SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION 2-CD PACKAGE TO BE AVAILABLE FOR SHORT TIME
On November 20, 2001, Virgin Records will release the long-awaited Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits, entitled Rotten Apples. To coincide with this event, Virgin will also issue a limited edition, two-CD package that will include the Rotten Apples disc as well as Judas O. Judas O is the follow-up to Pisces Iscariot, the 1994 b-sides release by the Pumpkins. The new compilation will feature b-sides and rarities culled from the band’s sessions which produced Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, and MACHINA. As an added bonus for true Pumpkins fans, the artwork for the Greatest Hits will contain never-before-seen photos of the band.
In addition to the CD set, a special DVD will be released to coincide with the Greatest Hits. The DVD will include the Smashing Pumpkins’ video collection from their albums and a documentary on the making of those videos.
Following is a complete track listing for both CDs:
Rotten Apples Track Listing
Siva
Rhinocerous
Drown
Cherub Rock
Today
Disarm
Landslide
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
1979
Zero
Tonight, Tonight
Eye
Ava Adore
Perfect
The Everlasting Gaze
Stand Inside Your Love
Real Love (previously unreleased track from MACHINA II)
Untitled (new track)
Judas O Track Listing
Lucky 13 (previously unreleased MACHINA II b-side)
Aeroplane Flies High
Because You Are (previously unreleased Adore Outtake)
Slow Dawn (previously unreleased MACHINA II b-side)
Believe
My Mistake (previously unreleased Adore Outtake)
Marquis in Spades
Here’s to the Atom Bomb
Sparrow (previously unreleased Adore Outtake)
Waiting (previously unreleased Adore Outtake)
Saturnine (previously unreleased Adore Outtake)
Rock On (previously unreleased)
Set the Ray
Winterlong (previously unreleased MACHINA demo)
Soot and Stars (previously unreleased MACHINA demo)
Blissed and Gone
July 12, 2001- :( my pictures didn't turn out... here are the best of them... and they don't even look that good... act IV pics
July 8, 2001-
act IV was great... billy was there and said that the metro dvd is taking longer than expected and won't be out till next year, but there is going to be sort of a documentary about the end of the band and such... he also said there will be a dvd of all the music videos released... and that the greatest hit's album will include untitled... and that there will be a bonus cd which was a follow up to pisces iscariot, it's the same type of album only with mellon collie stuff on it, and he said it would be called judas o'reilly... for more on my experience at act IV see my post on the hole message boards here
i'll be posting my act IV pictures as soon as i get them back...
April 1, 2001-
wowzers! i wished for it, and it happened, here's some pumpkin news for ya...
Former Pumpkins frontman, techno duo guest on electro-rock group's first album since 1993.
Billy Corgan and the Chemical Brothers will guest on pioneering electro-rock group New Order's first album since 1993's Republic.
The former Smashing Pumpkins frontman contributes vocals on a song called "Shipwreck of a Broken Man," according to a source close to New Order. The Chemical Brothers bring beats to an as-yet-untitled track.
The album, due worldwide in early September, is also as-yet-untitled, according to the source.
New Order features singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris — all members of the legendary post-punk outfit Joy Division, which came to an end with the suicide of singer Ian Curtis in 1980.
New Order are in negotiations to play a handful of West Coast dates with Moby to promote the new album.
After disbanding for a short time, the trio re-formed under the name New Order. Sumner took over vocals and the group added keyboardist Gillian Gilbert. The group released several classic albums and scored with such singles as "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Blue Monday" (RealAudio excerpt), which resurfaced when Orgy covered the song in 1998.
New Order finished recording their new album at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, last week, according to the studio manager.
Producer Steve Osborne, who has worked with Paul Oakenfold and U2, is scheduled to finish mixing the album by the end of April. Influential U.K. DJ Pete Tong is also working on production of the record.
"It's awesome, absolutely awesome," Tong said last fall. "They'll come back and be really relevant and contemporary, and surprise a few people and not disappoint Joy Division or New Order fans."
