i of the mourning

The Fellowship of Broken Toys is: Matt Walker, Brian Liesegang, Linda Strawberry, Billy Corgan

News bits are everywhere, with energy ramping up for the release of Billy Corgan's first solo album TheFutureEmbrace on June 20th internationally and June 21st in the US. The album 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."

Dates for the supporting world tour are coming together, with European dates currently on sale and the public on sale for the US dates starting May 21st for most shows. Fans who are members of this mailing list will receive first crack at a limited number of tickets for each US show starting May 18th... more information will be announced soon. The currently confirmed 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

Wed 6/22 - Atlanta, GA - Earthlink
Fri 6/24 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
Sat 6/25 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
Mon 6/27 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
Tue 6/28 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
Thu 6/30 - Boston, MA - Avalon
Sat 7/2 - Toronto, ON - The Carlu
Tue 7/5 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
Wed 7/6 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
Thu 7/7 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
Fri 7/8 - Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
Mon 7/11 - San Diego, CA - Soma
Tue 7/12 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
Wed 7/13 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
Fri 7/15 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
Sat 7/16 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
Mon 7/18 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
Tue 7/19 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom

Those looking to hear a song from the new album can watch the video for the first single "Walking Shade," which premiers today on the Yahoo! Launch music page... http://music.yahoo.com. Mini-vignettes from the long form version of the video will also be released soon in various places across the internet, complete with original soundtrack recordings available nowhere else. Keep your eyes and ears and minds open.....

For the latest happenings, please check both http://www.billycorgan.com and http://www.myspace.com/billycorgan. In addition to news updates and tour information, Billy has been busy writing his autobiography and posting pieces almost daily. Signup to be his friend on MySpace to receive impromptu fan meet up information and access to ticket giveaways for the coming shows... http://www.myspace.com/billycorgan

www.billycorgan.com

BILLY CORGAN: WALKING SHADE


Walking Shadebilly corgan, TheFutureEmbrace

look at you now
look at you torn estates
took forever couldn’t wait on words, on sound

I just want you so
you’re everything, so cold
the perfume of your rose in bloom
I just want you so
anywhere I go
the chase, the bells below
taken from my soul

on the 9th day God created shame

I’m out walking shade
to brush these fires aside
to calm the rising fight
to build you a new life

should you choose
I’ve picked the best for you
it’s your turn and my time to test
I’ll second guess the rest

look at you now
look at you nothin’s faced
took advantage of my faith and called me out

I just want you so
you’re everything I’m told
dumb enough to scold this tongue
I just want you so
anywhere I go
a kingdom for your rain
a pocket for your soul
I just want you so
you’re everything although
the risk is getting close to you

I’m out walking shade
the sun is going out
the word is getting round
that I just want you so


MTV PICK OF THE WEEK 2005-05-09
Every week, we here at MTV sit down and decide what's hot, and what's not. If you've ever been watching the screen and noticed a little green bar in top left corner, that reads Fresh - it means it's FRESH. MTV's Pick Of The Week is played once an hour during music hours, and all other interesting info about the current Pick Of The Week can be found right here.



Artist: Billy Corgan
Video: Walking Shade
Director: P.R Brown
Album: The Future Embrace

Story: In this artistic video directed by P.R Brown we finally get Billy Corgan solo. We have seen him concur the world with massive success in 90's band Smashing Pumpkins and later a shorter project with not long lasting Zwan. Now it is just Billy. The video is beautifully directed with Billy wearing very old-fashioned outfits. Paper birds, flower tears and Billy also ride one of those pre-historic bicycles with one huge wheel and one really small. P.R Brown has worked with Billy and Smashing Pumpkins before and also Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. This is a wonderful video and a fantastic comeback from Billy Corgan. Enjoy!

What else: Billy Corgan and friends started up Smashing Pumpkins, an alternative rock group with no boundaries. Smashing Pumpkins went straight to the heart of most alternative rockers in the 90's. Billy Corgan is the son of jazz guitarist. He grew up in Chicago, USA. By the age of 19 he went down to Florida to try out his luck with band The Marked. Billy has also worked in a used records store in Chicago, after returning from failing with The Marked. When being the guest at Swedish Television show "Studio Pop", Billy revealed that since he doesn't want his intellectual mind take over in his creative process, some of the songs on the new album where made in just a couple of hours. First taste of "The Future Embrace" comes here. Go ahead and enjoy the walking shade of Billy Corgan!

Billy Corgan Tries To Sound Un-Pumpkins, But Not Totally, Just A
Bit,Maybe
05.03.2005 4:50 PM EDT

Ex-Smashing Pumpkins boss chuckles at idea of the band reuniting.

