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Smashing Pumpkins Drop Happy Teargarden Track, Tease More To Come

Posted 5/3/11 4:31 pm EST by in Music


Zach Swickey

The Smashing Pumpkins have treated us to yet another new tune from their 44-track behemoth endeavor Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. Song number 10 "Owata," which is streaming now on LAWeekly.com, is a departure from the usual dark, melancholic feel that the group is known for (this is a band who dubbed an album, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, after all). Deriving its peculiar name from the past tense Japanese term for "to finish" or possibly a play on the lyrics, "Oh what a beautiful night!," the song opens to some fun, bouncy strings that catch the listener off-guard.

Singer/mastermind Billy Corgan sounds upbeat with the keyboards adding the audio equivalent of the sun's rays. The chugging drums contrast against the smooth plucks of the acoustic guitar, and the song can't help but force you to crack a smile as you bounce along to this newfound positivity. While the group has fallen short of their "one song a month" goal for Teargarden, it is hard to complain when the music is free.
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Happy Birthday, Billy Corgan: Wake-Up Video

Posted 3/17/11 10:30 am EST by in Music


It's a little bit ironic that Billy Corgan, perhaps the gloomiest Gus of the alternative rock era, celebrates his birthday on a day typically reserved for unbridled celebration. Corgan turns 44 years old on this St. Patrick's Day, so celebrate with a double-frosted cupcake and some green streamers.

Corgan is best known as the frontman and mastermind behind Smashing Pumpkins, one of the definitive alternative rock bands from the '90s. Founded in Chicago, the Pumpkins first got some attention with their debut album Gish (which was produced by Butch Vig only a few months before he twiddled the knobs for Nirvana's classic Nevermind). The Pumpkins went from underground favorites to mainstream juggernauts with Siamese Dream, which contained signature hits like "Cherub Rock," "Disarm" and "Today," all of which became instant radio staples and have scarcely left heavy rotation since.

Smashing Pumpkins continued to evolve, expand and contract like a living organism, and they eventually split so Corgan could pursue other avenues (which included a solo album and a sorta-supergroup called Zwan). But he eventually came back to the place — and the songs — that he loved, and Smashing Pumpkins reformed in 2006 (though at the time, the only members of the "classic" lineup included Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin; only Corgan remains today). The band picked up right where it left off, grinding out savage slabs of white-hot beauty powered by Corgan's masterful guitar playing and unique voice. His work with the Pumpkins remains his best, though the one album produced by Zwan remains something of an underrated gem. So in honor of Corgan's birthday, play "Honestly" extra loud.


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Billy Corgan Vs. Pavement: The Smackdown Continues!

Posted 11/16/10 9:30 am EST by in Music


One of the oldest (and in many ways, most passive) feuds in rock history got stoked again on Monday (November 15) when Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan took to Twitter to take down recently reunited indie rock darlings Pavement. "Just found out SP is playing with Pavement in Brazil," Corgan wrote on his Twitter. "It's gonna be one of those New Orleans type funerals. I say that because they represent the death of the alternative dream, and we follow with the affirmation of life part. Funny how those who pointed the big finger of 'sell out' are the biggest offenders now."

The feud dates all the way back to Pavement's song "Range Life," which comes from their classic 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. In the song's third verse, frontman Stephen Malkmus sings "Out on tour with the smashing pumpkins/ Nature kids, they don't have no function/ I don't understand what they mean/ And I could really give a f--k." (The lyric also calls out Stone Temple Pilots a bit later.) Corgan bristled at the idea of being called out in the lyrics, and it didn't help that "Range Life" became one of Pavement's cornerstone songs (though never really a true "single" in the sense that Smashing Pumpkins broke singles).

Corgan's note about "sell outs" is emblematic of a '90s alternative rock attitude that doesn't really exist any more. For a time at the beginning of the alt-rock revolution, maintaining credibility was a huge issue among bands (even those who were already signed to major labels). The idea of whoring out your music for the sake of getting in a television commercial or getting tour sponsorship was considered a deadly sin in that era, and bands were openly vocal about their ability to stay true to themselves despite the river of money that was flowing toward them at all times. Pavement stayed ultra-indie until the end, while Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins were considered sell-outs because they made big-sounding music that was all over the radio and MTV. (Also it didn't help that they were on a fake indie label that was actually owned by Virgin.)

