The Smashing Pumpkins are planning to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1991 debut album Gish with a series of events, including a band-hosted livestream.
Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin will host a two-hour livestream from Madame Zuzu's Teashop, Corgan’s plant-based tea emporium, on May 29, to feature a live vinyl listening party, a fan Q&A, and “a very special world exclusive preview of unreleased music.”
Tickets for the event, priced at $19.91, will be available tomorrow, May 28.
Select proceeds will be donated to the PAWS no kill animal shelter in Chicago.
Corgan’s Highland Park teahop will also play host to Gish-related events across the weekend, with limited-edition Gish merchandise, art prints and posters for sale, and a private collection of Gish era memorabilia on display.
The merchandise will also be available from the Pumpkins webstore from May 28.
A special colouring contest and scavenger hunt are also planned, and the band have set up a special website where fans can share their memories of the Gish era.
The Pumpkins recently commenced work on a new 33 track studio album. The band took to social media to post a blurred picture of a miked-up drum kit, with the caption: “Starting new SP album today, the 33 song sequel to MCIS and Machina. Songs are written, lyrics too...so now it's just record-record-record.”
If that wasn’t enough, Billy Corgan has also confirmed that the band are putting the finishing touches to a reworked version of their sixth album, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies Of Modern Music, which was originally released on the internet for free in 2000. The new version could potentially feature a frankly staggering 80 tracks.
Says Corgan, “It was written to be kind of like a musical, but because it was never finished, it was like shooting a movie that wasn’t fully edited right.”
