They’ve often tried to dodge the holiday they should own, but this time they will embrace it: the Smashing Pumpkins will be playing (and presumably opening their “20th Anniversary” tour) on All Hallows’ Eve at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio. Some would call this happiness, others mere progress.

It was the 20th anniversary of the 1st Smashing Pumpkins concert with all four band members, but we talked about both the old and the new this week.

Listen to the whole show (47:43)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, Jill, and Andrew

News
-G.L.O.W. debuts on Q101 in Chicago.  We discuss our impressions and do some lyrical interpretation.  How well will it chart? (9:28)

-A video for G.L.O.W. is announced and filmed.  Why do a music video now that TRL is cancelled?  Who comes up with Smashing Pumpkins video concepts?  Plus, Jason is waiting anxiously for the IKEA ferry, but he makes time to come up with a concept for the video anyway, and we give a shout out to our biggest fan. (8:55)

In-Depth Discussion: 
-A columnist for the Washington Post accuses the current incarnation of the Pumpkins of no longer being anti-commercial.  Were the Pumpkins ever anti-commercial?  (10:05)

This Week in Pumpkins History
-Jimmy Chamberlin’s first performance as a Pumpkin on October 5th, 1988.  We try to understand the obsession with Spiteface, and Jill gets to meet some attendees of this concert. (12:41)

Song of the Week
-There it Goes, October 5th, 1988

The venerable rock mag claims that this video collage is exclusive to them.

(Thanks to HU reader Chris T. for the tip.)

At least some radio programmers are getting it on physical media…

The sticker at lower left reads: “Exclusively in: Guitar Hero World Tour”. Tell us something we don’t know, sticker!

(Thanks to our friends at the SPFC for the image.)

Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis blogs today:

Tickets for the four reconstituted Pumpkins shows in November go on sale to the masses at 10 a.m. on Oct. 13 — prices $50 to $54, with nearly $15 in tacked-on fees — through the egregious Ticketmaster. (Remember when Billy Corgan tried to control his own ticket sales? Those days are gone.)

There is, however, some sort of privileged American Express cred-card holder presale already underway on Ticketmaster, which means you can buy your tickets now if you happen to have that piece of plastic in your pocket. (There were no details about that from the band or the promoters; I just stumbled upon it.)

Ticketmaster.com has a page describing its promotions with American Express:

Through American Express “Early On Sale” offers for select shows, you’ll be able to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public! …

Some past American Express Early On Sales include:

• The Rolling Stones
• The Who
• Roger Waters
• Genesis
• Wicked
• Barbra Streisand
• Eric Clapton
• Christina Aguilera
• Aerosmith
• Rod Stewart
• Celine Dion
• Barry Manilow
• Pirate Queen
• The U.S. Open
• Mariah Carey
• Tom Petty
• Mamma Mia!
• Los Angeles Kings
• New York Knicks
• Radio City
• Christmas Spectacular

That “Upcoming D&E Premiere” of a Smashing Pumpkins film, which we first reported over a year ago, is now just a month away:

Where can I see it, you ask? The only specific listings I’ve yet found come from Emerging Cinemas:

Frontier Cafe, Cinema & Gallery - Brunswick, ME 11/6/2008
Robinson Film Center - Shreveport, LA 11/8/2008

Here is a list of Emerging Cinemas locations, but it seems doubtful that all of them will participate.

ALSO: The band will be uploading a series of “video postcards” to its YouTube account. The first is available now and has a duration of 10 seconds.

After six days of availability to radio, “G.L.O.W.” is among the forty most-played songs at stations classified as “Alternative” by Mediabase. Presumably the song will move upward this week as it starts Going for Adds(tm).

The Associated Press has this out on the wires:

Today in Entertainment History …

In 1988, Smashing Pumpkins played their first show together, at a club in Chicago. They earned $50.

If you lean heavily on the word together, arguably this is true: the October 5, 1988 show at Metro was (probably) the band’s first public appearance with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, and thus the first concert with all four of the Original Pumpkins. So it’s fair if you want to pull out a copy of CR-05, grill a hot dog and celebrate 20 years of Corgan and Chamberlin — but even as you look back, know that they are waiting ’til next year.