New Order are still deciding on the album's first single, which will be released in mid-July. "Crystal," mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent (Massive Attack, Spice Girls, Depeche Mode), is the early favorite, though "60mph," mixed by David Kahne (Sugar Ray, Sublime) is also a contender. Other tracks on the album include "Dream On" and "Slow Jam."
"It is very modern with loads of guitars," the source said. "It has a lot of interesting sounds. New Order fans might expect it to be keyboard-orientated, but it's not."
New Order are in negotiations to play a handful of West Coast dates with Moby to promote the new album. The band does have one date scheduled — July 28 in Japan at the Fuji Rock Festival, which also includes Travis, Oasis, At the Drive-In and Alanis Morissette.
A New Order live DVD, including footage filmed at a New York City show in 1981 and at Britain's Reading Festival in 1998, is scheduled to be released in the U.K. in April and will likely hit the States soon after, the source said.
"Shipwreck of a Broken Man" marks Corgan's first album appearance since the disbandment of the Smashing Pumpkins in December. He is also reportedly working on upcoming albums from Marianne Faithfull and Lisa Marie Presley.
just thought i'd add that he is definitely working on the album for marianne faithfull, he talked about that on the news march 22nd...
April 1, 2001-
whoo hoo, the site had it's 1979th visitor today. hehe, a milestone that was reached by james the god of spaghetti, whom resides on pumpkin island, congrats to him. hehehe. i really wish i had some pumpkin news to report...
March 26, 2001-
Happy 33rd Birthday to Mr. James Iha.
March 22, 2001-
Billy played at the Third Waltz tonight. This morning he was on Fox Thing In The Morning and said "if anyone wants to start a band, call me" hehe, but he forgot to give his phone number (pure accident i'm sure) so how am i suppose to call him?!?! hehe, billy, i know you spy on your fans, if you see this, email me!! (no, i am not legally insane).
March 17, 2001-
Happy 34th Birthday Billy Corgan!
wow, i can't beleive he is 34 already, he doesn't look like it!
December 4, 2000-
God Bless The Pumkins
On Saturday. The Smashing Pumpkins ended their 13 year career together when performing a four and a half hour show at the same club which kick started their illustrious careers. Corgan began the show by telling the audience "Welcome to the last gasp of The Smashing Pumpkins." Corgan's father joined the band on stage for the Blue's classic "Born Under A Bad Sign," while Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nelson joined the group for a blistering version of "Cherub Rock." Corgan's final words were "God Bless the Smashing Pumpkins" and left the stage in tears. "We Will Miss You Pumpkins"
October 19, 2000-
Final Smashing Pumpkins tour dates announced. November 29th at the United Center in Chicago and December 2nd at the Metro in Chicago. Tickets on sale this Saturday at noon.
I wish you all the best of luck in getting tickets!!!
September 11, 2000-
Final album on the web?
It could be a rock n' roll urban myth, or is it the Smashing Pumpkins' revenge on the recording industry?
The Internet was abuzz Friday with reports that a new Smashing Pumpkins bootleg circulating through the web via the downloadable MP3 format was in fact the band's official final album, and that band leader Billy Corgan had initiated the Internet leak himself.
A spokesman for the band's label in Canada, Virgin, said they had no word of the controversial release, but online, fans say they are convinced the album, "Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music" is the real thing.
Whether or not the story turns out to be true, by late Friday, it had taken on a life of its own. Pumpkins newsgroups were jammed with messages posting addresses for websites allegedly offering the album for free download, but most of the links either didn't work or were no longer available -- something that could be caused by excessive traffic from fans scrambling to upload to songs.
According to fans of the group, Corgan pressed up 25 copies of the album on two 12-inch vinyl albums and three 10-inch EPs. It's alleged Corgan sent the ultra-limited edition release to fans and friends and encouraged them to convert the music into the MP3 format and allow fans of the band to download their own copies.
One site even posted scans of the album cover (http://www.xero.com/sp/new/cr04.htm).
Several sites posted what they claimed was a message from Corgan explaining the release.
