The Smashing Pumpkins are set to return to Chicago’s Lollapalooza this Friday, July 31, headlining the festival in their hometown for the first time since appearing on the original traveling edition of Lollapalooza in 1994.
To mark the occasion, the band has put together a series of fan-focused events across Chicago under the banner “Pumpkinpalooza.” The schedule includes a special club show, exclusive merchandise, themed attractions and other activities leading into their festival performance.
The celebration begins on July 29 with a sold-out concert at the historic Riviera Theatre in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. With a capacity of around 2,500, the venue offers a much more intimate setting than the band’s upcoming Lollapalooza appearance, giving fans a chance to hear material from throughout The Smashing Pumpkins‘ catalog in a smaller room.
From July 29 through July 31, the band will also operate a merchandise pop-up store at 900 S. Wabash Ave., just a short distance from Grant Park. The location will be open daily between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Festival attendees can also stop by Madame Zuzu’s Celestial Lounge, an extension of Billy Corgan and Chloé Mendel Corgan‘s Highland Park teahouse. The space will feature matcha, vinyl records, exclusive merchandise, and other items. Elsewhere in the city, Chicago cocktail bar The Aviary will offer a limited-edition drink called Infinite Mellons to celebrate the band’s return to Lollapalooza.
Billy Corgan says: “As a Chicagoan, born and raised, I take great pride in contributing to our city’s immense and colorful cultural fabric. And so this year’s already historic Lollapalooza is that chance to make new memories, new friends, and have a bit of Midwest fun, too, as only we might.”
The Chicago events continue a busy period for The Smashing Pumpkins, following last year’s 30th anniversary celebration of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The milestone included a deluxe vinyl reissue featuring previously unreleased live recordings, orchestral performances with the Lyric Opera Of Chicago, and collaborations with Vosges Haut-Chocolat and Erewhon.
Following Lollapalooza, the band will head out on The Rats In A Cage tour, which runs from September through November. The shows will feature two different sets: one centered on Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and another spanning nearly four decades of the band’s career, mixing major songs with deeper cuts.
Formed in Chicago in 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and remain one of alternative rock’s defining acts. Their catalog includes releases such as Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Adore, Machina/The Machines Of God, Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., Cyr, Atum and 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei.
The latest album reunited the signature guitar-driven approach associated with the band’s early work, with Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin and James Iha continuing to build on a catalog that has influenced generations of alternative and heavy rock musicians.
Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. The allegations were made over the weekend on Reddit with screenshots showing the musician sending a sexually explicit meme and a suggestive message about the 16-year-old fan’s “bikini pics.” He has since acknowledged the allegations, saying he had mistaken the account for someone else.
Our latest record to look upon is Nothingness’ third full length: Godslaughter. Formed in 2018 out of Minneapolis, United States, following the release of their 2019 debut album The Hollow Gaze Of Death, the band have enjoyed a slew of releases as per the last couple of years. With Singles preparing audiences for their 2023 sophomore album Supraliminal the band enjoyed a new wealth of fans in their midst and, with another batch of Singles released earlier this year, Nothingness seek to do the same again with Godslaughter come its July 31st release date. Returning once more alongside Everlasting Spew Records and featuring grotesquely vibrant art by Adam Yates, Godslaughter looks set to be another punishing release from the band.
Many bands would use an introductory piece or provide something lengthy to give audiences an extensive idea of what their record is all about: Nothingness launch into a track less than two minutes long with tone and virility akin to repeatedly dropping cinderblocks on your face. The guitar tone is enormous, you can feel the encompassing scale their riffs possess. What is curious however is whilst the band play at speed, where drums keep the pace rolling and momentum is continuously kicked up, the riffs with their spatial mass seemingly ground the record as a weight. As a result your attention will never leave their songwriting or what they’re looking to do next because the guitar work is so monstrously heavy. There’s no chance the band will take flight herein, they’ve been given one hell of a paperweight.
The guitar work may be a dominant feature throughout this record but thankfully Nothingness did their time during the mixing process, for the drums still bleed through with another audibility you can follow their developing movements.in addition things like blast beats and the subtler cymbal strikes are just as noticeable. A less keenly aware band would have thrown all their weight and hopes behind the guitar playing alone, so to acknowledge the drums at all behind such a deluge of tone is noteworthy. As drums are struck you can feel the split second resonance emitted as the skin, demonstrated as taut, blows out and through the track you’re presently experiencing. Instrumentally it’s this subvert of drums and riffs that delivers the crux of Nothingness’ rabid fervour in this instance.
Supraliminal was a quality step forth for Nothingness but I feel like Godslaughter will be looked back on with delight given the band’s heightened rampancy embedded within the songwriting. In an off comparison it reminds me of Pantera in the 90s, where the band just kept going heavier and heavier until they reached a state of power fans of the time hadn’t dared believe the band were capable of; that is where Nothingness are now. It’s like they looked on their last album and thought, and knew, they could go one further resulting in an unapologetically blunt, utterly unrepentant record. There is hardly a barrier between yourself and the songwriting for the band have stripped any niceties back to give you songwriting at its most primal and hideous.
