The Smashing Pumpkins (US)

The Smashing Pumpkins, one of the world’s most influential rock bands of the last 25 years, return to Prague! The Chicago band will be arriving in the Czech Republic on November 25, ahead of the release of their new album Oceania. The concert will take place at Prague’s Incheba arena.

Singer and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, drummer Mike Byrne and bassist Nicole Fiorentino have spent the year 2011 working on Oceania which will mark their first full album since 2007’s Zeitgeist. The new record is part of their in-progress 44-song work Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. Featuring 13 new songs, the new record will be released in early 2012. According to Billy Corgan, “the new album harkens back to the original psychedelic roots of The Smashing Pumpkins: atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty.”

The Smashing Pumpkins were formed by Corgan and James Iha in Chicago in 1988, and the band released their debut album Gish in 1991. It was hard to break into the American rock scene in the early 1990s, overshadowed by Nirvana. But the Smashing Pumpkins achieved it, imbuing their heavy metal sound with sophistication, diversity and polish. In 1993 their legendary album Siamese Dreams came, which made the Smashing Pumpkins world stars. Incredibly enough they managed to do even better two years later: their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness went straight to no. 1 on Billboard’s lists, 9 times platinum in the US, was nominated for 7 Grammys and sold 10 million copies worldwide. They have now sold 30 million albums in total all over the world. The band broke up in 2000, but got back together in 2006. The tour will be the first time the group have returned to Europe since 2008 and will also be the first since original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin departed in 2009.

The American alt rockers have always managed to put on amazing live performances – and one such is coming to Prague in November! Don’t forget what Corgan said in Prague in January 2008: “This band! This band is not fucking dead!”