The Smashing Pumpkins frontman stopped by Jones' Austin studios for an appearance on libertarian talk show host's "Infowars." more ›

Chicagoan James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle, Tinted Windows and many other musical projects turns 44 today. more ›

Billy Corgan has been keeping busy with both musical and non-musical projects in recent months. Now he's opening a tea shop in suburban Chicago this spring, which begs the question: What would be served at his tea house? more ›

Billy and the gang dug deep into the pile of Christmas wreaths behind his garage and pulled out this gem from bygone days. It's simple, spartan and actually a nice little holiday tune. And, believe it or not, nakedly sweet. Between this, the SPRC and the recent re-embracing of the band's past, might Billy be on the road back into our heart? Could be! more ›

Art has gotten to know Billy Corgan very well over the years. more ›

Despite the station contributing to the rise of The Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan gave a rather honest appraisal of the demise of Q101 during an interview with Greg Kot last night on Chicago Live!. more ›

Rolling Stone was as excited as we were about news of The Smashing Pumpkins re-issues Billy Corgan has planned and sat down with him to get details on what kind of bonus material we can expect (a lot) and who he'd love to share a stage with (Ritchie Blackmore). When asked if he would ever play with the original members of the band, Jimmy Chamberlain, James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky, Corgan had this to say: more ›

News that the great pumpkin, Billy Corgan, finally has control of all of The Smashing Pumpkins back catalog and plans to reissue all of it and stuff the re-releases with unreleased tracks and b-sides is actually pretty exciting news. No word on whether Corgan's announcement had any effect on Boston's Bad Rabbits' choice to tackle The Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" for the latest installment of their Live Covers Sessions Series, but we'll use the Pumpkins' reissue news as an excuse to post the resulting video and MP3. Check 'em out. more ›

Taking "Today" literally. more ›

Here's an unusual tidbit about one of the newer members of the Smashing Pumpkins. According to master Billy himself, Nicole Fiorentino, the current bass player in the latest iteration of the band, is one of the two girls on the cover photograph of the group's epic shoegaze-gone-arena-rock masterpiece Siamese Dream. more ›

Let's take a look at some of the shenanigans local rockers are getting into recently. This edition deals with D'Arcy's Animals Gone Wild experience and Pete Wentz's separation from his (arguably) better half. more ›

A handful of Chicago acts happened to make the cut on SPIN magazine 125 best albums in the past 25 years list. more ›

We don't really have much to say about this other than uh... well, it's just too weird to NOT share. [via] more ›

Stop the presses! Billy Corgan is looking for yet another bassist for "The Smashing Pumpkins" to fill the revolving door that role seems to have built into it, and he's going about it via open auditions. (Chicagoist's own Lizz Kannenberg is between band gigs, maybe she could make the cut?) Most recent bassist Ginger Pooley is leaving the band to focus on taking care of her family's newest arrival, her new baby daughter. more ›

Look, we don't even have the energy to make the effort to knock the stuff Billy Corgan is putting out any more, so if you're actually interested you can grab the latest track he's releasing under the Smashing Pumpkins' name, "A Stitch In Time," below. more ›

The newest free track off the slowly forming new Smashing Pumpkins album Teargarden by Kaleidyscope dampens our hopes -- after a promising start -- that this endeavor would actually be an interesting experiment. "Widow Wake My Mind" only serves to remind us what's wrong with the current incarnation of the Pumpkins. Missing is the inventive and propulsive drumming of Jimmy Chamberlin's, replaced by a plodding beat that only serves the drag down this wisp of a song. Add to that canned orchestrations and laughably simplistic lyrics underpinned by melodies that make nursery rhymes seem intricate, and you end up with "Widow Wake My Mind." more ›

Billy Corgan put on a puppet show. Yes, you read that right, a puppet show named Gothageddon. It features appearances by -- among others -- a teddy bear ringside announcer, the bald one himself, Robert Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, and, wait for it, James Iha. All characters are voiced by Corgan, often rather hilariously. While we have been greatly disappointed by Corgan's output over the last few years, and with his insistence on squeezing every last penny he can out of the Smashing Pumpkins brand, we have to admit that Gothageddon proves that the dude does still have a sens of humor and for that we're grateful. And amused. more ›

