Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins are giving fans a chance to pick up their new album, Monuments to an Elegy, one day early. This being Corgan, a simple online ordering setup will not suffice. Instead, he's opted to open a one-day, pop-up music shop in New York to push the album. Oh, and the shop will be located inside Physical GraffiTea, an NYC tea purveyor that's on the bottom floor of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti building.
All of this is happening Dec. 8 (one day before the official Monuments release on Dec. 9) and fans can also pick up limited edition SP mugs, Christmas ornaments, lithographs and tea bundles. Those in the Chicago area can buy the CD or vinyl releases at Madame ZuZu's in Highland Park, Illinois.
It's been a busy few weeks for Corgan, who's been granting oodles of interviews in anticipation of the album release and a new tour with members of Rage Against the Machine and The Killers.
In his spare time, he's managed to design a delightfully explicit t-shirt and fire his drummer. But mostly the 47-year-old has been making headlines by running his mouth.
"In the purest sense of the word, we were competitors," Corgan said of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. "He and I were the top two scribes, and everybody else was a distant third."
That statement had fans whipping out /facepalm emojis, but at least Corgan was courteous to Cobain.
"Now, he and I didn't necessarily get along," Corgan said. "But I like to sing his praises, because he really was that talented. I like to think the world with him would have been a better place, and I like to think a lot of the crap music that followed wouldn't have existed if he had been around to criticise it. Because he had the moral standing to slay generations with a strike of the pen."
Check out Mr. Scribe's most recent contribution, "Tiberius."
