Melissa Auf Der Maur has definitely joined The Smashing Pumpkins according to Kerrang! magazine, though their story doesn’t give any details other than it was confirmed by “sources close to the band”.
Officially no one has yet confirmed this from the Smashing Pumpkins camp, though the amount of speculation that surrounded the fortuitous timing of D’Arcy Wretzky‘s departure from the band at the same time as Melissa left Hole makes the new line-up seem likely.
Billy Corgan and James Iha turned up at the Neil Young‘s Bridge School Benefit in San Francisco at the weekend to play a new song new song, called ‘The Age of Innocence’. Without actually confirming that she was in the band Billy Corgan said: “We were gonna play with our new bass player tonight but she’s in a chess tournment in Italy”.
Meanwhile, Corgan‘s soundtrack album for horror flick Stigmata is released by Virgin later this month. As well as tracks by Remy Zero, Bjork, Massive Attack and Chumbawamba, there’s a 25 minute instrumental score written by Corgan and ex Nine Inch Nails sideman Mike Garson.
There’s also one vocal track for the movie called ‘Identify’ which is sung by Natalie Imbruglia.
Corgan told US web site CD Now: “Personally, I’ve been leaning toward avant-garde music lately. When the band started I was totally anti-pop. I could not stand it. But over time, I got really into pop music, because I thought it was the most subversive thing in the world. So having lived there for about five years, I’m ready to throw up.”
The next Smashing Pumpkins album, the actual follow up to ‘Adore’, is out on February 14 next year; ‘Siamese Dream’ is re-released next week.