Latest news with #SmashingPumpkins'
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Billy Corgan on playing Smashing Pumpkins songs solo, and Pope Leo XIV being a White Sox fan
'I think that's the great hubris of a creator,' Corgan said on a Zoom call from his home in Chicago. 'You feel these are your sculptures and your paintings, and you have the ability to once more reframe and re-illuminate why they're attractive to you.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up His 'A Return to Zero' solo tour begins this weekend in Baltimore, then heads to the Paradise Rock Club on Advertisement Altogether, Corgan will draw from a pool of over 100 songs for the tour, although he won't necessarily cull enough material for a grandiose three-hour performance, as he's done in the past with the Smashing Pumpkins. Advertisement 'I'm 58 now, so I do have to temper myself,' he said with a laugh. To Corgan, enmeshing the different eras in one setlist felt like 'coming home,' and 'more resonantly consistent' with the band's first era, before their — in his words — 'quote-unquote breakup' in 2000 and quasi-reformation around 2007. Following a rotation of lineup changes over the years, the band currently performs with three of the four founding members. Guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are back in the saddle with Corgan, while original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky has not rejoined. From an outside perspective, Corgan's claim to the Smashing Pumpkins' two album anniversaries might look like a catalyst for another fallout within the band. But the frontman said he's been chatting with his bandmates 'for years' about how to honor anniversaries in a way that was personal, rather than an opportunistic cash grab. 'One thing we've done successfully, I think, in this decade of our knowing each other, is if there's not an even consensus, we don't persist,' he said. 'That was some of the problems in the '90s — not taking into account, let's call it, a balanced view of everybody's take.' So when the band had unspecified 'differing views' on the two upcoming anniversaries, Corgan took the reins with his new solo group, which includes the Smashing Pumpkins' touring guitarist, Kiki Wong. Advertisement 'The fact that these significant anniversaries were going to go by with no particular unified voice of how to present them, I said, 'Well, I'm just gonna do it myself,'' Corgan said. Add that to the list of sizable projects that Corgan has taken on in recent years. Directly prior to this interview, Corgan described himself as occupying a '12-year-old brain space' while working on his memoir. (Per his wife Chloé Mendel Corgan, he said, he's tried to write it on four separate occasions since they met, and 'as far as I'm concerned, this [time] is the last.') Corgan has also owned the National Wrestling League since 2017, and this year launched a podcast called 'The Magnificent Others,' in which he interviews fellow cultural bigwigs like Gene Simmons and Sharon Osbourne. Corgan's extracurriculars involve his local community, too. Alongside his wife, he runs a plant-based tea shop and cafe called With a daily routine that typically involves 12 to 14 hours of work across his various projects — fueled by an average of six hours of sleep — Corgan has continued to expand his identity as an artist and cultural figure. But that complexity sometimes gets muddled within the public's narrower perception of Corgan and his role in the Smashing Pumpkins. Advertisement 'One has to deal with the complication of, I'm so closely identified with the band that most people don't really understand who I am without the band,' he explained. 'The band's history after 2001 is rife with incredible external pressures on who the band needed to be in, let's call it, this second era: a greatest hits band, an artistic band, a mixture of both,' he added. 'Not that you'd want to, but you could find a voluminous treasure trove of material of people criticizing me for not being the band that people want me to be in. And me saying, over and over again, 'The band you think I was in, I was never in. So why would I be in that band now?'' To Corgan, the name under which he performs is 'sort of inconsequential.' But in this case, performing with the Machines of God — especially to revisit some of his older work within the Smashing Pumpkins — casts off many of those notions about how he and the band should operate. The freedom is the ultimate trade-off for any nitpicks the public might have about him striking out on his own. 'It's very attractive to me to present this material without dilution — meaning, I don't really care in this setting for that pressure,' he said. 'If you don't embrace the freedom, then you're kinda wasting, let's call it, 'the upside of the downside,'' he concluded. BILLY CORGAN AND THE MACHINES OF GOD With Return to Dust. At the Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, June 9, 7 p.m. Tickets available on the secondary market. Advertisement
Perth Now
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Yungblud bonds with The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins over tackling high ticket prices