"A follow-up to 'Machina,' and the last album from the band. As a final farewell, and a f--k you to a record label that didn't give them the support they deserved, a limited pressing album was made (3x10" + 2LP, 5 discs total) and given away to be bootlegged out among the fans," the message says.
"All tracks are completely new/unheard, except for 'Real Love,' which appears to be the same as the one found on the 'Friends & Enemies' 60m cassette bootleg, and 'Le Deux Machina,' which is the same synth version as found on the acoustic machina demos," the message says, referring to two earlier Pumpkins bootlegs.
"Just to clear up any possible confusion, this is the final album from the band. There are 25 copies. There will not be a CD pressing."
At the Pumpkins' official website, Corgan has been posting a series of messages called "Chards Of Glass" that initially described work on what sounded like a final Pumpkins album but soon dissolved into near-gibberish. Given the current developments, however, his July 27 posting may have been prescient:
"Tick-tock the rumors fly, but who knows ... I told you but nobody would listen/All you hear is a lot of wishin' ... It's a psychadelic (sic) shack of love and muzak/Hold your breath it's coming soon, but not how you imagine."
Recently, the band had begun streaming through their website live recordings from across the Pumpkins' career.
August 16, 2000-
A Long Goodbye for Pumpkins
Chicago alternative-rock heroes the Smashing Pumpkins may be preparing to disband early next year, but fans will still have plenty of opportunities to hear new music from the band, as well as to catch the group in one final round of concerts.
Sources close to the Pumpkins say that bandleader Billy Corgan is mulling over a series of farewell dates, probably in February, that will likely include stops at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont and the band's "home away from home," Metro in Wrigleyville.
The Pumpkins finish a Canadian tour Thursday and tour Europe from Sept. 16 through Nov. 3. They will launch their final U.S. tour some time after that, culminating with several goodbye shows in Chicago.
The group was home in the Windy City for several weeks last month, and Corgan spent much of that time sequestered at the Chicago Recording Company on the Near North Side, archiving early demos and unreleased rarities and even recording some new tunes with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.
The band is expected to make some of these tracks (including outtakes from its last album, "Machina/The Machines of God") available via one or more releases for Virgin Records, as well as through some newer media.
On Monday, the band announced it has launched a 24-hour streaming Internet radio station at www.SmashingPumpkins.com. The station will make available live recordings from the early '90s through the current tour, as well as offering otherwise unavailable studio recordings.
Also posted on the site is "Glass and the Synthetic Army, Part 3," the third installment of Corgan's account of the making of "Machina," and "Shards of Glass," his ongoing online tour diary, which avoids capitalization, most punctuation and anything resembling straightforward prose.
To coincide with the band's recent swing through Japan, the entire Web site, including Corgan's writing, was translated into Japanese.
A typical entry--in English--from the diary, dated July 27: "in a world war 2 bunker--tick-tock the rumors are flying flick-flack but who knows the windpipe cracked and that nobody gives a rat's a- - piddle-dum-twiddle-see."
What is the Great Pumpkin rambling on about? Speculation continues to run rampant about where he will hang his hat when the Pumpkins finally call it a day.
The musician is selling the 100-year-old Victorian house in Lake View that he bought in the early '90s; the asking price is reportedly $1.05 million.
Corgan has said he would like to live somewhere else for a while, but he will still own a loft in Chicago (as well as homes in New York and Los Angeles).
People close to him say he isn't likely to ever sever his ties here completely.
For computer systems that can handle it, the Pumpkins' Web site is also posting video images. It will premiere a "director's cut" with deleted scenes from the video "Try, Try, Try" starting at 7 p.m. Thursday.
August 8, 2000-
As Billy Corgan, the Smashing Pumpkins' lead singer and chief songwriter, walks around his empty, Victorian painted lady house in Lake View, he evokes no end of nostalgia.
He recalls the roughly 150 songs and the records that he wrote in the more than 100-year-old home since purchasing it in 1993. He reminisces about the "good luck" and positive energy that he says the house brought him, as his career rose from being a successful alternative rocker in 1993 to a full-out superstar today.