The Great Pumpkin has announced he'll release the next Smashing Pumpkins album -- all 44 projected tracks of it -- piecemeal online for free. Superfans can shell out for periodic EP packages of 4 songs each, and super-duper fans can buy a box set of the whole shebang once (if?) all 44 tracks are released. more ›

We couldn't help but snicker when we saw that The Smashing Pumpkins a.k.a. the Billy solo show made #8 on The Independent's list of worst rock and roll comebacks. We still count ourselves fans, but Corgan is sorely testing our ability to even listen to ""Rhinoceros"* without cringing because his current antics continue to sour our appreciation for his band's past heights. (h/t HipstersUnited) more ›

Sometimes you just get tired of working with rock stars...especially if you happen to be one. Instead of combing the Hollywood handbook of freelance musicians for new members, Smashing Pumpkins leader and sole remaining member Billy Corgan is putting out the word that the job of timekeeper is open to anyone who can sling a stick. From a press release received at the musically inclined Chicagoist office today: more ›

[Ed. note: Lizz was our eyes and ears at this year's SXSW ... here's our last peek at what she saw.] more ›

The Smashing Pumpkins just announced they will be playing a show at the Aragon Brawlroom on December 7. Supposedly the set will be unlike the cruddy ones they've been alternating between on the current tour, and will serve as a blow-out stand-alone concert. We're so pleased Corgan and crew have decided to put on a fan-pleasing show in a room with such pristine acoustics. Sorry Billy, we were really kind of pulling for you at the beginning there, but you've just worn us down to the point where we've just given up. [S-T] more ›

The Smashing Pumpkins finally returned home last night and were predictably panned by both DeRo and Kot (were they sitting together in the balcony one wonders?). One of our readers wrote in to tell us the crowd was the problem though, including folks "playing with picture templates on their camera phones, screaming horribly at the most inappropriate times, and worst of all the whiny girl who sat behind us and spent the entire show talking." Were you there? What was your take? Is Billy Corgan off his rocker or are the fans really to blame? more ›

Tickets for the Smashing Pumpkins' 20th Anniversary tour Chicago shows go on sale to the general public this Monday, October 13 at 10:00 a.m. They are: more ›

Looking forward to hearing the new Smashing Pumpkins single, "G.L.O.W." (not to be confused with the G.L.O.W. we remember from our youth)? We hope you have an Xbox360, Wii, or Playstation 3. Capt. Corgan has announced the track will be packaged with two other older Pumpkins tracks ("1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze") on the upcoming video game, "Guitar Hero: World Tour." How avant-garde. Lucky players will also be able to play as Corgan, enabling them to live the dream of being a once-vital rock star who has kept wheezing well past his sell-by date. more ›

We're gearing up for the stretch-run of Chicago's premier music fests, Pitchfork and Lollapalooza. But there are some pretty great shows still happening unrelated to those fests and lots of tickets going on sale or already available. It's too hot to mull it over any more, so here we go. more ›

Oh Billy Corgan, are we on this list? Today the Smashing Pumpkins announced: more ›

Ruben Zarate attempted to rob a muffler shop on the Northwest Side yesterday, but employees told him only their boss could open the safe, and he wasn't there. So Zarate gave them his phone number and told them to call when the boss got in. They called the police instead. Police wound up shooting Zarate when he returned to the store; he survived and is being charged with attempted armed robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer. [Trib] more ›

It wasn't so terribly long ago that in order to watch any sort of semi-obscure Japanese cinema you'd have to be prepared to invest in a region-free DVD player and sit through discs with dubious subtitles (when they were subtitled at all). Even a filmmaker like Kurosawa wasn't immune. Luckily for cinephiles the situation has really changed, and access to Asian cinema in general is better than ever. more ›

Each morning we're going to highlight five bands playing at Lollapalooza that we think are worth seeing. Some will be popular, some less known, but we believe they're all worth your time. And for those not making it to the festival itself, we'll round it out with an additional show going on after the grounds close down for the evening. The Switches We are sure we'll be cursing this band from England throughout the day.... more ›