Of course, all this discourse is somewhat moot nowadays. You don't hear the phrase "sell out" anymore — the music industry has gotten so fractured that it's basically impossible to make a living as a musician without a little integrated marketing. Nobody holds it against their favorite bands when they decide they want to eat, and people are just happy to have Pavement back, even if it means paying slightly too much money for a ticket (though again, most Pavement fans would happily trade some extra cash so Bob Nastanovich can eat). The bottom line? "Range Life" is still a great song, no matter what you think of Smashing Pumpkins.


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Smashing Pumpkins' Mexico City Show Interrupted By Luchadors

Posted 8/30/10 11:30 am EST by in Music


There are a handful of things you are likely to see at a Smashing Pumpkins concert. You'll definitely get a turned-to-11 blast of industrial-sized rock riffs. It's probable you'll get a few jokes from frontman Billy Corgan and some decent stage patter. You'll certainly get to see 20-year-old drummer Mike Byrne absolutely tearing up the kit. But at the Pumpkins' concert stop at the National Auditorium in Mexico City on Friday (August 27), the band was interrupted by a trio of Mexican luchadors who attacked Corgan, which required the assistance of three more warriors who made the save.

During the show, Corgan was interrupted by Alex Koslov, Hernandez and Decnis, three stars from the Mexican wrestling group AAA. They claimed that that performance was no good and that they had decided to shut down the whole evening, even going as far as attacking Corgan. Once they laid a hand on the 43-year-old Chicagoan (and professional wrestling enthusiast), that was the cue for La Parka, Mesias and Extreme Tiger to hit the stage to make the save. They saved Corgan from physical harm and chased the three villains ("heels" in wrestle-speak) away to let the concert continue.

This is hardly the first time that Corgan has been associated with the squared circle. He did an angle on the old Extreme Championship Wrestling television show back in the day, which saw him smash a guitar over the head of Lou E. Dangerously. Back in 2008, Corgan loaned the Pumpkins' song "Doomsday Clock" to independent outfit Ring of Honor to promote one of their pay-per-view events. And most recently, Corgan did promo work for Total Nonstop Action's annual Lockdown event, which saw him in the middle of a steel cage reciting the lyrics to "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." He even showed up to the Sunset Strip Music Festival a day later with his lucha mask-wearing son. The guy is clearly a fan, and will take any opportunity to throw a little wrasslin' into the mix.

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Happy Birthday, Butch Vig: Wake-Up Video

Posted 8/2/10 8:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


If you've pumped your fist to a rock song in the past 25 years or so, you probably know the work of Butch Vig. The veteran producer and musician has been responsible for some of the most dynamic, memorable and important rock music of the past few generations, having sat behind the boards on at least three stone cold classics and getting his hands dirty for many more. Vig turns 55 years old today, which means he gets to have any flavor of ice cream he wants.

Vig (real name Bryan) got his start in Madison, Wisconsin where he attended college. His first brush with professional musicianship came when he began contributing soundtrack pieces to low-budget films. He was also a member of a number of bands, including combos with future Garbage bandmates Duke Erikson and Steve Marker. Two of those bands — Spooner and Fire Town — released albums and scored minor success in the indie world, but Vig found that he was more suited for production work.

His big break came in 1991, when he produced Smashing Pumpkins' debut album Gish and also took the controls for Nirvana's legendary Nevermind. Vig became a go-to guy for alt-rockers looking for a big, complicated sound. The hits kept coming with Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream (perhaps the purest example of Vig's aesthetic), Soul Asylum's Let Your Dim Light Shine, L7's Bricks Are Heavy and two albums for Sonic Youth (Dirty and Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star).

