In an amusing interview with Rolling Stone, Kele Okereke of British indie giant Bloc Party gets all teary-eyed and waxes poetic about his band’s upcoming album, Intimacy:

It was totally hush-hush but we didn’t want to go the whole In Rainbows route and give away for free. We live in a capitalist world and I do want to get paid and I do want to eat.

Ah, the sweet smell of money-makin’, money-money-makin’ in the morning.

But wait!  He goes on to further explain the hard-and-fast marketing tactic behind recent one-off single release “Mercury” (”Superchrist” or “G.L.O.W.,” anyone?):

We’re kind of just making it up as we can go along. You can do that these days and it’s pretty exciting I think.

Indeed. So is the key to making friends with the press blatantly discussing your strategies?  We know Jared Paul thinks so.

But so far, Bloc Party has gotten no snarky remarks on Pitchfork or Stereogum or [enter ad nauseum music blogs here].  Quel dommage!

What follows is part two (part one here) of the Smashing Pumpkins’ radio interview with Mancow Muller last Monday. There is some irreverence in this section, so more than usual it is a good idea to listen to the audio for inflection, tone, et cetera.

Mancow Muller: Where are you at now spiritually, Billy?

Billy Corgan: I’m in a really good place, I’m really happy. I know that’s shocking.

MM: Can you write when you’re happy?

BC: Oh yeah! Oh, I write more.

MM: And fame does weird things, doesn’t it? It did weird things to…I know you guys didn’t change, but boy, everybody around you just turned to *bleep*, huh?

BC: Yeah, it’s been shocking. [laughs] It’s been shocking. You know, it changed me to the extent I had to figure out who I was and go back to who I used to be, for sure.

MM: The suicide talk you gave, about…do you want to talk about that? It got a lot of attention.

BC: Sure!

MM: It’s hard for people to relate to. You’re on the top of the world, you’re writing some of the great songs, timeless songs, and yet you were suicidal. How is that possible, Billy?

BC: Well, I think there’s… Like everybody, I’m a human being. I didn’t face certain things. I think fame gave me a free pass on dealing with my problems. Like anybody else, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you’re thinking, “You know what, I got all this money, I got all these cars, I got a hot woman, and I’m ready to throw myself off a roof because it just doesn’t matter.” And you know, of course, one of the great artists of our generation, Kurt, you know, took himself out. And I think, there’s this weird thing in America where fame is the new immortality. And look how many of those people are completely miserable. Like the kid who was in the Indiana Jones movie, he [Shia LaBeouf] flipped his car.

MM: Yeah, he’s miserable.

BC: How old is he, 22 years old? You just want to grab the kid and say, “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.” But, I’m sure he’s surrounded with a bunch of people who are making excuses for him already. I just know how that works. Trust me, Mancow: when we were flying, they couldn’t take us out to enough dinners, they couldn’t pat us on the back, they couldn’t tell us how great we were — and the minute it stopped selling like it did, they were gone. And that’s a weird feeling too, because you start thinking, like, “Well, is everybody a liar in my world?” Including bandmates. I’ll give you a perfect example: Our old bandmates, James and D’arcy, constantly complained to the press that I was this crazy dictator and I wouldn’t let them record their music. And they’ve been out of the band for seven, eight years and they haven’t released one song. So am I still suppressing them from a distance? I mean…

Jimmy Chamberlin: [laughs]

MM: Well, you know, the little Asian girl was nice. She was always nice to me. And D’arcy was always asleep, so…

BC: [laughs]

MM: So I can’t really say anything, but I did see you guys in the studio numerous times, and I really wasn’t sure what they did. In fact, early on, I thought they were maybe with the caterers.

BC: Well, they looked good.

MM: They did look good in the videos!

BC: No, I have to say, they did make serious contributions, and it’s not fair to try to go out and denigrate their contributions.

MM: Yeah, but do you enjoy when I do it?

BC: Uhh… [laughs] I can’t argue against you, you know? It’s hard, though, but put it this way: we were all together there for a while and it worked. And God knows why it worked, because behind the scenes it was really impossible. But it did work, and you find yourself thinking there was something to it. But they’ve turned into such thorns in our sides, you know…

MM: Well, they were in the paper yesterday complaining that you haven’t given them money for your ringtones.

BC: Yeah, but see, that’s nice to say in the press, but that’s not really what’s happened. If you notice, they’re not suing me, you know what I mean? And there’s a reason they’re not suing me, because I haven’t done anything wrong.

Talk Radio Network’s Mancow Muller interviewed Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin of the Smashing Pumpkins last Monday. Audio of the interview can be found here.

Here’s the first portion of a lengthy full transcript:

Mancow Muller: Billy!

Billy Corgan: Yeah! Hey, good morning.