He rues the fact that a house into which he placed so much of his time, effort and money could no longer be a sanctuary for him, because of the attention it drew from fans.
But Corgan, who has just placed the house on the market for $1.05 million, is not just selling his house and moving to a more secluded or secretive residence in Chicago.
Instead, like Nelson Algren and Saul Bellow before him--two artists who opted to pack their bags and move out of the city that embraced them--Corgan is leaving Chicago for good.
To where, he does not know, but one thing he says is clear: if he had planned to return to Chicago to live, he'd be hanging onto the home.
In an exclusive interview on the eve of putting the home up for sale--because of his attachment to the house, he has debated doing so for many months--the affable, bald-headed, 33-year-old rock star talked about his reasons for leaving and described the restoration work he has done to the house.
He also demonstrated a clear appreciation for the original design of the Victorian and a deep desire to sell it to someone who will preserve it as much as possible.
To be sure, in today's hot real estate market, there usually is no shortage of buyers for well-kept single-family homes, particularly in popular neighborhoods like Corgan's, which is near the intersection of Southport Avenue and Addison Street. But Corgan insisted that he feels he "owes" it to a house that brought him so much peace to find a buyer for it who will respect its original design and higher aesthetic.
Like many homes of its vintage, Corgan's house, which sits on a beautifully landscaped double lot at [Billy's Address], has a history shrouded in mystery. Its exact construction date and architect are unknown, although "as best as they can tell," he said, it was built after the 1893 Columbian Exposition. "The first information we had was that the owner began paying taxes on the home in 1897," Corgan said. "We know that somewhere in the Depression era, it was used as a boarding house.
"It had a kitchen upstairs, and multiple families moved in. The owner at the time made changes to the house to accommodate the multiple families, but these weren't changes that reflected affluence."
Ironically, the house's various owners' lack of wealth might actually have had a hand in preserving the home from modernization, Corgan said.
"There's nothing worse than a house from the 1940s that has been 1970s-ized," he said. "Nobody ever lived here who was affluent. "Here, they managed not to strip away the original features. It's very rare that you find that. Some houses you'll see today have some quaint sentiment preserved in the corner, but that's all."
Marlene Granacki, who specializes in vintage properties for Re/Max Exclusive Properties and is Corgan's listing agent along with Re/Max's Anna Klocek, noted that the house retains all of its original molding--save for two back bedrooms--all original woodwork and much of its original stained glass.
When Corgan, who grew up in Chicago's suburbs, moved to Lake View in 1986, he always had expected that if he ever achieved financial success, he'd buy a house in the neighborhood.
And when the Pumpkins began to take off commercially with their multi-platinum breakthrough album "Gish" in 1991, Corgan was thrust into the position of homeownership.
"In 1992, I was living in a parking garage and sleeping on a friend's floor, and suddenly, I came into money," Corgan recalled. "A house like this was a dream come true. It was mind-blowing. I couldn't imagine that someone like me could live in a place like this." Corgan instantly embraced the house, for reasons both cosmic and practical.
"From the first moment I walked into the house, I saw it as a comfort, as a safety," he said. "Not to be overly metaphysical, but houses have a certain energy in them. "This house is full of love. I don't think anything ever bad happened in it, and being an artist, I'm sensitive to that."
So Corgan set about restoring the house. He was aided by the fact that its front hall and living room required no restoration whatsoever, adding, "I'm not kidding you when I say that I didn't have to do a thing to these rooms."
On the south wall of the living room are two gorgeous green stained-glass windows that Corgan thinks are original because they are more leaded, rougher and have deeper glass. On the north wall of the house, next to the staircase, are bubble-glass stained-glass windows that are equally attractive.
Corgan placed a grand piano in the front bay window, noting that the light that streams into the house, particularly in the early-morning hours, make that spot especially conducive to songwriting. He was photographed there for a Rolling Stone article several years ago, in fact.
