In other music-related Super Bowl news, the Hyundai-commissioned new song by the Smashing Pumpkins, “F.O.L.,” made its debut right before yesterday’s big game in an ad that featured many careening turns and some sort of “make your own ad” contest that takes about five minutes of Flash animations to finally get to. Billy Corgan completists out there can grab the track, which is only 3:05 yet sometimes feels like it’s about double that length (perhaps I need to, as Corgan instructs over and over and over and over again, “feel our love”), at the car company’s site. Clip of the ad after the jump.
Well, the ad with the new Smashing Pumpkins song “FOL” did, anyway. Last night the Pumpkins fan blog Hipsters United broke the news that “FOL” would be in an ad for the Hyundai Genesis airing during the big game, part of a campaign that will also use serial finger-syncer Yo-Yo Ma. But tough economic times and the recent woes besetting car companies resulted in the spot getting moved to the pregame show. Here’s hoping Billy will take some solace in the fact that said programming block will also include an interview with our still-sorta-brand-new President!
A concert that ends with the performer trying to connect with this audience by wondering aloud, as they might, “Did I pay for this shit?” is probably a show that’s beset with problems. So it was with the Smashing Pumpkins’ show in New York City last night, Billy Corgan et al‘s first performance in the NYC metro area in nine (!) years, which ended with Corgan baiting the audience with that very taunt, according to Matthew Perpetua, who was in the United Palace audience last night. There were also “at least 40 minutes of formless prog-metal dirges and artless, atonal drones,” and lousy setlists that eschewed the depths of the Pumpkins’ catalog in favor of the track from the trailer for The Watchmen and other new songs. (Also, he wore a “Zero” shirt but didn’t play the song in question, which just seems cruel, you know?)
ARTIST: Smashing Pumpkins
TITLE: “G.L.O.W.”
WEB DEBUT: Oct. 13, 2008
At their best, tribute videos–like trailers–are about emotional manipulation. Through a combination of music and carefully selected clips, they twist your senses until you’re almost convinced that you actually care about ER characters or even evil sharks. Given that, it’s no surprise that there’s a bounty of Brokeback Mountain videos that employ aggressive emotional exploitation tactics. Two of these tributes stand above the rest. In a bout of tragic genius someone–with a fondness for anime–came so very close to perfection, but ultimately failed… big time. Join me after the jump for tent sex, Eiffel 65, “Landslide,” and, unfortunately, Billy Corgan.
Billy Corgan has announced the Smashing Pumpkins’ 20th-anniversary tour, which in a few cities will be highlighted by two-night stints that will have completely different set lists (one will be dubbed “Black Sunshine,” the other “White Crosses”). OK yeah I know that I have previously been a bit skeptical about all of Billy Corgan’s anniversarizing, and calling this November jaunt a “20th-anniversary tour” is a bit of a stretch given the lineup changes and “hiatuses” and what-have-you, but whatever, I’m excited. I’ll admit it. Mainly because the “two nights, no repeats” structure of the shows opens the door for a lot of rarities to get some stage time, including “Starla,” above, which was a b-side for the “I Am One” single and which has a crazy awesome coda. Full list of tour dates after the jump.
In an even-ramblier-than-usual Courtney Love blog entry–topics include joining a Lilac Society branch in Pasadena long ago and collaborating with ex-Hole bassist/nautically minded rock lady Melissa Auf der Maur in the immediate future–the VMA-skipping widow Cobain talks about how certain songs in the early ’90s “pissed me off and fucked me up and made me a competitive little shit.” Perhaps taking a cue from her stream-of-consciousness ways, I got completely sidetracked by her mention of Smashing Pumpkins’ “La Dolly Vita” (above), which I first heard on the fantastic Sub Pop compilation Afternoon Delight. (“Vita” was a b-side to the Pumpkins’ 1990 Sub Pop single, which featured the blistering “Tristessa” on the front.)
Surely I’m not the only one who thinks that, at this point, the whole “band releasing a new song through Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band” angle is kind of played out, even if other media outlets are willing to lap it up like it’s a dish of slightly melted vanilla ice cream. I mean, the seal has been broken. People are going plastic instead of going platinum. Big whoop. If you really want to get creative with your distribution methods, why don’t you go back to the wax-cylinder route? Or 8-tracks? Plastic guitars are almost… quaint at this point. Now, that’s not to say that I’m not interested in the newest song by the Smashing Pumpkins, which comes out next month in a bundle with “1979” and “The Everlasting Gaze.” (You know–it’s what us olds used to call a “b-side.”) It’s called “G.L.O.W.,” after all, and anyone who had a TV that pulled in crappy syndicated channels 20 years ago knows that those letters can only stand for one thing.
• Simon & Schuster has sued both Foxy Brown and Lil Kim for not coming through on books, despite being paid advances. In 2006, Foxy was paid $75,000 in hopes that she’d write an autobiography, while Kim was given $40,000 in 2004 for a novel. (Fiction still gets no respect, even when it’s penned by a famous-ish person.) [Bloomberg via ProHipHop]
