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Pumpkins perform at The Viper Room! - Billy Corgan performed at a L.A. club the Viper Room playing new songs as well as James showing off his own songs. Read below for more details.

Pumpkin Billy Corgan Debuts
Breathtaking New Songs

The head Pumpkin delivered 10 songs to a crowd that didn't seem to appreciate what they were hearing.

Addicted To Noise correspondent Teri van Horn reports : "In you I taste God," is a lyric from one of the new songs that Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan sang during a rare solo, acoustic appearance at L.A.'s Viper Room Thursday night. It's a line that many in the crowd could likely relate to. For Smashing Pumpkins fans, this was a special show -- one that delivered more than promised when Pumpkin guitarist James Iha preceded Corgan on the stage with his own acoustic mini-set. Unfortunately for Iha, the anticipation for Corgan was so high that the guitarist didn't get the props he was due for debuting four lullaby-like ditties -- including "Be Strong Now" and "Country Girl" -- off his upcoming album, Let It Come Down (Feb. 10). "This is the first time I've played any of these songs for anyone," Iha confessed halfway through his set. "It's a bit scary."

But the audience, which included his Pumpkins bandmate D'Arcy, producer/label head Rick Rubin, producer and Black Grape member Danny Saber and Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, were there to see Corgan. "People were talking, ignoring James like it was an open mic night," said Jed the Fish, a DJ at the modern-rock radio station, KROQ, that promoted the show. "You could tell he was a bit discouraged, he was real nervous."

It was king Pumpkin Billy Corgan they wanted. And, after Iha, it was Corgan they finally got. Well after midnight, Corgan walked onto the stage wearing a black sweater and jeans. He took a seat on a stool and, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, delivered a thoroughly sincere and at times transcendent set of all-new material, which he capped off with one encore -- the anthemic 1995 hit, "1979." "These days you can't smoke in the bars," Corgan said during one of the few times that he spoke to the crowd. "I'm surprised you can drink, I know you can't curse."

Consisting of primarily gentle ballads ("All love songs about falling in love, breaking up, and special relationships," said Jed the Fish), Corgan's 45-minute, 10-song set had an almost innocent quality to it. The acoustic setting allowed Corgan's voice -- and the hard honesty of the new lyrics -- to come through loud and clear. And in a venue as small as the Viper Room, Corgan was able to create an intimacy that is impossible at the arenas where the Pumpkins typically perform. He opened with a new song that Jed the Fish thinks "will be a hit no matter what form it takes [on the album]."

Spartan, but atmospheric, the new material, which will be released on the Pumpkin's upcoming album, reveals a songwriter who's grown considerably since 1995's Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness. Songs such as the dynamically rich "Falling" and the beautifully circular "Shame" are sure signs that Corgan is getting better with age.

Yet the crowd was a difficult one to please. And when you deliver a set of songs that your audience has never heard before, you're asking a lot. Even of hard-core fans. "The crowd was less rude during Billy's set, but it [their restlessness] was a testament to how hard it is to break in new material, even if you're Billy Corgan," said Jed the Fish. "I mean, you'll probably never hear all-new Smashing Pumpkins songs all in a row in a small club like the Viper Room again."

Midway through his set, Corgan tried to get the crowd to quiet down. "You might want to listen to this, it's a rare moment in my life," he said, before beginning a song that included the lyrics "you love him, love him for yourself, can't resist."

First announced on KROQ Wednesday afternoon, this was a show for fans; there was no guest (well, clearly a few VIPs did get in through the back door, so to speak) or media list. You made it inside if you were lucky enough to call in and answer a Pumpkin trivia question correctly and therefore score one of KROQ's 14 tickets, or if you were willing to wait in line for a long time and buy a $7 one from the Viper Room.

Those left to the latter got there early -- though no one earlier than 23-year-old diehard George Cervantes, who showed up at the club shortly after it closed Wednesday night, right around 3 a.m. He was joined about 10 hours later by some less ambitious followers -- there was a line outside the club all day Thursday. When it started to rain on the fans, Viper Room employees came out and offered coffee, tea and umbrellas. By 8 p.m., the line had spread from the venue's side-entrance up to Sunset Boulevard, where it turned west and proceeded to the next block.

(ATN's Senior Writer Gil Kaufman contributed to this story.) [Fri., Jan. 16, 1998, 9 a.m. PST]

James Iha's "Let It Come Down" Audio! -

Download 3 new songs from James new album.
Jealousy , One and Two, and lastly Sound of Love

Lyrics for "Let It Come Down" will be up tomorrow.