After passing through a second room on the first floor, which could function as a dining room, one reaches a back room, which Corgan used as a TV room and as a retreat for songwriting.
He said it likely was a formal family dining area in the house's early days. Complete with a fireplace and a barrel-vaulted ceiling, the room was the "1910 version of a rec room," Corgan said with a laugh.
Although the home's kitchen is not large, Corgan said he suspects that the actual cooking in the 1910s and 1920s may have been done in the home's full basement, allowing the first-floor kitchen to function as a food staging area.
"You have to put yourself in the mindset of what people were like back then," Corgan said. "The basement was probably more informal, while the kitchen was a more formal room.
"The one concession I could see someone making to the house would be to enlarge the kitchen across the back porch. I don't think that's counterintuitive to the original design of the house."
One of the house's most unusual features is a dark lincrusta wallpaper--an embossed wall covering originating in England that mimics tooled leather--along its principal staircase. Most lincrusta coverings that remain in old homes have been painted over, making Corgan's all the more remarkable.
"I was not crazy about it, but the last thing I would do would be to tear it down," Corgan said of the lincrusta. "It's not my style, but I'm not going to fight the house's aesthetic.
"And details like these showed the incredible original condition that the house was in, and the amount of money that somebody put in to this house back in the 1890s."
Upstairs, Corgan showed his remaining two preferred songwriting venues--on his bed in the master bedroom, and in another bedroom, in which, he self-effacingly notes with a wave of the hand, he wrote "a lot of hits."
The master bedroom overlooks the front and south sides of the house and allowed in so much natural light, he said, that he soon ripped out all the curtains. It also was the room where a serendipitous experience occurred, about a year and a half ago.
"I woke up out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night and immediately went to the window," he remembered. "I saw a fire beginning inside the house just to the south, and I called the fire department. "Within five minutes the whole place was on fire. They said it was very possible that I saved somebody's life. I have no idea why I got up when I was sound asleep. I'll attribute it to God."
One small upstairs bedroom likely was used as a kitchen when the place was a boarding house, Corgan said. Near the two other back bedrooms is a less formal rear staircase, which Corgan learned was probably used by the children of the house's early inhabitants.
"The house had formal aspects and accommodations, and less formal ones, and you can't fight that," he said. "And as I lived here, I started to use the back staircase more and more regularly, and the front taircase less regularly."
Back on the first floor, Corgan notes the house's natural air flow that comes from keeping the windows open. It keeps the house cool with no need for air conditioning on any but the hottest days, he said.
Corgan also points around to the many first-floor light fixtures that are believed to be original, and notes the difficulty he encountered in trying to find artisans who could restore the interior and exterior of the house.
He considered narrowing the entryway between the first two rooms on the first floor, and putting vintage pocket doors between them.
"Any time I ever talked to anybody about that project, it was like crazy money," Corgan said. "There really aren't a lot of people out there whose primary job is to do that kind of restoration. Contractors told me it'd be cheaper to just tear the house down."
Outside, Corgan painted the house purple with dark purple accents. After doing some research, he and his then-wife discovered that most owners of Victorian painted lady houses use exterior colors that are "a psychedelic nightmare." "We wanted to find a balance between the true painted lady and the aesthetic of our neighbors, so we would not be an eyesore. The guy who originally painted the house for us wanted to paint it green, which was a traditional color, but the colors he wanted were not happening with me. We settled on a deeper purple."
Corgan spent much money and time restoring the house's front porch, replacing its wood and redoing its upstairs railings and capitals.
Behind the house is a brick, detached garage that can hold as many as five cars. Corgan said at one time, he considered completely gutting the now-partitioned garage, soundproofing it and converting into a work space for the Smashing Pumpkins.
In spite of Corgan's instant attachment to the house, his feelings toward it changed not long after he moved in, when Chicago magazine surprised him by publishing a photo of the house in its October 1995 issue.
