Though pianist Mike Garson has been an integral player in some of the best rock recordings of all time by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Mick Ronson, and, most notably, David Bowie, he cut his teeth as a classically-trained jazz cat in New York City, long before he joined the aforementioned artists on world stadium tours.

One listen to KFAI’s brilliant new interview with the man and you certainly won’t wonder why Trent Reznor introduced him as “the most inspiring musician [he’s] ever come across” at last year’s final NIN show. In fact, Garson was both honored and surprised by that statement, as he describes to DJ SLT: “I really, hardly know [Reznor].”

Jessica Simpson got to jam with Billy Corgan and so could you! Hipsters United reports that a recent studio collaboration between the Smashing Pumpkins ringleader and the former Newlyweds star, which was well-documented on Twitter and elsewhere, has finally hit the internet. It’s definitely more of a Simpson track than a Corgan one, for sure, but I’m pretty certain that’s Corgan on the guitar solo at least (much lower in the mix for pop radio of course). Now you could download the song for free from Jessica Simpson Headquarters, but if you’d rather not join her mailing list, Pop Sugar is streaming “Who We Are” here.

In other Smashing Pumpkins news, remember how 19-year-old drummer Mike Byrne snagged the coveted spot behind the skins after an audition to replace Jimmy Chamberlin last year? Well, now Corgan needs a bassist and keyboardist, as well.

Ever since those “Billy Corgan dating Jessica Simpson” rumors caught the eye of the online gossip newsbeast, it’s been hard to keep up with all the Corgan headlines of late. (Hey, romantic relationship or not, at least the pair recorded a “pop-y” TV theme song with an “alternative rock edge.”) In more important SP-related news, however, Corgan, former Smashing Pumpkins drummer Matt Walker, and a band dubbed Zoom performed in Chicago last Thursday night at a benefit concert for NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Integrative Medicine Program.

According to the Chicago Tribune’s review, Corgan and company played an easygoing 35-minute set, which featured new Teargarden by Kaleidyscope track “Widow Wake My Mind,” a James Iha diss, and a handful of covers, including the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man,” Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl,” Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.”

Here are a few of today’s bits that have been floating around the news beast…

• News related to Jay Reatard’s shocking death yesterday made the most headlines of the day by far, but here’s the biggest one: Pitchfork just posted a story about Reatard’s death being reportedly investigated as a homicide by Memphis Police. WTF?! [Update: now the report has been removed. Ugh…]
• Also: caretakers of Reatard’s official site have posted a free MP3 of the fallen garage rocker brilliantly covering Nirvana’s “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle.” Download it here.
• We’ve had a depressing string of music and world news of late, so let’s throw a little Billy Corgan bit in here for levity. A lot of stories are going around about Corgan and rumored-girlfriend Jessica Simpson recording together in the studio. Call me crazy, but I actually think this could be interesting. I mean, at least he isn’t still working with Courtney Love or anything.
• I tweeted about this last night, but we should mention here that Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are calling on people to donate to Partners in Health for Haiti earthquake relief. Check out their letter and donation details here.

Whenever news gets slow, all one has to do is mosey on over to Billy Corgan’s spiritual blog and Jessica Simpson’s alleged new boyfriend brings the goods. We knew that Corgan has two book projects on the way, but details were scarce, aside from that bit about one of them being a collaboration with French über SP fan/writer Claire Fercak. Would it be another volume of poetry? Or a Smashing Pumpkins tell-all, a la Mötley Crüe’s (haha more umlauts) The Dirt?

The book, which is tentatively titled God Is Everywhere from Here to There (it was named that before Corgan’s blog “Everything From Here To There,” he insists) will be published by St. Martin’s Press. “I can say I am thrilled to be working with them,” writes Corgan in a post called “Christmas Memories.” “The book is going to be a spiritual memoir about how this boy named William came to find God, or, vice versa, how God came to find William.”

We knew something was afoot the other day after both Spinner and MTV tweeted about Billy Corgan stopping by their offices. Corgan, it seems, was plotting the premiere of the first song off the forthcoming 44-song Smashing Pumpkins album and EP collection, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. Stream and download “A Song for a Son” for free below or watch video of Corgan recording part of the guitar solo here.

If Corgan holds true to his promise, 43 more songs will be available for free digitally in the coming months, while a physical product will be sold in the form of 11 4-song EPs. The tracklist to the first installment of said EPs was announced on the official SP Twitter today, as well, so now we presumably have track titles for the next 3 Teargarden singles:

1) A Song for a Son
2) Astral Planes,
3) Widow Wake My Mind
4) A Stitch in Time

Stream or download “A Song for a Son” below:

It’s been five years since he published his first and only book of poetry, Blinking with Fists, but Billy Corgan has somehow found time between discussing C. G. Jung at the NYPL, constructing puppets for Gothageddon episode 2, and recording dozens of songs for the new, free Smashing Pumpkins album/EP collection, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, to start work on two new literary projects. On his Everything From Here To There blog, Corgan writes:

As we told you he would last month, Billy Corgan participated in The Red Book Dialogues, a series of discussions held at NYC’s Rubin Museum of Art. Corgan and his fellow participants (including David Byrne, Jonathan Demme, Gloria Vanderbilt and Alice Walker) were invited to “respond to and interpret a folio from famed psychiastrist Carl Jung’s Red Book as a starting point for wide ranging conversation” accompanied by a psychoanalyst.

In a news post on the official Smashing Pumpkins site, JillySP describes Corgan’s turn with the book: Dr. Morgan Stebbins, psychoanalyst, handed him the book and Corgan opened it to this painting. “Corgan began to free-associate his reaction to the painting: to the Egyptian boat, on the river of mortality, shadowed by a giant fish with teeth (‘I am a Pisces,’ he laughed), to the myth of Orpheus. Not even two minutes into the discussion, Corgan joked, ‘Do I need to be committed?’”

Corgan continued, discussing his childhood (“his teachers used to complain about his intensity, asking his step-mother to tell him to stop staring at them”), songwriting (“an empty vessel experience”) and more. Click here for the aforementioned review; if you’d like to watch the entire dialogue, go thataway.

David Lynch Foundation Television, aka DFL.TV, followed Billy Corgan around recently and have posted a great HD video (via Flavorwire), which includes footage from the recording studio, the audition of 19-year-old Smashing Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and an interview.

In one funny bit from the Q&A, Corgan describes how a song originally written for a Shaquille O’Neal album ended up on the Lost Highway soundtrack after Lynch rejected his initial contribution. Also, the audition footage is particularly amazing because we actually get to watch as Corgan meets the new Smashing Pumpkins drummer and is subsequently floored by Byrne’s skills.

Watch it here or below: