Happy Friday Radicals! you made it!
The Smashing Pumpkins made it official on Thursday, February 15th, announcing the “Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour.” The semi-reunion trek will mark the first time in nearly 20 years that founding members William Corgan on vocals and guitar, Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and James Iha on guitar will tour together, along with latter-era guitarist Jeff Schroeder. The 36-city tour will kick off in Glendale, Arizona on July 12th and visit North American arenas throughout the summer, wrapping on September 7th in Boise, Idaho.
Tickets for the tour will go on sale to the general public starting next Friday, February 23rd at 10:00 a.m. local time and be available at SmashingPumpkins.com, LiveNation.com and via the Live Nation app.
Corgan said, “Some 30 years ago, as the Smashing Pumpkins, James Iha and I began a musical journey in the cramped rear bedroom of my father’s house. And so it’s magic to me that we’re able to coalesce once more around the incredible Jimmy Chamberlin, to celebrate those songs we’ve made together.”
Corgan added, “This show and staging will be unlike any we’ve ever done, and will feature a set unlike any we’ve ever played. For if this is a chance at a new beginning, we plan on ushering it in with a real bang.”
The show will feature material exclusively off the first five Pumpkins albums, from their debut Gish to the last LP to feature the original lineup, Machina: The Machines Of God.
Corgan said for years that he did not want the Pumpkins to be a nostalgia act: “To go back under the Smashing Pumpkins name engendered a lot of people expecting us to be nothing more than a reunion band, playing its greatest hits, and with a fan base not particularly keen to listen to the new music. What I try to tell people that get caught up in the reunion kind of concepts — like where are the original members and stuff like this — the band was founded on an idea that it must be progressive and it must always be moving forward.”
Still unknown is who will play bass on the tour, as original bassist D’arcy Wretzky will apparently not participate. Corgan has reportedly hired Jack Bates, son of Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook.
Earlier in the week, the Pumpkins denied claims by Wretzky that an invite for her to join the reunited band was later rescinded. D’arcy alleged in an interview with BlastEcho that Corgan sent her a contract that was agreed upon, only to later say that she would only be allowed to make appearances at select shows.
Muse released a new single on Thursday, February 15th called “Thought Contagion.” The track follows “Dig Down,” which was released last year. Frontman Matt Bellamy said, “The meaning of the song ‘Thought Contagion’ is about how other people’s thoughts, ideas and beliefs can sometimes infect your mind, get into your head and change the way you think yourself.” The song was accompanied by a music video described as an “’80s infectious neon love story.”
Bellamy told Rolling Stone on Thursday that the British trio is “halfway through” the recording of its eighth album, and is releasing songs as they are completed. He explained, “For us, it’s really refreshing to just work on one song at a time and take each song to completion. We’re doing the writing, recording and mixing process and even the video in this occasion before moving onto the next song.”
The band intends to issue two more singles in the coming months, with the full album arriving either in the fall or early 2019. Muse will take a break from the studio to headline a few North American festivals this spring and summer. They’re slated to headline Bonnaroo, BottleRock Napa Valley, Carolina Rebellion, and Mexico’s Pal’Norte Music Festival.
Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has revealed that guitarist Josh Rand will rejoin the band on April 27th at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Jacksonville, Florida. Rand came off the road late last month and was said to have entered “treatment” for unspecified issues. Taylor told Musik Universe earlier this week that the band talks to Rand “every day” and that he is “doing great.”
Taylor added, “We actually have a two-month break coming up after this tour, so he’s actually been able to work through the things that he’s going through right now. And, yeah, he’ll be ready to go for the next tour, which is . . . I think April 27th is the first show.”
Stone Sour enlisted a temporary replacement for its most recent North American tour, which included dates with Halestorm, In This Moment and Red Sun Rising. Taylor told Canadian radio station 104.9 The Wolf earlier this month that Rand “seems to be doing really, really well, so that’s really good.”
It is not clear whether Rand is being treated for a medical issue or problems with substance or alcohol abuse. Stone Sour is touring in support of its sixth studio effort, Hydrograd, which came out at the end of June and features the chart-topping rock radio hit “Song #3.” The latest track issued from the disc is “Rose Red Violent Blue.”
Ozzy Osbourne‘s “No More Tours 2” farewell trek will end sometime in 2020, which also marks the 40th anniversary of Ozzy’s classic solo debut, 1980’s Blizzard Of Ozz. Asked by Rolling Stone whether he’d consider performing the LP in its entirety to mark the occasion, Ozzy replied, “That was the thing for a while, to play the whole album, but I don’t write albums that way, so no.”
Ozzy added, “When I make an album, I specifically record songs that I’ll never do on the stage. Like on Blizzard Of Ozz, there are songs that I wrote never to play live, because the production was too heavy.”
Ozzy told us a while back that performing one of his older albums from front to back would be too difficult: “No. The production and the pitch in my singing was way off the Richter scale. It would be nice, but if I had known then what I know now, I’d would have probably done it differently. But there’s no way I could do that, you know.”
The singer did hint to Rolling Stone that he “could do one” album track that he has not performed live before. Ozzy’s final world tour kicks off this spring with dates in Mexico, South America and Europe, coming to North America in August. It’s slated to last until 2020. He insisted that he is not retiring from music at the end of the tour, but is instead saying goodbye to long global treks in favor of select shows. He also said at a press conference earlier this month that he has “eight or nine” song ideas for a new album, which he may work on once the tour is completed.
In other rock news, French figure skating duo Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres soundtracked their routine at the Winter Olympics in South Korea on Wednesday night with Disturbed’s 2015 hit cover of Simon & Garfunkel‘s “The Sound Of Silence.” The band, who are in the studio right now working on a new record, have yet to comment on the performance.
“Figure skating transcends pop culture.” A beautiful performance by Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres paired with Disturbed’s chilling cover of “Sound of Silence.” #WinterOlympics https://t.co/KX4CHncv2t pic.twitter.com/8PSZ78XzRD
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 15, 2018
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, Body Count’s Ice-T, and Def Leppard’s Pete Willis!