MM: I thought you’d never do my show again.

BC: Oh, stop it.

MM: Are we friends now?

BC: We are friends.

MM: Okay. I told you just a couple times that you hurt my feelings when you said that you didn’t think radio really helped the Pumpkins. Have you changed your mind on that?

BC: [laughs] It’s helping me now.

MM: Jimmy’s on the line too, Jimmy Chamberlin. Billy Corgan, the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlin…

Jimmy Chamberlin: What’s up, Mancow?!

MM: Hey guys. I got a chance to catch you in, uh, I don’t know, Toronto, I think, and it was spectacular.

JC: Oh, thank you!

MM: How are things going for you guys?

BC: Good. We’re so busy, it’s crazy.

MM: What are you working on right now, Billy? Aren’t you working on one of the Guitar Heros or something?

BC: Yeah, I’m going to be in the new Guitar Hero, like, actually be in the new game, which was pretty cool. We just recorded a new song, we’re getting ready for our tour, we’re getting ready for our 20th anniversary tour, we’re getting ready to put out a Gish box set.

MM: The new song is called “G.L.O.W.”, right?

BC: Yes sir.

MM: What does it stand for?

BC: Glorious Ladies of Wrestling.

MM: What?!

BC: Don’t you remember the Glorious Ladies of Wrestling?

MM: Yes! Yes, I do.

BC: I bet you had a few private moments with the Glorious Ladies.

MM: I did, I did, actually. Farmer’s Daughter.

BC, JC: [laughter]

MM: Billy, what weird things turned you on?

BC: Uh, I don’t know. I don’t talk about those things.

MM: You don’t have a record company now, do you?

BC: No, no, we’re free. It’s awesome. I mean, it’s amazing to be free in the market…”market” sounds so businesslike. In the world we live in now, the digital market world, whatever, it’s so cool because you can basically do whatever you want.

MM: Did they ever “get” you, Billy? Did they ever get the Pumpkins?

BC: The last record company, no, unfortunately. But some of the people at our old record company did, and they had everything to do with why we were so successful.

MM: And of course, the minute the Smashing Pumpkins had a hit, a lot of your people started hating you. The minute we played you on the radio people hated you.

BC: Well, that’s just the weird “alternative” world.

MM: But isn’t that weird?

BC: You remember that episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk had to fight his…self? His anti-Captain Kirk? That’s what it’s like being in alternative rock. It’s like, if you’re too good, they hate you; if you kind of suck and you smell bad and you have a beard, you’re good. It’s that weird thing. You gotta be good enough to be listened to, but bad enough that the mainstream world doesn’t want to hear you. We’ve been around for twenty years now, and we’re still…still getting it done. So we must be doing something right.

MM: You told me something in Toronto that I want to reveal, and I hope you don’t get mad at me. You said you’re making more money now than ever before.

JC: [laughs]

BC: Uhh…did I say that?

MM: Yes, you did. Selling your CDs online, doing whatever the hell you want, no middlemen, touring when you want, collecting the money and not having to divvy it up with record companies and promoters…you’re doing better than ever before.

BC: That’s basically true, but we also have to spend more money to do that, so maybe it’s a bit of a lie, but yeah. Put it this way: the most important thing with that is the freedom — not sitting in the back of your mind thinking somebody’s going to shut us down here somewhere along the chain. I think that’s what’s really important to get back to just making great music, and if people want it, they’ll find it, believe me, in this world.

MM: You’ve made me mad, you’ve burned bridges. Do you regret any of that?

BC: Oh yeah. Of course I do. I’m 41 years old now. I did a lot of stupid things. But I’ll say this: most of the stupid things I did were at least out of the idea that I didn’t care because I wasn’t gonna get on my knees and *bleep* anybody else *bleep*…

MM: What about Jimmy?

BC: Oh, I’ve done that many times.

MM: No, but I mean, would Jimmy have *bleep*?

BC: With the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, yes, he would have.

JC: [laughs]

BC: The point is we came out of nothing. We were lower-middle-class kids. We didn’t grow up thinking we were gonna be on, you know, Solid Gold or whatever. Suddenly we found ourselves in this situation. So we were like, we had to make weird choices. I think we were immature and we didn’t realize that dying wasn’t a good idea. [laughter] You know, killing ourself, killing each other…those were all bad ideas.

MM: Standing next to Jimmy on stage is an amazing thing. The amount of energy that you put out, Jimmy. You are an amazing drummer. Billy, do you tell him? I know you have trouble with this…do you tell him how great he is?

BC: All the time.

MM: Can you do it right now?

BC: I think Jimmy is the best drummer in the world.

JC: Aww, thanks!

