Pumpkins and Hole Break Ranks to Please the Fans

Right now I'm listening to Smashing Pumpkins tearing through a raucous live version of their song "Tear." The sound is high quality. The song is not on any album. Technically, it's a bootleg -- but with one major distinction: I didn't get it through an illicit online swap, but from the Pumpkins themselves.

So far, major recording artists have had pretty much two canned responses to the Napster controversy. If you're with Limp Bizkit, you side with Napster and endorse the Wild West of illegal file trading. If you're with Metallica, you try to crush the bootleggers before, well, Armageddon. Recently, the Pumpkins and Hole have (separately) broken ranks with their peers and forged a third path, one that stays out of the Napster snarl and, wisely, takes matters into their own hands. The answer: they bootleg themselves.

In recent weeks, both bands have made dozens of previously unreleased songs available for free on their own official Web sites. On the Hole site (www.holemusic.com), there are five pages of songs available for MP3 download, songs that would be gems in any fan's bootleg collection: a live cover of Nirvana's "Pennyroyal Tea" and an alternative take on "Asking for It" with Kurt Cobain singing sloppy back-up. The Pumpkins have opted for more of a free-for-all approach: dumping a decade's worth of their live concerts onto a twenty-four/seven streaming radio channel (www.smashingpumpkins.com).

Clearly, Courtney Love and Billy Corgan "get" what the future of digital music is all about: giving something back to the most passionate of fans. Rather than panicking over being bootlegged by Napster junkies, they recognize an opportunity. So instead of fighting Napster, they decide to get into the game for themselves. In case the band's business representatives don't like the idea, consider this: the free music will inevitably draw traffic to these sites, build fan loyalty and probably inspire some visitors to buy the band's online merchandise. What's not to like?

All the more clever is the Pumpkins decision to make their bootlegs available in streaming format, rather than downloadable MP3s. Since it's fairly tough (though not impossible) to copy streaming music to one's hard drive, the Pumpkins manage to make bootlegs available without making it easy for commercial bootleggers to, say, burn (then sell) a CD. Ween actually pioneered this approach before the Pumpkins; they launched a twenty-four/seven, concert/archives site called WeenRadio (www.weenradio.com).

Ultimately, any way you slice it, giving away music is a proven success for established bands and newcomers alike. The Grateful Dead became one of the largest grossing live bands in history due in no small part to their generous relationship with fans. Rather than trying to keep a lid on hardcore bootleggers, the Dead allotted space for tapers at every show. The end result, tons of cash for the band, tons of happy Deadheads in the bleachers.

There's no reason that current bands can't apply the Dead model to online bootlegs: Give the songs away for free, and they will come.

Pumpkins' Billy Corgan Pulls Back Curtain For 'Storytellers'

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan has spent most of the past decade sharing his most intimate secrets with his audience. The only problem was in the translation: The language was one only Corgan could fully understand.

But Corgan said that on an upcoming episode of VH1's "Storytellers" program, he will for the first time reveal the inspiration behind some of the Chicago band's most beloved, but admittedly cryptic, songs. (Sonicnet.com's parent company, Viacom, also owns VH1.)

"I've given it a lot of thought, and I've pretty much decided I'm going to tell the truth," Corgan, 33, said during rehearsals for the long-running series in which songwriters alternate live performances with explanations of their compositions. The singer added that while he has purposely kept his fans in the dark about the dramas behind his often intense, emotional songs in the past, the show's format will allow him finally to pull back the curtain on his creative process.

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