i of the mourning
Friday, April 29, 2005
world tour
BILLY CORGAN TO EMBARK ON WORLD TOUR JUNE 1ST IN SUPPORT OF HIS UPCOMING DEBUT SOLO ALBUM 'TheFutureEmbrace'
Billy Corgan will embark on a world tour June 1st in Portugal in support of his debut solo album TheFutureEmbrace, due out June 21 on Warner Bros. Records. Over the course of eight weeks, the modern rock pioneer and his band will visit intimate venues in 11 countries--the U.S., Canada, Portugal, England, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, and Spain--before wrapping at the end of July. The itinerary includes two-night engagements in such cities as London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, his hometown. Fans should expect a vibrant aural and visual experience that reflects the panoramic sound and push-and-pull tension of TheFutureEmbrace album, which features the upcoming single and video "Walking Shade."
TheFutureEmbrace was produced by Corgan along with Bjorn Thorsrud and Bon Harris, mixed by Alan Moulder and recorded in Chicago. The album contains 11 Corgan originals plus a cover of the early Bee Gees classic "To Love Somebody," which dovetails with Corgan's own themes of devotion and features Robert Smith of the Cure on backing vocals. Elsewhere, former Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin plays on "DIA."
Some confirmed tour dates are as follows:
Wed 6/1 - Lisbon, Portugal - Aula Magna
Sat 6/4 - Barcelona, Spain - Apolo
Mon 6/6 - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz Club
Wed 6/8 - Gent, Belgium - Vooruit
Thu 6/9 - Amsterdam, Holland - Paradiso
Fri 6/10 - Paris, France - La Cigale
Sat 6/11 - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
Wed 6/15 - London, England - Forum
Thu 6/16 - London, England - Forum
Fri 6/17 - Dublin, Ireland -The Ambassador
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
album cover
Monday, April 25, 2005
a new beginning...
Billy Corgan comes clean, starts over
By Greg Kot
Tribune music critic
Published April 24, 2005
Billy Corgan sits in the back yard of a suburban mansion befitting a rock star, squints into the noonday sun and talks about death.
He is matter-of-factly responding to a question about his workaholic personality, a trait that is at the core of both his considerable successes and his equally epic failures. In the pantheon of Chicago rock artists, few have sold more records (more than 25 million), achieved more critical acclaim (albums such as "Siamese Dream" are routinely cited as benchmarks for '90s alternative rock) or become a bigger lightning rod for criticism ("What would my musical legacy be if I kept my mouth shut?" he muses at one point).
So what's left to accomplish? Corgan answers as if he's running out of time.
"I'm a religious person, and when God decides to push me off a cliff, I don't want to think as I'm going over that I didn't try hard." He offers this explanation at the outset of a conversation a few days ago in which he will also discuss the painful demise of his previous bands, the Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, and the need to start fresh on his first solo album, "The Future Embrace" (Reprise), due out June 21.
More than an hour into the conversation, Corgan circles back to the same subject. He has already unburdened himself about many things: His attitude toward old bandmates, abusive family members and his reputation as a prima-donna musical dictator. He is doing more unburdening in a blog-like autobiography he is self-publishing on his Web site, billycorgan.com. Names are named, injustices revealed, scores settled. Corgan spares no one, including himself.
"There is a point to making a public confession," he says. "Why wait? I could die tomorrow."
It's disconcerting to hear the 38-year-old artist talk this way. He had a complex relationship with Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994. And Corgan has acknowledged that he contemplated suicide at the height of Pumpkins mania. But Corgan isn't on some goth-rock death trip. He says his health is good, his spirits high, and he looks it.
"I'm just a realist," he says. "A kid e-mailed me last night because he appreciated the blog I was writing. He told me a story how he was at somebody's house when he was growing up, and a guy was showing off a shotgun and pointing it at another kid's head. The kid tried to brush it away, but the gun went off and the kid's head got blown off in front of his friends. That ended their childhood."
But the story doesn't end there. The e-mailer tells Corgan he isn't a Pumpkins fan, but that his late friend loved the Pumpkins' song "1979."