BC: I think no drummer in the world can do what Jimmy does, wihch is to play with that level of power for two hours like that and play to such a high level. And he’s able to play all different styles. Jimmy’s played on mellow songs, heavy songs. I mean, he’s up there with Bonham, you know…

MM: I agree.

BC: That level of drummer who’s been able to play in a different variety of music and have his style impact the way people play the drums, that’s the hallmark of a great drummer. Right now, I think pound-for-pound he’s the best drummer in the world.

JC: Aw, thanks a lot.

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.

Four days ago floor seats sold for about $50 each on eBay, but right now you can get them for $30 each on StubHub.

Hits Daily Double reports that Depeche Mode is leaving Warner Music Group:

Depeche now joins a prestigious crew of defectors that includes AC/DC, the Eagles, Jewel, Madonna and, most recently, Nickelback, leading many to wonder who will be the next major act to exit stage right.

I just watched an eBay auction with a reserve price of $120 (seller feedback score = 36) for two general-admission tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins’ upcoming concert in south suburban Chicago expire with 0 bids. (Recall that face value per ticket was $83 for the sold-out show.) Another auction for two GA tickets, this one with no reserve (seller feedback score = 145), has received 13 bids to this point with under 15 hours to go before the auction expires. The current high bid? $61.

UPDATE (8/1): The second auction was won for $102.50.

Following up on the initial reports of Billy Corgan’s lawsuit against Lester Cohn’s Pure DV Productions, someone who writes for the Sun-Times News Group’s Gurnee (Ill.) Review has completed a closer reading of the legal documents:

The portion of the [footage] that Cohn did provide was “completely unsatisfactory,” according to the lawsuit. In particular Cohn did not organize, catalog or maintain the footage in a way necessary to allow for coordination with music.

On April 1, Corgan’s attorney sent Cohn a letter demanding Cohn return the footage. Yet despite many efforts, Cohn refuses to deliver an improved version of the [already-provided] portion of the [footage] and still refuses to deliver the remaining portion of the footage that Corgan paid to produce, the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit also alleges Cohn is attempting to exploit his prior relationship with Corgan, as well as Corgan’s name for his own personal gain.

However Cohn may be “exploiting” that relationship, it’s not via his LinkedIn profile…

UPDATE: A different Sun-Times News Group article, this one by Beth Kramer for the Lake County News-Sun, adds:

In addition, Corgan’s attorney Marc Silver said Wednesday the Pure DV Productions Web site displayed portions of Corgan’s films, which violated Corgan’s publicity rights.

I can find no such video on the Pure DV site right now, but there is a “Jimmy Chamberlain [sic] Complex” video, which is captioned (my link):

Lester was asked to shoot the first ever show of the Jimmy [Chamberlin] Complex at Double Door in Chicago. This was a no budget shoot but as one of the greatest rock drummers on the face of the planet and good friend it was covered with 2 cameras and the content edited which can also [be] seen on the Jimmy [Chamberlin] Complex website.

UPDATE: The Internet: now with actual Corgan v. Cohn court filing (6-page .pdf).

She writes:

It’s becoming clear that digital sales for the hyped song reached nearly 100,000% of the prior week. 100,000%? Yes, an amazing 100,000%. More than 11,000 people downloaded the track on iTunes alone, irrespective of the more than 40,000 listens it got on the Pumpkins’ MySpace page since the movie launched. The song ranked as the most-listened Pumpkins tune on the Rhapsody music service and drastically climbed the charts at other Web 2.0 music licensing platforms like Napster and Last.fm.

This week’s installment of “As the Pumpkins Sue” finds litigious band leader Billy Corgan suing suburban filmmaker Lester Cohn for $100,000 in damages because of unsatisfactory work and Cohn’s refusal to hand over footage shot between 2003 and 2005.

Cohn had done previous work for Corgan on the Zwan DVD that was part of the limited-edition version of Mary Star of the Sea.

Today’s news follows on the heels of former members James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky’s lawsuit against Virgin Records regarding royalties and breach of contract.

You’re up, Jimmy!

In related news, HU may be in the market for a legal expert if this keeps up…

Time Warner’s TMZ.com has the filing (quite readable 9-page .pdf), and they summarize the suit thusly:

James Yoshinobu Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky-Brown claims [sic] in 2005, five years after the band broke up, Virgin negotiated a deal solely with frontman Billy Corgan for electronic transmissions (ringtones, download computer files, etc), without ever getting the consent of Iha or Wretzky-Brown.

The filing argues that the 2005 negotiation violated the terms of a May 11, 1998 contract between Virgin Records and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Gus Wenner of Rolling Stone today gets a quote from a member (above, center) of “the Smashing Pumpkins organization”:

“The Smashing Pumpkins organization is thrilled with the immediate results they have seen for their song ‘The End Is The Beginning Is The End’ being chosen for Watchmen,” says Pumpkins manager Jared Paul. “This is a good example of the future of The Smashing Pumpkins. We are looking for great marketing alliances to support the band’s past and present musical offerings.”