Billy Corgan Photo: MTV News

Billy Corgan thinks the whole "musicians going solo" thing is nothing if not egoistic. He's of the mind that bands, in general, work much better as wholes than they do as individual parts. Still, that certainly didn't stop the alt-rock giant from building TheFutureEmbrace, the first collection from a band-less Billy.

But Corgan says he was very careful, creatively, in his overall approach to the project.

"I tried to be conscious of what makes most solo records not that listenable," he said. "If you listen to a solo record by someone in a band you really like, you end up kind of listening for the band. So my thing was to sort of avoid that. If I do alternative guitar rock — what you would expect — it sounds like Smashing Pumpkins. So let's not pretend. I tried to really just do something very different. Of course, it's still reminiscent of some of my past work with Pumpkins, like '1979.' It's got those kinds of feelings in it, but I certainly think the guitar work and the lyrics and stuff, it kind of moves in this whole other direction."

Corgan recorded TheFutureEmbrace, the album he says he's always wanted to make, in his hometown of Chicago. The LP features contributions from longtime musical associate Bjorn Thorsrud as well as Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb fame, ex-Filter member Brian Liesegang, former Pumpkins drummers Jimmy Chamberlin and Matt Walker, and the Cure's Robert Smith, who appears on "To Love Somebody," a cover of the classic Bee Gees track.

"When the Cure were in Chicago for their Curiosa Tour, Robert had come by my house and we sat up all night playing guitars and shooting the whatever and so the idea came up about stuff we wanted to work on together," Corgan explained. "One thing was about working on my solo record. So when we finished all the songs, as I listened to every song, I was thinking, 'OK, what could Robert do?' The only song that seemed really right was this [Bee Gees] cover — and my version kind of sounds like the Cure anyway. So I called him up and had to talk him into it. But he did an amazing job and it's pretty cool. When we sing together, it's weird. You can't really hear my voice, and you can't really hear his. It's sort of this other voice, which you wouldn't have figured because our voices are so distinctive."

TheFutureEmbrace, slated for release on June 21, is awash with futuristic, electronica components that, oftentimes, overwhelm Corgan's still-impressive guitar work. The disc sounds very much like an intentional homage to the bleak bands Corgan says helped pave the way for his own success — bands like the Cure, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen.

"I've gone off on these massive Easter egg hunts, of trying to come up with a new sound," he said. "Having kind of walked away from the Pumpkins and now, Zwan, this is my way of sort of trying to get reinvigorated with guitar music. This is not a move against rock and roll. It's actually a move toward rock and roll, because I feel like I'm very excited about rock again. [With this record, I] just completely dove into the ocean and I'm saying, 'OK, I'm willing to take on whatever, but whatever I'm going to do, it's going to be new.' I can't go back to just doing what I used to do. So in a weird way, I tied one arm behind my back, and I've tried to figure out how to fight my way out of a corner."

Corgan's scheduled to play 10 dates in Europe next month, and says he'll do the same Stateside. The shows will be very specific, he says, "very future-leaning," technologically advanced productions that will incorporate, in some manner, elements from cabaret theater: "It will either be a smashing success or a complete car crash, but either way, it'll be interesting," he said.

In the meantime, Corgan said he's been writing his autobiography, which he's spent the last month or so posting to his blog in bits and pieces. He also said he's been helping Courtney Love with the material for her forthcoming album; the pair have spent a few days in both Los Angeles and Chicago "writing songs" that Love recorded with a tape recorder. "I don't know how that's going to sound, but I've been getting reports that it's going really well."

When asked about the possibility of a Smashing Pumpkins reunion somewhere down the road, Corgan chuckled to himself. He smiled for a minute as he contemplated the whole crazy idea, but quickly turned serious.

"When people ask me about a Smashing Pumpkins reunion, to me, they're asking two things," he responded. "One, 'Will we ever see the Smashing Pumpkins as we remember them onstage?' And two, 'Gee, it's probably going to sound like we remember, right?' And the answer to both questions is no. You won't see the four Smashing Pumpkins onstage again. That's not going to happen. Secondarily, even if you saw the Smashing Pumpkins, it would continue to pick up where we left off, which is an extremely progressive, aggressive and not easy to understand unit."

— Chris Harris

This is a sum-up of BC:s visit to Sweden in april 2005.