"A few years later, he heard `1979' and it reconnected him to that friend, it healed something in him," Corgan says. "That's why we love rock 'n' roll. Beyond the record sales and major labels and Clear Channels, there is that moment when the music connects, and it's very powerful. It's modern alchemy. I want to keep doing that. That's why it's important for me as an artist to clear the decks."
Corgan's deck-clearing has brought him into the third phase of a career that includes a 13-year tenure as the singer, guitarist and driving force in one of the best-selling bands of the alternative-rock era, the Smashing Pumpkins, with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky. After the Pumpkins fell apart, he and Chamberlin put together the ill-fated guitar-rock quintet Zwan, which imploded in 2003 after recording only one album. As a solo artist, he has dabbled in folk songs loosely arranged around a "Chicago" theme (debuted last year at a one-off concert at Metro), a book of poetry ("Blinking With Fists," published last year), and now "The Future Embrace."
The album is a strangely beautiful electro-rock detour from the massed guitars of the Pumpkins and Zwan; it suggests what the Pumpkins' most-misunderstood album, "Adore" (1998), might've sounded like had Corgan pursued the possibilities suggested by two of its most alluringly personal songs, "To Sheila" and "Shame."
Corgan nods in recognition. "Those were the broken, drive-by moments on `Adore,' and they couldn't be sustained," he says. "We were in the right mood at the right time on the right day, and those songs appeared. On any other day, those songs wouldn't have happened, because making that album was a nightmare. This is the record `Adore' might've been if I had known what I was doing."
The drama drives Corgan as much as it bedevils him. As the interview continues, he acknowledges that sometimes he has been his own worst enemy.
Q. You pulled the plug on Zwan just before you were supposed to tour Europe in 2003, only a few months after your only album came out. Why?
A. It was devastating because I had invested two years of energy setting it up. I didn't want to start over again. But it was a disaster waiting to happen, worse than the Pumpkins. If you come out of something very painful, your natural reaction is I'm not going to do that again. And you wake up, and realize, not only am I doing that again, but it's worse. It's not even as good a band as the Pumpkins were. The record company turned it into a simple explanation: The record didn't sell, so Corgan got pissed off and went home. But the problems got started while the record was being made, and success would've only covered it up. Jimmy [Chamberlin] and I talk often, and we both thank God that it was not successful. Because if it had been, we would have been locked into it longer, and the atom-bomb potential would have been bigger.
Q. You had problems with the other band members [Matt Sweeney, David Pajo, Paz Lenchantin]?
A. The music wasn't the big problem, it was more their attitude: `Why do we have to practice? I'd rather be hanging out at the Rainbo.' Lifestyle stuff. And then you get into what I would call cataclysmic behavioral stuff. Sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders. Pajo sleeping with the producer's girlfriend while we were making the record. I just tried to do what I've always done, which is to patch it up and roll it out. You go into a denial state. I got snookered in by really bad people. It's embarrassing to me. But it wised me up to why I play, and who I love, and it made me appreciate my old band even more.
Q. How was making `The Future Embrace' different?
A. Everybody in the studio [primarily co-producers Harris and Bjorn Thorsrud, as well as Brian Liesegang, Matt Walker and Chamberlin] worked as hard as me. There is no conflict. Even if they didn't always produce the results that I envisioned, I knew they were trying. As long as you try, I have tons of patience.
Q. Did you consciously move away from making a guitar-based rock record?
A. I had a mantra: "I just want it to be exciting." I already know how to make alternative guitar rock. So how do I make something new that's exciting? I looked at different periods of music, examined the transitional points where new things come in. The first reaction is, "What the hell is this?" The next reaction is, "Oh, that's kind of interesting." And the third reaction is, everybody wants to do it. Whether I've done that, I don't know. But I wanted to do something where people didn't instantly say, "Oh, that's great!" Because you're probably backdated already. The audience is not necessarily sophisticated enough to always be on the tipping point. And that's not their fault. That's why they pay you the big bucks. You're supposed to be on the tipping point. But new rock 'n' roll tells you to stay in the warm part of the circle, don't go too far out, make sure the choruses are loud, and the verses are mournful and down, i.e., what you used to do.
Q. So you had no preconceived notions about how to make this album?
A. None. I knew what the big pitfall was. You have an intellectual concept of what you want to do, which is exciting. You go to record, but you run out of gas and don't know where you are. When you're in a band, when you get lost, you go back to that sound. This kind of music, if you get lost, you can spin off into infinity, because there are too many possibilities. I needed to find the core elements of the sound, so that if we got lost, we'd have a backup. It took time. It was like starting over in the Pumpkins. There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of false starts, but once it got into focus [snaps fingers]. We built the sound on very simple drums, innovative voicing of the chords, space, and rhythmic dynamics, a la disco, for lack of a better way to put it, or James Brown.
Q. What if nobody cares?
A. A record succeeds on two different levels. It can be liked, loved, pored over, and in some cases it sells. I want it to sell, but I would much rather have people appreciate it. After "Siamese Dream" (1993), "Adore" is the most talked about record the Pumpkins ever made, and that was a disaster when it came out. It about killed my band, and it about killed me. This time I believe I made a really strong record. The fact that somebody might not get it today, I can deal with that. I believe this record has enough juice that people will find it eventually.
Q. You're asking a lot of a short-attention span culture.
A. Well, it's the shortest record I've made since the first one. I don't feel 46 minutes of music is too much to ask of anybody.
Q. Why are you addressing your past now on your Web site?
A. I still live there. I'm not in the Smashing Pumpkins right now, but for me it's an everyday thing, I'm still wrestling with that. Every day I think about, "Where's D'Arcy? Is she OK?" and [exasperated voice] "Frigging James [Iha]." Jimmy [Chamberlin] and I still talk twice a week. The bonds are still there. There is also a lot of [domestic] abuse in my past. Hostile, reactive, self-abusive behavior. People from the outside would look at me, and say, "What's his problem? Why's he such a jerk?" I feel if I tell the whole story, most people will understand why I did what I did. A child protects his parents from what they're doing to the child because he thinks he can fix the parents. It applies to families, bands, relationships. It's taken me 30 years to realize that doesn't work. Telling the truth will open me to criticism that I haven't been open to before. But it will release the black ball that has been sitting in my stomach.
Q. Your bands have imploded. How will you present this music in concert?
A. All options are open. If D'Arcy called me tomorrow and said, "I love you, I've made some mistakes, I figured some things out," I'd be the first guy on the plane to see her. But who knows? I may do some performance . . . thing.
Q. That's pretty vague.
A. Very.
Q. You could come out in a tutu.
A. I may play saxophone versions of all the songs. We're working it out. Don't count it out.
By Greg Kot
Tribune music critic
Published April 24, 2005
Billy Corgan sits in the back yard of a suburban mansion befitting a rock star, squints into the noonday sun and talks about death.
He is matter-of-factly responding to a question about his workaholic personality, a trait that is at the core of both his considerable successes and his equally epic failures. In the pantheon of Chicago rock artists, few have sold more records (more than 25 million), achieved more critical acclaim (albums such as "Siamese Dream" are routinely cited as benchmarks for '90s alternative rock) or become a bigger lightning rod for criticism ("What would my musical legacy be if I kept my mouth shut?" he muses at one point).
So what's left to accomplish? Corgan answers as if he's running out of time.
"I'm a religious person, and when God decides to push me off a cliff, I don't want to think as I'm going over that I didn't try hard." He offers this explanation at the outset of a conversation a few days ago in which he will also discuss the painful demise of his previous bands, the Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, and the need to start fresh on his first solo album, "The Future Embrace" (Reprise), due out June 21.
More than an hour into the conversation, Corgan circles back to the same subject. He has already unburdened himself about many things: His attitude toward old bandmates, abusive family members and his reputation as a prima-donna musical dictator. He is doing more unburdening in a blog-like autobiography he is self-publishing on his Web site, billycorgan.com. Names are named, injustices revealed, scores settled. Corgan spares no one, including himself.
"There is a point to making a public confession," he says. "Why wait? I could die tomorrow."
It's disconcerting to hear the 38-year-old artist talk this way. He had a complex relationship with Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994. And Corgan has acknowledged that he contemplated suicide at the height of Pumpkins mania. But Corgan isn't on some goth-rock death trip. He says his health is good, his spirits high, and he looks it.
