Happy Radiohead Day, everyone! While we’ve been letting The King of Limbs soak in and getting irrationally excited about a conspiracy theory or two, some links of note made a blip on the radar…

• Step aside, Who Is Arcade Fire?! meme. Dancing Thom [Yorke] arrived.
• Read an excellent (and rare!) interview with the Radio Dept., in which Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson reveal that they’re not familiar with Coachella (where they’re performing at in April), future recording plans, and their lost collaboration with Jens Lekman.
• With help from Hipsters United, Popdust calculated that Billy Corgan’s claim that current Smashing Pumpkins bassist Nicole Fiorentino was on 1993’s Siamese Dream cover has a 0.33% “Truth Threshold.”
• Lykke Li is streaming another cut off her sophomore LP, Wounded Rhymes, “Love Out of Lust.”
• Enjoy new Ryan McGinley-shot Strokes promo pictures here or below.

For his forthcoming album of collaborative versions of Kinks classics, Ray Davies not only enlisted the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Alex Chilton, Billy Corgan, and other previously reported duet partners, but he flew out to Oslo, Norway, as well, to record “You Really Got Me” with Metallica. Odd pairing, indeed, but not exactly a surprise: Davies first teamed up with Metallica for a live performance in NYC last year, where he pitched the studio collaboration idea to the band backstage.

Also noteworthy is that the 14-track album, See My Friends, features Jackson Browne performing one of Davies’ most beloved songs, “Waterloo Sunset.” Stream very brief snippets here and check out the full tracklist below (via Hipsters United):

Back in February, Ray Davies revealed that duets with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Alex Chilton, and Lucinda Williams for a forthcoming album of reworked Kinks classics due sometime this year were already in the can. In addition to Springsteen’s version of “Better Things” and Bon Jovi’s “Celluloid Heroes,” however, Davies has recorded songs with what’s become an even more impressive list of collaborators for the forthcoming LP.

As Hipsters United points out, producer/drummer Kerry Brown revealed this week that Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan just recorded a version of 1981 Kinks hit “Destroyer” for the record. What’s more, an album update on Davies’ official site revealed: “Ray has recently recorded with Amy MacDonald, Paloma Faith, Mumford & Sons, Spoon and Frank Black.”

The to-be-announced collaborative album — which no longer includes a previously reported track by the Killers — is still on schedule for a 2010 release.

Courtney Love drama isn’t hard to come by… on a daily basis. Today’s episode, however, strikes me as different, namely because Billy Corgan, her former collaborator, lover?, and cool-headed 90s grunge alum, flew off the handle on Twitter. There are a lot of insults one could hurl at someone like Love (her ridiculous money, aka drug, issues, relationship with her daughter, Frances Bean, etc.), but Corgan took on the whole lot. Antiquiet articulated the drama quite well, but I’ll offer a few choice tweets from the sole original Smashing Pumpkin as proof that this beef just got real below…

Don’t get me wrong, we’re all Team Conan ‘round here (Coco was not harmed in the making of this post), but tonight notably marks the television premiere of music from the Smashing Pumpkins’ new 44-song album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, not to mention the first time their new 20-year-old drummer has appeared on national television to my knowledge.

“Widow Wake My Mind” is from Billy Corgan and company’s first volume in the Smashing Pumpkins’ ongoing Teargarden by Kaleidyscope 44-song box set, dubbed Songs for a Sailor. I’m not sure where Corgan found this Shining twins-fronted backup chorus (a local church?), and we aren’t sold on the song quite yet, but this is a solid performance nonetheless.

Download and/or stream “Widow Wake My Mind,” as well as three other Songs for a Sailor, here, and check out the Tonight Show debut of the new SP lineup below:

Billy Corgan, Mike Byrne, and company have released the next installment in the Smashing Pumpkins’ free 44-song adventure, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, appropriately via the great independent record shop Amoeba on the eve of Record Store Day.

Though their first offering from the collection, “A Song for a Son,” was my favorite so far (I’m particularly fond of Corgan’s guitar solo), today’s free MP3, “Astral Planes,” marks a welcome return to the uber-layered, fuzzy guitars I enjoyed most from when Jimmy Chamberlin was in the band.

Stream/download “Astral Planes” at Amoeba’s site here, and/or grab the three previously released Teargarden tracks after the jump:

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.

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.”