Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan – free at last

Dynamic frontman Billy Corgan has released a fifth single from the Smashing Pumpkins conceptual album Teargarden by Kaleidyscope titled “Freak.” Available for free on the band’s website, the Pumpkins will headline the Sunset Strip Music Festival August 28th.

In a recent interview, Corgan told C-Notes the process of creating and promoting a new album has become bearable now that he is in control and not at the mercy of a label.

“I got really frustrated. I would literally call people at the label and beg them to put a song out to radio in the middle of America just to see if people would react to it. I told them I would fly to the station and do an interview just to see if it got played and to see if someone reacts to the song. They would say no. What are you supposed to do. You’re out there on tour and you have no support. You drive into town and the radio station is playing a song from ten years ago,” Corgan said.

“Being on my own is fantastic. I don’t have somebody in the back room pulling the rug out from under me after I’ve worked my ass off. In this scenario, I’m deciding what’s going to get pushed and how I can deal with that. That’s a lot different than the unanswered question of ‘what if.’ ‘What if’ will drive you nuts. I’m only now feeling comfortable. Now, I can do this as I’ve meant to do this all along, with a happy face and a full heart and deal with the pressure.”

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Flaming Lips: No dark side to their ticket sales

While many tours have canceled due to weak ticket sales, the Flaming Lips are business as usual. Soft sales have claimed tour dates on the Lilith Festival, in addition to acts such as Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and The Eagles.

“We don’t [feel different], but we’re not really that concerned about playing the biggest festival in the world,” Lips frontman Wayne Coyne told Rolling Stone.

“Oh well, f*ck them. Sometimes you think if you charged maybe $60 for your tickets instead of you know, thousands of dollars … but they should do what they like.

“We were in Croatia last week, we’re gonna go to Poland later this summer. We want to go to interesting places. We don’t want to play at the biggest most popular rock star event.

“I think it’s much better to do things that are interesting and hope that they work, rather than trying to do stuff that, if it’s not successful, we all f*cking lose.”

The Flaming Lips are performing songs from their most recent albums Embryonic and the reinterpreted Pink Floyd LP, Dark Side of the Moon.

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Kookaburra trumps Down Under: Men at Work must pay in plagiarism case

An Australian court has ordered restitution for publisher Larrikin Music, owner of the copyright for Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree – the nursery rhyme at the center of a plagiarism dispute filed against Men at Work composers Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, and their publisher EMI.

The suit claims Men At Work’s successful single Down Under substantially reproduced the flute riff from Kookaburra and must now pay Larrikin 5% of the single’s future profits in addition to eight years of back royalties.

The ruling comes as a severe blow to flautist Greg Ham who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald.

”I’m terribly disappointed that that’s the way I’m going to be remembered – for copying something. It has destroyed so much of my song. It will be the way the song is remembered and I hate that.”

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Prince embracing spiritual side on 20TEN

As Prince burns up the Internet with a quote in the Daily Mirror telling the paper during an interview how the technology “is completely over,” the artist reveals how deep his spiritual commitments have become over the years.

Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness after absorbing the pain from the death of his infant son Gregory and his parent’s months later. It was his mother’s dying wish that her son become a Jehovah’s Witness as she was.

20TEN, the thirty-third studio album by Prince will be a CD only release inserted into the Daily Mirror, July 10 and German Rolling Stone July 22.

Discussing the new album Prince said, “I just think it’s a year that really matters. These are very trying times. There’s an incredible peace in my life now and I’m trying to share it with people. It’s great to give away my music. God is a generous and loving being. It is written that we should act like God. There are enough opportunities.”

The following track list has been confirmed by the German edition of Rolling Stone.

1. Compassion
2. Beginning Endlessly
3. Future Soul Song
4. Sticky Like Glue
5. Lavaux
6. Act of God
7. Walk in Sand
8. Sea of Everything
9. Everybody Loves Me
10. Untitled (hidden track)

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Conor Oberst on SB1070 boycott: ‘An economic death rattle is all they will hear’

On June 24, The Arizona Republic published an open letter sent in by local promoter Charlie Levy and his response to the boycott Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha rallied artist to join in opposition of immigration law SB1070.

Levy, owner of Stateside Presents argued, “The people who will feel the negative effects of the boycott the deepest are local concert venues, non-profit art-house theatres, independent promoters, fans and the people employed in the local music business.”

Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame), joined de la Rocha, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Sonic Youth, Ben Harper, Gogol Bordello, My Morning Jacket, and a growing list of artists refusing to perform in the state until the law is repealed.

On July 2, Oberst responded to Levy with an open letter in Billboard writing, “I realize that the people of Arizona did not vote on SB1070 and I empathize with the anger and frustration you all must feel. If I return to Arizona to pay lip service to a roomful of kids at the Marquee it will do absolutely no good for anyone.

“I personally regret any of the collateral damage the boycott is causing you, other like-minded arts promoters and the fans in Arizona. A boycott is, inherently, a blunt instrument. It is an imperfect weapon, a carpet bomb, when all involved would prefer a surgical strike.

