In this, our last podcast of 2008, we took a look back at the Pumpkins-related events that happened throughout the year.  As our holiday present to you, we also made this episode a manageable length for your listening enjoyment.

Listen to the whole show (54:48)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew

The Year in Review
-American Gothic is released.  We talk about our favorite and least-favorite songs from it, and Jason compares Pox to Days of the New. (6:03)

-The band tours Europe and releases Superchrist.  Does Superchrist stand with the Pumpkins’ best work?  We attempt to figure out its lyrics, and I tell tales of my hometown weather. (9:34)

-The August tour and the release of G.L.O.W.  Yes, this really is the last time we talk about it.  (4:56)

-The band tours the U.S. one last time to celebrate their 20th anniversary.  We clear up the confusion on whether Billy is mad at Apple. (15:07)

2009 Preview
-We look to the future and discuss Billy’s blog post.  Will charging more for tickets restrict the band’s growth with new fans?  Plus, Jill teaches Andrew about Web 2.0.  (8:37)

This Week in Pumpkins History
-Billy and Mike Garson play the KROQ Almost-Acoustic Christmas. (2:38)

Song of the Week
-Suffer, December 31st, 1990

We will be back the 2nd or 3rd week of January with another podcast.

SmashingPumpkins.com reports that G.L.O.W. will be released on iTunes tomorrow as the b-side of what they’re calling a Digital 45:

How is this a digital 45? Well historically 45’s had enough room for one song per side creating the main single (the A-side) and a subsequent song (the B-side). G.L.O.W. will be sold together with Superchrist as a digital 45 at a discounted rate on iTunes starting tomorrow.

With the song not slated to become available as a Guitar Hero download until November 15th, does this mean that the band can no longer take credit for giving Guitar Hero fans exclusive access to music before anyone else?

Chicago-based artist Angel Alanis of the Noise/Floor Crew sent HU a news tip today that he has remixed the Smashing Pumpkins’s latest single, “Superchrist.” Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my eyebrows raised when I read of the song choice, but I’m going to have to go out on a limb and admit that I enjoy it. Though it’s definitely dancefloor-ready and house-ified, the extended remix (almost nine minutes!) stays true to the slow-burning studio version and turns the beautiful string interlude into an outro. This guy’s obviously a fan.

Check it out below or on MySpace (as well as an intriguing Portishead mix!).

On the eve of its release of Fresh Cuts Vol. 2 (featuring “Superchrist”), Guitar Center unveils a new interview with Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin. Here’s a taste:

GC: You guys have worked with many, many producers. How involved in the process of arrangements, tracking the song, producing, do you let someone come into your space to do that?

Corgan: Honestly, not so much anymore. And I don’t think it’s because we don’t want advice. We actually do want advice, but feel there are very few people that think about music the way we do. And I know that sounds incredibly pretentious, but we have a sort of philosophy. It’s like it’s asking them to think about it a totally different way, and most producers these days, honestly, they’re Pro Tools producers. They don’t think in terms of getting a great band performance or getting a great band sound. They think in terms of creating this massive wall of sound. Doesn’t matter that the band can’t play those parts.

Also: Billy affirms that the Pumpkins are now “out of a label deal – totally free agents.”

In case you were wondering who all those other non-Pumpkins were in the “Superchrist” video, it features Gary and Sky Saxon from The Seeds on bass and tambourine, sexy nurses Linda Strawberry, Kristin Burns [the Pumpkins’ current photog], Hanna Beth [MySpace celeb, model], and Audrey Kitching [MySpace celeb, model/fashionista], the black angel Sasha Grey [adult performer] and violinist Ysanne Spevack.

In a MySpace blog written by the notorious Sasha Grey [pictured at right with Gary Seed Stern], she tells us what we already knew about the SuperChrist video - that it was done in a couple of takes:

After appearing in the album artwork for Zeitgeist last summer, I was asked to be a part of the Smashing Pumpkins new music video Superchrist! The video debuts tomorrow February 27th, on the Pumpkins website. Superchrist will be part of an exclusive compilation CD available only at Guitar Center outlets March 1st. The video was a lot of fun to shoot, done very simply and with only four or so takes. You can also see the advertisement on smashingpumpkins.com (more info under news section).

