Corgan Playing With Spirit In The Sky

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan will play six shows in California this month with Spirits In The Sky, the band that recently formed to play a tribute show for the late Sky Saxon.

The cities and venues for the shows will be announced shortly. The dates will take place from Aug. 26 to 31. Corgan will not perform under the Smashing Pumpkins moniker.

Spirits In The Sky include Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin — with whom Corgan was recently working on new Smashing Pumpkins material — Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz and Catherine drummer Kerry Brown.

Corgan played with them in July at Los Angeles' Echoplex, where they debuted a new Smashing Pumpkins track, "Freak," with the Pumpkins' new drummer, 19-year-old Mike Byrne.

Corgan collaborated with Saxon on a variety of projects before the 71-year-old passed away in June, including an unreleased song called "Choose To Choose Love."