In line with the band going one step further we must discuss the vocals. Where Nothingness’ vocals have always been great they’ve been taken to that next degree of savagery; they’re heavier, filthier, wilder, they’re the most merciless and sure of death they’ve ever been. I couldn’t think of a more apt vocal performance for such a belligerent record. There are sequences where frontman Barclay Olson strings numerous techniques together to create this successive train of slaughter; there are only a handful of instances where his vocals aren’t in play so not only are you bludgeoned by the band’s instrumental brutality, but your nerves and sinews are constantly torn and ravaged by a vocal delivery that refuses to cease. It certainly underlines the feeling that escaping the band is a bygone dream.
In conclusion, Godslaughter is as ruthless as its namesake would suggest. I feel like Nothingness have now reached a new and punishing level in their career, as I would be more than happy to see future releases by the band in line with Godslaughter’s crushing strength. If their last releases have been strong stepping stones then Godslaughter sees Nothingness truly arrive into the world metal stage as a legitimate presence in today’s extreme metal. It’s the kind of record you’ll put on for a burst of seething and unquantifiable violence. Yet as heavy as it is it’s never so total you can’t follow the band’s direction or feel like their performance feels lost on you. Nothingness have arrived in earnest.
Appalachian Mountains rock artist The Follower of Christ has just released their newest single "Betrayed with a Kiss". The project is completely self-produced, with all writing, mixing, and mastering being done independently. The song explores Christian ideologies within the story of Judas, alongside betrayal and spiritual compromise.
The band states on the song:
“How much will people sacrifice for power? For status? For acceptance? For material gain? How much truth will be exchanged for the temporary rewards of this world?”
Review:
The song introduces itself with powerful guitar chugs and a funky synth bass, as impactful drums and singing show one musician playing all instruments and performing vocals by himself. A dramatic, hard rock / heavy metal sound is quickly built as dark guitar builds a powerful sound. Clean guitar layers over the heavy guitar and vocals in a way that, at first listen, felt almost dissonant but after a few spins started to feel more natural. Singing vocals are contrasted by occasional distant screams to add a sense of edge.
In the song's bridge, modulated synths add a unique sound as clean guitar solos are matched by distorted heavy guitar chugging before full-intensity screaming is introduced for the first time in the song. The heavy vocals were a nice surprise that was unexpected at the end of the track.
Overall, I think The Follower of Christ creates a well-done song, with impressive production for a one-man band. My biggest critique would be that the song can feel a little one-dimensional, as the same two guitar tones and synth tones are used throughout the whole song, and the vocals remain mostly the same throughout the song until the very end. I think the music could benefit from an increased sense of dynamics with more intense changes between sections, and I'd love to see the screaming vocals foreshadowed earlier in the song rather than only featured once at the very end. The sound feels unique but doesn't feel like it grows or evolves significantly in it's runtime, which a longer than average song (4+ minutes) should try to do. Besides that, "Betrayed with a Kiss" is a well-executed track and I enjoyed the interesting synth modulation in the bridge and the studio-style music video.
Fans of Christian music, heavy metal, and rock should check out The Follower of Christ's music and official video below!
Tabernakel put me in an awkward spot. Their flensed-to-the-viscera approach takes such obvious joy in delivering nasty, stripped down early 90’s black metal that it’s hard not to appreciate. But on the other hand, Christ if it doesn’t sound a lot like Darkthrone, uprooted and planted in Germanic soil. It’s the trve Norwegian vintage served in a beerstein, and that much is hinted at simply by a glance at the obviously Darkthrone-inspired logo that Tabernakel roll with. Maybe that’s unfair – on it’s own merits “Scheintaufe” (“Mock Baptism” in English) contains enough Teutonic sacrilege to satisfy the even the most grim and frostbitten of us. Still. It would be nice to hear a bit more of Tabernakel’s own personality sneaking between the charred timbers of the churches it puts to the torch.
Predictable as it may be, there’s a reason why raw, buzzing guitars, booming drums and raspy shrieks became tropes in the first place – it’s because they sound fucking awesome. As such, when “Sanguis” hammers into it’s blastbeats over a classic black thrash riff at 1.12 there’s no sense in pretending that I wasn’t loving life. Propulsive percussion whips the cascade of “Blood, Fire, Death” doppelganger strummed riffs to a march ahead of it, and high string tremolo lines like starving barracudas slip ravenous through the murk of the production job. At it’s strongest, Tabernakel’s clandestine séance summons in that same evil magic that suffused those same 2nd wave classics. Grimy and atavistic, it prioritises mood and atmosphere with salvos of simple but malfeasant power chord progressions and augmentations, slithering minor key melodies and a harsh, confrontational production. It’s quite spartan in some ways – a man, some drums, a bass, a guitar, and some serious emotional difficulties, and out pops “Im Nebel” – a snapping, deceptively melodic slice of treble-forward Prussian profanity built around tremolo-picked arpeggios and kick-snare beats that fire off like counterpunches. It is, in a nutshell, old school black metal as fuck.