As a guy who’s marketing the music of an alternative rock band, Jared Paul has wicked insight into the sort of quotes that should be given to Rolling Stone. I mean, Mr. Paul may have (understandably) flubbed the song title, but otherwise, I think he sounds so rock and roll! I’m sure Rolling Stone readers will agree, trampling over themselves in their hurry to buy the music of and otherwise identify with the vehicle of cool that is The Smashing Pumpkins. Kudos to you, Mr. Paul. Way to leverage that brief interview to enhance the band’s brand positioning as you move forward into a new era.

There was lots to talk about this week despite the short time since the last podcast, so we went a bit long, and for the first time since episode 5 we had all four original members of the podcast on to give their opinions on what was a bizarre half-week of news.

Listen to the whole show (1:10:19)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew

Jill responds to our ticket price comments from last week and discusses her new gig at smashingpumpkins.com.  Plus we get a sneak peek at some of her future articles. (10:02)

News
-We go Access Hollywood and discuss Courtney Love and her alleged blogging skills. (5:32)

-The August tour gets some new dates, and we discuss the slow rate of ticket sales.  Plus, Jason hatches a plan to get my grandparents to the Boca Raton show, and Jill is unaware of the musical genius of Lifehouse. (6:09)

-The Beginning is the End is the Beginning shoots to the middle of the iTunes sales charts, was there ever a more unlikely “hit”?  Plus, Jason, who runs a Smashing Pumpkins fan blog, calls Watchmen fans ”dorky”, and Andrew humbly recalls predicting the whole thing. (13:55)

In Depth Discussion: Where do the Pumpkins rank amongst their 1990’s peers?
-VH1 considered the Pumpkins worthy as a promotional tool for their top 100 songs of the 1990’s list, but not as musicians to be included.  What was the most likely Smashing Pumpkins song to be included on the list and where would we place it?  We have a few laughs and ponder the Pumpkins’ place in the 90’s.  Plus, we once again groove to Third Eye Blind, Jill warms up her vocal chords, and Andrew reveals himself as the only hair metal fan on the panel. (26:16)

This Week in Pumpkins History
-The band plays an extended stay at the Fillmore. (1:17)

Song of the Week
-The End is the Beginning is the End, June 28th, 1997

Stay tuned after the credits for some outtakes from our discussion of 1990’s music.

Another chapter has been written in the improbable rise of all-but-forgotten Batman & Robin disc-filler “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning” to minor cultural relevance, as Watchmen trailer-viewing iTunes buyers have momentarily propelled the track past offerings from Vanessa Hudgens and Keith Urban to a position in the top 80 50 songs.

So, a little back-of-the-envelope arithmetic:

• Expected $150 million gross for what may be the biggest opening in Hollywood history;
• I’ll conservatively estimate the average ticket price at $10;
• And I’ll guess that a third of the tickets are going to people seeing it for the second or third time.

If most everyone is in their seats in time for the Watchmen trailer — and if that trailer is indeed on every Dark Knight reel across the country — that would put the admittedly cut-down Smashing Pumpkins track into the ears of 10 million Americans this weekend.

Could that many different people ever have heard lesser Pumpkins singles “Rocket”, “Thirty-three”, or “Tarantula” on the radio? Or consider that the band’s bestselling 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness hasn’t quite moved five million copies in the U.S., and that album tracks like “Jellybelly” and “Stumbleine” would be lucky to have been heard even once by each of its buyers (although perhaps siblings, two parents and several roommates could be counted for many of those), so…

Seriously, has “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning” just become one of the most-heard Billy Corgan songs of all time?!

UPDATE (7/20): While the Watchmen trailer was not on every reel, I was too conservative in estimating the number of tickets sold. I guessed 15 million, but the Associated Press reports:

Box office tracker Media By Numbers estimates today’s average movie prices at $7.08, which means “The Dark Knight” would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

If I still guess that one-third of the tickets go to repeat viewers, then the Watchmen trailer would need to be shown about 70% of the time to reconstitute the 10 million figure.

Wow. When was the last time a Chicago area Pumpkin show didn’t sell out in minutes?

After the first hour, floor tickets are still available.

Not that that’s stopping the scalpers.

Whether it’s the price, the venue (or rather, The Venue) or the 21+ age limit, I’m still a little surprised that tickets don’t appear to be moving that quickly. I still imagine this will sell out well before August 9, so those interested should buy now or pay later.

With a possible 3 HU contributors in the area (though probably only 2 in attendance at the proper show, you’ll probably find me at the blackjack table), perhaps a get-together is in order?