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:

TUE
7/6
Cleveland, OH
House of Blues
THU
7/8
Grand Rapids, MI
Orbit Room
FRI
7/9
Columbus, OH
Newport Music Hall
SAT
7/10
Louisville, KY
Forecastle Festival
MON
7/12
Baltimore, MD
Rams Head Live
TUE
7/13
Richmond,VA
The National
THU
7/15
Norfolk, VA
The Norva
FRI
7/16
Charlotte, NC
Fillmore
SAT
7/17
Charleston, SC
Music Farm
MON
7/19
Orlando, FL
House of Blues
TUE
7/20
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Revolution
WED
7/21
Tampa, FL
Ritz
SAT
8/7
Tokyo
Marine Stadium / Messe
SUN
8/8
Osaka
Maishima / Summer Sonic Site
TUE
8/10
Tokyo
Tokyo Studio Coast
WED
8/11
Tokyo
Tokyo Studio Coast

Coast to coast, fans visiting select local independent record stores on RECORD STORE DAY, Saturday, April 17, will have an opportunity to preorder the new, limited edition EP by The Smashing Pumpkins, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol 1: Songs For A Sailor. The pre-order is exclusive to independent record stores. By preordering the EP, fans will be guaranteed to own the EP and will immediately receive a collector’s edition Smashing Pumpkins black light poster, while supplies last.

Says Smashing Pumpkins band leader Billy Corgan: “I used to work at an indie record shop so I’ll always have a soft spot for the places where I still go to find the most vital music, whether new or still hidden.”

Additionally, as part of the Record Store Day celebration, Rocket Science Ventures and Amoeba Records in Los Angeles will present the Pumpkins’ fans with an opportunity to see an exclusive performance from the band. The first 250 fans who pre-order the Teargarden… EP on Saturday, April 17, will receive the limited edition black light poster as well as a wristband giving them entry into The Smashing Pumpkins performance from Amoeba and Urban Outfitters Space 15 Twenty later that day.

Director of Marketing for the Music Monitor Network and Record Store Day organizer Carrie Collition adds, “Many of Smashing Pumpkins’ fans, not to mention record store employees like myself, first embraced the band and their debut album, Gish, inside the walls of an independent record store. We are thrilled that Billy Corgan is publicly recognizing the part those stores played, and continue to play, in the Pumpkins story.”

The Smashing Pumpkins’ TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL. 1: SONGS FOR A SAILOR is set for official release on May 25th thru Martha’s Music / Rocket Science Ventures. This very limited edition collectors EP will be packaged in a beautiful collector’s silk-screened wooden box. Each box will contain a 4-song CD, a vinyl 7″ and a hand-carved obelisk.

Record Store Day, is managed by the Music Monitor Network in partnership with the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), and the Alliance of Independent Music Stores (AIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale. It takes place on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

Coming Home Media will release If All Goes Wrong, a double DVD commemorative package celebrating the recent reunion and extraordinary 20-year career of The Smashing Pumpkins, one of rock’s defining and most acclaimed bands, on Nov. 11th.

Directed and produced by Jack Gulick (Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Steve Miller Band, Godsmack) and Daniel E Catullo III (Steve Miller Band, Godsmack, Rush, Dave Matthews Band), the two DVD set contains the 105-minute documentary, also titled If All Goes Wrong, plus The Fillmore Residency, a full concert filmed in late July and early August of 2007 over five of the 11 sold-out nights at the famed Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, CA.

The concert disc was captured in 5.1 Surround Sound and state-of-the-art high definition from 12 cameras and features seven all new tracks not available anywhere else, along with new versions of fan favorites and a selection of Pumpkins rarities.

From the opening note to the final chord, the documentary If All Goes Wrong showcases a band returning with an “enveloping epic force” (Los Angeles Times) as it traces The Smashing Pumpkins during their 19-show residency, which began with eight shows at Asheville, NC’s Orange Peel in late June and continued through 11 sold-out nights at San Francisco’s famed Fillmore Auditorium. Interviews with band members, fans, journalists and fellow musicians reveal the fears, excitement, determination, exhaustion and tension inherent in main singer-songwriter and lead guitarist Billy Corgan and his newly revitalized musical unit.

“We went into the residencies hopeful to play some new music, with the idea I would write during the day and we could maybe even play new songs that same night,” Corgan comments. “What I didn’t anticipate is how much the process would inspire me, positively and negatively, to report what I was seeing and feeling from the shows. The documentary shows that process in an interesting way that reveals the link between the band and our audience.”

The documentary also includes Voices Of The Ghost Children, a featurette about the band’s fans, and an interview with The Who’s legendary guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend as bonus material.

The concert portion of the If All Goes Wrong, entitled The Fillmore Residency, runs 115 minutes and includes seven of the almost 20 all-new compositions the band composed and performed exclusively during the residencies that are available exclusively on this release. With 15 songs in all, the concert – captured in 5.1 Surround Sound and state-of-the-art high definition from 12 cameras – showcases the band as they explore the freedom afforded to them in a live setting, including the 30+ minute opus “Gossamer”. Along with the new tracks, the concert also includes alternate versions of fan favorites and a selection of Pumpkins rarities. The Fillmore Residency also includes five songs recorded live from the floor of The Fillmore that gives fans an intimate glimpse of the band as a performing entity.

Formed in Chicago in 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins have sold over 30 million albums since releasing Gish, their influential (and platinum) debut in 1991. More platinum and multi-platinum albums followed, including the nine-time platinum Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and the four-time platinum Siamese Dream. The pivotal group’s many hits include “Disarm,” “Today,” “Cherub Rock,” “1979,” “Tonight, Tonight” and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” – songs which defined the alternative music era and continue to resonate on modern rock radio, influencing a whole new generation.

The Pumpkins contributed multiple songs to various compilations before releasing Adore, Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music prior to their break-up in 2000. They returned in 2007 with their gold-certified and acclaimed sixth album Zeitgeist, a powerful rebirth and reaffirmation of the Smashing Pumpkins by two of its key members, Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, now joined by Jeff Schroeder (guitar), Ginger Reyes (bass) and Lisa Harriton (keyboards). Earlier this year, The Smashing Pumpkins were inducted into Hollywood’s RockWalk, and this month became the first band to record a new song exclusively for Guitar Hero®.

Coming Home Media this year also released the Platinum-selling The Steve Miller Band: Live From Chicago, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Music Video charts amid across-the-board critical acclaim and wide media attention.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS DISC 1:

*”If All Goes Wrong” documentary

*”Voices Of The Ghost Children” featurette

*Interview with The Who guitarist, Pete Townshend

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS DISC 2:

*The Fillmore Residency

1. The Rose March*

2. Peace + Love*

3. 99 Floors*

4. Superchrist

5. Lucky 13

6. Starla

7. Death From Above

8. The Crying Tree Of Mercury

9. Winterlong

10. Heavy Metal Machine

11. Untitled

12. No Surrender*

13. Gossamer*

14. Zeitgeist

Bonus Tracks: Live From The Floor Of The Fillmore

*”99 Floors”

*”Peace + Love”

*”No Surrender”

*”Mama”*

*”Promise Me”*

*previously unreleased