Smashing Pumpkins Shoot "Perfect" Video, Mull Recording Future

The Smashing Pumpkins were on location in Los Angeles last weekend to shoot a video for "Perfect" with the husband-wife director team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris.

Dayton and Farris previously helmed the award-winning videos for the Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" and "1979", and the clip for "Perfect" is said to be a conceptual sequel of sorts to the video for "1979."

In related news, the Pumpkins are also apparently considering the possibility of not heading back into the studio to start work on a new record immediately after they finish its their charity tour.

In an interview with "The New York Times," Billy Corgan said that he didn't want to concentrate on a new Pumpkins record until he had proven nay-sayers of the band's current album, "Adore," wrong -- which may indicate a more extensive tour to support the record than originally planned.

"The main theme for the 'Perfect' video is to be a follow up to the '1979' video. It's like a continuing saga. They also had two kids from the '1979' video there and it's like following them around. I don't know what the other scenes are but that's the basic theme. The scene I shot was located, in what looked like, an underground parking lot with lots of tagging on the walls. There were 3 cylinder cement pillars holding together a transparent stage, where the Pumpkins played. They had cool lighting and strobe lights when we filmed. Supposedly we were meant to be in a small underground cult club or rave or something watching the band play."

Smashing Pumpkins' Media Blitz Continues

On Thursday evening (July 30), the Smashing Pumpkins will perform outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. According to a press release issued by the band's label, Virgin Records, the special outdoor performance will follow the taping of the platinum-selling Pumpkins' first appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman. The taping for the show runs from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. EDT, immediately following which the band will conduct an hour-long set in the streets of New York City. The Late Show appearance will air on Thursday at 11:35 p.m., and according to Virgin, the band is scheduled to perform a live version of "Perfect" from their latest release Adore.

Speaking of "Perfect," the Chicago-born trio spent last weekend in Los Angeles filming a video for the upcoming single. The clip, which was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris (the same team who directed "1979," "Tonight, Tonight," and "Rocket" for the band) generated a buzz around town last week when local station KROQ announced a phone number for fans to call in order to be extras on the shoot. Those lucky few who got through spent hours on the set for little pay, but to make it worthwhile, the Adore-able band treated them to a discreet performance at the former site of the Hollywood punk rock club, The Masque. Although vacant for over a decade, the underground walls of the club still feature graffiti from those pioneering punk rock bands that made the punk pit legendary. Playing in the same spot where once stood such venerable L.A. units as the Germs, X and the Go-Go's, the Smashing Pumpkins crowded on the small stage area and played their "heavier" material.

The show started on a less than "Perfect" note. According to a source on the set, Corgan began strumming his guitar, but just before the rest of the band joined in, he abruptly stopped. As the other band members looked at him in confusion, the bald-headed Pumpkin began searching the club for his girlfriend, Ylena Yemchuk.

"Where are you, Ylena?" he cried into the microphone.

"I'm over here," she answered waving her hand. As soon as Corgan sourced the site of his ladylove, he seemed to relax. He then said, to the surprise of the audience, "I don't want to start playing until I can see you," which is either an expression of his intense love of or a deep obsession with his current flame. Either way, once his dark-haired beauty was in sight, the band rocked the Masque's ruins thunderously for nearly one hour.

-Jennifer Schwartz

Pumpkins to Perform Outside Ed Sullivan Theater on July 30th 'Late Show'

NEW YORK, July 28 -- Multi-platinum Virgin Recording Artists,The Smashing Pumpkins, make their first visit to the 'Late Show with David Letterman' with a performance outside the Ed Sullivan Theater Thursday, July 30 (11:35 PM - 12:37 AM, ET/PT) on CBS. In addition, The Smashing Pumpkins will present a special outdoor performance from 6:30-7:30 PM, ET, after the 'Late Show' taping which runs from 5:30-6:30 PM, ET. On the 'Late Show' broadcast, The Smashing Pumpkins will perform the song "Perfect," their new single from their current Virgin album, 'Adore'. They are currently on a 13-city, 14-show tour across North America.

