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......

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. Eddie Vedder is coming to town sans Jam for a pair of late-August shows at the Auditorium Theatre. New Zealander Liam Finn opens. Tickets are......

Oh Billy Corgan, are we on this list? Today the Smashing Pumpkins announced: To celebrate the band's 20th anniversary, The Smashing Pumpkins will be playing select U.S. cities in August and September of 2008. No dates or cities have been announced but expect the band to revisit a few specific places that were missed during the last U.S. tour... We're guessing Chicago -- perhaps specifically Metro? -- is one of the places the band......

Photo by c.hiltz 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......

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. If only our access to Hyde......

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.......

We're a bit mystified that anyone is paying attention to the new Billy Corgan solo jawn Smashing Pumpkins album. OK, not really. Though Corgan has been largely written off as a joke in recent years, there is no denying his influence over the direction music took in the '90s. He led a band that appealed to everyone from gloom and doom goths to mainstream Abercrombie & Fitch-lovers by playing the disaffected heartstrings that lay within......

Just in case you aren't tired of seeing Paris Hilton's entitled face plastered all over every news outlet around the world, the Smashing Pumpkins are making sure you have yet another reason to stare at her mug. "Tarantula," the band's first single from the forthcoming album Zeitgeist, will be released on July 9 in the UK, and Amazon can confirm that the cover art contains a grainy photo of Ms. Hilton wearing a bustier and......

We haven’t seen this much talk about an album cover as art since LPs were phased out as the dominant form of music delivery. The artwork for Zeitgeist, the first album in seven years from a retooled Smashing Pumpkins, has been released. Graphic artist / illustrator Shepard Fairey was given the nod to create the cover for the band. Fairey has created album art before with such musicians as Flogging Molly, Less Than Jake, 311,......

Joshua Kuhl of Madison, Wis., and Simon Brown of Rockford, Ill., were charged with felony burglary on Tuesday for allegedly breaking into the Smashing Pumpkins’ rehearsal space and taking various items including publicity photos for the group’s next album. The Sun-Times article references the guys as “ardent fans.” Or crappy opportunists? Either way, they allegedly broke into the band’s studio space on the 300 block of North Loomis Street last Friday and stole three guitar......

Chicagoist needs to stop making bets that the Smashing Pumpkins will play Lollapalooza this year. With Pearl Jam already rumored to headline and the Pumpkins playing every fest known to man this summer, we thought that Billy Corgan would actually have some sort of allegiance to our fair town. Not so fast. We got the news today that the Smashing Pumpkins are headlining the U.S. Virgin Fest in Baltimore the same weekend as Lolla. Now,......

She’s Your Sister was formed in Chicago, but after logging in a bunch of shows and pretty much getting nowhere, they decided to hightail it to California. We know, we thought that was weird too. Why would a reasonably decent band willingly plunge into the morass that is the Hollywood/L.A. music scene, right? With hindsight being 20/20 and all that though, now the move makes sense. She’s Your Sister draws their influences from the deep......

This morning Billy Corgan announced to his myspace friends that the 6th album from the Smashing Pumpkins will be titled “Zeitgeist”. The post lists the strange drop date as July 7, 2007 – a Saturday. Is it a wedding gift for Eva Longoria or an opportune day for reunion fans still swooning about the past after The Police concerts at Wrigley to keep the nostalgia trip going with a purchase? Whatever the reasoning, we’re excited......

We realize we’re a bit late to the game on this one, but Illinois Entertainer recently published a list of the top 25 local albums of the last ten years. And we’re a bit surprised that it hasn’t inspired more discussion on their site. The usual suspects made the list with Wilco, Sea and Cake, Jim O'Rourke, Kanye and Smashing Pumpkins all making appearances. Local H seems to be the most glaring omission here, as......

Some days when Chicagoist is busy reading the trades, it’s almost enough to put us to sleep. Thank goodness for that that intravenous caffeine drip. Lately, these stories all have a “Chicago Connection”. From working with Jay-Z and Kanye West on his debut album to garnering three Grammy nominations, Lupe Fiasco has had some dreams come true. He’s decided to take Oprah’s advice and dream even bigger for what comes next. His high hopes include......

An unfortunate side effect to the blustery and icy wind is that our mailbox jams for the postal worker. We normally get started in the morning by popping in a movie to get the wheels turning and drinking exorbitant amounts of coffee to shake off those gin and tonics from the night before. We imagine our postal worker is still carrying around those Netflix movies in her pouch, because this morning we've got nothing. So......

Billy, you done gone and done it to us again. Every time we think you’re about to slip out of the public consciousness you pop right back up with yet another crazy scheme to keep yourself relevant. Well, maybe not relevant. Let’s settle for “talked about.” We dug it when you dished the dirt on your fellow ex-Zwannies. We actually got a little excited when you announced The Smashing Pumpkins were reuniting until we realized......

