THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
ANNOUNCE INTIMATE U.S. TOUR DATES STARTING JULY 6
IN ADVANCE OF HEADLINE SLOTS AT
TWO SUMMER SONIC FESTIVALS IN JAPAN

The SMASHING PUMPKINS have announced a 12-show run of intimate venues beginning July 6 in Cleveland and wrapping July 21 in Tampa. This marks the iconic band’s first tour since December 2008 and will feature, says leader and founder BILLY CORGAN, “a balance of classics, a few obscure ones, and new ‘Teargarden’ material.” Last week, the Pumpkins released the four-song TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL.1: SONGS FOR A SAILOR EP (Martha’s Music/Rocket Science Ventures). This is the first of an eventual 11 specially packaged EPs–taken from the in-progress 44-song work TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE–to be sold in record stores. Notably, all the music is being released online, for free, with no strings attached.

CORGAN and his band mates–guitarist JEFF SCHROEDER, drummer MIKE BYRNE and new bassist NICOLE FIORENTINO—are planning to invite select fans to attend their sound checks (details TBA). “We are going to do something unique, which is play an invite-only set during sound check of almost all new, unreleased songs,” says Billy. “We’re still figuring out a way to make it possible for some of the fans who’ll be in the line outside waiting to get in for that.”

Rehearsals for the tour “have been fantastic,” adds Billy. “I haven’t been this comfortable in a band situation since about 1995. Musically, we seem to have wound our way back to a more kinetic, electric, and psychedelic sound that reminds me of SP in Gish-Siamese era.”

The decision to play intimate venues keeps in line with the Pumpkins’ “long-standing tradition of trying to start up new tours at smaller venues because it allows the band the opportunity to take some chances musically,” explains Billy. The band has been recording and rehearsing in Los Angeles, and recently broadcast a full session live online: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-from-coldwater-studio

After the U.S. dates, the Pumpkins will head to Japan for four shows, including headline performances at two Summer Sonic festivals in Japan–August 7 in Tokyo (Marine Stadium) and August 8 in Osaka (Maishima)–to be followed by two headline dates in Tokyo (August 10 and 11 at Studio Coast).

The very limited edition collector’s EP TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL.1: SONGS FOR A SAILOR (“A Stitch In Time,” “Widow Wake My Mind,” “A Song For A Son” and “Astral Planes”) is packaged in a beautiful silk-screened wooden box. Each box contains a 4-song CD, a vinyl 7” and a hand-carved obelisk from the shadows of the Incan ruins in Machu Picchu. Of the first EP, Jerry Shriver of USA Today described the music as “a delicious swirl of howling psychedelic rock and melodic ballads (5/25/10),” while Edna Gundersen (also of USA Today) singled out the song “A Stitch In Time,” noting that “Billy Corgan binds a pretty melody to shimmery acoustic pop psychedelia, thus extending his brand’s relevancy (6/1/10).” Elsewhere, Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times cited the “jammy, psychedelic side, with winding song structures, lyrics about endless seas and astral planes, and buckets of circa-’70s guitar fuzz (5/26/10).”

The Pumpkins also plan to tour South America and Australia in 2010 and hope to return to the U.S. later this year.

Here are the tour dates:

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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