• On Thursday July 30th the Smashing Pumpkins will be on David Letterman performing outside on 53rd street.

• On August 4th the Smashing Pumpkins will be on Regis & Kathie Lee, performing as well.

• They will also be on the Charlie Rose show on August 3rd, check http://rockontv.com/ for more info.

Billy Defends Puffy

Billy Corgan was asked about collaborations with Smashing Pumpkins and Puff Daddy during Sunday's (July 19) Intimate and Interactive. Corgan has obviously taken flack for working with the rap, hip-hop and R and B artist and took the opportunity to defend Puff Daddy. Corgan believes "he's a brilliant guy...his style of music is not necessarily the kind of music we listen to...but I respect what he's doing musically." The Puffy remix of "Ava Adore" will not be released anytime soon, but according to Billy "it's so unbelievably beautiful...it will prove all the doubters out there wrong about him."

Smashing Pumpkins Shoot New Video and Want You!

Smashing Pumpkins fans in Los Angeles have the chance to earn a spot in the band's next video for "Perfect." L.A. alternative rock station KROQ gave out a number -- 310.656.4693 -- on air for fans to call for more information on being an extra in the video. The clip is being shot in L.A. Saturday (July 25) and Sunday (July 26) and directed by the award- winning team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris, who were behind the Pumpkins' clips for "1979," "Tonight, Tonight," and "Rocket."

If you can't make it to the video shoot, you'll be able to catch the band live on David Letterman, July 30th, where the Pumpkins will be performing outside on 53rd Street. The entire band will also be appearing on Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, performing as well, on August 4th. Check it out!

Puffy Remixes Smashing Pumpkins

Puff Daddy is flashing his adoration for rock music again. The hip-hop whirlwind (who earned two MTV Video Music Award nominations this week for his "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)" clip) has finished a pair of remixes for the Smashing Pumpkins.

Puffy has lent his Midas touch to "Ava Adore" and "Perfect," both of which turn up in their original form on the Pumpkins latest effort, "Adore." There's no word yet on when the Puffy-flavored Pumpkins tracks might surface, but we'll keep you posted.

This is certainly not Puffy's first foray into the world of rock; he teamed with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson for his VMA-nominated "Benjamins" remix, and more recently hooked up with Led Zeppelin guitar legend Jimmy Page and Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello for "Come With Me" from the "Godzilla" soundtrack.

If you want to hear these Pumpkins tracks in their original forms, you can now catch the band on the H.O.R.D.E. tour, where they began a five-date run on Tuesday in Bonner Springs, Kansas.

August 11th - Palacio de los Deportes - Mexico City, Mexico
August 14th - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
August 16th - Olympia - Sao Paulo, Brazil
August 19th - Estacion Mapocho - Santiago, Chile
August 21st - Parque Sarmiento - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Aug 15th- Metropolitan- Rio de Janeiro
Aug 16th- Olympia- São Paulo

1. PERFECT
2. NEED
3. LET ME GIVE THE WORLD TO YOU
4. CRASH CAR STAR
5. YARDBIRDS ( instrumental )

Smashing Pumpkins' High-Profile Charity Tour

Is it cool to draw so much attention to their philanthropic gesture?

Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Smashing Pumpkins are spending the summer being charitable. And everyone knows it. On Tuesday night the Pumpkins played a punishing hour-and-a-half set of songs from their new album, Adore, at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Before coming back for an encore, they made a very public display of their largesse. The group took time out from the show to present representatives of an East Bay charity the show was benefiting with a $170,000 check, a moment that clearly felt awkward for some in the audience during such a cathartic rock concert.

It's hard to recall any band that has embarked upon a tour of this scale before. Scale, not in the sense usually used to describe the megaplatinum Chicago trio -- massive stages, huge shows, epic guitar solos -- but in the sense of economic scale. Seated at a school lunch table at Oakland's Hawthorne Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon, the band -- singer/guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'Arcy Wretzky and guitarist James Iha -- speculated that the 14-city, 16-date charity tour would collectively net more than $2 million for local non-profit groups in each city.