“An economic death rattle is the only cry of outrage they will hear. The boycott has to be so widespread and devastating that the Arizona State Legislature and Governor have no choice but to repeal their unconstitutional, immoral and hateful law.”

Levy called the Oberst letter “well thought out” and said the artist made “valid points even though I respectfully disagree with some of his statements.

“I know members of the Arizona musical and creative communities are deeply appreciative of the attention artists across the country are paying to our concerns. I do hope we can work together, in some capacity, in the near future.”

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New Dax Riggs track: ‘Grave Dirt on My Blue Suede Shoes’

Dax Riggs, of Deadboy & the Elephantmen, Acid Bath and Agents of Oblivion, will hit the road in support of his new record Say Goodnight to the World.

The album is being released by Fat Possum August 3 and follows the 2007 We Sing Of Only Love Or Blood. Hear the track “Grave Dirt on My Blue Suede Shoes” on his Myspace page.

Riggs told 2theadvocate “There is a lot of love [on the album]. A record is a snapshot. I felt good about it when it was done but things live beyond photographs. The songs changed quite a bit when I played them a bunch in the last couple of months. In a strange way, a lot of people are talking about how there’s a healing vibe to the music even though it sounds dark.”

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The Walkmen showcase rockers and oddballs on ‘Lisbon’

Indie band The Walkmen release their new album Lisbon, September 14 with a performance at The Fillmore in San Francisco the same evening.

Signed to Fat Possum Records, home to The Black Keyes, Band of Horses and Dax Riggs, the New York quintet worked on the album for two years with You & Me engineer Chris Zane returning as producer.

Lisbon will showcase “a bunch of fast rockers and big bashers, and a couple great oddballs” says front man Hamilton Leithauser.

“There is a lot of stuff that’s Elvis-sounding, like early Elvis and Sun Records kind of sounds. The instrumentation is very simple, and then there’s a very loud vocal and a softish drum. There is a slapback guitar on everything,” Leithauser told Pitchfork.

“I don’t know if it will end up being used at all, but I think that was a starting point for a lot of stuff that Paul [Maroon] looped with the guitar. A real paring-down at the beginning.”

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Second solo album from My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel

My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel made time for a second solo album while the band’s busy schedule keeps them on the road playing high profile festivals and several dates as the opening act for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

All Birds Say will be available August 31st but the first single “Heaven Knows” is currently getting internet play.

The guitarist says of his album,” A lot of the songs are really just me talking to myself, trying to make sense of things in my head.

“To me, making records is like alchemy. It’s something that no-one can ever perfect, but you have an insatiable desire to keep doing it and get better at it. I really believe that everything we experience contributes to what we do next, so this album is really a result of all the records and tours I’ve done so far.”

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Chris Brown: For real or the tears of a clown?

The controversy surrounding Chris Brown’s BET performance at the Sunday award show continues with reports the singer faked his tears during an emotional tribute to Michael Jackson.

Whether Brown was campaigning for public acceptance (after being charged in 2009 for assaulting then girlfriend Rihanna) or caught up in the moment, is unclear.

A pre-performance conversation with R&B singer Lloyd sheds doubt into Brown’s sincerity, but Lloyd explains on his website “I never told him to go on stage and cry. We spoke recently, and I told him as a friend that people hadn’t really seen him be vulnerable about his situation last year. I thought he was holding back and needed to let that emotion out. [Chris] crying at the BET Awards was real, I could feel it.

“I think he cried about a number of things. About the fact that he thought people would hate him forever because of one mistake. Feeling that love on stage was probably overwhelming. Plus [Jackson] being gone and him performing “Man In The Mirror.” that song is powerful, especially for his situation. It pushed him over the edge.”

Brown was sentenced to five years probation August 2009 and ordered to perform 180 days of community service and must attend domestic abuse counseling. That same year his album Graffiti peaked at number seven on Billboards Top 200 charts but was criticized as a disappointing follow-up to his successful second album, Exclusive.

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Sheryl Crow feels artistically revitalized on ‘100 Miles From Memphis’

“I feel artistically revitalized,” Sheryl Crow said as she readies her seventh studio album, 100 Miles from Memphis.

Joined in the studio by Keith Richards, Justin Timberlake, and Citizen Cope, the funk and soul-based record will be released July 20th while the singer takes a break from her North American tour.

100 Miles from Memphis references Crow’s hometown of Kennett, Missouri and its proximity to “one of music cultures historic hotbeds, Memphis, Tennessee,” Crow writes on her website.

“A little while back we re-released a commemorative set of my first record Tuesday Night Music Club. It got me to thinking that I was ready to try something a little different but still familiar and true to myself artistically. The last thing any of us wants to do as we mature is recreate the past.

“The music feels fresh and at the same time very familiar. Many of my past songs, such as “Run Baby Run,” “My Favorite Mistake” and “Now That You’re Gone” are already steeped in this style.”

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