Smashing Pumpkins release Zeitgeist

The Smashing Pumpkins release their comeback album, Zeitgeist, on Tuesday (July 10th) and it contains the first new music under the Pumpkins banner since frontman Billy Corgan disbanded the group in late 2000. After seven years apart, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin said that recapturing the Pumpkins sound wasn't a simple matter: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "One thing we found when we got back together was that what we do, whatever that kind of thing is, takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of searching to kind of get there. It was a bit of a journey. The first three weeks were kind of, scratching our heads, wondering, like, when it was gonna happen, if it was gonna happen. And then about three and a half weeks in, it started to click and things started to sound like Smashing Pumpkins, which was kind of cool."

Corgan and Chamberlin are the only original Pumpkins members in this lineup, which introduces new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. None of them played on the album, however.

The band has launched the "Ask A Pumpkin" YouTube group, where fans can post videos of themselves asking questions that Corgan and Chamberlin will answer, also via video clips.

The Pumpkins will play a record release party on Tuesday night at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.

The band will perform 13 shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco later this month and have also announced a major fall tour, beginning on September 8th in Montreal. Tickets go on sale July 14th.

Also in stores on Tuesday is Our Love To Admire, the third album and major label debut from New York band Interpol.
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