"I'm just a realist," he says. "A kid e-mailed me last night because he appreciated the blog I was writing. He told me a story how he was at somebody's house when he was growing up, and a guy was showing off a shotgun and pointing it at another kid's head. The kid tried to brush it away, but the gun went off and the kid's head got blown off in front of his friends. That ended their childhood."
But the story doesn't end there. The e-mailer tells Corgan he isn't a Pumpkins fan, but that his late friend loved the Pumpkins' song "1979."
"A few years later, he heard `1979' and it reconnected him to that friend, it healed something in him," Corgan says. "That's why we love rock 'n' roll. Beyond the record sales and major labels and Clear Channels, there is that moment when the music connects, and it's very powerful. It's modern alchemy. I want to keep doing that. That's why it's important for me as an artist to clear the decks."
Corgan's deck-clearing has brought him into the third phase of a career that includes a 13-year tenure as the singer, guitarist and driving force in one of the best-selling bands of the alternative-rock era, the Smashing Pumpkins, with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky. After the Pumpkins fell apart, he and Chamberlin put together the ill-fated guitar-rock quintet Zwan, which imploded in 2003 after recording only one album. As a solo artist, he has dabbled in folk songs loosely arranged around a "Chicago" theme (debuted last year at a one-off concert at Metro), a book of poetry ("Blinking With Fists," published last year), and now "The Future Embrace."
The album is a strangely beautiful electro-rock detour from the massed guitars of the Pumpkins and Zwan; it suggests what the Pumpkins' most-misunderstood album, "Adore" (1998), might've sounded like had Corgan pursued the possibilities suggested by two of its most alluringly personal songs, "To Sheila" and "Shame."
Corgan nods in recognition. "Those were the broken, drive-by moments on `Adore,' and they couldn't be sustained," he says. "We were in the right mood at the right time on the right day, and those songs appeared. On any other day, those songs wouldn't have happened, because making that album was a nightmare. This is the record `Adore' might've been if I had known what I was doing."
The drama drives Corgan as much as it bedevils him. As the interview continues, he acknowledges that sometimes he has been his own worst enemy.
Q. You pulled the plug on Zwan just before you were supposed to tour Europe in 2003, only a few months after your only album came out. Why?
A. It was devastating because I had invested two years of energy setting it up. I didn't want to start over again. But it was a disaster waiting to happen, worse than the Pumpkins. If you come out of something very painful, your natural reaction is I'm not going to do that again. And you wake up, and realize, not only am I doing that again, but it's worse. It's not even as good a band as the Pumpkins were. The record company turned it into a simple explanation: The record didn't sell, so Corgan got pissed off and went home. But the problems got started while the record was being made, and success would've only covered it up. Jimmy [Chamberlin] and I talk often, and we both thank God that it was not successful. Because if it had been, we would have been locked into it longer, and the atom-bomb potential would have been bigger.
Q. You had problems with the other band members [Matt Sweeney, David Pajo, Paz Lenchantin]?
A. The music wasn't the big problem, it was more their attitude: `Why do we have to practice? I'd rather be hanging out at the Rainbo.' Lifestyle stuff. And then you get into what I would call cataclysmic behavioral stuff. Sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders. Pajo sleeping with the producer's girlfriend while we were making the record. I just tried to do what I've always done, which is to patch it up and roll it out. You go into a denial state. I got snookered in by really bad people. It's embarrassing to me. But it wised me up to why I play, and who I love, and it made me appreciate my old band even more.
Q. How was making `The Future Embrace' different?
A. Everybody in the studio [primarily co-producers Harris and Bjorn Thorsrud, as well as Brian Liesegang, Matt Walker and Chamberlin] worked as hard as me. There is no conflict. Even if they didn't always produce the results that I envisioned, I knew they were trying. As long as you try, I have tons of patience.
