Tuesday, March 9, 2010 11:16AM - By Seraphina L.
Current bassist of Smashing Pumpkins, Ginger Pooley, has announced her departure from the band as she is about to raise her new baby. With this news, Billy Corgan has also announced that in addition to looking for a new bassist he will also be holding auditions for a keyboardist. The audition process will be open again he hopes to find a musician in the same way he found drummer, Mike Byrne, who is also a fan of the band and requests that they can play in the prog-rock style of Jon Lord and Rick Wakeman.
Pooley is obviously putting her priorities in order but had these last words before leaving the band:
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010 11:38AM - By Travis Woods
When looking up the word ‘subtlety” in the dictionary, one the very last things you’re likely to see next to the word’s definition is a picture of Billy Corgan’s big bald head. This is why his newest Smashing Pumpkins project, a 44-track album entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (to be released as a series of 11 four-song EPs, so as to “hear the album as it’s being made,” according to the head Pumpkin) isn’t entirely surprising – of course someone like Corgan would deem a 44-song collection as nothing less than appropriate. We all loved Zeitgeist, right? And TheFutureEmbrace? And Zwan?
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Monday, January 18, 2010 11:30AM - By Jeffrey Hyatt
The Smashing Pumpkins have debuted a new song, “Widow Wake My Mind,” available as a free download for 24 hours through MySpace Music.
The new song is the second release from the band’s in-progress 44-song project Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. “Widow” can be downloaded at Myspace.com/smashingpumpkins. On Tuesday, the song will be available at the Smashing Pumpkins official site; the site also offers a widget enabling fans to host the song anywhere on the web.
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Thursday, January 14, 2010 1:23PM - By Seraphina L.
Jessica Simpson and Billy Corgan is one of the oddest pairings we’ve heard of yet – maybe ever. Whether the two are romantically linked or not, that’s none of our business (although a source has supposedly told E! that Jessica was smitten). We’d like to focus on the idea of this musical collaboration. Is this really happening?
Rumors started to surface about the team-up when a photo of Simpson, Corgan and producer Kerry Brown appeared online. We were aware of Corgan knocking out the lengthy album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, as well as starting his own record label but is this studio collaboration for his album or – dare we even think it – Simpson’s album?
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Thursday, January 7, 2010 1:12PM - By Jeffrey Hyatt
Billy Corgan is planning to launch a new record label that will release new material from ’70s L.A. punk band the Germs, plus more obscure, eclectic acts like the Electric Prunes, Fancy Space People and Strawberry Alarm Clock, among others.
LA Weekly’s Off the Record blog noted that Corgan will team up with frequent collaborator Kerry “Studio Dog” Brown to steer the as-yet-unnamed record label.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009 1:52PM - By Seraphina L.
Billy Corgan hasn’t been in the news since he recruited a 19-year-old drummer but with the upcoming release of Smashing Pumpkins‘ new album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, there has been tons buzz going on for them musician. The news that sets Corgan apart from other album releases is that each track is ridiculously long, the band is releasing one song at a time. The first song, “A Song for a Son” was recently released and it’s one of 44 songs for this “album.” Eventually the album will be split into four different EPs each with 11 songs.
“A Song for a Son” is currently available at Smashing Pumpkin’s official website, but the chatter doesn’t stop there. Corgan recently stopped by the MTV Newsroom to talk about why each song is so massive and how awesome Dave Navarro’s abs are. More after the jump!
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Monday, September 28, 2009 10:50AM - By craigsternberg
Portishead, the influential experimental band from Bristol, England, have already begun work on the followup to their highly successful 2008 album Third. Geoff Barrow was recently interviewed by NME and it’s clear that this will be a very unconventional release.
According to Barrow, the band is not currently under contract and are now weighing options on how to release their next batch of new songs. Barrow declined to give specifics but he did say Portishead has “big plans” for a new project that will “come from a different angle.”
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:52PM - By Seraphina L.
Mike Byrne is the new Smashing Pumpkins drummer. After all the former members of the band decided to leave last year, it’s now this 19-year old kid and Billy Corgan.
However, according to Corgan, he’s not just some kid:
“We counted over 1,000 submissions, and what made Mike stand out was he just seemed to have that X-factor that all the great drummers have, a stunning blend of power, speed, and grace. I’m excited to work with him moving forward– he truly deserves this opportunity. I believe in my heart he will push me to be a better musician.”
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Thursday, March 12, 2009 3:00PM - By Morelli
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has testified before the U.S. Congress in support of a new legislation, called the Performance Rights Act, which would make radio stations pay royalties to musicians in the same way that internet and satellite radio companies already pay.
Traditionally, radio stations don’t pay musicians or labels, compensating them instead with the added public exposure conferred by airing their songs. But now, with music sales plummeting, and radio’s promotional value dropping as well, Congress is considering the new bill presented by Corgan’s musicFIRST Coalition. Corgan defends a musician’s right to livelihood, affirming that: Continue Reading