GoTo.com Editors likes this Site! - The editors at http://www.goto.com have chosen Andrew's Smashing Pumpkins Page as one of the biggest main pumpkin pages around, giving us the Editors Choice Award! Thank you very much.

James new CD has it's Critics -
The following report is from the Smashing Pumpkins Newsletter. If you are a James Iha die hard fan you might not want to read it.

One morning a few days ago I was listening to the local alternative radio station "The End" (in Seattle). They had just got done playing a Pumpkins song on Andy Savage's morning show when they started talking about James' new cd and how it was "stripped down". After playing a clip of one of the songs, another radio personality, Travis, said it didn't sound anything like the Pumpkins and it was more like country. At the sound of the word "country," Andy Savage went ahead and broke James' CD. He made a short apology to Pumpkin fans and said it was the word "country" that set him off and not the CD (o..k). Andy Savage has a web site, too, at
http://www.andysavage.com

~luna*

From Jam Music Article -

"Pumpkins lay down 20 songs for next album"

Tuesday, January 13, 1998

Never let it be said that James Iha is one to coast between Smashing Pumpkins albums.

While the guitarist is deep into recording sessions for the next Pumpkins album, he's also prepping for the Feb. 10 release of his solo debut, "Let It Come Down", and a possible string of acoustic dates, all while continuing to check out possible signings for his own label, Scratchie Records.

As for the Pumpkins, "We're in the middle of recording now," a relaxed-sounding Iha is saying Monday from Los Angeles. "It's going good, just really slow.
"It's a lot (of songs), it's just that some are kind of sketchy and some are more formed. There's about 20, maybe more." However, unlike the Pumpkins' last opus, the double-CD "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness", the new album will definitely be a single album. Iha characterizes the new material as "Less rock, but it's not really an acoustic record, and there are some electronic elements on it." Pause. "It's kind of hard to say what it's going to be." The Pumpkins album, which doesn't yet have a release date, could also conceivably consist entirely of Billy Corgan songs, though the band is working on one Iha composition, titled "Summer". "I used most of my best songs on my record," Iha says with a good-natured laugh. "I've been writing some new ones lately, but I kind of went from my record right into the Pumpkins record, so I haven't really had time to write much."
Was it hard to shift from a situation in which he was the boss to one in which he's basically the guitarist to frontman Corgan? "Working on good songs is not hard," he says. "Some songs I just play guitar, some songs I contribute a little more as far as the overall production. We've been playing together for 10 years, so it's not really hard for the three of us to just start playing."
And who's filling the Pumpkins' vacant drum seat these days? "There's a lot of looping and drum machine, actually," says Iha. "We've had different people playing on it: Matt Walker (who officially split from the Pumpkins last fall), Matt Cameron (ex of Soundgarden). And we want to have some other people come by. But there's no permanent drummer."

Meanwhile, Iha says he'll probably be hitting the road in February and March to do interviews about "Let It Come Down" and, possibly, some playing.
"(The Pumpkins) should be going into mix mode by the time my album comes out, so I think it'll actually work out, timing-wise. "Right now, I'll probably go out with Neal Casale, who sang most of the harmonies on the record and played some guitar. We'll probably do an acoustic duo thing," though that could take the form of simply playing a few songs at radio stations, rather than full shows.

The first single and video from "Let It Come Down" is the charming "Be Strong Now". In addition, that song will be released in the U.K. as part of an EP, along with three non-album B-sides: "My Advice", "Take Care" and "Falling", which Iha characterizes as "a really old song". Here's the full track listing for "Let It Come Down":

1. Be Strong Now (first single and video)
2. Sound Of Love
3. Beauty (with Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon)
4. See The Sun
5. Country Girl
6. Jealousy
7. Lover, Lover
8. Silver String
9. Winter
10. One And Two (with D'arcy on vocals)
11. No One's Gonna Hurt You"

Guitar World Article on Pumpkins New Album -

Article published in Guitar World (Feb. 1998). It talks about what to wait for musically in 1998 (go figure, Bush is releasing another album this year! As well as Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Kiss, etc.)

SMASHING PUMPKINS
NEXT OF 'KINS
(Guitar World Feb '98)

"Despite the rumors, I can tell you the next Smashing Pumpkins release is not going to be an electronica album or an acoustic album," says Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha. "But it does appear that it'll be more stripped-down than the last album."