Vig went back to playing music full time in 1995, when he released the first album by his new band Garbage, which featured Erikson, Marker and former Angelfish singer Shirley Manson. The group helped blend together '90s alt-rock sensibilities with futuristic production tricks, dance music, New Wave and whatever else made for great arena-sized beat science. Though the band hasn't released new music since 2005, anticipation for new music remains high.

In recent years, Vig has continued to produce high-profile material by Green Day (he won a Grammy for his work on 21st Century Breakdown), Foo Fighters, Muse (their song on the soundtrack to "Eclipse" is a Vig production) and AFI. He is also responsible for Against Me!'s White Crosses, one of the best album of 2010.

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Spotted: Smashing Pumpkins Raise The Roof In Florida

Posted 7/21/10 2:30 pm EST by in Music


Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

For a guy who has written so many songs about angst, rage and heartbreak, Billy Corgan smiles an awful lot. And why not? He and his band Smashing Pumpkins are not only in the middle of a hugely popular cross-country tour, but he is also in the middle of a wildly ambitious project that will see him released dozens of free songs over the next few years under the overarching title Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (which has been warmly greeted and eagerly devoured by fans). He remains involved in his hometown as well, as he will be performing a benefit concert this Tuesday, July 27 at the Metro in Chicago, with the proceeds going to pay for medical care for Madina Lake bassist Matthew Leone, who suffered severe brain trauma after trying to intervene in a fight between two people on the street last month. But on Tuesday night, the Pumpkins invaded Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a killer set of new jams and stone cold classics.

Corgan wasn't the only star smiling, as Deborah Gibson (she of "Out of the Blue" and "Megashark Vs. Giant Octopus" fame) stopped by the Sirius-XM studio in New York to talk about upcoming projects and look incredibly hot, while Selena Gomez waved to fans on her way into the Ed Sullivan Theater for an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 400 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, Adam Lambert, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Madonna, Shakira and 50 Cent!

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Jessica Simpson Will Not Be Joining The Smashing Pumpkins: The MTV News Quote Of The Day

Posted 3/19/10 4:25 pm EST by in Music


"You gotta be a little bit more wild and crazy [to join the Smashing Pumpkins]. I mean, I have some crazy moments in my life or things about me, but I don't know that I can stand onstage and represent Billy [Corgan] the way he is. He does that fine on his own."

-Singer, actress and host of "The Price of Beauty" Jessica Simpson, joking with MTV News about whether or not she would join the Smashing Pumpkins, the band fronted by collaborator and friend Billy Corgan. He recently put out an open call for a new bassist and keyboard player for his group, which is currently working on a lengthy, high-concept — and totally free — album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. Still, she told MTV News' Jocelyn Vena that she has learned a lot working with Corgan, who helped produce "Who We Are," the theme song to "The Price of Beauty." "To be able to sit with Billy [is a learning experience], and I always feel comfortable with him, 'cause he is a close friend of mine," she said. "And I know he had my best interest at heart, and it was great to be able to collaborate with him and to have him there in the studio."

So though she won't be learning how to play "Cherub Rock" on bass, she promises that her next career move will be bold. "I'm putting my hands in different things, trying to executive-produce some show ideas," she said. "I think people will be very shocked to see what might happen in my life next."

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Happy Birthday, Billy Corgan: Wake-Up Video

Posted 3/17/10 10:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


If you spot Billy Corgan today (and it's hard to miss him considering his height), be sure to pat him on the back and give him a Hallmark card, because the Smashing Pumpkins mastermind celebrates his birthday on March 17. He is now 43 years old.

A native of Chicago (he's a diehard Cubs fan), Corgan founded the Smashing Pumpkins in 1988. Though the early work was spartan (the Pumpkins played a handful of shows accompanied by a drum machine because they hadn't yet hired skinsman Jimmy Chamberlin) but the group quickly established themselves as a force on the alternative rock scene in the early 1990s.

