The Smashing Pumpkins to Release 'Oceania: Live in NYC' (filmed at Barclays Center in Dec. '12) on Sept. 24th

Last year for Halloween, The Smashing Pumpkins were set to perform in New York at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center, but due to the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the show had to be rescheduled to Monday, December 10. The band’s powerful performance was captured for an audio-visual experience titled "Oceania: Live in NYC" and due out September 24 via Universal Music Enterprises. The package will be available in four formats: a standard Amaray DVD, a 3D Blu-ray DVD, a Deluxe 2CD+DVD set and digital long form. The DVD and Blu-ray components both feature the full show, along with interviews with Sean Evans, the lighting director and stage producer, plus a photo gallery, both with 5.1 and stereo audio.

1. Standard Amaray DVD – OCEANIA: LIVE IN NYC – full show and bonus interviews

2. Standard 3D Blu-ray – OCEANIA: 3D IN NYC – 3D & 2D on one disc, with 24- bit/96kHz audiophile audio

3. Deluxe 2CD+DVD – OCEANIA: LIVE IN NYC – DVD plus 2xCDs of all tracks in the show

4. Digital Long Form - OCEANIA: LIVE IN NYC - Full content available for digital download

At Barclays Center, the Pumpkins--singer/guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, drummer Mike Byrne and bassist Nicole Fiorentino--performed their acclaimed Oceania CD in full, followed by classics and deep cuts from their body of work for the second half of the show (the set list is below). The Pumpkins were backed by visuals prepared by Evans, whose most recent project was assisting Roger Waters on the newest staging of “The Wall.” The OCEANIA: LIVE IN NYC package, with a running time of just over two hours, is directed by Milton Lage and was produced by Rock Fuel's Barry Summers.

The set list captured on OCEANIA: LIVE IN NYC is:

DISC 1:
1. Quasar (5:05)
2. Panopticon (4:09)
3. The Celestials (3:50)
4. Violet Rays (4:34)
5. My Love Is Winter (3:37)
6. One Diamond, One Heart (3:54)
7. Pinwheels (5:52)
8. Oceania (10:09)
9. Pale Horse (4:35)
10. The Chimera (4:39)
11. Glissandra (4:31)
12. Inkless (3:03)

DISC 2:
1. Wildflower (5:06)
2. Space Oddity (7:38)
3. X.Y.U (10:23)
4. Disarm (3:31)
5. Tonite Reprise (1:27)
6. Tonight, Tonight (4:21)
7. Bullet with Butterfly Wings (5:02)
8. The Dream Machine (7:01)
9. Hummer (7:13)

Encore:
1. Ava Adore (5:11)
2. Cherub Rock (4:43)
3. Zero (6:01)

Bootleg Video from the Barclays Center show:


Links:
Smashing Pumpkins

Smashing Pumpkins Announce 6CD + 1DVD Deluxe Reissue of 'The Aeroplane Flies High' (71 Bonus Tracks)

(click-through on box set to go to Amazon pre-order page)

As part of the continuing series of reissues of The Smashing Pumpkins’ acclaimed catalog via Virgin/UMe, the iconic alternative band is set to release four separate versions, all fully remastered, of their platinum-selling 1996 box set The Aeroplane Flies High: 6-CD +1 DVD; 5-LPs and Deluxe Digital and Standard Digital editions. The CD/DVD, 5-LP version and digital configurations will be released July 23.

The original The Aeroplane Flies High was a five-disc box set that featured expanded versions of singles from their acclaimed 1995 double album Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, including “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “1979,” “Zero” “Tonight” and “Thirty-Three.” Mellon Collie achieved Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10,000,000 discs and digital equivalent per disc (5 million copies of the double album).



These new limited edition box sets of The Aeroplane Flies High feature the original 33 track version—remastered by Bob Ludwig—and expanded to 104 tracks (90 audio and 14 audio-visual) encompassing unreleased demos, alternative versions and live recordings. In addition to expanded versions of Aeroplane’s original 5 discs, a 6th disc contains live recordings from the 1996 Mellon Collie tour, while the DVD content is taken from a July, 4 1997, performance in Belfort, France. Included is a 46-page book with liner notes written by David Wild, plus extensive track-by-track notes by The Smashing Pumpkins founder-singer-songwriter-guitarist Billy Corgan—for the original release’s 33 tracks. The box set has unique packaging with embossed foil wrap and twinkle stock for jackets.

