City Riots: Australian Indie Rock/Dream Pop Band Play Nine NYC Shows in Support of Debut Album 'Sea of Bright Lights'

Australia’s City Riots make their return to North America this week with a whopping nine shows in New York, starting tonight at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn. This set of shows will include a performance at the Lit Lounge on October 15 as part of this fall’s CMJ Music Marathon. The trio will be performing throughout the New York area over the next two weeks in support of their recently released debut full-length, Sea Of Bright Lights.

Upon its initial release in their homeland last year, the praise for Sea Of Bright Lights was almost unanimous amongst media for its blend of jangly guitar hooks with dreamy reverbed pop. This includes snagging the title of “Best Local Release of 2012” by Radio Adelaide and world-focused media such as Sputnik Music proclaiming that the music possesses “choruses that sneak their way into your subconscious until you’re humming them along involuntarily.” With a vibrant live show and sunshine-inflected sound, the band has been able to hold their own while touring. Some tour-mates on these jaunts include The Smashing Pumpkins, indie rock notables Atlas Genius and even psychobilly punkers, The Living End. It has seen them branch out to the U.S. for appearances at recent editions of SXSW, CMJ, and Filter’s Culture Collide Festival.

Check out the video for “Lonely Hearts” which features a collection of live footage taken from the Adelaide-based group’s recent tours.



City Riots’ Upcoming Shows:
10/14 – The Rock Shop – Brooklyn, NY
10/15 – Cake Shop (daytime show, 5pm) – New York, NY
10/15 – Lit Lounge (Official CMJ showcase, 11pm) – New York, NY
10/17 – The Raven (Bulldog Gin Party) – New York, NY
10/18 – Kilmat Lounge (album listening party followed by acoustic set, 11pm) – New York, NY
10/19 – The Delancey (Aussie BBQ) – New York, NY
10/21 – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY
10/22 – Pianos – New York, NY
10/23 – Bowery Electric – New York, NY

Links:
City Riots

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

James Iha (x-Smashing Pumpkins) Streams New Album on TeamCoco / Tickets Still Available for Show at Mercury Lounge on Oct. 5th

STREAM: James Iha - Look to Sky (The End Records)

James Iha is proud to premiere his new solo album Look to Sky - an exciting collection of sophisticated pop melodies, lyrical sharpness and guitar driven rock - a week before it's September 18th release on Conan O'Brien's Team Coco.

Look to Sky sees Iha returning as a solo artist after nearly a decade and a half, newly inspired, a little wiser and proud to share what he's learned and created. "I feel like everything should lead up to something and this is a culmination of my journey".

Perhaps best known as a co-founding member and longtime guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins, James has gathered musical depth and craftsmanship inspired by his many bands (A Perfect Circle, Tinted Windows) as well as his production work (Cat Power, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs), to create this new album that offers listeners a wide range of sounds that touch upon each aspect of James' impressive career.

Songs such as "Speed Of Love" "Gemini" and "To Who Knows Where," three of the ten impressive tracks that tie together James' diverse and stylistic career, showcase his talents as a musician, songwriter, lyricist, arranger, and producer.

Look to Sky was produced by James and Nathan Larson of Shudder To Think and features special guests Karen O and Nick Zinner of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara, Nina Persson of the Cardigans, Fountain Of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and Tom Verlaine, frontman of New York rock band Television.

"I like the idea of that feeling you have when you're young and you're lying in the grass and looking up at the sky, and you get that feeling of how big the world is" says Iha. "It's a very cinematic moment that captured the overall feel of the album to me. Also, the title sounded like a phrase you'd hear in a '50s B-movie, like a directive: 'The aliens are coming. Look to the sky.' I mean it from the point of view of, 'Look all around you. Here's this incredible world we're in and there are all these beautiful things happening.'"

After a successful performance at this year's Fuji Rock Festival, James will return to Japan this September for a run of tour dates followed by a string of East Coast US shows. Tour Dates below, more to be announced.



Finding success producing and remixing songs for Ladytron and Michael Stipe (among others), James recently remixed a track for the upcoming Halo 4 remix album to be released this October.

Tour Dates:
September 22 -- Umekoji Park-- Kyoto, Japan
September 24 -- Club Quattro -- Osaka, Japan
September 26 -- Club Quattro -- Tokyo, Japan
October 4 -- The Church Of Boston -- Boston, MA

October 5 -- Mercury Lounge -- New York, NY
This is a late show - Milagres are opening and go on at 10:30PM and James goes on at 11:30PM. Tickets are $17 in advance and $20 DOS.

October 6 -- Maxwell's -- Hoboken, NJ
October 7 -- World Café Live -- Philadelphia, PA
October 8 -- U Street -- Washington, DC

Links:
James Iha

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)