Yungblud has bonded with The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins over fair ticket prices for fans. The 'I Think I'm Okay' hitmaker - who is set to headline his second annual Bludfest event at the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 21 - is keeping ticket prices for the festival down at £65, and he's opened up on how his friendship with The Cure's Robert Smith and Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan has been inspired by a desire to keep things affordable. He told the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column: "Me and Robert have such a mutual fire in us to be pioneers in making a change on ticket prices. "We've become really close and, whenever we meet up or email, we try to make a difference in any way we can. "Billy Corgan has become a good mate in changing how tickets operate too." Yungblud - whose real name is Dominic Harrison - insisted his concern is his own "community", rather than keeping ticket prices hiked up simply because it's how the industry works now. He added: "I was sick of being told, 'This is just the way things are' and have to accept that if that was how I'd have to live out my dreams. "I have no interest in that. All I care about is my community. I hate the apple-for-teacher mentality that's ingrained in British culture. "I can't be a**** with it." Meanwhile, the 27-year-old star still has lofty goals for Bludfest, as he aims to transform it into a global touring festival taking inspiration from Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest. He's already been speaking to venues in France and other countries, while he'd love 'Boys Don't Cry' singer Robert Smith to join the lineup one year. He said: "It's going worldwide, and it's going to be wild. It's amazing what you can do if you shout a mad idea into the void and a load of people shout back. "If The Cure can play it one day, that would be a dream, just unbelievable."
Telegraph
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Ransom Canyon, review: this inadvertently hilarious cowboy romance is no Yellowstone
Netflix's new cowboy series, Ransom Canyon, will come as a serious eye-opener to anyone raised on John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. The 10-part drama is a rootin' tootin' foray into 'cowboy romance' – a hugely popular genre that prioritises sizzling snogs over 10-gallon stetsons and where the heroes pack a lot more than six-shooters. The show is adapted from a sequence of bestselling novels by Jodi Thomas. It is fair to say her evocation of the outlaw spirit of the American West is unlikely to be mistaken for the Second Coming of Cormac McCarthy. Five minutes in, and we've already been treated to a close-up of Josh Duhamel's glum yet hunky hero having a shower – his pecs salivated over the way the London skyline is in the opening credits to The Apprentice. Duhamel's character is named Staten Kirkland – and while that sounds like an anagram for something rude, he's strictly mid-table when it comes to the show's power ranking of protagonists with absurdist aliases. Barely has Staten towelled himself down and re-affixed his hat (it is a surprise he wasn't wearing it in the shower) than we are introduced to a newcomer to the story's modern-day, small-town Texas setting who goes by Yancy Grey (Jack Schumacher). There is also Staten's son Randall (Hubert Smielecki) – though his comic-book moniker is soon revealed to be the least of his problems when his life takes a turn for the tragic and the villainous Davis Collins (Irish actor Eoin Macken, wrestling with the Texas accent like a cowboy trying to put manners on a steer). The biggest star, Hollywood veteran James Brolin, gets off lightly with a grumpy rancher named Cap Fuller. Early coverage of Ransom Canyon has compared it to Yellowstone, the recently concluded Kevin Costner love letter to the Western spirit that built America. But where Yellowstone was often brutal in its depiction of the life of the 21st-century cowboy, Ransom Canyon is pure fantasy. It is a world where Staten can spend years carrying a flame for Minka Kelly's Quinn O'Grady, the best friend of his late wife, without ever making a move. And where Quinn is willing to go on a date with Davis – Staten's loathsome brother-in-law – while fancying the cowboy boots off Duhamel's character. Romance fans will lap it up. Everyone else may wonder if they aren't watching a comedy that has misplaced its laugh track. The dialogue is often guffaw-out-loud funny. 'Was it ever real, you and me?' Quinn asks Staten at one point, while the Mills & Boon-meter heads into the red zone when she declares, 'You've had a piece of my heart for as long as I can remember.' A handful of chaste love scenes are equally giggle-worthy. One especially chucklesome tryst is soundtracked by the Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight Tonight and interspersed with scenes of townsfolk fleeing a hurricane. The earth is moving for all involved. To the script's credit, it tacks on a serviceable plot involving an evil water company trying to force Staten off his land. Connected to this is a mystery around a suspicious death. But it's ultimately all window dressing, and the show only properly cranks into gear when Duhamel and Kelly are on screen together. The actors are gruffly charismatic, and their chemistry is genuine. But you wish their characters would just get a room and that Ransom Canyon busied itself with something more interesting than the dreariest will they/won't they storyline since Jon Snow kissed his aunt in Game of Thrones.
