Part of this week’s podcast was obsolete before I even started editing it, as we recorded on Sunday before all the official announcements about the 20th anniversary tour.  However, we did touch on some of the early rumors as well as the If All Goes Wrong DVD features and everyone’s favorite cryptic multimedia mash-up: the Machina Mystery.

Listen to the whole show (1:08:24)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew

News
-The 20th anniversary tour rumors begin with two dates in Los Angeles.  Is the band playing smaller venues by choice or necessity? (5:45)

-Another since-confirmed rumor: Smashing Pumpkins join the Bridge School Benefit for a third time.  Will we hear an acoustic rendition of G.L.O.W.?  Plus, Andrew tells us how small children react to Marilyn Manson. (4:32)

-The features and setlist of If All Goes Wrong are released, and we’re generally stoked.  Are any of us in the Ghost Children featurette?  Jill expresses her love for The Crying Tree of Mercury. (16:36)

-Billy’s interview in EQ magazine is published online.  Is there a musical genre that the next Pumpkins album won’t be influenced by? (11:41)

In-Depth Discussion
-We take on the Machina Mystery and its reception by the public after the recent series of articles on sp.com on the topic.  Eerie parallels between Machina and Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero abound. (21:38)

This Week in Pumpkins History
-The Pumpkins appear on Saturday Night Live and show off their acting chops. (3:22)

Song of the Week
-Age of Innocence, October 31st, 1999

One thing we didn’t have time to discuss during our talk of the Machina Mystery: If D’Arcy hadn’t quit and the band went through with the plan to be “in character” throughout the album’s release and tour, would the public’s reaction to the album have been any different?  Feel free to posit your theories in the comments.

Following up on the previous bit of circle-jerk “news” cycle reporting regarding Iha’s involvement in the new Marilyn Manson album, HU brings you the latest jaw-dropping headline, courtesy of punk.bz.

Former James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins will be on new Marilyn Manson album

I wish the new Jaymie Iha continued success as ’s’he recovers from the procedure and returns to rock a million faces more.

Kerrang! claimed on Friday that Pumpkins co-founder James Iha will make a “guest appearance” on the next album from Brian “The Space Cowboy” “Marilyn Manson” Warner and Jeordie “Ratso Rizzo” “Twiggy Ramirez” White:

[Marilyn Manson], who is clearly reeling after the commercial and critical failure that was 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me, says tracks for his eponymous band’s seventh studio album are “very ruthless, very heavy, and very violent.”

The Double M has also revealed that Slayer guitar god Kerry King and The Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha will be making guest appearances on the record.

There is essentially no original content in this Kerrang! blurb, as the information – including the “very ruthless, very heavy, and very violent” quotation — has been part of a Wikipedia entry since February.  Just days after that Wikipedia entry was created, an extensive discussion of the entry took place on Manson fan board The Hierophant Council.  One fan taking part in that discussion, Tim “Litso” Hessel, recognized that the Wikipedia entry was a copy of an entry on his MansonWiki site:

It’s nice to see wikipedia takes information from the MansonWiki, it used to be the other way around. Everything in the article is true for as far as I know, we try to stick to the facts (as presented in interviews and other reliable sourdces) as much as possible.

Another participant in the Hierophant Council discussion wrote:

I recognize almost everything in that [Wikipedia] article from posts here [on the Hierophant Council site] of live concert reports and other credible goings-on of information gleaned over the past year, but for Wikipedia that isn’t (and shouldn’t be by principle, even though we know better) good enough for it to remain unsourced and intact there. It is just about all true, though.

So the Kerrang! blurb is (effectively) sourced from Wikipedia, the Wikipedia entry from MansonWiki, and the MansonWiki entry from the Hierophant Council discussion boards.  Based on a Google search of those boards, it appears that the James Iha information can be traced to a September 27, 2007 post by Heather Wiewes, who told of her experience at a Manson concert in São Paulo the night before:

After the show, I met Manson, talked a little bit with him. I asked to him about a new album and new single… he told me that a new album coming soon :D and it will be a participation to Slayer (sorry, I can’t remember the name of guy), James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins and someone else (I also can’t remember)

Also cited on the boards is a November interview conducted with Manson by David Saavedra of Madrid newspaper El Mundo.  The interview is in Spanish, but here is the Google Translate rendering of the section where Saavedra tries to get clarity:

[Saavedra]. - is rumoured that could assist in that CD Slayer and Smashing Pumpkins.

[Manson]. - It’s definitely a possibility. Obviously, I had the opportunity to meet many people during these years. I have made very close friend of Kerry King of Slayer, I have had enough contact with Smashing Pumpkins and recently I also worked with Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who has made a remix for me. All of them can become part of the disc.

Where does that leave us, or the truth?  I’m not really sure, but I almost have to question the rumor purely on plausibility grounds. I don’t have any personal knowledge of the “failure” of the last Manson album, but I daresay that anyone who calls in James Iha to further a plan for heavily ruthless violence is reeling at best and may rather like the drugs.  Uhm, so, maybe it IS true…

Last note: the MansonWiki is now citing Kerrang! (in the mistaken belief that Kerrang! conducted a new interview with Manson) as evidence that “the Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha would still be making an appearance on the album.”  What goes around, stays around?