Considering how many musicians have contracted the H1N1 virus, aka swine flu, of late (Marilyn Manson, Kasabian, Jens Lekman, a Backstreet Boy, etc.), I’m not surprised that famous rockers may start chiming in on the national debate over President Obama’s plans for quelling the outbreak and the controversial swine flu vaccine.

Billy Corgan, for one, is quite wary of the vaccine and the potential for mandatory inoculation laws. In fact, he considers some of the messages coming from the government and media to be “propaganda.”

“I say ‘propaganda’ because, in my heart, there is something mighty suspicious about declaring an emergency for something that has yet to show itself to be a grand pandemic,” Corgan writes on his new blog. “Our American President Obama has declared a national emergency about this virus, which he in his own words said was, at this point, a preventative measure. So, why declare an emergency if there isn’t one?”

Billy Corgan took a break from recording the upcoming 44-song Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, to partake in a puppet wrestling showdown this past Friday that resulted in some prime blog bait. Episode one of “Gothageddon” features primarily a feud between Corgan and a puppet of The Cure’s Robert Smith, but Corgan-voiced versions of Amanda Palmer, Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy, and ex-SP guitarist James Iha make pseudo cameos as well.

I’m not going to even try to explain the plot of this intentionally batsh*t crazy video, but I will say it has the same “bad trip” feel of Neil Young’s lip dub vid, Ryan Adams’ GORF review, and the Kanye West/Spike Jonze short “We Were Once A Fairytale.” The Internet was made for this stuff, right?

Watch “Gothageddon” here or below (via HU):

It’s common knowledge that baby-faced crooner Michael Bublé enjoys borrowing other people’s songs for a little Sinatra-esque cover version, but has the 34-year-old boy next door taken to borrowing album covers as well? That’s what the Smashing Pumpkins are suggesting and it looks like they may have a case (against the art director perhaps).

It’s fitting that Billy Corgan, who just launched a spiritually-minded site/blog, has joined an impressive list of participants in an upcoming open discussion series at NYC’s Rubin Museum of Art (via Hipsters United) on Carl Jung, a psychiatrist who “broke off from [his mentor] Freud,” as World of Psychology notes, to develop his own theories, which “place more emphasis on the spiritual side of our inner psyche.”

Jung’s The Red Book, a “part journal, part mythological novel” that was 16 years in the making and only recently officially published, will be the starting point of conversation between “personalities from many different walks of life” (read: famous people, kinda) and psychoanalysts.

So who else will be chatting in this series? David Byrne is doing one, of course, as well as Charlie Kaufman, Albert Maysles, Sarah Silverman, Gloria Vanderbilt, and more.

For the full list of “personalities”/psychoanalysts go here and grab available tickets here.

Billy Corgan made a massive announcement just moments ago about his plans for the next Smashing Pumpkins album. Starting around Halloween of this year, Corgan says he plans to release one song at a time for free online of a 44-song album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. “There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free,” he says, but for fans interested in getting an exclusive physical product, 11 4-song EPs, aka “mini-box sets,” will be put up for sale.

Think a 44-song album is too ambitious? Recording of the first four songs just began yesterday in Chicago and Corgan says that 53 songs have already been written for possible inclusion on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.

Just when I thought double albums were starting to disappear, here we have a quadruple album. Damn, that 19-year-old drummer is a lucky kid.

**Update: Hipsters United says Corgan and producer Kerry Brown hinted (on Dave Navarro’s radio show) the following song will be the first single:

I’m staying way out of this one, as I’m a big fan of both Pitchfork and Billy Corgan (not to mention, our last pro-SP post got TwentyFourBit a cool shout-out from Dave Navarro), but it looks like Corgan doesn’t heart P4K as much as us or, say, Bono. Check out this quote from Corgan in an interview with Shockhound (via HU):

“He’s a good person and great drummer; better that than a great drummer and a shit person,” Corgan said of 19-year-old Smashing Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne. “He gives me hope for his generation. He’s coming from a world that’s willing to look beyond all the Pitchfork crap and get back to good music.”

