Photo by Kristin Burns The Smashing Pumpkins kicked off Spin’s weeklong 25th anniversary celebration with a reported 135-minute set. In case you missed the live stream, Spin’s William Goodman has provided a lengthy review of the performance. “’Today,’ ‘Cherub Rock,’ and ‘Hummer,’ all gems from SP’s 1993 breakout second album Siamese Dream, saw the Chicago native manhandle the neck of his Fender Strat (at 6′4″ dude has some big hands), pausing to motion at the sold-out crowd before diving into another solo,” writes Goodman. “He stepped forward to windmill, a la Pete Townshend, and run the neck of his guitar on a monitor …” Get the complete review here, and be sure to check out tonight’s live stream of the Flaming Lips starting at 9:15 p.m. EST.
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Smashing Pumpkins Rock Spin’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
July 27 2010, 3:39pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Smashing Pumpkins Release “Freak”
Smashing Pumpkins have released another free song for download on their website. “Freak” marks the fifth of Billy Corgan’s planned 44-track Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Corgan also left a note on his website regarding the chance for fans to attend the band’s sound check during their summer club tour. “We expect to play at least 5-6 songs each day, and if things go well possibly a little more,” wrote Corgan. “No less than the first 20 people in line would be let in, and we will have some system where you wouldn’t lose your place in line if you have to go back out of the building.We hope this will be a fun experience for everyone, I know we look forward to trying some of the new material.”
July 6 2010, 6:40pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
I just love that artists are championing the ukulele these days: Train’s Jimmy Stafford learned how to play the uke just for the opening of their hit single “Hey, Soul Sister,” Weezer frontman River Cuomo apparently likes smashing them and now Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan is ending his set with one. The Smashing Pumpkins kicked off their intimate summer tour with last night’s show at the Viper Room in Hollywood, Calif., and according to Spin.com, Corgan whipped out the four-string for a solo acoustic version of “Love is the Sweetest Thing.” As Spin reports, Corgan told the crowd that he had “waited a long time to play this thing.” Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. After about a minute of dealing with hecklers, Corgan told the audience, “I love you all, but I’m too old for this shit.” Even though he finished the performance there and then, spinner.com notes that the Pumpkins frontman did so in good spirits. Watch the video clip below and also be sure to check out Spin’s full show review and a great photo of said ukulele here.
July 1 2010, 3:45pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
I just love that artists are championing the ukulele these days: Train’s Jimmy Stafford learned how to play the uke just for the opening of their hit single “Hey, Soul Sister,” Weezer frontman River Cuomo apparently likes smashing them and now Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan is ending his set with one. The Smashing Pumpkins kicked off their intimate summer tour with last night’s show at the Viper Room in Hollywood, Calif., and according to Spin.com, Corgan whipped out the four-string for a solo acoustic version of “Love is the Sweetest Thing.” As Spin reports, Corgan told the crowd that he had “waited a long time to play this thing.” Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. After about a minute of dealing with hecklers, Corgan told the audience, “I love you all, but I’m too old for this shit.” Even though he finished the performance there and then, spinner.com notes that the Pumpkins frontman did so in good spirits. Watch the video clip below and also be sure to check out Spin’s full show review and a great photo of said ukulele here.
July 1 2010, 3:45pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Smashing Pumpkins Announce Initimate U.S. Tour
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope 1: Songs for a Sailor On Wednesday, the Smashing Pumpkins announced a 12-show summer run at intimate U.S. venues that begins July 6 in Cleveland and wraps in Tampa on July 21. The summer club tour marks the iconic band’s first tour since 2008 that according to frontman Billy Corgan will feature a “a balance of classics, a few obscure ones and new Teargarden material.” Corgan will be joined on the road by guitarist Jeff Schroeder, drummer Mike Byrne and recently revealed bassist Nicole Florentino. “I haven’t been this comfortable in a band situation since about 1995,” Corgan said in a release on the official Pumpkins website. “Musically, we seem to have wound our way back to a more kinetic, electric, and psychedelic sound that reminds me of SP in Gish-Siamese era.” Following the U.S. dates, the Pumpkins will head to Japan for four shows, including headline performances at two Summer Sonic Festivals, which as Corgan explained, follows the Pumpkins “long-standing tradition of trying to start up new tours at smaller venues because it allows the band the opportunity to take some chances musically.” Smashing Pumpkin Tour Dates 7/6 Cleveland, OH House of Blues 7/8 Grand Rapids, MI Orbit Room 7/9 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall 7/10 Louisville, KY Forecastle Festival 7/12 Baltimore, MD Rams Head Live 7/13 Richmond, VA The National 7/15 Norfolk, VA The Norva 7/16 Charlotte, NC Fillmore 7/17 Charleston, SC Music Farm 7/19 Orlando, FL House of Blues 7/20 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution 7/21 Tampa, FL Ritz
June 3 2010, 5:21pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Smashing Pumpkins Play Tonight Show
After playing an intimate Record Store Day celebration show at Los Angeles’ Space 15 Twenty (view photos here) over the weekend, Billy Corgan took his new Smashing Pumpkins act national last night by performing single “Widow Wake My Mind” on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The pop-rock tune was the second single to be released off Corgan’s upcoming epic 44-song Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project.
The Pumpkins released “Astral Planes,” the fourth Kaleidyscope song last Friday. Download it for FREE here.
