Smashing Pumpkins Announce November 23rd Street Date For EP TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL. II “THE SOLSTICE BARE”

From MSO Public Relations:

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS will release TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL. II “THE SOLSTICE BARE” on November 23 via Martha’s Music/Rocket Science Ventures.  This physical-only four-song EP is a limited-edition, beautifully packaged CD & deluxe 12-inch vinyl picture disc with the four songs: “The Fellowship,” “Freak,” “Tom Tom” and “Spangled” as well as an unreleased B-side track, “Cottonwood Symphony.” The lid covering the 12- inch box is a metallic/foil wallpaper motif, with a 1970’s design by The Flavor Paper Co.  As with the band’s EP TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL. 1: SONGS FOR A SAILOR, which was released in May of this year, quantities are limited worldwide.

TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE VOL. II “THE SOLSTICE BARE” marks the second EP to emerge from the band’s in-progress 44-song project TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE, from which songs are being released online, one at a time for free (with four-song physical EPs being issued along the way).  Thus far, two singles have been released from VOL II: THE SOLSTICE BARE: the first single “Freak” is quickly ascending the U.S. Alternative radio charts. With a cumulative audience of over 20 million, “Freak” is receiving national airplay at the biggest Alternative rock stations in the country.   And the second release “Spangled”–described by Corgan quite simply as “just a pretty song”–is also earning critical attention.

Writing in The New York Times (7/27/10) about their July 26 sold-out show at Terminal 5 in NYC, Jon Pareles observed:

“Some of Mr. Corgan’s 21st-century songs, like the new ‘Freak,’ aim their rage at sociopolitical targets; many of them revolve around blunter, simpler riffs than his 1990’s songs. And instead of recording for a major label and waiting to release a group of songs for an album, Smashing Pumpkins are now posting individual new songs free online. When there are 44 of them, they are to be packaged as a boxed-set album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.”

At SPIN.com (7/27/10), William Goodwin noted:

“…‘Freak,’ another Teargarden track, was a union of pop-rock sensibility with heavy, distorted bass lines and lyrics that show Corgan can still be the romantic mouthpiece for disenfranchised youths. If ‘Freak’ was an indication, Pumpkins fans have something to look forward to.”