Though it’s not what you think. ABC News10 has the story:

A massive pumpkin weighing in at 1,536.5 pounds broke the California state record for largest pumpkin at the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin and Harvest Festival Saturday at the Elk Grove Regional Park.

Lavanya Ramanathan of the Washington Post announces the upcoming visit of the Smashing Pumpkins to that city:

Who exactly are the Pumpkins these days? Only Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin continue; gone are James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky, replaced by performers whose faces haven’t been on the cover of Rolling Stone. And gone, too, are some of the great anti-commercial notions of 1990s rock: The upcoming Pumpkins single will be released via . . . Guitar Hero.

So releasing albums via Virgin Records and videos to MTV, playing Lollapalooza, and, yes, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone: anti-commercial. Not being on a record label and releasing a song through a video game: commercial.

If you don’t understand that, apparently you just aren’t sophisticated enough to be reading the Washington Post, are you?

Here are the tags that accompany the “G.L.O.W.” sound file being distributed (via Play MPE) to radio stations:

Version Final
Label CO5 Music
Total Time 00:03:20, Intro 00:00
Ending Type Cold
Available Date 29-Sep-2008
Going For Adds 7-Oct-2008
Year of Release 2008
Format(s) Hot AC, Alternative, Active Rock, Triple A, College, Mainstream Rock, CHR Pop

Here’s how CO5 Music describes itself:

If you are looking to promote music or a corporate brand to the 200 million radio listeners in America (streaming worldwide) then CO5 is your answer!

CO5 is a trusted brand with radio and has a proven track record since 2003 of consistently charting independent releases. Our competitive edge comes from the limited number of artists we work and our ability to travel on behalf of our clients. We constantly visit programmers in person, cover tour dates and walk artists or branding ideas directly into radio stations.

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.

This week the website of Guitar World magazine dug up and electronified a print article from 2005 in which rock-and-rollers were asked to tell the tale of their “Most Spinal Tap Moment”. The one we care about:

BILLY CORGAN of Smashing Pumpkins

When Mellon Collie came out [1995], we played a concert in Chicago that was broadcast directly across the world. We had 10,000 people at the show, including the world press, and millions were listening in. During the third song, a generator blew out. Some of the lights still worked, but there was no sound. I thought, No problem, I’ll play an improvised acoustic set until the problem is cleared up. Of course, nobody could hear anything past the second row. Meanwhile, the sound of a hum was the only thing being broadcast—from Chile to Tokyo! Worldwide, our fans were beginning to question our new musical direction. It took only a quarter of an hour for them to fix things, but it seemed an age. A rock star without amplification is dickless: for 15 minutes, I had no dick.

A nice tale, and understandable that over the years it gets a coat of memory varnish. And if FactCheck.org were on the case, they would surely give Billy props for remembering that it was exactly during the third song that the power went out. But…10,000 people at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre? Just, no. An “improvised acoustic set”? Didn’t happen. And in lieu of a “hum”, the band members spoke directly to the radio audience for several minutes (mp3) while power was being restored to the stacks.

It would be interesting to know how many people listened to that radio broadcast, but I imagine we will never have the hard data there…and I’m very happy just to take Billy’s word on what was happening in his pants.

(Thanks to HU reader Neil for the link.)

Multiple sources tell HU that the owner of “the largest Smashing Pumpkins community forums that Billy Corgan loves to hate” recently offered to sell those forums…to Billy Corgan. More than one overture has been made to the band by Netphoria.org principals within the last two months, but fear not — Corgan turned them down flat. Maybe he just loves to hate the site too much.

Linda Strawberry reports that her fiancé Justin Coloma is again behind the lens for a new Smashing Pumpkins video:

justin filmed g.l.o.w. for the pumpkins yesterday. im so excited about it.

TNA Wrestling’s “Bound For Glory” live Pay-Per-View debuts on Sunday, October 12. It looks like more promotional material featuring the Smashing Pumpkins has hit the internets, including the nearly-full-length green screen video remake of “Tarantula,” below.

How could they deny us that guitar solo?