"To me, it was beyond irresponsible," said Corgan, who to this day grants no interviews to Chicago's staff. "It's hard to estimate today with the Internet, but there was a definite change that was immediate and devastating after the photo was published. I think the picture was the literal difference. You can give out an address as 42 Mulberry Lane, for instance, but when you have a picture and you can stand and look at it, it's direct, irrefutable information. To a 15-year-old, this was important information to have."
Since the photo was published, Corgan said there has "literally been one incident per week," often in the middle of the night, in which fans visit the outside of the home and behave inappropriately. Some incidents required calls to the police, and in an unpleasant but necessary move, Corgan said he had to install a tall iron fence around the property because too many fans were going onto his front porch.
"It's a disservice to my neighbors," he said of fans' attention. "This house brought me peace, but with my crazy life now, it couldn't be a sanctuary to me anymore, and that broke my heart. If I could pick up this house and move it onto 15 acres somewhere, I would. But with the trappings of celebrity that exist today, I just can't live in this kind of property now. It literally crossed the line into the impossible. I feel I have to move."
Despite all the problems, Corgan said he harbors no animosity toward his fans, taking a kids-will-be-kids attitude toward teenagers. In fact, he said the upside of all the attention indicates that his band's popularity has made a solid impact on its listeners, and that "the energy goes on."
Having been on the receiving end of negative press, he said he felt the article paved the way for the public to reach into his "last refuge."
"I would have left four years sooner if it had not been for the house itself," Corgan said. "If anything, it says that the person who bought a house like this at age 26 didn't want to be a rock star with dogs and gates, locked inside a castle."
Corgan said he's not sure yet where his next permanent residence will be. He's currently living in temporary housing in Chicago--"I wanted to make sure I wanted to leave," he said--while he makes his decision.
He currently owns a home in New York, and there is some speculation that he might move to Los Angeles or even overseas.
No matter what, Chicago is losing its most visible rock musician, the victim of a heavy heart.
August 4, 2000-
James Iha will quit music after Smashing Pumpkins?
SMASHING PUMPKINS guitarist JAMES IHA has revealed that he may quit music altogether after the band splits at the end of this year, saying: "There has to be more to life than rock 'n' roll."
He also admitted the band were disappointed at sales of their last album, 'MACHINA/The Machines Of God'.
Speaking to Canadian newspaper the Edmonton Sun, ahead of the band's show in the city this Sunday (August 4), Iha said he was uncertain about his future, but didn't want to become "this old rock 'n' roll codger".
On the possibility of a new Pumpkins album before the split - Billy Corgan having previously revealed that the band have written 14 new songs - he said it hadn't yet been discussed fully by the band, and complained that Corgan puts his ideas up on the band's website - www.smashingpumpkins.com - before telling the band about them.
He said: "I think I'd need a substantial break. Just in announcing [the split], people ask me, 'blah, blah blah, how does it feel?' I'm like, well, you know, it's sad and weird and all that. But the big thing I was thinking about is that I've been in the band 11 years and about nine to ten months out of every year, I do the band 24-7. I don't know. I just don't want to do that for the rest of my life. It sounds depressing.
"I mean, rock 'n' roll is great, but in some sort of grand, immortal sense, I don't want to look back and be this old rock'n'roll codger. I think there's more to life than rock'n'roll."
Iha also hinted that, contrary to speculation, the split was not motivated by disappointing sales of the band's last album, 'MACHINA/The Machines Of God'. "I think everybody wishes we had sold more records like our past. I guess when people point it out and they make it sound like your failure, what are you going to say? If you think the music's good, which I think it is, and it's a good record, which I think it is, I don't know what else you can do. It's ridiculous to try to fight the press or fight people's opinions other than just go out there and play concerts. You can't change the way the world works or the way time works."
James Iha has released one solo album to date, 1998's 'Let It Come Down'. The Smashing Pumpkins' final scheduled performance takes place at London's Wembley Arena on Saturday 4 November. They release another single, 'Try Try Try', through Hut on September 11.
July 13, 2000-
Smashing Pumpkins webcast of the May 23rd show in Los Angeles is today. The webcast can be viewed at virginjamcast.com
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