SHADOWLAND

This Memorial Day weekend, the buzz continues in the Smashing Pumpkins community about the identity of the "unnamed soldier" that has apparently been recording bass in the studio for the new album. Whether or not this person has been doing all bass parts or just helping out is also unknown. Not much is known at all, because Billy's lips have been very tight on the matter. The buzz comes from the May 16th blog entitled "Echoes" from the Panopticon website, in which Billy says

This side of the solstice bare, as most everyone has heard by now, Tommy Lee - the drummer for Motley Crue - will be drumming on all tracks for The Smashing Pumpkins' upcoming Monuments To An Elegy, the first of a two-album release. And as a result, the word on the street is that Mike Byrne is out. And quite possibly Nicole, too. The SP fan community is all of a dither. Juicy, isn't it? This has long been a speculation, at least since last September or so when Billy was inter

In March, a pilgrimage was undertaken to the SP Holy Land of Chicago. I had never been, but as a Smashing Pumpkins fan, it's necessary to visit as many holy sites as possible. Of all places to go (the Metro, Billy's old house in the 90's, etc?) I chose the most currently relevant, active and alive place to go - Madame Zuzu's Tea House and Antique Shop, or as I have affectionately dubbed it in honor of Billy's interest in professional wrestling - Madame Zuzu's T-HOUSE OF PAIN.

Billy Corgan's childhood home, from 1977-1985, has been sold....and this is it. The sale is mentioned in the Chicago Tribune, with the following specifications. Quoting from the Tribune: "The four-bedroom, raised ranch-style house in west suburban Glendale Heights where Smashing Pumpkins founder and frontman Billy Corgan spent much of his preteen and teenage years has been listed for $175,000...................from 1977 until he graduated from Glenbard North High School in Ca