Flashback Friday: FOL
Earlier this week, David Wild interviewed Billy Corgan for the forthcoming Pisces Iscariot re-issue liner notes. David gave the opportunity to fans to tweet him a question for Billy to answer. The one he chose was about whether or not the Pumpkins would play during the Super Bowl halftime show if invited. See Billy’s answer here.
This got me thinking about FOL (Feel Our Love) – a song that was recorded during the Zeitgeist era. Hyundai handpicked the Smashing Pumpkins for their Super Bowl XLIII commercial, and FOL was featured in it. Billy was also credited for editing the commercial. Hyundai placed FOL for free download via their website the same day the ad was broadcasted, but has since been a 404.
You can download FOL here.
“May be the hardest thing I’ve ever done” – Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan is still working hard on his spiritual memoir titled God is Everywhere From Here to There. A fan asked him how the book was going, to which he replied, “writing this book may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
As previously reported, Billy hired research assistant Lea Clyburn to help on the book. Apparently, he hired her back in September 2011 and she spoke to her university about it in a video interview in November.
Act IV & ThePumpkins.net “SP: The Early Years” cover contest adds new category and new judge
The submission date for the Act IV & ThePumpkins.net cover contest has come and gone. You can now listen to all the entries here and you, the fan, will soon be able to vote on a single favorite cover. A committee made up of representatives from across the SP Fan Online Community will vote for the ‘Best Cover Song’.
A new category has been added called “Best New Interpretation of a Song” and will be judged by none other than Billy Corgan himself. The winner will receive a special prize that will be announced later on.
The Smashing Pumpkins release Webisode #2 – Rhinoceros
The Smashing Pumpkins posted their 2nd webisode today on their official YouTube page. Last week, the band released a webisode about Daydream, and today the band released one about Rhinoceros – a song that Billy says he doesn’t really remember writing. He explains how a lot of the Pumpkins’ older songs started as just a riff and figuring out how to take that one riff and one vocal idea and turn it into a whole song. This description is then followed by an incredible performance of Rhinoceros. This is the first known live performance of the song since December 2nd 2000, and its 85th known full performance.
James Iha plays his first solo show in over 11 years
The last time James Iha took stage to play his own solo songs was October 25th 2001 in a clothing store in Japan. And today (Japan’s yesterday) James played a short 5 song set list, which included his single “Be Strong Now” from his first solo album.
There are no upcoming tour dates from James Iha, but according to his website, his new album Look to the Sky will be released in Japan first and later this year to the rest of the world.
Guest Blog: Getting Freaky!
Check out our latest guest blog about the Smashing Pumpkins collection site SPFreaks.com!
To us, The Smashing Pumpkins are not just about music. They are something original. The Pumpkins music has a moving aesthetic appeal and has an emotional impact with meaning. The music resonates in ways often we can not explain. It’s just noise. But it’s the Pumpkins emotional energy and skill behind the noise that has the power to transport the listener to shift their consciousness. To offer inspiration and dream…Click here to read more
Flashback Friday: Lull EP
The Smashing Pumpkins Lull EP was released on November 5th 1991, and is a collection of four songs Rhinoceros, Blue, Slunk and Bye June. On the Lull EP, Rhinoceros was shortened since the feedback at the end was cut out. Bye June was originally released on the Moon demo tape.
Billy wrote about Lull in the Pisces Iscariot notes: “the lull e.p which was really supposed to be a single but they tricked me.”
The artwork was designed by Tanya, D’arcy and James and contains fragments of lyrics from Obscured.
Billy Corgan pokes fun at eager fans waiting for Oceania
A fan eagerly awaiting the release of Oceania asked Billy on twitter “how many hours away from Oceania??” to which Billy replied “Oceania is here with you right now…just cup your hand over your ear and you can hear the call of the Ocean…eannaaaa…”
For anyone who doesn’t know, Billy is quite the comedian.
The Smashing Pumpkins release a Webisode about the song Daydream
The Smashing Pumpkins earlier this week posted that fans should keep an eye on the Pumpkins official YouTube page. Today the day after Valentine’s Day the Pumpkins posted a video that was part of a different video that was released in conjunction of the upcoming Gish & Siamese Dream re-issue. This new video titled Smashing Pumpkins Webisode #1 – Daydream is footage of Billy talking about the song and then followed by a full performance of the song.
In it almost 5 minute long video Billy says that the sound for Daydream was a “complete rip off of the My Bloody Valentine style”. He tells a great little story about how he picked up the My Bloody Valentine album Isn’t Anything and how he shared it with James.
We also noticed that this video was uploaded on December 1st 2011 and that Daydream was only 1 of a number of songs heard in the originally video that was posted on Nov 29th 2011. We can only hope that maybe more might be on the way soon!
Pisces Iscariot b-disc sequence completed
With The release of the re-issued Pisces Iscariot WAS expected to hit stores on Record Store day this year (see update). Billy Corgan informed fans via twitter that he had “Just finished sequencing Pisces Iscariot b-disc,” and said that it was ”Looking good” and he was “feeling good about it.”
UPDATE: We have just been informed that the re-issue date for Pisces Iscariot will not be record store day. A new release date has yet to be revealed.