That's $2 million out of the band's own pocket.

And though Corgan didn't mention it at the press conference, the group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of its own money covering tour expenses: sound, lighting, travel and the like. "It's very close to our hearts," Corgan said at a press conference arranged in one of the school's classrooms. "We've always talked about what's an ethical approach when you have success, and I think we've reached the kind of success very few people ever reach. We're doing exactly what we'd always hoped we'd do, which is to stand up for something. To represent something and not just basically take the gold and go live in a castle." Here were three of the planet's biggest rock stars -- Corgan, dressed all in black, his gleaming head tossing off rays from the reflected lights of the local news camera crews; the glamorous D'Arcy, wearing a sheer black top and slinky black pants; and the subdued Iha in dark blue-jean jacket and pants -- bringing their new album's dark, gothic vibe to a room plastered in grade-school finger paintings.

Just before the press conference, they'd hung out with 10- and 11-year-olds from the school, answering questions about what it was like to be a famous rock star. "They wanted to know if we came here in a limo," mumbled Iha. "We came in a van today." (Corgan made a comment before the end of the first set Tuesday night about having to "leave to go catch a limo" that drew loud jeers from the teenybopper crowd. Only he knows how far in cheek his tongue was planted.)

Bands have mounted benefit tours before: Bruce Springsteen asked fans to bring canned goods for food banks in the mid-'80s; Michael Jackson has staged a number of benefits for children's charities; and shows like Farm Aid, Live Aid and even the now-laughable Hands Across America were all very public displays of celebrity generosity. And while some artists and philanthropists prefer to give in silence, this being the Pumpkins, their charitable work was out in the open, on display for all to see, public catharsis being Corgan's stock-in-trade.

A colleague said he felt the in-concert check ceremony was "weird." Too public, too self-aggrandizing. He said it disturbed the flow of the show and seemed to upset some fans by drawing so much attention to the philanthropic gesture. If you looked around there were plenty of hard-core Pumpkins fans dressed in their Billy and D'Arcy glam drag and their "ZERO" shirts, with some young girls in homemade angel's wings who seemed bewildered after the show.

I saw it another way, though. For all their bluster and, at times, overkill moments of self-analysis, this gesture by the Pumpkins was one that felt almost awkwardly genuine. Here they were presenting a large check to a children's charity in front of an audience of (mostly) children, sending a clear message about where their hearts and minds were. This, despite the fact that the chaotic show made no attempt to assuage the young fans who were looking for Mellon Collie II instead of the more arcane Adore.

"The music business is basically an egoistic business, and it's hard to get people away form their egos," Corgan said that afternoon, adding that he'd like to see more bands follow the Pumpkins' lead. That statement in itself would seem, as my colleague suggested, self-aggrandizing. "Don't break your arm patting yourself on your back, Billy," my colleague might have said. But it was what Corgan said next that might have stolen my colleague's thunder.

"We're out [promoting a new] record," Corgan replied, in reference to how the no-profit tour might affect the so-far sluggish (by Pumpkins standards) sales of the new album. "And in some ways, by doing this we're not doing the basic necessities of touring our record. If it was about egoism we'd be more worried about our record than what we're doing today."

I'm as jaded as the next guy, perhaps even more so, but I wanted to believe Corgan. Even if the tour were hatched out of some millionaire rock star's guilty conscience, born out of fear of being trapped in that gilded castle, it doesn't really matter.

I think the check hand-over was weird too, but I also think this feels like an unprecedented gesture by a huge band that could very well have done another arena tour that netted it more millions with which to fortify its already formidable golden castles.

