If you haven’t already gotten enough Jeff Schroeder guitar-rig information, follow along as he guides readers of French mag Guitar Part on a video tour (part 1, part 2).

Thanks to HU reader JZ for the tip.

Here is a filmed-from-way-in-the-back YouTube clip of Billy’s remarks just before closing with “I Am One Pt. 2″ at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on December 8.  Included is a particularly emphatic thank-you to Ginger and Jeff, as well as this:

A lot of people wondered why it took us so long to come back to Chicago.  One of the reasons was, we didn’t want to come back unless we were ready.  Now we’re ready.

In his latest missive for Buzzbands.LA, the Smashing Pumpkins guitarist speaks out regarding the “somewhat unenthusiastic press” directed toward his band on its current tour:

As a band, I think we go up there every night and attempt to convey some notion of the truth—both as individuals and as a collective. But we’re stuck in this moment too. We’re quite aware of the age in which we live, and I feel our musical choices reflect it. We’re not outside it either. To think that we are would be extremely naïve.

I guess WesleyDodds was right…either that, or whoever typed up the back cover verbiage didn’t get the memo on use of the word reunion (and will be hearing from Billy soon?).

So, now that it’s been widely available for a day (sorry we didn’t post anything about its release yesterday!), I’ve finally seen If All Goes Wrong. A few initial thoughts:

• For about the first two-thirds of the film, I wasn’t particularly crazy about any of the lyrics that made it to onscreen text. Some better ones surfaced later…
• …such as a few lines from “The Rose March”, which I personally would pick as the best song (or “peak experience”?) to emerge from the residencies — the film implies this is Billy’s opinion as well, but please come to your own judgments.
• The most sizable bout of laughter from both myself and HU reader Stace was prompted by the immediate wake of the Super Melt-Down of “Jeff Shroeder” [sic]: as band members pull themselves together to troop back out on stage for an encore, of all moments Billy might choose to comically acknowledge the documentary camera…that one.

What observations or thoughts does everyone else have? There’s a lot to process in the film, but please jump right in.

HU has been following along with the Smashing Pumpkins’ guitarist, Jeff Schroeder, and his new tour blog via Buzzbands.LA.  Today’s installment was published today from D.C.

Jeff begins his post by confessing the tour has been a blur thus far, and then corroborates my NYC liveblog story.  Though his guitar embraced its, ah, kinetic properties when Jeff threw it down after a solo, stellar technician Jason Baskin has nursed it back to life to soldier bravely on through subsequent shreddings.

Jeff also discusses the new lineup and his feelings about the tour so far. Check out the full post here!

Find out by following along with his tour diary at Buzzbands.LA; the first entry is up!

First he found his way into the Smashing Pumpkins’ semi-private West Hollywood Best Buy gig, and now Buzzbands.LA blogger Kevin Bronson has an exclusive:

His close friends call him Shredder, thanks to his talents with a guitar, but two years ago Jeff Schroeder was just a part-time musician — and a full-time graduate student, working toward his Ph.D. in comparative literature at UCLA. Then a mutual friend helped him get an audition with the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, who were rebuilding a band to play behind their new album “Zeitgeist.”

About 150 shows later, the Orange County native is still carving out his place with the Pumpkins. And as the band hopscotches through a 20-plus-date tour marking its 20th anniversary, Schroeder will share his experiences in a tour diary on this very blog.

So how is that new rig working for Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder?

Yesterday was the first day that I really got a chance to spend time with it and it sounds phenomenal. The modded Randall preamps sound great. I was real happy with them before and now I’m even happier.

The Axe-Fx is great too. Not that hard to use and has endless possibilities. Granted, it does take some time to program, but for me having versatility is key. I really wanted to design a rig that would not only be able to cover all the sounds for the songs we’re playing on this upcoming tour (and believe me, it’s a lot of them. 40+ over two nights) but would also allow me to grow into new sonic territories (I know that sounds cheesey, but y’all know what I mean). Suffice to say, I’m beyond pleased with what we were able to get here.

You can read more of Jeff’s tech talk here and here.

Here are pictures and a description of a guitar effects system freshly built for Smashing Pumpkins axeman Jeff Schroeder by David Friedman. (Not the anarchist-anachronist- economist David Friedman but the Rack Systems Ltd. operator David Friedman.) As Friedman eloquently puts it:

The path is guitar into the rack wah with a cable,then it hits the gcx with the 6 pedals pictured, the 7th loop is the Axe Fx front end {for pedal simulations} then it goes to the Rm4 preamp.

Well, yeah. You’d have to be pretty stupid to do it any other way.

The “An Evening with the Smashing Pumpkins” tour (redux?) is almost upon us, so we got together for one last podcast before the shows begin.

