The Smashing Pumpkins // Photo by Heather Kaplan

Photo by Heather Kaplan

It’s been a year for The Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan.



Back in January, the singer-songwriter surprised fans when he expressed a desire to find peace with his former bandmates, an idea that came to fruition when he reunited with former guitarist James Iha amid the band’s lively In Plainsong acoustic-electro tour. Shortly after, Wretzky said she would “consider going back” to the band, which Corgan followed by sending her happy birthday wishes that closed with: “So see you next tour, wherever and whenever that may be.”

Since then, he’s offered his two cents on rabid social justice warriors, Bernie Sanders, and the state of free speech in America, in addition to covering The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones at home in Chicago. So, in a word, he’s been busy, but that hasn’t stopped him from writing new material. Recently, Corgan popped up at his own Madame ZuZu’s teahouse in Highland Park, Illinois, where he and guitarist Jeff Schroeder shared two new songs.

The first one’s titled “Double R” and the second one’s dubbed “Red Dirt”. Both sound fairly similar to the band’s American Gothic days, only there’s a twinge of their late ’90s unrest, namely the downtempo malaise of Adore and shades of Machina. Considering he’s likely been prepping the reissue for the latter — C’mon, where is it buddy? — it would make sense that era’s sound would start bleeding into his newer compositions.

It should be noted these two songs are separate from the untitled acoustic track Corgan debuted back in March. Culled together, one might argue that these three songs could potentially be preludes to a proper follow-up to the Pumpkins’ 2014 album, Monuments to an Elegy. Maybe he’ll top off the year with a new album before the big reunion he’s clearly been hinting at these past six months? Dream on below…