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Smashing Pumpkins - Aug 30, 2023

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smashing23The Smashing Pumpkins have announced a North American tour in support of their new album, Atum. "The World Is a Vampire Tour"
will feature support from Interpol and Rival Sons smashing the stage at Jones Beach on Wed, Aug 30 - tix: http://SMASHINGPUMPKINS.jonesbeach.com

In a statement about the tour, the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan said:
I grew up in a world where I needed to know bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure existed, it meant there was a place for people
like me to hang out and belong. That’s what The World Is a Vampire is about. Bringing back that sense of community. If you don't fit in, you
belong here. It's about having a shared experience and respecting others, but ultimately having fun. A true alternative festival, where all the
self-proclaimed weirdos and outsiders of the world can get together and have a party.

The band’s tour title, of course, gets its name from the opening line on the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness song “Bullet With Butterfly
Wings.” The Smashing Pumpkins have said that Atum—out May 5—is a sequel to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and also 2000’s
Machina/Machine of God. Hear a new Atum song, “Spellbinding,” below.

Smashing Pumpkins are one of the era-defining rock bands of the ’90s. Right up there with the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots. The Chicago-founded group will forever be filed under “grunge,” but their signature hits are widescreen, stretching to the grandiose “Tonight” and the poppy “1979.” And OK, plenty ear-melting grunge too, a la their 1993 classic “Cherub Rock.”
The Pumpkins, still led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Corgan, are set to rock Jones Beach as part of their “The World Is a Vampire Tour.” The tour’s title is from a lyric to Smashing Pumpkins’ metallic ’95 hit “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

In addition to Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins lineup boasts classic-era members James Iha on guitar and Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, with guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Schroeder joining the fold around 2006. On recent tours, bassist Jack Bates and multi-instrument/backing vocalist Katie Cole have augmented the core members onstage. On April 21, the Pumpkins will release the final installment of their 12th studio album, the triptych “Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts.” Parts one and two dropped in November and January. The 33-track collection has been touted as a sequel to “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,” Smashing Pumpkins 1995 double-LP, which achieved the rare air of diamond certified, with sales of more than 10 million. Smashing Pumpkins other essential albums include their 1991 debut album “Gish” and ‘93 juggernaut “Siamese Dream.”

Opening the night, Rival Sons, a California-founded quartet evoking blues-rock’s glory days. Featuring singer Jay Buchanan’s mighty pipes, Rival Sons’ signature song is “Pressure and Time,” a 2011 track that channels Led Zeppelin’s “Out on the Tiles” and featured in a recent Chevy trucks commercial. Rival Sons may not be a household name. But fans who love real-deal rock & roll are nuts for the band, who recorded part of their most recent album in Muscle Shoals.

Early 2000s sensation Interpol are direct support on the Pumpkins tour. The New York combo are sort of the Greta Van Fleet of Joy Division. Whereas Great Van Fleet are amazing at playing lemon-squeezing, Zep-style rock, Joy Division dopplegang the hell out of influential post-punk band Joy Division. Interpol’s first two albums went gold, each selling 500,000 copies plus. Sophomore 2004 album “Antics” birthed hits like the angular “Evil,” “C’mere” and “Slow Hands.” Interpol released The Other Side of Make-Believe last year.
 


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