The fall of the old music industry empire continues as Billy Corgan announces that the next Smashing Pumpkins album will be free.

Following in the footsteps of Nine Inch Nails (free/pay what you want), Radiohead (pay what you want) and dozens of others, Corgan announced on the Smashing Pumpkins blog today that their next album will be distributed for free online.  As one of the few people who honestly didn’t hate Zeitgeist, this sounds pretty cool, but then the issues come in. And there are many.

First, let’s start with the new album’s title, which hinges on self-parody: Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.

Next, the release format: Teargarden will be a series of ELEVEN 4-song EPs, where each track will be released individually, starting around Halloween, with the following tracks to be released at an undetermined interval. So if Billy has a temper tantrum about how the release goes, as he has about…well, everything else since the Smashing Pumpkins “re-formed”, I’d imagine we may see the album halted oh…forty tracks early.

Third, this will be their first album with their new drummer Mike Byrne. Bryne, who is NINE-FUCKING-TEEN years old. He was SIX when Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness came out. Christ I’m old.  Sure, kid could be amazing, but I don’t have high hopes.

Last, and far from least, the presumed artwork for the releases, attached to Billy’s blog post:

If that wasn’t enough, Billy’s last line sounds like some random brag from a child, like those kids who would say “My Uncle works for Nintendo in Japan and he’s seen Super Mario 10!".  On how many songs are completed for the project he says….

I already have 53 songs written for the record, so I am quite confident that I already have much of the material that I would need to undertake such an extensive project.

Smashing Pumpkins' Lisa Frank-themed Teargarden by Kaleidyscope should start releasing this fall. Maybe.

Original Post: Smashing Pumpkins dot com | announcement from billy corgan about new smashing pumpkins album.