The Smashing Pumpkins released their ninth free track “Lightning Strikes” on Thursday, March 17. It will first be available for 24 hours at Rollingstone.com, Then starting Friday, March 18, it will be available for free download at www.smashingpumpkins.com; the site also offers a widget enabling fans to host the song anywhere on the web.
Pumpkins leader BILLY CORGAN says the song is “dedicated with affection to Mark Tulin...and all our great Japanese fans who are in our prayers.” Mark Tulin, the bassist and founding member of the pioneering psych-rockers The Electric Prunes, died last month. Tulin played in the Pumpkins and appears on tracks from the band’s Teargarden By Kaleidyscope work. He also toured with Corgan in the band Spirits In the Sky in 2009.
"Lightning Strikes" is now the ninth song to be offered to fans via free download. It is from the Pumpkins’ Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, an in-progress 44-song work. Since December 2009, the band has been releasing one song at a time for free, with eight of the songs also available on two physical EPs that were released in 2010.
The Smashing Pumpkins -- singer/guitarist BILLY CORGAN, guitarist JEFF SCHROEDER, drummer MIKE BYRNE and bassist NICOLE FIORENTINO--recorded “Lightning Strikes,” says CORGAN, “by all the members of the band after we came off our last tour” at the end of 2010. “I feel this song organically hints at new directions without being forced.”
“Lightning Strikes” has an interesting back story. Explains CORGAN: “It was supposed to be more of a fun thing, a song originally written for the Electric Prunes. But I found an element in it that suggested a bigger picture, and unfortunately I stole it back from them. The lyric in my mind combines the isolation of modern life with the need for a never ending romantic story.”
For CORGAN, the process of releasing music one song at a time “has inspired me to treat each song as its own thought as opposed to a collective mentality where songs need to fit together. It has definitely helped me to focus, and pay more attention to what I'm trying to say with each release.”
In 2010, the Pumpkins performed three runs of dates in the U.S. plus shows in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. Asked about the band’s touring plans for 2011, CORGAN says: “We had no plans of going on the road this year, but now we may go to Europe in the fall, and if that happens, we’ll play a few select dates in America.”
Play "Lightning Strikes" via RollingStone.com
Download "Lightning Strikes" via SmashingPumpkins.com
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