Morning Music Notes – Smashing Chairs, Not Pumpkins

The Next Logical Move for Billy Corgan

You started the Smashing Pumpkins, a huge alt rock juggernaut in the 1990s. A touring band member dies. You kick out another band member. The band essentially breaks up. You try to revive the band, only bringing back the original drummer. You make a poor comeback album. You play shitty live shows with none of the hits in the set list, pissing off your fans The original drummer leaves the band. You might have dated Jessica Simpson?? You are Billy Corgan, and you are trying to decide what to do next. YOU START A PRO WRESTLING COMPANY . Spinner tells us that Billy Corgan has decided to start his own pro wrestling company, Resistance Pro Wrestling.

“I’ve been involved sort of behind the scenes with pro wrestling for about a decade and made a lot of friends in the business,” he said in an interview with Fox News Chicago. “It’s a very insular business and it’s a long story, but I essentially got involved with some brothers who had a wrestling promotion. We decided to form our own promotion and we’re going to try to bring back to the glory days.”

And here I was hoping for news of a GOOD new Pumpkins album (although those random singles he has been dropping are actually pretty solid). Check out the Fox interview news.

Smashing Pumpkins Frontman Billy Corgan Joins Pro Wrestling Company: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

U2 Cover Boy Speaks Up

Children who find fame often have an interesting life arc. Being known worldwide while just a child is a bit overwhelming. Although known to a lesser degree than child actors, album cover boys have been giving interviews this year. The naked baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind thankfully didn’t recreate the album was interviewed. Now the innocent looking boy on U2’s, er, Boy, and War has given his own interview. And wouldn’t you know it, the man (boys often grow up into these), Peter Rowan, is now a photographer. And a mind blowing coincidence recently occurred (via The Hollywood Reporter):

“While on assignment, a stranger once struck up a conversation with him. “A guy started talking to me about my camera and said he used to be a photographer and his most famous picture was ‘War,'” he says. “I said, ‘that was me!’ He’s a judge now.”

“U2 has long since moved on to other subjects for their album art. And a few years ago, they gave Rowen a photo they took for one of their covers, with a message on the back from Bono that read: “Stay a child. I am enjoying it.”

“On the outside, at least, Rowen is still an adult. And few can ever tell that he was once the boy from the album covers. “When people find out, sometimes they say my eyes are still the same,” he says.

Listen to Thom Yorke’s DJ Mix

Yesterday, Thom Yorke dropped by BBC 6 Music to take over DJ’ing for a couple of hours. If you’re a fan of Thom Yorke, or the eclectic stuff that he DJ’s, you can listen to the 2 hour set over at BBC 6 Music. Oddly, he played a LOT of Radiohead’s singles from their new remix album. That guy is smooooooth.