It includes:

*Full transcript of the article in Aftonbladet (the biggest newspaper in Sweden)

*Info about the "yellow room" interview (Studio Pop)

*Link to the interview from "Kulturnyheterna" ("society news")

To begin with we have a Billy Interview from "Kulturnyheterna

":rtsp://qstream-rm.qbrick.com/00928/nyheter/2005/050427/knintervju.rm

The interview was broadcasted 000427 and runs approx. for 17 min's. You will need to download RealPlayer to play this file.(When downloaded, copy the link above and paste in the address field, hit enter)

Onto STUDIO POP:

The Swedish TV-host Per Sinding-Larsen interviewed Billy Corgan in a show called "Studio Pop" on april 27:th - 05.This is known as "the yellow room" interview. It has not (to my knowledge) yet been uploaded on the net. If it's still not available within the two weeks to come, I will make sure it will be, just wait and see :)

Snippets:

Corgan said he was feeling paranoid about the world we lived in, that being one of the thoughts in his head when writing songs for "TheFutureEmbrace".He thought Jimmy was the one that contributed the most to The Pumpkins (with him), and that there was no surprise they still were friends."If I break the rules (of alternative rock) again, do I get to sit here in this yellow room with you again?" "When i was singing "I'm just a rat in a cage" I was singing about how I enslaved myself, cause noone else was".Billy seemed a bit shy and laughed after they showed the world premier (parts only) of "Walking Shade"

....and finally the transcript of the Aftonbladet article: (free translation)

Name: Billy Corgan

Age: 38

Background: Engine, songwriter and singer in the trendsetting alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins that was divided in 2000.Took the drummer Jimmy Chamberlin with him and built Zwan, along with three other musicians. Also that band was divided, only two years later.

Currently: Releases the solo debut "TheFutureEmbrace" june 21:th."

Burned out and disappointed"After the failure with The Zwan, Corgan has decided to stay away from bands. "Now it's me and two kittens. It's very simple: I feed them - they are loyal".

Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins aims for a solo carrer.

Today they are enemies.

Matt Sweeney and Billy Corgan in Zwan before the band collapsed totally. Today Corgan feels ashamed for being involved with his former band mates."They were playing really bad and did stupid things, like bringing drugs over the borders when we played."

Drugs, sex scandals and lies.

After Billy Corgans latest band Zwan totally collapsed, the Smashing Pumpkins legend aims for a solo career."I feel completly decieved" he says to Aftonbladet.

The problems in Zwan began early. In the middle of the recording of the bands record debut, Billy Corgan discovered that the guitarist David Pajo was having sex with the producers girlfriend."It was crazy! The producer is my friend and then you've got a band member who's sleeping with his girlfriend.I threathened to fire him - he kept sleeping with her", says Billy Corgan.The sex drama was only the beginning. When Zwan didn't achieve immedieatly commercial success, the newcomers lived the rock myth instead."They began to play bad and did stupid things like bringing drugs over the borders when we was on tour. They didn't care about the music, me or the band, he says.- Didn't you realize it was untenable? "My brain didn't want to understand. My friends told me they were using me, but I didn't want to listen. These were my band members".But Billy became more and more unsatisfied and after two messy years with Zwan he had enough."I woke up and understood I was in the same situation as in Smashing Pumpkins, but with people I didn't love." In the loge (?) after the final concert on the european tour, Billy made an ultimatum."I told them they didn't seem to care a shit about the band and that they had to prove it, if they thought I was wrong", he says.Since then he's heard nothing from them."A year later I got a mail from Matt. The subject line was: "send me money", says Billy Corgan.Today Billy feels ashamed over being involved with the members of Zwan, with the exception of his inseperable friend Jimmy Chamberlin."It was a nightmare that I had created myself. I had invested my heart, money and my credibility. But I really thought that I had put together a good band that would last for long."On his solo debut he has for the first time moved away from the alarming rock and instead aimed for a bare and synth-oriented sound."If I do more guitarbased alternative rock it would sound as Smashing Pumpkins. It was the same problem with Zwan, so I felt it was important to do something different".

Corgan about:

The Argues in the Pumpkins

"The time in Zwan actually made me appreciate Pumpkins. It made a lot of those problems seem small. In the Pumpkins we argued about things like intergrity, focus and personal problems.But there was always commitment to the band. No matter how much we argued we still trusted each other".

Reunions

"I don't talk to James Iha or D'arcy anymore. Those relations are all gone. Smashing Pumpkins will never reunite, not with those members. But it's my band - I own the name and it's my songs. So if I want to play under that name I will".

The lies in Zwan

"Paz Lenchantin said she was playing on the first A perfect circle record - not true. She said that she and Billy Howerdel built the band - not true. She said that she got fired by Maynard and Howerdel - not true. With these people you wonder if they have been stealing from your house".

The article (in Swedish, with pictures) can also be found here:http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,639070,00.html

*Updated 050502*

by (C)hristian

The Jack of all trades