Pumpkins' Corgan Seeks New Image for Gen-X

On Thursday (July 2) afternoon, Billy Corgan and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins visited the Five Acres Boys' and Girls' Aid Society, the chosen recipient for all proceeds from the Los Angeles dates of the current tour July 1 and 2 at the Universal Amphitheatre. "An Evening With the Smashing Pumpkins" is a 13-city, 14-date jaunt, all proceeds from which are donated to local charities.

Corgan and Iha (bassist D'Arcy was not present) arrived at the children's center in Altadena, CA, for a brief tour of Five Acres, a residential treatment facility for abused and neglected youths. After they walked through the facility and spoke to some of the children living there, the two band members participated in a press conference, which was held in the center's assembly room.

"We wanted to show people that a rock band can do something other than rock and be rockstars," said guitarist Iha when asked what motivated the band to donate money to various charitable organizations around the country. "We choose organizations like this one because they're very progressive and non-political and obviously a great cause."

The Five Acres facility is just one of the 13 organizations that will benefit from the Pumpkins tenth anniversary tour. According to estimations, the Chicago-based trio will raise approximately $2.3 million dollars for the mostly child-focused charities. Why did the band opt for child-based organizations? "It's important for us, as people of Generation X, to start taking care of people from the subsequent generation," stated Corgan, whose shorn head was topped with a black cowboy hat. "Generation X is often accused of being whiny, selfish -- I've always disagreed with that. I felt the music that my generation has made came out of a lot of pain and deep emotions. The reason those feeling were shared is because we care. Now I think the time has come to start turning the corner to a more positive era, both musically and socially." The band are currently enjoying acclaim for the recently released Adore, which Corgan claimed to be an album laced with a more optimistic view of life, in line with their charitable actions. "Now that we're older, we have a little more perspective, I think we feel more comfortable to express other things besides the feeling you have when you're a teenager."

One journalist asked what the kids at Five Acres asked the Pumpkins during their brief visit. "They wanted to know if we showed up in a limo," replied Iha. "We didn't. We came in a van today." Other than that, the kids, some of whom had never heard of the band, were interested in the daily life of a famous celebrity. The biggest response, according to Iha, came when he told the kids Dennis Rodman made an appearance at the previous night's show.

"Don't forget that, for most of these kids, for every minute they watch MTV, they're also watching Jerry Springer," said Corgan when asked why he wants to help the future of America. "I think they probably walk away with a lot more from Jerry Springer than from the Smashing Pumpkins, so we have to counter that with something very strong." Helping children in need, Corgan believes, is a noble and unquestionably worthy goal. After tonight's show in LA, the band will return to Chicago for a hometown concert on July 7, proceeds from which will benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation.

-Jennifer Schwartz

Adore Cover: Black short sleeve,
Front:Has the cover of Adore
Back: Says "The Smashing Pumpkins-World Tour 1998" in the font as the Ava Adore single-then it has the pic of that chick thats on the cover and all of the dates

Goat 17 Shirt: Gray short sleeve
Front: has the picture of the goat from the book, the goat has "17" on it.
on top of the pictures it say "The Smashing Pumpkins" in the same front as Ava Adore single
Back: a small picture of the tree that is on page opposite to the 1st pictures of darcy

Pumpkins' Woes Reflect Industry Dip

(By Jim Derogatis, Pop music critic)

Like a lot of fans, Siyabonga Sithole was disappointed when the City of Chicago barred the Smashing Pumpkins from playing a free concert July 7 in Grant Park. But when the show was moved to Soldier Field, she stood in line for more than an hour at a Ticketmaster outlet and bought a $30 ticket.

Then the Pumpkins' concert was moved again, this time to the smaller New World Music Theatre in Tinley Park. People with assigned seats suddenly found themselves with general admission tickets. On July 7, they will have to arrive at the World when the parking lots open at 3 p.m. if they want a decent spot in the pavilion for the 7:30 show, and many of them aren't happy.

``How are people going to keep track of their seats if the powers that be only give out general admission tickets?'' said an angry Sithole. ``I'm no psychic, but I could've told Jam Productions [the show's promoter] that the Smashing Pumpkins were not popular enough to sell out Soldier Field.''