The music video has been picked up by several newsmedia outlets already. A couple of laughter-inspiring reviews:

from Stereogum:

We’ll spare you a little confusion over this video up front: No, those hirsute has-beens playing bass and tambourine aren’t in the Smashing Pumpkins. For that matter, “SuperChrist” isn’t even a song that appears on Zeitgeist. But this clip is making us wish both of those statements were true. “SuperChrist” is a Pumpkins tune that never made it to Billy and Jimmy’s last LP, instead seeing release on a CD “featuring bands staffed by employees of Guitar Center.” The Pumpkins chose the acts for the album, which according to Billboard will be available at Guitar Center outlets March 1st (ask a hirsute has-been staffer for it by name). Of the track’s delayed release, Billy says the band “didn’t … under[stand] the song and thought playing it on tour would help us sort it out” because of its “psychedelic” properties, which makes sense but also is sad because if “SuperChrist”’s spare, heavy riffing sat alongside the more classic Pumpkins excellence of “That’s The Way (My Love Is)” maybe we would’ve been nicer about the album. (Probably not. But point is, we like it.)

from Cameraphonic:

Not really sure what to make of this video after one time through, but thats definitely the kind of party I wouldn’t mind being invited to.

Amen. I want to join the party, too.

Well all right.

The band’s MySpace page has details and a few stills from the video here.

UPDATE: Having now seen the video, I declare the banner ad to be hilarious.

All answers revealed by Billboard.com:

The [CD featuring bands staffed by employees of Guitar Center] will be available in a limited quantity beginning March 1 at Guitar Center outlets. The members of the Pumpkins chose the acts appearing on the compilation based on submissions from Guitar Center.

“Guitar Center asked us if we would be interested in contributing a song to this compilation of young artists to help draw attention to the bands,” Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan says in a statement released to Billboard.com. “We loved the idea, and think Guitar Center is way ahead of the curve of what is possible between musicians and reaching new audiences.”

“SuperChrist,” which didn’t make the cut for the Pumpkins’ 2007 album “Zeitgeist” but has been performed live on the supporting tour, will be the subject of a new video, premiering Feb. 27 on MySpace.

“We didn’t feel we understood the song and thought playing it on tour would help us sort it out,” Corgan says of the song, which was recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, Calif., with co-producer Kerry Brown. “He seems to bring out the psychedelic in us.”

In addition, the Pumpkins are planning a new round of North American tour dates, with details to be announced.

Not me…“Mee” is a stage name of Ysanne Spevack, the violinist who recently worked with the Smashing Pumpkins in studio. Here’s how she describes the finished track:

Hard and heavy electric guitars, this is a 7 minute epic rock track called ‘Superchrist’. The deep quasi-metal sound lulls into a beautiful gentle break featuring Billy Corgan’s folk-style picked acoustic guitar overladen with Ysanne delicate violins. Harmonically progressive, this is brave and dangerous stuff.

Here’s Billy Corgan working in the studio, giving direction to musician Ysanne Spevack while sumpin’ new plays in the background.

Below: Please, don’t stop…dammit (YouTube)

I have seen the video of “Superchrist”
From the Pumpkins’ performance last night
I am not sorry I said it was their second-heaviest song of all time
So rock
And so tough

UPDATE: I am, however, sorry about the idiosyncratic format of this post. Prose will return immediately.

The tenth brand-new song (i.e., post-Zeitgeist) to be debuted during the coastal residencies arrived as the opening song tonight at the Fillmore Fillmore in San Francisco, and unlike the previous nine it was performed in a decidedly aggressive fashion…as if you couldn’t guess that from the title given in this Netphoria posting of the planned first-half setlist:

Todays sneak peak. Note the question marks means we don’t know if that is really right

superchrist?,doomsday,orchid,glass,siyl,tafh,drown ,bwbw,us,peace and love?,rocket,cryingtree,tosheila,tonight

Oh, Yeah, That’s Right. The new rock song is entitled…hahaha…”Superchrist”. Backslash-m-slash.

UPDATE: Below: Second. Performance. Ever. (YouTube)