Besides it’s growth-limiting adherence to the fundamental tenets of the genre, the other main flaw comes as much as a product of it being a one man project as anything else – an occasional struggle to self edit. This album is on the whole good stuff for sure, but even so the longer songs can feel a bit adrift in search of a destination sometimes. If comparatively brief tracks like “Wie Die Gischt” impress with cruel harmonies and devilish swaps between fast and slow sections, then longer tracks like “Schlussel zum Sanktum” dull their edge with lengthy acoustic sections or decent but derivative mid-paced strumming. The album is long enough that being a bit more severe about what wound up on the cutting room floor wouldn’t have been a crime. The synth interlude “Trugbild des Selbst” isn’t unendurable, but nor is it enthralling, relying on basic textures and progressions for four minutes at somnolent pace. Perhaps an interlude was in order but this one is far too average to deserve being stapled into the tracklist.
The crux of it is that A Blaze in the German Sky can be very enjoyable, but it’s also incapable of surprising you and comes with a little basket of compositional foibles to boot. It evokes a nostalgic vibe and mostly does justice to it, but a harsher stance on the editing process and a bit more imagination would’ve done it the world of good. This being Tabernakel’s second album within the space of a year the project seems to have a fair bit of creative vim to it, so hopefully for round 3 we see this same magnificent old school black metal taken to more uncharted waters.
To sign to Exploding In Sound, you need to have a memorable one-word band name, like Jobber or Ovlov or Stuck. The great indie label’s newest signees, Bimbo, fit the bill. Hailing from Marquette, MI, Bimbo describe themselves as “if the White Stripes were evil, couldn’t write a song in 4/4, and were actually bother and sister.” Today they’re announcing their debut album The Bimbonacci Sequence.
The Wild Kingdom: John Etheridge (drums), Glen (Robbie) Robertson (bass), Bruce West (vocals), and Mike Johnstone (guitar)
Many is the time I’ve had a lead on a band that is obscure to me, which then gets forgotten in the avalanche of emails and comments I received from this site over time. I apologize for not following up in a timely manner.
Steven S. wrote to me a long time ago, 2008, about the Wild Kingdom, and though I corresponded with him, I neglected to post about the band, probably because they didn’t have any records to their name. Only recently have I noticed the connections to other bands such as the Mustangs and the Back Door, so I’ll add the photo and info he sent to me so long ago.
The Wild Kingdom were from the Peninsula (Hampton, Newport News) and used to play on the Southside at all the usual teen clubs.
The Swinging Machine and the Wild Wild Kingdom, at Hullabaloo, Newport News Daily Press, June 1968The band personnel were: John Etheridge (drums), Glen (Robbie) Robertson (bass), Bruce West (vocals), and Mike Johnstone (guitar). Johnstone was an extremely gifted player who enjoyed considerable acclaim among area musicians. Etheridge and Robertson wove a tightly solid sound, more like an R&B rhythm section than one might have expected from a hippie band in those days. West was a versatile singer and quite the showman.
At one point, they hooked up with Keith (of “98.6” fame) and toured as his backup band for awhile. They later morphed into “The Back Door” and continued playing at local clubs until they scattered to join various other local groups. They were the great unknowns in those days, being somewhat eclipsed by Swingin’ Machine. However, they were outstanding players and didn’t pay lip service at all to the “blue-eyed soul” genre that ruled the area back then. Their manager, Jim Tatum, also handled Bill Deal & the Rhondells – go figure!
Wild Kingdom and Back Door were a huge influence on many of us Southside garage punks. We ranked them above Swingin’ Machine, partly because they didn’t cover any radio hits, but mostly because they were the better band.
I don’t remember Wild Kingdom/Back Door surviving beyond 1969. At that time, Bruce West injured his leg in a motorcycle mishap and “retired” from the music scene. Robbie Robertson likewise dropped off the radar about then. Mike Johnstone & John Etheridge continued performing with various other area groups until at least the mid 1970’s. Some of the bands I recall were “Headstone Circus”, “Rooth”, “The Dubonettes”, and “Hot Cakes”.
To my knowledge, there are no recordings of the Wild Kingdom.
Jerry Harden published a brief memoir about Barnie’s in Buckroe Beach, VA that mentioned some of the bands I’ve covered, including Adrian & the Sinsations and Danny and the Delnotes. About the Wild Kingdom, he lists an additional member, Ray Witham, and writes that Robby Robinson [sic]: “was arrested on stage for wearing a sword as part of his costume”!