Combining elements of prog, punk, classic rock and industrial music, the Smashing Pumpkins' first three albums — 1991's Gish, 1993's Siamese Dream and 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness — represent perhaps the greatest trifecta in rock history. In those albums, Corgan proved himself to be both a brilliant and prolific songwriter, churning out dozens of songs about angst, heartbreak and his own troubled childhood. He is responsible for some of the cornerstones of alt-rock radio, including "Today," "Cherub Rock," "Disarm," "Tonight Tonight" and "1979."

During the tour for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of an overdose while doing drugs with Chamberlin, which lead to his exit from the band. Following that, they were never the same. The group broke up at the turn of the millennium, leading Corgan to cut one album with a new band called Zwan and another as a solo artist. In 2007, re-emerged under the Smashing Pumpkins name and dropped Zeitgeist. He is currently working on his boldest experiment yet, slowly releasing a 44-track entirely free album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. In between recording sessions, he has also been helping out Jessica Simpson with new music.

Most of the world first got a look at Corgan through the video for "Siva," a savage single from Gish that acts as a perfect manifesto to the Smashing Pumpkins' music: Simultaneously brutal and gorgeous, razor-sharp and freewheeling, violent and graceful.

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Billy Corgan Unveils Smashing Pumpkins' 'Widow Wake My Mind'

Posted 1/19/10 5:12 pm EST by in Music


On Monday (January 18), Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan unleashed "Widow Wake My Mind," the second track from his ongoing 44-song (and entirely free) opus Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. (You can download the track at the official Smashing Pumpkins Web site.) Last month when Corgan stopped by the MTV Newsroom to discuss the album's debut track "Song for a Son," the frontman told us that "Widow Wake My Mind" was in the running to be the first song, but he opted for "Song for a Son" because it had a more epic quality. "'Widow Wake My Mind' sounds like a more obvious single," Corgan said.

He's right, as while "Song for a Son" was a heavy, shifty epic, "Widow Wake My Mind" shines a little light on the more whimsical side of Corgan's songwriting. It's a bright, poppy, jumpy tune that features a playful groove and pretty anthemic chorus. There's even a tinkling piano interlude that lends it an ethereal quality. The tune was produced by Kerry Brown, who has been spending plenty of quality time in the studio with Corgan (and also with Jessica Simpson), and it sounds clean, crisp and radio-ready.

Back in December, Corgan stated that he would try to release around one song per month as Teargarden by Kaleidyscope progresses, and he expects the whole thing to take him about three years. It's a long haul, but he likes the fact that listeners can get into it as much as they want. "The average consumer can download it for free, as much or as little of it as they want," he explained. "At the end, the whole thing will be brought together in a special package that isn't for the average consumer. In a way, it's a work in progress, but at the same time people can share in it and participate in it in the normal ways." Considering the variations on the first two songs he's dropped, we're tremendously excited for whatever Corgan is delivering next.

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Jessica Simpson Hits The Studio With Billy Corgan (Not A Typo)

Posted 1/15/10 10:50 am EST by in Music


Back in January, Jessica Simpson and Billy Corgan were seen hanging out together. Soon their friends were dishing that the pair was dating. It kind of left us feeling a little confused. For instance, how did that pop star turned country singer even meet the morose former Smashing Pumpkins frontman?

After laying low for a few weeks (so low that we almost forgot about the wacky pairing) comes news that Jessica and Billy are working in the studio together. And this isn't news from friends of sources, but instead from Jessica's Twitter, where she shares such gems as "Happy Birthday Jimmy Page!! You have always been one of my favorites" and "Dear elderly man at the gym: its hard 4 me 2 keep composure whilst punching at chipmunk speed when ur ball sack spills out of ur wind shorts."

But our favorite tweet appeared just the other day, when she tweeted a photo of herself and Corgan in the studio working on music that has since been removed. She has apparently been in the studio with him and producer Kerry Brown (who is working on Corgan's ongoing opus Teargarden by Kaleidyscope).

What will this song sound like? Will it be some weird cross between "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "I Wanna Love You Forever"? Is Jessica providing backing vocals for a Teargarden track or does Simpson want her next album to sound less like country and more like Zeitgeist? Only time will tell, but until then, this remains our favorite left-field musical tag-team of 2010.

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