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win tickets to see Smashing Pumpkins in NYC on Tuesday

Smashing Pumpkins

As you may already know, Smashing Pumpkins‘ new album, Oceania, is out Tuesday, June 19 and the band are playing a record release show at the P.C. Richard & Son iHeartRadio Theater in Tribeca. It’s a tiny venue (200 capacity) and a private show but we’re giving away THREE pairs of tickets. Details are below.

In other news, you may have also heard that Billy Corgan is making a pro-wrestling reality TV show. Like wrestlers, Corgan has no problem calling out his rivals, like Radiohead:

From ’89 on I’ve had people tell me who I am. And they pick my personality as if it’s a one or two-dimensional thing, and I’m more like a tetrahedron. I can’t think of any people outside of Weird Al Yankovic who have both embraced and pissed on Rock more than I have. Obviously there’s a level of reverence, but there’s also a level of intelligence to even know what to piss on. ‘Cause I’m not pissing on Rainbow. I’m not pissing on Deep Purple. But I’ll piss on fuckin’ Radiohead, because of all this pomposity. This value system that says Jonny Greenwood is more valuable than Ritchie Blackmore. Not in the world I grew up in, buddy. Not in the world I grew up in.

So I find myself defending things. Is Ritchie Blackmore a better guitar player than me and Jonny Greenwood? Yes. Have we all made contributions? Yes. I’m not attacking that. I’m attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I’m sick of that. I’m so fucking sick of it, and nobody seems to tire of it. [Antiquiet]

For the first time in a long time Corgan may not be fighting with the critics. Oceania has gotten pretty good reviews, like his hometown paper The Chicago Tribune which gave it 3.5/4:

Corgan is most articulate as an arranger of sounds, and “Oceania” paints on a big canvas, from the heavy metal churn of “The Chimera” to the keyboard pop of “One Diamond, One Heart.” The guitars crash in mighty waves on the opening one-two of “Quasar” and “Panopticon.” They charge, recede, surge and spiral in a ballet of dynamics that echoes the glories of prime Pumpkins. “The Celestials” builds a melancholy mood out of acoustic guitar and Mellotron, a vintage keyboard that approximates the sounds of a wobbly orchestra.

Corgan’s keyboard colors are especially vital to setting the album’s tone, as are his incorporation of vocal harmonies, featuring bassist Fiorentino. The chamber-rock of the exquisite “Pinwheels,” the nine-minute title song and the hypnotic “Pale Horse” create a three-song world within the album, a part of the journey that revisits the introspective terrain of the hugely underrated 1998 Pumpkins album “Adore.” For once the comparisons to ’90s Pumpkins don’t ring hollow. [Chicago Tribune]

Decide for yourself, as Oceania is streaming here.


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For a chance at winning a pair of tickets to see The Smashing Pumpkins at iHeartRadio Theater presented by P.C. Richard & Son: either tweet something that includes both @BrooklynVegan AND “Smashing Pumpkins” in the tweet, or send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Smashing Pumpkins”. Include your first and last name in the email. We’ll pick a winner at random and contact them with more details. If you enter by email, it will not be shared with anyone else. Good luck!
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