Again, let me know if you’d like to give us your own tour review via email or Skype.

Listen to the whole show (1:18:04)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew

News
-Jeff Schroeder is interviewed on sp.com. We talk about Jeff’s fit in the band and his crazy, crazy costumes. (9:15)

-Another lawsuit this week as the podcast edges closer to becoming an episode of Judge Judy. (12:29)

-G.L.O.W. is finished and Billy and Jimmy are no longer writing music for “them”, whoever they may be. Is Billy backing away from slow-selling Zeitgeist? Plus, I invent the word “connotivity” and Jill dishes some celebrity gossip. (24:06)

In-Depth Discussion
-Another fictional $100 challenge: predict the song(s) that will be played on this tour for the first time by the reformed Pumpkins. Andrew and Jason go Gish, while I gamble on the 15th anniversary of Siamese Dream. Meanwhile, Jill is cagey with her inside information and explains how babies love the Smashing Pumpkins. (23:31)

Song of the Week
-Geek U.S.A., April 24th, 1999

Despite my claim at the end of this episode, we will indeed have an episode next week, although we won’t be talking about the tour since we will still be on the road. Instead, we will have a one-off type show to hold you over until we return the following week.

The one-two punch:

• Lead singer Robert Schneider rocks the Obama tee; I wonder if Jim DeRogatis will now be classifying Schneider with Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke as a “poseur”.
• Keyboardist John Ferguson is, like omg, dressed in some kind of futuristic cape.

So the question is this: How is it that Apples in Stereo is the coolest band in the universe?

Toward the end of the second part of an interview conducted by SmashingPumpkins.com writer Hack (first part here), Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder is subjected to questions written by fans, including this query sourced from one wHiTe_sPyDeR_gRl:

[w_s_g:] “Is Billy Corgan a dictator like the media made him out to seem, or is he easy to work with?”

[Jeff Schroeder:] From what I’ve experienced so far, I would say that both Billy and Jimmy are extremely dedicated and serious musicians who have set high standards for themselves. They surely don’t hold me, Ginger, or Lisa (or anybody else working with them) to some set of expectations that they themselves don’t uphold, and from what I’ve seen up to this point, we’re all pretty similar in this respect. There’s a certain ethos to the band that maybe some people looking in from the outside forget about from time to time. Some bands like to find their niche and stick with it for as long as it’s viable, and this works both artistically and commercially. Anyone who has followed the Pumpkins over the years knows that “the band” (as a concept more than the actual people involved) is an idea that is continually being deconstruct[ed]. To me, this is what fundamentally makes the Pumpkins different than say the Ramones or AC/DC (both great bands in my opinion). So in terms of working in the band, you always have to be ready to rethink what you’re doing. This could mean changing a guitar part, adding a different song to the set, playing something soft as opposed to heavy, etc, and this is not always easy. In fact, it can very difficult at times. But when you approach the question from this perspective, it goes a little beyond one or two people being easy or difficult to work with.

SmashingPumpkins.com writer Hack has today resolved my issues by posting a new interview with Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder. I’ve learned that Jeff and I have something in common:

[T]he only thing standing in between me and my PhD is the thesis itself. No small matter, but I’m determined to get it done as soon as possible. I try to work on it everyday, even if it’s just for an hour or two. As you know, graduate students need deadlines, so I’ve given myself about a year and half to finish it.

The last leg of the Australian tour has brought more great photos to the Flickr photostream, and I’m back to send you some great stills. Check out these below for a quick dose of eye candy, and be sure to check out the photographers’ individual feeds to give them props.

Photos courtesy of nic bezzina, Matt Carty of the Messenger News, and David Craddock Photo

The Smashing Pumpkins have only performed “Zero” once for an audience in 2008, but I daresay you’d never know it from this YouTube video, which sadly only covers the middle half of the song. So be prepared for disappointment at the premature ending, but I think it’s worth it for (1) the frightening Melbourne V-Fest audience yell-along and (2) Jeff knocking himself a step backwards with octave-shifted rock-guitar power.

A site I know and love has perhaps the scariest set of 156 Photoshopped images I’ve ever seen. And they rotate. In this fine example above, I believe lilac-screened Paz Lenchantin is either 1) trying to eat me or 2) revealing to the world that she is, in fact, a serpent capable of unhinging her jaw to devour “The Girl with the Cruel Face.”

In recent news (post-1999, at least), the rotation has been updated to include the newish band members almost a year after the band’s reunion. Timely. Below, meet Jeff “The Matrix” Schroeder, Ginger “Smurfette” Reyes, and Lisa “Bubblegum Face” Harriton. Welcome aboard, gang! You’re in good company!

… to be continued …