anyone wants them:

01 Rose March 2007-07-30
02 Peace And Love 2007-07-31
03 No Surrender 2007-07-28
04 99 Floors 2007-07-27
05 The Leaving Lament 2007-07-16
06 I Don't Mind 2007-07-30
07 Psalm 131 2007-07-05
08 Question Mark 2007-06-26
09 If Only In A Dream 2007-06-30
10 Mama 2007-06-29
11 I'm Doing The Best I Can 06 2007-06-27
12 Promise Me 2007-07-16

[GnFnR87]

billy's myspace said a couple weeks ago that they are recording the concert jam "superchrist" in the studio. they apparently changed it alot cuz it has a violin in it.



Superchrist - Smashing Pumpkins
Hard and heavy electric guitars, this is a 7 minute epic rock track called ?Superchrist?. The deep quasi-metal sound lulls into a beautiful gentle break featuring Billy Corgan?s folk-style picked acoustic guitar overladen with Ysanne delicate violins. Harmonically progressive, this is brave and dangerous stuff.

http://ilovestrings.com/discography/

i thought the song was okay live, they played it at aol sessions and a bunch of concerts, i think its good news that they changed it alot.

[ToEachesOwn]

Superchrist video:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=29097011

Really... bad... video and I'm a huge Pumpkins' fan.

The song itself is okay, but definitely not Billy's finest work

[ToEachesOwn]

This week, the Smashing Pumpkins filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against their former label, Virgin Records, alleging the band's name was used without permission for a Pepsi promotion. Band leader Billy Corgan called up Rolling Stone from a bathroom in Australia to explain his side of the story and wound up dishing dirt on his career, explaining how the Pumpkins will release music in the future and offering an opinionated take on Amy Winehouse, Radiohead and the state of the record industry: "I don't think the Beatles would be making an album right now."

Tell us about your personal perspective on this lawsuit.

We've been treated very poorly by [Virgin] as a label for years now. Even when we were going to put the band back together, we went to them for the umpteenth time and said, look, it's a natural thing to want to put out a best of, and they keep telling us nobody cares. And then to turn around and use us like this against our will obviously shows you how full of shit they are, because obviously you have value or they wouldn't be trying to make money on you on the side. And in our case we actually have the right to say no to these types of things. They had to ask our permission to put our music on iTunes. So this is just them getting really sneaky trying to push stuff through, because the only place they're going to get money now is from corporate sponsors.

And look, it's no secret that the record labels are out of touch. They've lost money continuously for seven or eight years and they continue to hold on to the Titanic. This is just another indication of them thinking that they can get away with whatever because they're the big old record business. You know, Josh Homme from Queens [of the Stone Age] came out talking about Interscope, Trent Reznor ... It's a very difficult position because whether it's blogs or people posting on Web sites, fans can get very frustrated about what they perceive about how you do your business, not being aware of how we continually have a gun pointed at our head.

Did you approach the label with your concerns before filing the suit?

No, because it's like talking to a brick wall. These people, they treat your music like it's worthless and they treat you like you're even more worthless. And that goes for our current label, Warner Bros., too. There's no passion. There's no love. There's no respect. It's just, like you're just a number. You might as well be some cookies, or a rock. I really think it's total arrogance on their part. I think they just thought they could get away with [using our music for the Pepsi promotion] and we wouldn't do anything about it. And luckily enough we have the ability to do something about it.

Do you have thoughts about how to go forward with your music and how to release it?

The first thing we're talking about doing is in essence not doing an album that has any walls. So we'll release the album in different forms in different places. Not just one CD with twelve songs. Our next album might be forty songs. Now, to the mainstream person, that's too many songs. So maybe you only give them one or two songs at a time. And then I think what's cool is you can deal with different people. You can do a deal with a skater Web site or you can work with Pepsi if you choose.

The music business has sown the seeds for it's own destruction here. So we're not in any hurry to go back and help save them. Warner Bros. treats us like we're from another planet. We've had a good record and we've sold records. And I haven't spoken to the label president since 2005. Now we're free, we're out of our contracts. So I think that makes us really dangerous, because we really are the kind of band that's willing to take chances. We really will work with anybody if we feel it's a cool, fun thing. And it doesn't have to always be about money.

Trent Reznor and Radiohead and all kinds of people have been jumping out of the major label system and doing things their own way. Can the labels survive?

Well, as long as they have young dumb bands who are willing to sign their lives away, yeah, of course. The label's going to continue to sell them that they're star makers. They're not star makers. Stars are born. MTV and the labels and secret people you don't know about don't run the music business any more. MySpace runs the music business now. Lots of other people run the music business now.

So it's safe to say that now that you are free of your contracts you're not going to be rushing to sign a new deal?

Well, I think it's kind of interesting and it's a vulnerable thing to say: People aren't beating our doors down to sign us, either. It's not that we're not desirable. We're not dumb. They're not going to be able to sell us their soap they're going to sell a twenty-two-year-old. And that's why they don't want to do business with us.

They're still trying to sell you on the idea that they know something that you don't know. But if you look at the numbers, they don't, they know less than the consumer. The consumer's been telling them for ten years they don't want albums. So what do they do? They continue to try to sell them albums. The consumer says that they don't want to pay $15 for fifteen songs when they only want one song. What do they try to do? They try to shove albums down their throat.

A lot of artists love the album form or have some connection to it. Is it going to bother you to be more single-focused?

