Music Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Teargarden By Kaleidyscope Vol. 1: Songs For A Sailor

This was first published earlier today by Blogcritics Magazine.

In the year 2000, the Smashing Pumpkins gave away what was then their final album before breaking up - the impressive 25-track Machina II - for free on the Internet as both a thank you to longtime fans and an F-bomb to the record label business. This was years before Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and some lesser known artists would make it cool to give away their music for little to nothing.

Four years after reforming (with only one original member left), three years removed from its comeback album Zeitgeist (2007), and two years after releasing the little noticed and underrated American Gothic EP, Billy Corgan and co. are writing and recording a mega 44-song album entitled Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, its most ambitious project of new music since its classic 1995 2-CD masterpiece Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness.

Starting last December, the 44 tracks are being released as free downloads one song per month or so at a time via the band's website smashingpumpkins.com. But in the current year and who knows how long beyond that, there will also be 11 collectible four-song EPs packaged with extra/newer material for purchase.

So far, four cuts from the album have been recorded and released since December (with assistance from producer Kerry Brown), and they all appear together on TBK Volume 1: Songs For A Sailor, which came out May 25 on Martha's Music/Rocket Science Ventures as a box set with new, exclusive material on CD and vinyl. This review focuses on the main four songs on the EP.

Going back to first Pumpkins album Gish and even as recently as the Zeitgeist disc, Corgan has never shied away from showing off his 70s classic rock influences. On "Astral Planes" one can hear vintage psychedelic traces of Queen and Led Zeppelin in the flange-aided big-sounding guitars. The song's only issue is Corgan's vocals, which leaves some truly authentic emotion to be desired.

The Pumpkins are pushing radio to play the most radio-ready song on here, "Widow Wake My Mind." However, longtime SP fans may do a double-take on all the generic and frankly un-Pumpkins-like "oh-oh" vocals Corgan sings, and not really feel the generic "love will shine" lyrics. But the Hammond organ/piano entry late in the song does add a welcome and lasting impression to the ears.

Read the rest here

Charlie Doherty’s Favorite 209 Songs from 2000-2009 - Part II: 2005-2009

Published first January 27, 2010 at the site of Blogcritics Magazine

Continuing where Part I left off, this list is shorter but no less eclectic.

You’ll see a little post-punk (Elefant), reggae (Ziggy Marley, Matisyahu), melodic death metal (Into Eternity), hip-hop (Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Beck), indie folk (Bright Eyes), and so much more on this list of the last 89 of my 209 favorite tunes of the 2000's.

Of course, with a list this long, some songs meant more to me than others. For instance, Imogen Heap’s collaboration with legendary guitar whiz Jeff Beck, “Goodnight & Go” helped get me through post-surgery complications back in 2006 (along with Radiohead’s underrated “Lurgee”). And Junkie XL’s “We Become One” is the dreamiest, spaciest song I’ve ever heard that Peter Gabriel never wrote. It was also cool to hear the Dropkick Murphys make the suburb they started out in (Quincy, MA, also my hometown) the subject of the chorus of “Finnigan’s Ball.”

In this half of the decade, I found myself discovering and listening to a boatload more female-fronted bands and artists than the first half, including Natasha Khan’s Bat For Lashes, Neko Case, Arch Enemy, Emily Haines’ Canadian troupe Metric, the blue-eyed soul of Welsh singer Duffy, and the lovely Jenny Lewis, among others. Then there were bands I got more into than ever, including hard rock mainstays Clutch, My Morning Jacket, and Royksopp.

Newer favorites included Silversun Pickups, Company of Thieves, Band Of Horses, Torche and The Whigs. And of course, bands I grew up with kept delivering the goods, including Pearl Jam, a reunited Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Now, without further ado, here are the fine 89. As always, feel free to comment on them below.

Part II: 2005-2009

Allen, Lilly “Smile”
Arcade Fire “Keep The Car Running”
Arcade Fire “Wake Up”
Arch Enemy “Nemesis”
Band of Horses “First Song”
Bat For Lashes “What’s A Girl To Do”
Bat For Lashes “Daniel”
Bat For Lashes “Sleep Alone”
Beck “Hell Yes”
Black, Frank “I Burn Today”
Black Eyed Peas “Don’t Lie”
Black Label Society “Suicide Messiah”
Brazilian Girls “Don’t Stop”
Bright Eyes “First Day Of My Life (f/Jesse Harris on guitar)”
Bright Eyes “Lua (f/Gillian Welch)”
Broken Social Scene “7/4 (Shoreline)”
Broken Social Scene “Fire Eye’d Boy”
Case, Neko “Star Witness”
Chemical Brothers “Galvanize (f/Q-Tip)”
Clutch “10001110101”
Clutch ”Electric Worry”
Company of Thieves “Oscar Wilde”
Corgan, Billy “The CameraEye”
Death Cab For Cutie “Cath”
Down "Mourn"
Dropkick Murphys “Finnigan’s Ball”
Duffy "Mercy"
Flaming Lips “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)”
Future Of The Left “You Need Satan More Than He Needs You”
Gaslight Anthem “The ‘59 Sound”
Heap, Imogen w/Jeff Beck “Goodnight And Go”
Into Eternity “Timeless Winter”
Iron & Wine “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”
Jay-Z w/Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind"/Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind (Part II)"
Junkie XL “Mushroom”
Junkie XL “We Become One”
Killswitch Engage “The End of Heartache”
King, Kaki “2 O’Clock”
Kings of Leon “On Call”
Kings of Leon “Sex On Fire”
Legend, John “Ordinary People”
Lewis, Jenny “Rise Up With Fists!!”
Lewis, Jenny “Big Guns”
Lifehouse “Hanging By A Moment”
Loomis, Jeff “Sacristy”
Low Red Land “Dog’s Hymn”
Marley, Ziggy “Love Is My Religion”
Mars Volta “Goliath”
Matisyahu “King Without A Crown”
MGMT “Time To Pretend”
M.I.A. “Paper Planes”
Minus The Bear “Pachuca Sunrise”
Megadeth “Sleepwalker”
Metallica “All Nightmare Long”
Metric “Monster Hospital”
My Morning Jacket “Anytime”
Muse “Starlight”
Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds”
Oakenfold, Paul “Ready Steady Go”
Paramore “That’s What You Get”
Passion Pit “The Reeling”
Pearl Jam “Got Some”
Phoenix “1901”
Radiohead “All I Need”
Radiohead “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Snow (Hey Oh)”
The Rifles “The Great Escape”
Royksopp “Only This Moment”
Royksopp “Vision One”
Satellite Party (Perry Farrell) "Milky Ave"
School of Seven Bells “Half Asleep”
Silversun Pickups “Rusted Wheel”
Silversun Pickups “Substitution”
Silversun Pickups “Three Seed”
Smashing Pumpkins "Stellar"
Smashing Pumpkins “That’s The Way (My Love Is)”
Sonic Youth “Incinerate”
Stevens, Sufjan “Come On! Feel The Illinoise!”
Third Eye Blind “Non-Dairy Creamer”
Torche “Across The Shields”
Travis “Selfish Jean”
Travis “Colder”
Tunstall, KT “Black Horse And The Cherry Tree”
TV On The Radio “Wolf Like Me”
West, Kanye “Gold Digger (f/Jamie Foxx)”
Waltham “Cheryl (Come And Take A Ride)”
The Whigs “Right Hand On My Heart”
The White Stripes “Blue Orchid”
Wolf Parade “The Grey Estates”