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- Teargarden by Kaleidyscope
- Billy Corgan
- Record Store Day
- Astral Planes
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- Widow Wake My Mind
April 21 2010, 1:38pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Billy Corgan’s latest Smashing Pumpkins track “A Stitch in Time” is now available for a FREE download below. This marks the third single from his 44-song project Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. To get his other two songs, visit the band’s official website A Stitch In Time by The Smashing Pumpkins “I have a hard time saying in most cases what inspires a song–some of them just pour out of me like salt and I feel like a custodian of a spirit I don’t fully understand but certainly can feel,” said Corgan in a Q&A released to the media. “The closest answer I have is that it’s a protest song–what I am protesting I’m not sure but it has something to do with real inner freedom and the consequence of what it means to be free. “The song came in during a stream of consciousness moment while sitting backstage at a Pumpkins concert in those wee, still hours between soundcheck and the show. The lyrics came just as surprisingly fast as the music, and the whole process took about 20 minutes. I recorded it on my phone, and so for a year it was the only document I had of the song. But the song stuck with me and I put it in my back pocket as something worth coming back to later. When I drew up the list of the first 4 songs to record this one easily made the cut because I think it has a signifying effect of what the album stands for, not so much musically but energetically and thematically.” Read more of the Q&A here.
March 2 2010, 1:21pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Billy Corgan came by the 2010 Fender Showcase over the weekend, stopping at the Fender Custom Shop and the Charvel booth (above). Smashing Pumpkins has released “Widow Wake My Mind,” the second song from the 44-track opus Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. In this latest upbeat track, Billy Corgan sings about “a love that shines.” Get it for free here.
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- Artist News
- Teargarden by Kaleidyscope
- Billy Corgan
- A Widow Wake My Mind
- Teargarden by Kaleidys
January 19 2010, 2:17pm
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From Fender Front Row, fender.com
Coheed and Cambria bassist Michael Todd––fresh out of the slammer––visited with Fender’s bass guitars and amps manager Jay Piccirillo mid-morning on Saturday at the 2010 Fender Showcase in Anaheim, Calif. “Yeah, I spent the holidays in jail,” said Todd. “We had what they call cake. We get skittles, graham crackers and chocolate bars from the commissary and put it all together in like a bread bag and fill it with hot water. They mash it all together and put it in the oven, which is under their pillow, and then rip the bag off of it and cover it with chocolate pudding. It’s so f*ing disgusting.” Fortunately, his jail stint is behind him and the Woodstock raised rocker is back to making music. The band expects to release their fifth studio album, Year of the Black Rainbow, in April. Dick Dale and his son Jimmy packed the Fender acoustic guitar booth during an impromptu jam session with their new signature models. After showing off his musical chops, Dale had some advise for a young man in the audience. “Remember, your body follows your mind so don’t screw up your mind with shit, alright?” said Dale. “Keep your body clean and then you’ll last. And don’t follow somebody else’s path just because you want to be friends with them. Walk your own path, and they’ll follow you. And stay clean. Otherwise, I’ll hunt you down and kill you.”
Bassist Mikey Way of My Chemical Romance checked out several bass guitars while taking a turn around the showroom floor. My Chemical Romance is set to co-headline the Soundwave Festival in Australia with Faith No More and Jane’s Addiction. The band also anticipates releasing their fourth studio album this spring. Richie Kotzen made a surprise visit by Fender, agreeing to even hop onstage to play a quick tune. Kotzen recently released Peace Signs in December. “I just came off the road, 10 weeks of touring in Europe to promote the new album. I went to 14 or 15 countries and it was really cool,” said Kotzen. “I’ve been doing a lot of touring overseas in Europe and right now I am planning on putting some together for North America. I have not done a proper North American tour in a very, very long time so that’s kind of in the works and I’m looking forward to that.”
Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan browsed the Fender Custom Shop. Later in the day, the Custom Shop also hosted Chris Pontius of Jackass. Fender also spotted another actor out on the floor in Forrest Gump/CSI actor Gary Sinise chatting with Fender bassist Tony Franklin. (Clip is available on Fender Vision!) John 5, Yngwie Malmsteen, Anthrax’s Frank Bello and Scott Ian, Motley Crue’s Mick Mars and Jim Campilongo were some of the artists holding court at the autograph booth. In the corridor, Mars ran into Phil Collen, who had just finished playing a song onstage with his PC1 and the all-new G-DEC 3. The two longtime rockers hadn’t seen each other in about 20 years. A quick clip of their reunion is up on the Fender Facebook page. As for the G-DEC 3, the Def Leppard guitarist had this to say: “You can be a bedroom guitarist all you like and it sounds great but when you get onto the stage, that’s the real test really,” said Collen. “I just went up there and played with a band live and it worked and sounded great.”
Malmsteen spent a few minutes chatting with Fender Vision about his new compilation album out called High Impact. “It’s a compilation of really intense guitar playing, plus it’s got some bonus tracks–– one of them is Michael Jackson’s song actually, pretty cool. It was just for fun basically. It’s definitely not made to be anything like the original. The original is the original. Keep that as that is. This is tuned down, a little bit more heavy metal.” Punk rockers Rancid drew an enormous crowd at the Gretsch booth late in the afternoon, so large in fact that the Fire Marshal nearly shut down the set, which included ska-punk number “Time Bomb.” “This show was wild,” said Tim Armstrong. “Definitely a fun one.” Rancid’s guitarist and lead singer now has two signature models out on the market. Fender released the Tim Armstrong Hellcat Acoustic last year, while Gretsch just rolled out the Tim Armstrong Signature Model.
- Tags:
- NAMM
- My Chemical Romance
- Artist News
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- Events
- 2010 Fender Showcase
- Billy Corgan
- Coheed and Cambria Michael Todd
- Gary Sinise
- Mikey Way
January 17 2010, 11:56am
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