Q. Did you consciously move away from making a guitar-based rock record?
A. I had a mantra: "I just want it to be exciting." I already know how to make alternative guitar rock. So how do I make something new that's exciting? I looked at different periods of music, examined the transitional points where new things come in. The first reaction is, "What the hell is this?" The next reaction is, "Oh, that's kind of interesting." And the third reaction is, everybody wants to do it. Whether I've done that, I don't know. But I wanted to do something where people didn't instantly say, "Oh, that's great!" Because you're probably backdated already. The audience is not necessarily sophisticated enough to always be on the tipping point. And that's not their fault. That's why they pay you the big bucks. You're supposed to be on the tipping point. But new rock 'n' roll tells you to stay in the warm part of the circle, don't go too far out, make sure the choruses are loud, and the verses are mournful and down, i.e., what you used to do.
Q. So you had no preconceived notions about how to make this album?
A. None. I knew what the big pitfall was. You have an intellectual concept of what you want to do, which is exciting. You go to record, but you run out of gas and don't know where you are. When you're in a band, when you get lost, you go back to that sound. This kind of music, if you get lost, you can spin off into infinity, because there are too many possibilities. I needed to find the core elements of the sound, so that if we got lost, we'd have a backup. It took time. It was like starting over in the Pumpkins. There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of false starts, but once it got into focus [snaps fingers]. We built the sound on very simple drums, innovative voicing of the chords, space, and rhythmic dynamics, a la disco, for lack of a better way to put it, or James Brown.
Q. What if nobody cares?
A. A record succeeds on two different levels. It can be liked, loved, pored over, and in some cases it sells. I want it to sell, but I would much rather have people appreciate it. After "Siamese Dream" (1993), "Adore" is the most talked about record the Pumpkins ever made, and that was a disaster when it came out. It about killed my band, and it about killed me. This time I believe I made a really strong record. The fact that somebody might not get it today, I can deal with that. I believe this record has enough juice that people will find it eventually.
Q. You're asking a lot of a short-attention span culture.
A. Well, it's the shortest record I've made since the first one. I don't feel 46 minutes of music is too much to ask of anybody.
Q. Why are you addressing your past now on your Web site?
A. I still live there. I'm not in the Smashing Pumpkins right now, but for me it's an everyday thing, I'm still wrestling with that. Every day I think about, "Where's D'Arcy? Is she OK?" and [exasperated voice] "Frigging James [Iha]." Jimmy [Chamberlin] and I still talk twice a week. The bonds are still there. There is also a lot of [domestic] abuse in my past. Hostile, reactive, self-abusive behavior. People from the outside would look at me, and say, "What's his problem? Why's he such a jerk?" I feel if I tell the whole story, most people will understand why I did what I did. A child protects his parents from what they're doing to the child because he thinks he can fix the parents. It applies to families, bands, relationships. It's taken me 30 years to realize that doesn't work. Telling the truth will open me to criticism that I haven't been open to before. But it will release the black ball that has been sitting in my stomach.
Q. Your bands have imploded. How will you present this music in concert?
A. All options are open. If D'Arcy called me tomorrow and said, "I love you, I've made some mistakes, I figured some things out," I'd be the first guy on the plane to see her. But who knows? I may do some performance . . . thing.
