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Billy Corgan went live on his Substack on May 19th to announce to fans, that the Smashing Pumpkins recently recorded their first song with producer Butch Vig since the Siamese Dream sessions over 33 years ago.
“We just recorded a song,” Corgan said. “It has a specific purpose that I can’t reveal yet… I honestly don’t have a title yet. The plan is to release the song this year. When exactly, I can’t say. There are reasons for it… The song is really cool. The recording is basically finished. I would say there are still a few little things missing. It’s 98 percent finished.”
With his 10-year-old son Augustus Juppiter by his side in front of the camera, Corgan spent the few minutes teasing something mysterious. “That’s an announcement on a scale of ten out of ten,” he said. “If that’s not a ten out of ten, I don’t know what is. That might even be an eleven out of ten. This news is nowhere to be found. You’re the first to hear it. What would you say if I told you that the Smashing Pumpkins were back in the studio? I know that’s not a ten out of ten. That would be our first recording since ‘Aghori [Mhori Mei]’. Let’s say this is a solid eight. The fact that I’m in the studio doesn’t mean anything because I’m always in the studio.”
Vig, Nirvana and the beginnings
Vig was at the mixing desk when the Pumpkins recorded their 1991 debut album, Gish, and its 1993 follow-up, Siamese Dream. Between these two records he produced Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. “We were in the studio the day he got the call to do ‘Nevermind,'” Corgan told Rolling Stone in 2021. “I was literally in the next room. I could hear him talking. He came in and said, ‘I’ve been offered this job.’ We were there when all of these things happened – not just for us, but for the scene as a whole, and then for Butch beyond that. It’s one thing to look back at history and say, ‘Oh, how fantastic.’ But back then everything was very uncertain. None of us were guaranteed anything.”
Earlier this week, the Pumpkins announced a North American arena tour highlighting their 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The first half of the show is dedicated exclusively to songs from “Mellon Collie” in a “highly theatrical setting”, the second set highlights pieces from the other albums.
“I expect we’ll be playing a little bit of ‘Siamese Dream’ for all you Siamese Zombies out there,” Corgan said in the Substack video. “I think that’s pretty cool. It’s a full circle week. That’s written in the stars. A good week in Pumpkin Land.”
Augustus Juppiter was a lively, bright presence throughout the announcement video, occasionally interjecting things like, “Jimmy Chamberlin always leaves the car door open.”
Tour and current line-up
The Pumpkins’ current lineup consists of Corgan, Chamberlin, guitarists James Iha and Kiki Wong, and bassist Jack Bates. On May 17, they played a show at a smaller venue – the Legion Theater in Los Angeles – that was heavy on Mellon Collie songs, including the first live performance of “Here Is No Why” since 1997. On July 31, they hit the stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago. The Mellon Collie tour kicks off September 30th in Columbus, Ohio.
