Of course, you say — “Friends” was an American program, after all. But there’s another factor: the Australian edition of Rolling Stone is a monthly, and in November 1996 its editors made the fateful decision to split its cover between a full-body picture of the naked starlet and a mug shot of…a certain interview subject.
A newly launched website for the new Smashing Pumpkins movie (can I call it that?) lists exactly 43 U.S. locations (hmm…) at which “If All Goes Wrong” can be seen on November 6. Australian and British showings are on tap for Nov. 7 and Nov. 25, respectively.
The website also contains a proper trailer, a set of 22 stills from the film, as well as a message board that is sure to be the source of many wise sayings and good tidings.
As reported by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a small company in New South Wales has just issued a recall on one of its dairy products. That’s never good for publicity, but it could theoretically get worse if the web posting draws international attention to the company’s rather unoriginal name:
Smashing Pumpkins
Yoghurt Sultanas Tubs
Use by: 15.09.08Smashing Pumpkins wishes to advise its customers that they are conducting a voluntary consumer level recall on the above product due to an undeclared allergen as the product contains peanuts not declared on the label…
Smashing Pumpkins apologises to its customers for any inconvenience caused by this recall.
Smashing Pumpkins
Shop T19 Erina Fair
Karalta Road, Erina, NSW
Certainly not “Today”, as it is now known that the Smashing Pumpkins track is among 30 included on the PlayStation 3 hardcopy version of international karaoke timekiller “SingStar”, screens from which may or may not look something like this:
Not very well without the old PS2 Aussie version, Minister Garrett…
While New Zealand and Australian concertgoers generated plenty of pictures and video of the Smashing Pumpkins’ recent tour in their area, only in the last couple days has the first full-show audio recording turned up online — and it happens to be of their last show on the continent.
Here are some highlights (as I say, anyway) of the Pumpkins’ V Festival set in Perth.
“Cash Car Star” > “Piece of Me” > “For What It’s Worth” > “Let There Be Rock”
“United States”
“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” <– can only get away with this because Jill is on vacation
As previously alluded to, my name is Chris, and I am here to announce the latest addition to the HU universe: the HU Podcast. Each episode, the distinguished panel and myself will discuss the latest news and rumors surrounding the Smashing Pumpkins. While the blog is a great way to get information out quickly, I hope that the podcast will allow us to go a little deeper into the news and share our opinions on the events of the week. See the end of this post to find out how you can become a part of the show.
Until we are listed in the iTunes Music Store, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or your podcatcher of choice using the following link: http://www.hipstersunited.com/blog/podcast/rss.xml.
This week’s topics:
Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew
News
-Billy Corgan vs. The Presets, the feud that never was (9:54)
-Lisa Harriton interview in Keyboard Magazine (9:34)
-Linda Strawberry covers W.P. in an attempt to become Miss Hooker 2008
-The final leg of the Spring tour begins
Tour Roundup
-Mexico City, MX April 12, 2008
In-Depth Discussion
-Billy sues Virgin Records (20:38)
Song of the Week
-Cherub Rock August 14, 1993
Listen to the whole show (1:03:42)
(download)
Note: Due to technical difficulties, we had problems keeping Andrew on the line for the show and the last 5 minutes of the Virgin lawsuit discussion were lost. Each show we will strive to improve our audio and connection quality to bring you the most informative and entertaining show we can.
Have a topic you want us to discuss? A suggestion for improvement? Want to gripe about the length, audio quality, or sound of our voices? We’re always looking for feedback. Contact Us or leave comments in this post. Responders who leave their real first name and location may even hear their comments on the air.
From a video-sharing site that is not YouTube, here’s a very large file of the Smashing Pumpkins playing “Stand Inside Your Love” at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion two weeks ago.
Below: If it crashes the site, we just won’t try this ever again (Veoh)
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
Photographer Daniel Boud has posted three galleries that contain high-quality shots of the Pumpkins in Sydney; one gallery features photos (including the above) taken at the taping of MTV’s “The Lair”, while another contains pictures taken at V Festival.
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.
Alicia Bridges writes in the (Perth) Sunday Times:
[V Festival] Headlining act the Smashing Pumpkins failed to live up to the high expectations of some punters, playing mostly songs from their recent catalogue and failing to deliver the powerful performance their fans had expected.
The setlist (from spfc.org) shows that the band played eight pre-revival songs, four post-revival songs, the “Cash Car Star” medley and a Pink Floyd cover.
I suppose that — especially to someone who’s standing there not knowing the material — “United States” is going to take up the time-equivalent of four songs, though “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” would count for two by that standard. If those were counted as such, and “Cash Car Star” as one old song and one mashup cover, that’s about as generous as possible — but there would still be a total of 10 old-song equivalents, seven new-song equivalents and two cover-song equivalents.
In America, the gentleman pictured at right (former Indianapolis Colt Rohn Stark) is a “punter”…but “mostly” means “over half” in Australia, too, doesn’t it?
…sorry, I just love these pieces of “Piece of Me”. Very entertaining.
Above: The Smashing Pumpkins at V Festival in Melbourne (YouTube)
Duran Duran’s official blog features a recent interview with John Taylor and Nick Rhodes. Rhodes mentions that he was delighted but surprised to see the Smashing Pumpkins in the audience “the other night” presumably at either one of the V Fest appearances or Duran Duran’s side shows.
Can we hope for a new cover?! I’d love to see what the Pumpkins would do to “Hungry Like the Wolf.” They already played “Night Boat” with Simon Le Bon, so it’s really not *that* much of a stretch… right?
From the interview:
When you play at these festivals, do you meet surprise Duran fans in other bands?
JT: I always say we’re a band’s band. There was always a lot of character in the band. I don’t want to say unlike Coldplay, but say, unlike Coldplay, there are a lot of flavours in this band. Nick has a very distinctive style that has influenced a lot of people. There’s a lot of character in the playing. Most bands have somebody in the band who likes Duran Duran.
NR: We’ve appealed through a broad spectrum of music. Jonathan of Korn is a big fan. I was quite surprised by that. Delighted but surprised. The (Smashing) Pumpkins all came to see us the other night. When we started in the ’80s we were trying to carve out our own identity. That was one of the things that was most important to us.
The Smashing Pumpkins turned out the lights on their Oceanic tour today in Perth with their fourth appearance at Australia’s V Festival.
Next stop for the band is Mexico City, next Saturday, at “Coca-Cola Zero Fest”.
At left: Billy in Perth (spfc.org, courtesy Miller Lo)
Above: Part of “Set the Controls”, feat. Jesse Corgan, in Melbourne (YouTube)
Thanks to Bugnxr for both the pointer and the video!
I still cannot find audio or video (even though they’ve now played the song three times), but thanks to Ozphoria forum user Milan, above is a picture of Jesse and Billy Corgan performing “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” with the rest of the Smashing Pumpkins at V Festival in Melbourne last night (setlist at spfc.org).