Q. That's pretty vague.
A. Very.
Q. You could come out in a tutu.
A. I may play saxophone versions of all the songs. We're working it out. Don't count it out.
Friday, April 22, 2005
from jimmy
Greetings and Salutations
...a letter from Jimmy Chamberlin (The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex)
Hello everyone! It's been a while so here's what's going on! We just returned from our West Coast Tour and things were great. We had some truly great moments. Corgan on guitar in LA! My friend Ludwig on violin! It was so fun! Thanks to everyone who came out. You were amazing! I'm enjoying myself so much. I really like the vibe. Small rooms, late shows, crappy hotels, setting my own stuff up,(I really am!), lousy monitors, the whole package! It's been a while since I've done a club tour and I must say it was so nice to be so close to everyone at the shows. The music takes on so many different meanings for me when I can get out and talk to people before the show. It gives me a beautiful conduit from music to person. The energy from everyone really translates and moves the tunes around. It's cool to not live in a protected shell that consists of Four Seasons Hotels, security guards,limos and cold arenas. It's so much nicer to be in the real world where real things happen. It brings the music closer to my heart. As you probably already know, we are about to head east for the remainder of the tour. We are playing some of the same venues that The Pumpkins played on their early tours,( St. Andrews, Trees, etc.). It really gives me a deeper appreciation for everything I have in my life,( and makes me cringe a bit!) But seriously, come out and see The Complex! It's smoking hot! Come and say hi before of after the show............ Maybe we can grab a bite to eat! See you in America! All my Love, JC
...a letter from Jimmy Chamberlin (The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex)
Hello everyone! It's been a while so here's what's going on! We just returned from our West Coast Tour and things were great. We had some truly great moments. Corgan on guitar in LA! My friend Ludwig on violin! It was so fun! Thanks to everyone who came out. You were amazing! I'm enjoying myself so much. I really like the vibe. Small rooms, late shows, crappy hotels, setting my own stuff up,(I really am!), lousy monitors, the whole package! It's been a while since I've done a club tour and I must say it was so nice to be so close to everyone at the shows. The music takes on so many different meanings for me when I can get out and talk to people before the show. It gives me a beautiful conduit from music to person. The energy from everyone really translates and moves the tunes around. It's cool to not live in a protected shell that consists of Four Seasons Hotels, security guards,limos and cold arenas. It's so much nicer to be in the real world where real things happen. It brings the music closer to my heart. As you probably already know, we are about to head east for the remainder of the tour. We are playing some of the same venues that The Pumpkins played on their early tours,( St. Andrews, Trees, etc.). It really gives me a deeper appreciation for everything I have in my life,( and makes me cringe a bit!) But seriously, come out and see The Complex! It's smoking hot! Come and say hi before of after the show............ Maybe we can grab a bite to eat! See you in America! All my Love, JC
Friday, April 15, 2005
digital album
Smashing Pumpkins Digital Debut
Last April 5, the Smashing Pumpkins made their digital debut. The defunct alt rock band, which has not allowed its songs to be legally downloaded until now, are now releasing 227 tracks for download, including 113 album tracks and 114 rarities and B-sides, according to a spokesperson. The band has also set a deal to offer ringtones for hits such as "Disarm," "1979," "Today" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." The songs are nowavailable on all the major download services, including iTunes, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, Napster, Sony Connect, WalMart.com and Musicnet.
Friday, April 08, 2005
the ghost children
Ghost Children 2-A Call for Demos
Source: David Pukin of Act IV.
With overwhelming support shown for a follow-up to 2001's popular Smashing Pumpkins tribute cd, Ghost Children(http://act4.2007.org/ghostchildren.htm), we are now accepting demos for consideration. Submissions will be accepted online in 256 kbps,44 khz mp3 format or SHN, and by snail mail via CD-r. Please contact us (steve @ 2007.org) to make the proper arrangements.
In addition to new submissions, we will also be considering demos that have been submitted to us in the past for the previous Act IV concerts. However, it is strongly suggested that you email the organizers if you would like one of your demos considered for the cd, as it is difficult to sort through the enormous amount of demos we have received in the past.
Selections for the cd will be made by Act IV staff, including the organizers, as well as the organizer of the original Ghost Children organizer, Neil Main. However, we are calling on all international Pumpkins fan sites, fan clubs and tribute concerts to help to call out to your visitors/members for submissions. We would like this CD to be not only an Act IV release, but one that involves the entire SP fan community. Credit will be given where it is due.
The deadline date for submissions is July 7th, 2005. After thedeadline passes, it will be determined if the quantity and qualityof submissions warrants the release of the cd. The target releasedate for the cd is December 2nd, 2005.
Also, please feel free to email us with suggestions for the name of the new cd, as Ghost Children 2 is only a working title.
Act IV 2002 Videos: Each week up until the release of the long-awaited Act IV 2002 DVD, we will be putting up a new video from the concert up on the site. Be sure to download the videos on the week they are put up, as the videos will be rotated to make room for a new one each week.
The first new video is Semi-Automatic Love Slave's cover of "Medellia of the Grey Skies", which is available at http://act4.2007.org/
Source: David Pukin of Act IV.
With overwhelming support shown for a follow-up to 2001's popular Smashing Pumpkins tribute cd, Ghost Children(http://act4.2007.org/ghostchildren.htm), we are now accepting demos for consideration. Submissions will be accepted online in 256 kbps,44 khz mp3 format or SHN, and by snail mail via CD-r. Please contact us (steve @ 2007.org) to make the proper arrangements.