Full Track Listing: The Aeroplane Flies High

CD1: Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
...Said Sadly
You're All I've Got Tonight
Clones (We're All)
A Night Like This
Destination Unknown
Dreaming

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
Movers and Shakirs
Germans in Leather Pants
Millieu
Jackboot
A/Ab/E/B/F#
Rings
Ugly
Blaster Caster
Little Ditty
Verily I Say
New Waver
The Groover
Ravi Revi Roo
On The Loose
Slurry
- Tracks 8 – 22 Recorded at Gravity Studios, Chicago, IL, March 15, 1994 – March 16, 1994

CD2: 1979
1979
Ugly
Believe
Cherry
The Boy
Set the Ray to Jerry
Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
Tonight, Tonight (acoustic version/instrumental rough)
Jupiter's Lament (billy solo)
Zero (8trk demo)
Marquis in Spades (8trk demo)
Have Love Will Travel (8trk demo)
Infinite Sadness (siamese outtake)
1979 (acoustic)
Aeroplane Flies High (acoustic snippet)
Take me Down (instrumental)
Star Song (dat mix/vocal rough)

CD3: Zero
Zero
God
Mouths of Babes
Tribute to Johnny
Marquis in Spades
Pennies
Pastichio Medley
LP Only: 7. Pastichio Medley (with fades)

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
By Starlight
Set The Ray to Jerry
Mouths of Babes
Cupid de Locke
Galapagos
To Forgive
Lily (my one and only)
Here is no Why
- Tracks 8 – 15 Recorded Live at the Double Door, Chicago, IL, February, 27 1995

CD4: Tonight, Tonight
Tonight, Tonight
Meladori Magpie
Rotten Apples
Medellia of the Gray Skies
Jupiter's Lament
Blank
Tonite Reprise

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
Stumbleine
Ugly
Meladori Magpie
God
Love
Pissant
Hello Kitty Kat
Special Winner's Song
I Just Wanna Make Love To You
- Tracks 8 – 16 Recorded Live at the Double Door, Chicago, IL, February, 21, 27, 28, 1995

CD5: Thirty-Three
Thrity-Three
The Last Song
The Aeroplane Flies High
Transformer
The Bells
My Blue Heaven

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
Silverfuck (live 7/10/96)

Deluxe Edition Live CD:
CD6: Live Inside the Dark Globe
Where Boys Fear To Tread Cleveland, Ohio 7.3.96
Zero
San Francisco, California 2.7.96
Fuck You / An Ode To No One
Stockholm, Sweden 4.10.96
X.Y.U.
Los Angeles, California 2.3.96
To Forgive
Washington, D.C. 1.6.96
Thirty-Three
New York City, New York 1.11.96
Tonight, Tonight
New York City, New York 1.11.96
Lily (My One And Only)
Washington, D.C. 1.5.96
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
Cleveland, Ohio 7.3.96
Jellybelly
Gent, Belgium 4.6.96
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Los Angeles, California 2.3.96
By Starlight
Buffalo, New York 7.2.96
Bodies
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 7.5.96
Silverfuck
Copenhagen, Denmark 4.9.96

Deluxe Edition Concert DVD:
Malsaucy Lake, Belfort, France, July 4, 1997
Glimpses
Where Boys Fear To Tread
Eye
Tonight, Tonight
Transformer
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
The End Is The Beginning Is The End
By Starlight
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Muzzle
1979
X.Y.U.
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)

As David Wild writes, “The Aeroplane Flies High is a trip, and perhaps fittingly for Billy Corgan, it was an exciting, exhausting and scary one that reveals a lot about the Smashing Pumpkins at this point in their musical journey.” Notes Corgan in the 46-page book: “What I like about The Aeroplane Flies High is that it’s almost the existential backwater of the Mellon Collie album,” Corgan says today. “Listening to the music gathered here is a little bit like seeing what goes on behind the walls of Disneyland. I’ve always been fascinated with places that are very well constructed, and finding out what’s really going on just over the fence. You look over that gate and notice that things on the other side are not well painted—or maybe you spot that guy dressed as some character sneaking a smoke on his break. At least for me, the behind the scenes feel heard on The Aeroplane Flies High represents something revealing not found on the main album. In retrospect, it’s a nice document of how we arrived at the apex of Mellon Collie—and also what standing on that apex did to us personally.”