According to Iha, the initial work on the band's follow-up to the multi-platinum Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness has been something of a throwback to the Pumpkin's earliest days. With the departure of drummer Matt Walker, who left to concentrate on his band Cupcakes, Iha and bandmates, Billy Corgan and D'Arcy, have turned to composing with a drum machine. "It's the way we wrote songs in the very beginning of the band," says Iha. "The three of us worked together for a long time before we got a drummer."

While Iha is enthusiastic about his work with the Pumpkins, he is equally jazzed about his upcoming solo album, Let It Come Down (Virgin), due February 10. Written during the band's last tour, the seductively mellow, acoustic-based project is a reflection of Iha's earliest musical influences. "I grew up listening to a lot of acoustic music - CSN&Y, the Byrds and Gram Parsons. I never really learned to play any of their songs specifically, but that folk-rock influence is part of me."

The Smashing Pumpkins' tumultuous recent history - which saw the death of tour keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and departure of longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, both due to substance abuse - also had an effect on Iha's solo effort. "I wrote most of the songs on acoustic guitar while we were on the road. The last Smashing Pumpkins tour was so heavy - musically, physically and mentally - that the last thing I wanted to do when I went back to my hotel room was crank up a Marshall. I just wanted to write something warm, intimate, and loose."

Billy's New Car! - Maybe from the influence of Al Unser Jr., Billy has bought himself a brand new, cherry red Ferrari.

New Album in Recording - The Pumpkins have been in LA recording their new album. Jimmy Flemion, Dennis Flemion, Matt Cameron, Marilyn Manson, and Chris Connelly have been seen in and around the recording studio. The album is still untitled, and is still scheduled for release in the spring.

Negative Comments -

"I don't want to intellectualize about the album, because if you intellectualize about rock music, you end up sounding like Billy Corgan. And that's the last person I want to sound like."
-- Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day.

"You can't dance to the Smashing Pumpkins. "
-- Stephanie Perking of Jane's Addiction

Pumpkins on the X-files -
Thanks to Smpumpkin0 for informing me that the Pumpkins will be on the X-files on February 15. I'm not sure what it is about yet so if you know please e-mail and let me know.

Ex-Soundgarden Drummer Tries Out For Pumpkins -

Band seeks new drummer following departure of Matt Walker.

Addicted To Noise Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports : Just days to go before the Smashing Pumpkins play their final live show with former Filter drummer Matt Walker in a Dec. 5 opening slot for the Rolling Stones, the band already has begun its search for his replacement.

Among the list of drummers jamming with the Pumpkins this week in a sort of try-out is ex-Soundgarden skin-man Matt Cameron.

A source that worked with now defunct Soundgarden said Monday that Cameron "has just begun playing with them," and that the sessions are meant to help the two parties "feel each other out" to see if they have the right chemistry.

The Pumpkins' new drummer -- whomever they ultimately settle on -- will be their third in the past year and a half. Original drummer, Jimmy Chamberlin, who had a long-term, hard drug habit and had been given several chances to get straight, was sacked during the group's 1996 tour in the wake of the July 1996 overdose death of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. Chamberlin was temporarily replaced by Walker, who is now making his exit to work with his Chicago-based pop band, the Cupcakes, recently signed to DreamWorks.

Cameron also plays in a number of side projects, including the Wellwater Conspiracy, which features former Soundgarden colleague, bassist Ben Shepherd, and former Monster Magnet member John McBain. The group released Declaration of Conformity on Third Gear Records in July.

The Pumpkins made a point of calling Walker a "touring drummer" for the duration of his stay in the band, and according to the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, "[Cameron] wasn't the only drummer" who's jammed with the Pumpkins in their search for a replacement to their replacement. Neither Pumpkins' management nor publicist Gayle Fine could confirm or deny whether Cameron would be working with the band this week. [Tues., Dec. 2, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]

Mailing list - I joined the Smashing Pumpkins Digest (Listessa) which is probably the largest Pumpkins newsletter out there, it's kind of like a newsgroup cause everyone can add information. If you want to join it send an e-mail to smashing-pumpkins@cc.UManitoba.CA with your e-mail address in the body.

Merry Christmas! - Once again Christmas time is near, all I really want is a new Smashing Pumpkins Album............maybe if i'm good Santa will bring it.