Perhaps he’s just fuming about being shut out of P4K’s Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s, but like I said before, I’m steering clear of this one.

The first and only time I saw the Smashing Pumpkins live was at the Hartford Civic Center in 1996 when my sister, who had just gotten her driver’s license, let me tag along. The Pumpkins played a brilliant 2-3 hour set, but we were seated on the 2nd balcony, making it one of those stick figure rock shows arenas are famous for. Needless to say, I would’ve killed for a spot at one of Corgan’s recent extremely intimate club/coffeehouse gigs in southern California.

The good news, however, is that streaming video, live-blogging, and Twitter can now take us all along for the ride ‘cause there are high quality videos and audio everywhere online from this tour. Furthermore, Hipsters United, the preeminent Smashing Pumpkins fan blog, covered Corgan’s tour extensively and though I’ve done my best to pick out a few bits, I highly suggest you pay them a visit for a peek into the wild ride SP fans have been on while Corgan, Dave Navarro, Mike Byrne, Ysanne Spevack, Kevin Dippold, Mark Weitz, Mark Tulin, Linda Strawberry, and Kerry Brown traveled from Visalia to San Diego, and back up to L.A.

Corgan played lots of new material and cover songs on the tour, including a duet, with Sierra Swan, of Willie Nelson and Shirley Collie’s “Willingly” (watch a great vid here), Jethro Tull’s “A New Day Yesterday,” Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam,” Velvet Undergound’s “Femme Fatale,” Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” (made famous by the Grateful Dead) and, of course, The Seeds’ “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.”

Between embracing cameras at the shows, hiring a drummer who’s 23 years his junior and playing these über-intimate gigs, Corgan is doing a great job at reconnecting with his most dedicated fans of late. Even this old school SP freak.

With friends like Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan, Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro (shown above, meditating with an effects pedal) sure doesn’t have to wait around for a phone call from Perry Ferrell to go on tour. Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan has surprised the lucky fans that snatched up tickets to the tiny, sold-out gigs of his imminent southern California tour, by announcing Navarro’s addition to the Spirits in the Sky lineup.

“Some exciting news to add as well, as Dave Navarro and Mark Weitz have joined the tour,” Corgan posted (via Hipsters United). “Dave sadly can’t play San Diego with us, so hopefully we can find an Ace up our sleeve somewhere to fill in.”

Sure, I’m no 19-year-old, but I can play a pretty mean “Jellybelly.” When are the open call auditions, Billy?

It’s been basically set in stone for the past couple months that 19-year-old Mike Byrne has beat out over 1,000 aspiring Jimmy Chamberlin replacements for the role as the new drummer of the Smashing Pumpkins, but Billy Corgan never bothered making it official (publically) until today.

“We just kind of jammed for about 15 minutes and then talked about Fugazi for the other 15 or so minutes,” Byrne said of his first audition with Corgan, followed by the inevitable praise of his new bandmate. You can check out his quotes here, but I think Byrne put it best with simply, “Dream come true, man.”

A much more interesting bit of news popped up at the end of the announcement: Official dates/venues for Corgan’s Spirits in the Sky tour of southern California. Hipsters United originally got the scoop on these via Ticketweb. Check out the tiny venues where Corgan and his new drummer are jamming next week:

·       Wed 8/26 Visalia, CA Tazzaria

·       Thu 8/27 Santa Barbara, CA Muddy Waters

·       Fri 8/28 Long Beach, CA Open

·       Sat 8/29 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s Palace

·       Sun 8/30 San Diego, CA Che Cafe

·       Mon 8/31 Los Angeles, CA Hotel Cafe

Pioneertown? I totally went there when I was a little kid and got a cap gun at the gift shop. Hotel Cafe? Maybe Zach Braff will put them on a soundtrack!