How did the Pumpkins' hometown concert become such a mess? It was partly the result of poor planning by the band and the show's promoter. But there's also a larger issue of changing tides in the alternative rock word. Over the course of three albums in the '90s, the Pumpkins became the biggest rock band to ever call Chicago home. The group planned to celebrate the release of its fourth album ``Adore'' at WXRT's free concert at the Petrillo Band Shell on July 4. At the city's request, the date was changed to July 7, so it wouldn't conflict with Taste of Chicago.

Plans for the Grant Park concert went ahead for several weeks. But on Memorial Day weekend, the city pulled the plug, citing fears that the band could draw an overflow crowd of half a million fans to the lakefront. As an 11th hour alternative, the Pumpkins came up with the Soldier Field show. The group said it would charge $30 for seats, but would donate all of the net proceeds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northern Illinois. At Soldier Field, the Pumpkins had sold 29,000 of the stadium's 50,000 seats. But Make-A-Wish stood to earn more money if the band played the 30,000-capacity World, because the venue would waive its rental fee. Jam and the Pumpkins are reluctant to talk about the situation. But Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade magazine Pollstar, said the Pumpkins bit off more than they could chew when they booked Soldier Field.

``There are only a couple of acts in the world that are big enough to do stadium shows,'' Bongiovanni said. ``Stadium shows are extremely expensive to produce, especially on a one-show basis.'' But he added, ``If the Pumpkins are selling 30,000 tickets, they're still doing extremely well.''

True enough. But the band obviously thought that its audience was much larger. In fact, Billy Corgan and friends may be suffering from the same downturn in alternative rock that has resulted in sluggish album sales for other superstars such as Pearl Jam, U2 and R.E.M.

In the first three weeks since its release, ``Adore'' has dropped from No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart to No. 10. According to Soundscan, which tracks album sales, the Pumpkins have sold only 26,000 copies in Chicago, even though they are getting massive airplay on several local radio stations. Sales of ``Adore'' are similar to what Pearl Jam's ``Yield'' sold in its first weeks. ``Yield'' is now at No. 104 on the Billboard chart with a little more than 1 million copies sold, lagging far behind Pearl Jam's 1992 album ``Ten,'' which sold 9 million copies.

Alternative rock has lost the unique identity it had in the early '90s. ``I have a hard time even using the term `alternative' now,'' Bongiovanni said. ``The radio formats have fragmented so much that it's difficult to have an across-the-board hit.''

In radio terms, alternative has split into two formats: ``Alice,'' alternative aimed at girls in their teens and 20s, and ``new rock,'' harder-edged alternative for boys. In addition, middle-of-the-road pop bands like Dave Matthews are considered alternative by some programmers.

``There's more to the Pumpkins selling 30,000 seats than a loss of interest,'' said WKQX-FM (Q101) program director Alex Luke. But he targets too much competition. ``For our audience, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, the Beastie Boys, the Q101 Jamboree, Lilith Fair, the H.O.R.D.E. Festival and the Pumpkins shows all went on sale in a six- to eight-week period,'' Luke said. ``[Fans] only have a finite number of dollars.''

But the summer concert season is always busy, and this year, fewer alternative groups are touring because there's no Lollapalooza. The traveling festival was canceled because it couldn't find a headlining artist to draw big crowds.

``Fan is short for `fanatical,' '' said Eric Boehlert, music industry columnist for Rolling Stone. ``I just don't think that people are attaching themselves to bands and forming a lifestyle around them like they did even five years ago.''

hey,

i just got this from the latest MGE Music Division newsletter:

-- Smashing Pumpkins Perfect (CD) $9.99
-- Smashing Pumpkins Perfect (7") $6.99
-- Second single from Adore. Seven will be extrememly limited just like the last one (which we still have in stock). Tracks TBA!

they havent updated their page yet, but they too are taking pre-orders for this single. here's the address: http://www.jwp.bc.ca/mge/