No More Pumpkins Albums

12/11/08 12:28pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

The Smashing Pumpkins aren't going to make any more albums, but that doesn't mean that we'll be spared from their singles.

"The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single?" frontman Billy Corgan said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper. "It's done."

The singer, songwriter and guitarist says the Pumpkins will become "a singles band" and stop playing songs from their catalogue, even if that means having to perform at smaller venues than they played on their recent 20th anniversary tour.

"We'll be like a new band that can't rely on old gimmicks."

Some bands in the Pumpkins' position, with no record company to tell them what to do, may look to the internet and other modern technologies to get their music to fans. But Corgan seems to prefer a more traditional route.

"We have to come up with singles like '1979,' and come up with songs that sound good on the radio."

The Pumpkins' last album, 2007's Zeitgeist, didn't set the world on fire as far as sales are concerned, and Corgan faced some hostility from audience members on this last tour, but at least he has the Lord on his side.

"We talk a lot about spirituality and about why God made us musicians and why we're here to do what we do," said Corgan. "And we have decided in our estimation that God put us here to try new things, and be innovators. With all that's going on in the world, is that the worst thing?"