While out of town this week, Chicagoist wandered into a piano bar. The gent behind the keys asked us where we were from. “Chicago,” we replied. “I love that band,” he said. We cringed a little bit at that. We’re loath to have our city closely identified with a band that is more famous for Prom themes than anything else. But after we thought about it some more, the comparison makes a lot of sense.......

Yesterday, we posted about a piece that ran on Billboard.com regarding a possible Smashing Pumpkins reunion at Lollapalooza. Our curiosity was piqued by one line in particular that said “Chicago media reports” had first carried this speculation. Since we hadn’t seen anything like that, we started doing a little research and sending a few e-mails. What follows is an account of our attempts to track down exactly how stories like this get legs and whether......

Yesterday afternoon Billboard's website added to the Smashing Pumpkins rumors circling the globe with a possible reunion occuring at the August 4-6th Lollapalooza here in Chicago. There's no confirmation of the dates or who will be playing, but the Texas-based Capital Sports & Entertainment are in charge again. The line-up will not be announced for weeks, but Thievery Corporation told Billboard that they would be there. Jam Productions is still in a tizzy over......

We’re not sure if you noticed, but Greg Kot was a busy guy at the end of last week. On Friday, Kot reported that the Smashing Pumpkins will not be reuniting at Coachella this April. Over the last couple weeks, published reports created a veritable Hokey Pokey of information: you had your Pumpkins in, you had your Pumpkins out. Whether Corgan backed out or was never in it to begin with remains a cause for......

For the last month or so, we’ve been seeing rumors online about the “The Smashing Pumpkins” reuniting for Coachella. Forgive us if we’re having trouble getting excited about it. We’re not sure how it started but it might have something to do with this post on Billy Corgan’s MySpace blog that said: “The surprise I have in store for you all will be announced soon enough…” Ever since then, the Pumpkins have been mentioned in......

For Chicago's entertainment beats, 2005 is best summed up by the phrase: change is good. At this time last year, if you had told us that 2005 would bring not one, but two world class rock festivals to Chicago’s parks, we’d have patted you on the head and cooed “Aw, you’re so cute.” But wonders never cease and so it was that the city of Chicago finally realized that in order for Chicago to become......

We’re still suffering from a White Sox hangover so the very thought of staying out all night to see live music has us feeling a little nauseous. But if you’re a Cubs fan or looking for some good live music with your Halloween festivities then there are plenty of options this weekend. We love a good cover song and the notion of bands masquerading as other bands is a natural for Halloween. Beat Kitchen hosts......

Chicago can be a cruel habitat for local bands that make it big. Just look at how quickly folks turned on The Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill and Liz Phair as their careers progressed. Okay, Phair deserved the hostile response once she started to seriously suck but that’s beside the point. OK Go jumped to head of the backlash pack with the release of their Major Label debut a few years ago. You couldn’t open a......

Dave Suh has been a staple of the local music scene for over the last decade. His first band, Emil Muzz, provided the city with future members of Light FM, Rockit Girl and Veruca Salt. Suh himself went on to join simultaneously join Caviar and Woolworthy and, later, The Drama. While he was a vital component of all those bands none allowed him the free control of sitting solo in the driver’s seat. So he......

Since Chicagoist doesn't have a job right now, we didn't try to attend the sold out shows at the Vic this week by Chicago's very own Billy Corgan. It does look like that it may not have been so difficult a task to get tickets to the 2nd show, but by then we were well into our couch recovering from the 4th's festivities. We believe one of the hardest things to do is to reinvent......

Once upon a time Chicago was known as a city of bands unafraid to add a little grandiose spectacle to its rock and/or roll shows. Then we got over Styx, thank god. But in the Eighties there was a definite resurgence of groups (i.e. that whole Wax Trax contingent) combining instruments, computers and stage extravaganzas to accomplish something more human and interactive than your typical concert experience. This was effectively squashed during the major label......

As the International Pop Overthrow festival hits town for a two-week engagement, we’re reminded of how much we miss Material Issue. Another in a long line of critically acclaimed and enormously influential bands that never had the sales to match, Material Issue were the connective tissue that made it OK for bands like Smashing Pumpkins to wear their Cheap Trick influences on their collective sleeve. Not since The Undertones' “More Songs About Chocolate and Girls”......

A wire story on Chicago-bred hip hop in this morning’s Red Streak runs with the idea that a high tide raises all boats. In this case, the motion of the ocean is courtesy of “recent” success of Kanye West and Twista. Members of Chicago’s hip-hop community interviewed for the article praise the underground scene, but note that Chicago’s also-ran status is due to a lack of management that can push local artists and, in turn,......