As The Smashing Pumpkins get the fully remastered treatment via these reissues, the band is excited to be moving forward by creating new music. They will soon start recording the follow-up to 2012’s acclaimed album Oceania (Martha’s Music/EMI Label Services/Caroline Distribution). It was created by the band—singer/guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, drummer Mike Byrne and bassist Nicole Fiorentino — at Corgan’s private studio in Chicago as a true album experience for listeners to fully immerse themselves in. It entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart at No. 4 and earned the No. 1 spot on the Independent Albums Chart. Marking The Smashing Pumpkins’ 7th studio record, it is “an album within an album,” part of their 44-song work-in-progress Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. The band launched their 2013 world tour in Mexico this past March and is heading to Europe and Japan for summer dates through August 11.

Links:
Smashing Pumpkins

Taproot: An Interview with vocalist Stephen Richards

After a quiet couple of years, Taproot released their fourth disc, Our Long Road Home, last month. This disc was recorded in the band's home town of Ann Arbor, MI and was produced by Tim Patalan (Sponge, Watershed).

The band is out on the road in support of the new disc and they are playing a run of shows this month with Sevendust. The band is playing Irving Plaza tomorrow night (October 7th) and here are the other area tour dates:

Oct 8 2008 7:30PM, Mulcahys, Wantagh, New York
Oct 11 2008 8:00PM, The Chance, Poughkeepsie, New York

I had the opportunity to catch up with Taproot vocalist Steven Richards over the weekend and we talked about the new disc, some of the one-off acoustic sessions that the band has been playing, working with Billy Corgan and more. Here is a link to the podcast feed and here is a direct link to the mp3.

Tickets for tomorrow night's show at Irving Plaza are $23.50. Our Long Road Home is available in retail outlets and there is a different online-only bonus track on both the iTunes and Amazon.com versions.

Links:
Taproot's Website
Taproot's MySpace Profile

Smashing Punkpins - Zeitgeist CD Review

I am guessing that most people's opinion of this CD will depend on how much they like Billy Corgan. This is a Smashing Pumpkins disc in name only and is NOT return to the sounds of Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. This is probably closer, musically, to Zwan or Billy's solo release. This isn't to say this is a "bad" CD, it is just forgotable.

The music on this disc is pretty disjointed as it starts with a few alt/grunge tunes, progresses into some songs that are more melodic (and sound a bit like classic Pumpkins) and ends with some Queen-like operatic cuts that simply don't work. What is sorely missing is the classic Pumpkins verse-chorus-verus melodic structure. Most of Billy's vocals sound like he was completely uninspired.

In a previous post, I commented that I thought "Tarantula" was just ok. While I stand behind this comment, "Tarantula" is one of the better songs on the disc. The best track is "(Come On) Let's Go" as this is the closest to old-school Pumpkins. Unfortunately, for anyone who bought this disc unaware, the ltd-edition bonus tracks are also quite good.

Stellar, the iTunes exclusive track, is interesting but not a "must have". It is an atmospheric track with almost a Coldplay/Pink Floyd feel. Death from Above, the Best Buy exclusive track, is a great melodic rocker (and Corgan's vocals sound inspired). Zeitgeist , the Target exclusive track, is a great acoustic number that is carried by Billy's voice.

To sum up my thoughts, this release is for Billy Corgan fans only. There just aren't enough good tracks on this release. If you feel compelled to purchase this, I'd recommend either the Best Buy (still on the shelves in NYC) or the Target versions as the bonus tracks are pretty good.

Links:
Smashing Pumpkins Main Website (link)

Smashing Punkpins Release Three Versions of Zeitgeist CD

This is pretty lame...I remember back in the mid-80's (when LPs were pretty much the standard media), some labels tried releasing a non-LP bonus track on the CD and a different non-LP bonus track on the cassette. Well, twenty years later, the Smashing Pumpkins are bringing this tactic back.

The band's new CD Zeitgeist drops Tuesday. There is an exclusive bonus track on the Best Buy version, the Target version and the iTunes version.

Best Buy Exclusive Track - Death From Above
Target Exclusive Track - Zeitgeist (makes a heck of a lot of sense to have the title track only on the Target version)
iTunes Exclusive Track - Stellar

I thought that the first track from this release Tarantula was just "alright" so I am going to pass on all three versions.

Links:
Smashing Pumpkins Main Website (link)