In addition to new submissions, we will also be considering demos that have been submitted to us in the past for the previous Act IV concerts. However, it is strongly suggested that you email the organizers if you would like one of your demos considered for the cd, as it is difficult to sort through the enormous amount of demos we have received in the past.
Selections for the cd will be made by Act IV staff, including the organizers, as well as the organizer of the original Ghost Children organizer, Neil Main. However, we are calling on all international Pumpkins fan sites, fan clubs and tribute concerts to help to call out to your visitors/members for submissions. We would like this CD to be not only an Act IV release, but one that involves the entire SP fan community. Credit will be given where it is due.
The deadline date for submissions is July 7th, 2005. After thedeadline passes, it will be determined if the quantity and qualityof submissions warrants the release of the cd. The target releasedate for the cd is December 2nd, 2005.
Also, please feel free to email us with suggestions for the name of the new cd, as Ghost Children 2 is only a working title.
Act IV 2002 Videos: Each week up until the release of the long-awaited Act IV 2002 DVD, we will be putting up a new video from the concert up on the site. Be sure to download the videos on the week they are put up, as the videos will be rotated to make room for a new one each week.
The first new video is Semi-Automatic Love Slave's cover of "Medellia of the Grey Skies", which is available at http://act4.2007.org/
true power, true faith
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
THEFUTUREEMBRACE
Corgan embraces the 'Future' on solo debut
By Jonathan Cohen, Reuters
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Former Smashing Pumpkins/Zwan leader Billy Corgan has wrapped work on his solo debut, "THEFUTUREEMBRACE," to be released June 21 via Warner Bros.
The first single to be released to U.S. radio outlets will be "Walking Shade," while Corgan will embark on his first solo tour of intimate venues beginning in July.
The 11-track set includes a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" that features the Cure's Robert Smith on backing vocals. Former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is behind the kit on "DIA," returning the favor of Corgan's recent appearance on his Sanctuary solo debut, "Life Begins Again."
"Many people assume when I do more progressive work that I am trying to move away from something, when honestly what I am trying to do is get closer to who I really am," Corgan says of the upcoming album. "I tried to sum up all my feelings about my life and the world around me in the most beautiful ways I could dream up. It is easy to be negative, and much harder to find that silver lining behind the clouds of modern society."
While working on the album, Corgan also wrote a volume of poetry, "Blinking With Fists," which reached the New York Times' best-seller list.
Here is the track list for "THEFUTUREEMBRACE":
"All Things Change"
"Mina Loy (M.O.H.)"
"TheCameraEye"
"To Love Somebody"
"A100"
"DIA"
"Now (And Then)"
"I'm Ready"
"Walking Shade"
"Sorrows (in blue)"
"Pretty, pretty STAR"
"Strayz"
By Jonathan Cohen, Reuters
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Former Smashing Pumpkins/Zwan leader Billy Corgan has wrapped work on his solo debut, "THEFUTUREEMBRACE," to be released June 21 via Warner Bros.
The first single to be released to U.S. radio outlets will be "Walking Shade," while Corgan will embark on his first solo tour of intimate venues beginning in July.
The 11-track set includes a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" that features the Cure's Robert Smith on backing vocals. Former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is behind the kit on "DIA," returning the favor of Corgan's recent appearance on his Sanctuary solo debut, "Life Begins Again."
"Many people assume when I do more progressive work that I am trying to move away from something, when honestly what I am trying to do is get closer to who I really am," Corgan says of the upcoming album. "I tried to sum up all my feelings about my life and the world around me in the most beautiful ways I could dream up. It is easy to be negative, and much harder to find that silver lining behind the clouds of modern society."
While working on the album, Corgan also wrote a volume of poetry, "Blinking With Fists," which reached the New York Times' best-seller list.
Here is the track list for "THEFUTUREEMBRACE":
"All Things Change"
"Mina Loy (M.O.H.)"
"TheCameraEye"
"To Love Somebody"
"A100"
"DIA"
"Now (And Then)"
"I'm Ready"
"Walking Shade"
"Sorrows (in blue)"
"Pretty, pretty STAR"
"Strayz"
