Friend of HU carapatricia has posted a number of YouTube videos of the recent Chicago shows. Included is this one, a bit of Chicago sports themed banter leading into Disarm from the “White Crosses” show at the Chicago Theatre.

Billy first predicts a victory in the Super Bowl for the Bears in 2012 thanks to Mike Ditka returning to the field. But not one to disappoint the assembled fans with strictly positive thoughts, Billy went on to blame his beloved Cubs disappointing post-season performance on Eddie Vedder’s bitterly ironically titled Cubs anthem “All the Way”, which debuted in September before the Cubs’ season collapsed.

If, if, if the Cubs did have a chance this last year that just passed, fucking Eddie Vedder killed that shit dead. Last I checked, Eddie ain’t living here. Eddie ain’t living here to write a song about my fucking team.

Personally, I blame Vedder’s turning “Wrigley” into three syllables to fit the song’s meter.

Never one to let an opportunity to display his hubris pass him by, Billy also boasted he could write a better Cubs-themed song than the longstanding “Go Cubs Go”, which was penned by the late Chicago folk artist Steve Goodman during the equally disappointing 1984 Cubs season. HU anxiously awaits Billy’s Cubs song and we also eagerly await Billy’s thoughts on the Bulls’ chances in the upcoming NBA season during the shows at the Auditorium Theater. Vinny Del Negro: hero or zero?

Even as it becomes increasingly doubtful that the sports team from his area will prove superior to sports teams from all other areas, we receive word that Billy Corgan has once more been filmed speaking of his affection for that team:

The fully authorized theatrical documentary “We Believe – Chicago and its Cubs” is expected to be released in the spring of 2009. …

According to [director-writer-producer John] Scheinfeld, “This documentary film is not going be a 100-year history of the Cubs’ triumphs and tragedies. We will explore and reveal the character, spirit and soul of the city and why its people have rooted for this team so passionately and for so long,” he said. …

Interviews with current and former Cubs players, fans and famous Chicagoans have already been completed… The completed interview list also includes singer-songwriter Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, actor-director-producer Jeff Garlin of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Playboy founder-publisher Hugh Hefner, actor-producer Joe Mantegna, Commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig, Former American Major League Baseball Player and current broadcaster Steve Stone, Best-selling author Scott Turow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist George Will and Dutchie Caray (wife of Harry Caray, the former Cubs television broadcaster). More celebrity interviews will be shot in October.

They got Stoney?! That alone might be worth watching.

Part of an interview with Chicago Cubs fan Billy Corgan will be shown during “Outside the Lines”, airing tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. CT on ESPN.

Cubs-blogger Kurt Evans was also interviewed for the 30-minute episode, and he relates this hearsay:

Billy Corgan, by the way, apparently swore like a sailor during his interview. He also commands great camera presence. [Photographer] Ross [Dettman] apparently wanted to get a shot of him talking and acting naturally, but Corgan exerted his rock star presence any time the shutter went off and would completely shift focus from Conversation to Christ Pose without hesitation.

Wayne Drehs of the Worldwide Leader has a feature including interviews with 11 Cubs fans; the gimmick at play here is that one fan was born in each of the last 11 decades. The Smashing Pumpkins frontman holds it down for those born in the 1960s. Here’s his take on what is special about following the Cubs:

If you’re a Cub, it doesn’t matter where you came from — it doesn’t even matter if you’re not even a Cub anymore. You’re always a Cub. Even if you came through and played one year, you’re still a Cub. It’s a weird thing. So you’d say…okay, so, to the guy in Oklahoma, what’s so special about that? What’s special is there’s a real sense of…”appreciation” is not the right word, but you really honor the player. It’s like, this is hallowed ground, and you’re playing for a great organization — even if it’s messed up. Don’t you understand? It’s not about the Tribune Company or Sam Zell or whoever owns the team now, it’s about that fanbase that will take that journey with you every pitch along the way, and that is unique. I don’t think you could point to another organization…some guy in L.A.’s gonna say, “No, I root…” I’m sorry. It ain’t like that in L.A.; it ain’t like that for the Yankees.

Oh, but is it unique? A wag could argue that Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie were like 1907 and 1908, that Melissa auf der Maur is still considered a Pumpkin, and that Lester Cohn “owned the team” during the ChicagoSongs era. But perhaps the proper analogy is to the Dodgers…thus casting Roy Thomas Baker into the Joe Torre role?!

(Thanks to Thomas L. for the tip.)

As the band continues its West coast tour, some interesting coincidences have popped up between the Pumpkins and the Cubs.

 First, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin threw out the first pitch at the Arizona Diamondbacks game Monday night.

Then, after Wednesday’s show at San Diego State’s Open Air Theatre, Padres players Kevin Kouzmanoff and Scott Hairston hung out with Chamberlin and Billy on their tour bus.

What is the correlation, you may ask? Well, assuming the Cubs make the playoffs (and knowing the Cubs, that’s still a big if), they would most likely play the NL West division champion. Looking at the standings as of today, the Diamondbacks are a half-game up on the Padres for the division lead.

Is the band fraternizing with the enemy, or is Billy working on a new way to reverse the curse?

After all, his last attempt at curse busting has yet to pay dividends.

The Pumpkins yesterday added a fourth night to their stand in Philadelphia, which now will run October 19-23. Somehow I am guessing that, even if this show is also a sellout, the band will not bring back “The Special Winner Song” (mp3 from archive.org) to serenade the holder of the last ticket.

The band’s one off night, oddly, is Saturday; this does happen to coincide with Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, but the Phillies will have to rally past the Mets for the Eastern Division crown if the game is possibly to be played in Citizens Bank Park against Billy Corgan’s beloved Chicago Cubs. In that unlikely event, opening night in Philly - which would coincide with Game 6 - might be pretty amusing. Would there be score updates between songs…and a moratorium on any tracks longer than five minutes? Or just a loooong delay before the band would take the stage? History is no guide, as Billy didn’t have a band last time the Cubs made it to the LCS, so this is another instance of uncharted territory.