NASHVILLE |DT: MARCH 17, 2011
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
DEBUT NEW SONG “LIGHTNING STRIKES”
TODAY VIA ROLLINGSTONE.COM
THE TRACK MARKS THEIR NINTH RELEASE FROM ‘TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE’
AND WILL BECOME AVAILABLE TOMORROW VIA THE BAND’S WEBSITE
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS released their ninth free track “Lightning Strikes” today, Thursday, March 17. It will first be available for 24 hours at Rollingstone.com, where it can be downloaded at www.rollingstone.com. Then starting Friday, March 18, it will be available for free download at www.smashingpumpkins.com; the site also offers a widget enabling fans to host the song anywhere on the web. Pumpkins leader BILLY CORGAN says the song is “dedicated with affection to Mark Tulin…and all our great Japanese fans who are in our prayers.” Mark Tulin, the bassist and founding member of the pioneering psych-rockers the Electric Prunes, died last month. Tulin played in the Pumpkins and appears on tracks from the band’s Teargarden By Kaleidyscope work. He also toured with Corgan in the band Spirits In the Sky in 2009.
"Lightning Strikes" is now the ninth song to be offered to fans via free download. It is from the Pumpkins’ Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, an in-progress 44-song work. Since December 2009, the band has been releasing one song at a time for free, with eight of the songs also available on two physical EPs that were released in 2010.
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS—singer/guitarist BILLY CORGAN, guitarist JEFF SCHROEDER, drummer MIKE BYRNE and bassist NICOLE FIORENTINO–recorded “Lightning Strikes,” says CORGAN, “by all the members of the band after we came off our last tour” at the end of 2010. “I feel this song organically hints at new directions without being forced.”
“Lightning Strikes” has an interesting back story. Explains CORGAN: “It was supposed to be more of a fun thing, a song originally written for the Electric Prunes. But I found an element in it that suggested a bigger picture, and unfortunately I stole it back from them. The lyric in my mind combines the isolation of modern life with the need for a never ending romantic story.”
For CORGAN, the process of releasing music one song at a time “has inspired me to treat each song as its own thought as opposed to a collective mentality where songs need to fit together. It has definitely helped me to focus, and pay more attention to what I'm trying to say with each release.”
In 2010, the Pumpkins performed three runs of dates in the U.S. plus shows in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. Asked about the band’s touring plans for 2011, CORGAN says: “We had no plans of going on the road this year, but now we may go to Europe in the fall, and if that happens, we’ll play a few select dates in America.”
About THE SMASHING PUMPKINS:
The Smashing Pumpkins have created one of the most acclaimed bodies of work in musical history and sold over 30 million albums. Formed in Chicago in 1988, they released Gish, their influential (and platinum) debut in 1991, which was followed by more platinum and multi-platinum albums including the nine-time platinum Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and the four-time platinum Siamese Dream as well as the platinum certified 1998 album Adore. The pivotal group’s many hits defined the alternative music era and continue to resonate on modern rock radio, influencing a whole new generation. The Pumpkins returned in 2007 with their gold-certified and acclaimed sixth album Zeitgeist, which entered the charts at Number 2 in the U.S. and in the Top Ten internationally. Since their triumphant return to the stage in 2007, the Pumpkins have headlined some of the biggest events around the globe including the Reading Festival, Rock Am Ring, and the V fest. In 2008, the band was inducted into Hollywood’s RockWalk. Their first post-major label release was the song “Superchrist,” issued via the Guitar Center CD Fresh Cuts Vol. 2. They subsequently recorded the song–the modern rock hit–“G.L.O.W.” for the Guitar Hero® World Tour game, marking the first time a band has recorded a new song exclusively for the franchise. In November 2008, the band released their first live DVD, If All Goes Wrong. In December 2009 The Smashing Pumpkins began releasing Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, a 44-song work with songs being released online one at a time for free (4-song physical EPs will be made available as the songs are released, such as the first one: Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol 1: Songs For A Sailor, issued May 25, 2010 thru Martha’s Music/Rocket Science Ventures). This was followed by a second EP–Teargarden By Kaleidyscope Vol. II: “The Solstice Bare”—released November 23, 2010 via Martha’s Music/Rocket Science Ventures. The group’s BILLY CORGAN has said the new music “harkens back to the original psychedelic roots of The Smashing Pumpkins; atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty.”
For more information, please contact:
Mitch Schneider: mschneider@msopr.com
Todd Brodginski: toddb@msopr.com
Alexandra Greenberg: agreenberg@msopr.com
MSO: 818-380-0400
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THE SMASHING PUMPKINS DEBUT NEW SONG “LIGHTNING STRIKES” TODAY VIA ROLLINGSTONE.COM