No, we're still going to do albums. I think we're going to do it in a different way. I can tell that our plans right now are to do an album over two or three years and put it out in pieces and then maybe eventually bring it all back together. The album doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be ten songs. Some dumb white guy somewhere doesn't have to like it. Some old fart, out-of-touch has to decide, oh, these ten songs aren't as good as Sgt. Pepper's. Well, you know what? I don't think the Beatles would be making an album right now.

Artists are finding their own ways to get paid outside of the major-label system, like the Eagles with their Wal-Mart deal, Madonna signing up with Live Nation.

I think it's really difficult for the young artist, who doesn't have at least some sense of a pathway. For example, if you were a kid today and you're looking at the bands who are successful right now, you think, if you don't sort of sell out and let somebody make you a star, go on American Idol, then you can't be successful. Alternative culture is really critical towards introducing new ideas. We need those young bands to push old band like us, to push new boundaries. We need our butts kicked regularly. That's where all the energy comes from, from the bottom. And when the message on Amy Winehouse is drama is better than music, and for Radiohead publicity is better than music ? no disrespect to them. But I think it's a bad message to young bands of how to make it happen. It's almost like the evil stepchild of the rap bling-bling thing, like, the only way to make it work is I've got to come up with a gimmick.

[ToEachesOwn]

Selling out has lost its negative stereotype in a sense.

We can all talk forever about how cool it is and how things are different: The power's coming back to the artist. But sometimes it takes an oppositional force to make things work. The old music business wasn't great but at least it kind of gave you something to kind of work with or against. Now, who do you work for and who do you work against? The great example is American Idol. I mean, who gets bigger marketing, whose TV show is bigger? And then those artists don't sell. There's a complete disconnect between the drama of the show, the emotional connection with the singers, and then absolutely no care for their musical career. I mean, that's troubling.

Right, because, like you say, it's not really about the music at the end of the day.

Right. And as an alternative artist, we're still here because it is about the music. And anybody can point to any other 9,000 stupid things I've said or done. The music still trumped any of those things. So I can sit here at my rosy age and know that that's why we're here, because the music has held us in good stead with a lot of people around the world.

Speaking of the music, could you talk about new single "Superchrist"? Is that indicative of what you guys might be working on next?

I think that's the band, me, whomever, back in free territory. I think, if I was a fan of the Pumpkins, the great frustration is, where's that energy that used to be there? We made the video for $5,000. We spent our own money to record the song. We did it our own way. There was nobody standing there and there was no timetable. We just put it out when we wanted. It was great. I think that's where the band belongs.

Coming back, we didn't really know what to expect. It's a weird world. I mean, we never said we were bringing the original band back. And then people were saying, oh, it's not the original band. Well, we tried. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Stay home? You're dealing with ideas and opinions and disappointments that aren't yours. And there's not much you can do about them. We've rebelled for years. It's just that we've been quietly rebelling in a system that didn't give us a lot of options.

Is there a moment you can pinpoint that demonstrates your mistreatment at the hands of a label?

I'll give you my favorite line of the past three years. I was talking to the label president from Warner Bros., Tom Walley, and we were having a call. They were actually thinking about dropping us, which in retrospect probably would have been good. I was in Arizona, we were starting to write the album, and so I said things are going great. And he said, "What's the difference between Zwan and Smashing Pumpkins?" And I was like, what do you say? What do you say to a brick wall? What's the difference between your side band and the band that was your blood and your sweat and your heart for fourteen years? So we're out of Purgatory. And we're excited now.

[LunsJail]

ToEachesOwn:  Very interesting interview.  Thanks for the post!

[ToEachesOwn]

http://www.reportyourhometeaching.com/bc_interview.flv

Billy hanging with fans out in L.A.  Some topics that are discussed:

-Fall tour including LA, NYC, and Chicago
-"Era" tours where the band will just play stuff from certain eras (example: what the band would have played in 1993 on the Siamese Dream tour, etc)
-A live DVD from the Asheville/SF residencies
-Gossamer possibly being released
-The music industry/fan base

It's actually a very cool 6 minute interview.  Keep in mind, he's just chilling with fans in a parking lot so it's more informal.

[GnFnR87]

http://www.reportyourhometeaching.com/bc_interview.flv

Billy hanging with fans out in L.A.  Some topics that are discussed:

-Fall tour including LA, NYC, and Chicago
-"Era" tours where the band will just play stuff from certain eras (example: what the band would have played in 1993 on the Siamese Dream tour, etc)
-A live DVD from the Asheville/SF residencies
-Gossamer possibly being released
-The music industry/fan base

It's actually a very cool 6 minute interview.  Keep in mind, he's just chilling with fans in a parking lot so it's more informal.

all of that sounds awesome, especially the release of gossammer. i hope billy follows through.

[Rapunzel]

The music is more FUN now! 

[Gunsnroses-now]

The music is more FUN now! 

Care to explain that?

[ToEachesOwn]

New single G.L.O.W. will be out in September.  I guess the plan is to release singles every couple of months.  No albums.  Just songs.

http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/news_5077

[mrlee]

jesus im sick of bands marketing everything through crappy games all of a sudden.

[GeraldFord]

New single G.L.O.W. will be out in September.  I guess the plan is to release singles every couple of months.  No albums.  Just songs.

http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/news_5077

That's re-tad-ed