Axios
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Billy Corgan to premiere Smashing Pumpkins opera at Lyric Opera Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago will premiere an opera by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan for the 30th anniversary of one of the band's seminal albums. Driving the news: Lyric Opera on Tuesday announced their 2025-26 season, which includes the Nov. 21 world premiere of "A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness," composed by Corgan. The big picture: Considered one of the greatest alternative rock albums and symbolic sound of the '90s, "A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness" opera will feature Corgan and special guests in a "completely new sonic and visual experience," for Lyric, according to press release. What they're saying: "Opera and rock both tell stories of heightened emotions, and I am excited for both fans of my music and traditional opera fans to hear some truly inspired work; for the balance here is to honor both traditions in a magisterial way," Corgan said in a statement. Zoom out: The opera's 71st season opens on Oct. 10 and will include two performances as part of the "Movie Nights at Lyric" with the Lyric Opera Orchestra performing the live score of films that will be announced soon. "Carmina Burana" will feature 225 artists on stage, including the Uniting Voices Chicago children's choir. Renée Fleming returns to Lyric for one night only in April 2026 for "Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene" with music accompanied by video by National Geographic Society. The intrigue: " safronia," written by Chicago poet laureate avery r. young, tells Young's story about the Great Migration and a family's return to their southern hometown. It is a mix of poetry and folklore to the sounds of blues, funk and soul. What's next: Tickets for "A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness" go on sale to the public April 11 at 10am.
Express Tribune
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Bill Burr slams Howie Mandel for podcast stunt with Billy Corgan
Comedian Bill Burr called out Howie Mandel after an unexpected appearance by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan during an episode of Howie Mandel Does Stuff. The January 21 podcast featured a heated exchange after Mandel surprised Burr with Corgan, who shared an awkward story about being told they might be half-brothers. 'You're an a—hole,' Burr, 56, said to Mandel after Corgan, 57, joined mid-interview. Mandel admitted he thought it would be 'a good surprise,' but Burr clearly disagreed, asking if the segment could be edited out. The controversy stems from a past comment by Corgan's stepmother, who suggested Burr might be one of her late husband's illegitimate children, based on their striking resemblance. During the podcast, Burr criticized Mandel's motives, accusing him of prioritizing ratings over respect. 'He's bringing you in here, not because he's trying to heal the bulls—t that we went through growing up,' Burr said. Corgan, who initially believed Mandel was aware of the story, revealed that Mandel encouraged him to share it on air after a private conversation. 'He said, 'Oh, you've got to say this on the air,'' Corgan explained. While Burr expressed no ill will toward Corgan, he admitted the incident brought back painful memories of his father. 'It's not that I don't like him; it reminds me of all of that s–t,' Burr said. Corgan clarified that he does not believe they are related, adding, 'There are just people in the world that look alike.' The ambush left Burr frustrated, with the comedian calling the situation a 'ratings stunt.' Mandel has yet to respond publicly.
