LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The Smashing Pumpkins faithful no doubt will demonstrate their allegiance again to the band, packing concert halls and amphitheaters to see "The Sacred and Profane" tour. The United States junket -- promoting the Pumpkins' latest release "MACHINA/ the machines of God" -- is scheduled to launch April 8 in Kansas City, Missouri. The latest album represents a change for the group. "Adore" (1998), the band's previous album, failed to live up to expectations commercially and critically, selling about 3 million copies worldwide.

Lead singer Billy Corgan says the band resisted pressure to replicate its earlier success with an album comparable to "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," released in 1995. Members made a conscious effort to ignore outside expectations, he says. "I think that kind of completely removed the pressure," he says. "We just did what we would do in a vacuum." And band members happily admit "MACHINA" won't suit everyone's taste. "As I like to say, if everybody likes what you're doing, you're doing something wrong," Corgan says. Another defining difference between "MACHINA" and "Adore" is the return of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, whose heroin addiction forced the band to fire him in 1996. Clean now, Chamberlin was dismissed following the drug-overdose death of keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.

Faithful fans stand in line for a special in-store promotional concert in Los Angeles Band members are proud to have overcome intense personal and professional turmoil. "I don't mean this in any sort of trite way," Corgan says. "but the music has really been the thing that has healed us over and over again. It is the thing that has held us together and taught us about each other." Fans also can learn from the band's struggles, he adds. "What has gone on in my childhood, and the personal problems that we've had in the band, have given a lot of people hope," Corgan says. "(It shows) if you keep your nose pointed straight you can actually get somewhere -- to a happy place."

article courtesy of CNN online

Happy Birthday to Billy and Melisa who both celebrated their birthdays on St. Patrick's Day. On the 17th, Billy turned 33 while Melisa aged a mere 28. Many of you joined together with Project 33 to try to give Billy a birthday gift by getting the song Thirty-Three played on Total Request Live on MTV in his honor. Unfortunately, if you saw the show, we just got edged out in 11th place because our little siblings and too many other people voted once again for N'Sync. It doesn't matter though, becaue Project 33 got a mention for its efforts. Thanks to everyone who voted.

Despite a slew of competition from icons of rock old and new, Santana managed to maintain his stronghold on the Billboard album chart, The Billboard 200, for the week ending March 5, 2000. The closest anyone came to toppling Santana's Supernatural was the comeback album from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Btnhresurrection, which debuted at No. 2 but was still outsold by over 150,000 copies.

From there, the top 25 was loaded with notable debuts. The Smashing Pumpkins' latest, MACHINA/the machines of God, debuted close behind Bone Thugs at No. 3; Beanie Sigel's Truth landed at No. 5; Steely Dan's first album of new material in 20 years, Two Against Nature, at No. 6; AC/DC's latest, Stiff Upper Lip, fell in at No. 7; the Bloodhound Gang's Hooray For Boobies came in at No. 19; and Oasis's fourth studio effort, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, just made the cut at No. 24.

Other notable debuts include Jennifer Knapp's Lay It Down at No. 77; the Chieftains' Water From the Well at No. 127; and the Rollins Band's Get Some Go Again at No. 180.

article courtesy of CDnow

Following their brief tour of record stores, the Smashing Pumpkins have announced the initial dates for their upcoming U.S. tour, dubbed The Sacred and Profane.

The Pumpkins will hit Kansas City, Kan. on April 8 and stick around theaters and ballrooms in the Midwest for the first 10 dates of the tour, even stopping in Axl Rose's hometown of West Lafayette, Ind. No opening band had been decided for the tour at press time, and additional dates are expected to be announced shortly.

The Pumpkins are touring in support of the week-old MACHINA/the machines of God, which debuted at No. 3 on this week's Billboard album chart, The Billboard 200.

Here are the initial Smashing Pumpkins tour dates:

April 8, Kansas City, Kan., Memorial Auditorium
April 10, St. Louis, American Theater
April 12, Minneapolis, Northrop Auditorium
April 13, Milwaukee, Eagles Ballroom
April 15-16, Chicago, Aragon Ballroom
April 18, West Lafayette, Ind., Elliot Hall of Music
April 21, Dayton, Ohio, Hara Arena
April 23, Cleveland, Kent State Gymnasium
May 8, Orlando, Fla., Hard Rock Live

article courtesy of CDnow

After weathering the lineup rumblings that brought bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur into the fold and put drummer Jimmy Chamberlin back behind the kit, the Smashing Pumpkins returned to stores this week with its fifth studio album, "Machina/The Machines Of God."

Original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky left the Pumpkins in September after completing work on "Machina," and was replaced a few months later by Auf Der Maur, who split from Hole in October and made her live debut with the Pumpkins in December (see "Smashing Pumpkins To Unveil Auf Der Maur At Hometown Shows" ).

As for Chamberlin, he returned to the Pumpkins in early 1999 to work on "Machina" after being bounced from the band in 1996 for his involvement in the fatal overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin (see "Jimmy Chamberlin Back With Smashing Pumpkins" ).

Despite the state of flux that seemed to surround the Smashing Pumpkins last year, frontman Billy Corgan said that the new music on "Machina" was anything but arduous or demanding to work on.

"This record was a lot of fun to do," Corgan said in a recent interview, "and the writing was incredibly easy. We spent most of the time trying to take the songs as far as they could be taken down a particular avenue.

"So if it was gonna be proto cyber metal, we tried to make it very proto and very cyber. If it was acoustic, then we tried to not fall into the [typical] ballad-y kind of aspects. That's where we spent most of our time. The songs were probably written in about a day." [RealVideo]

"Machina/The Machines Of God" also marks the return of the band's guitar-zeitgeist driven sound that featured so prominently on 1993's "Siamese Dream" and 1995's "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness."

The Pumpkins opted to turn down the volume for 1998's elegiac "Adore," and Corgan was quick to note that in the interim, the band didn't spawn the kinds of imitators that other early '90s groups, such as Pearl Jam, did.

"Well, I also don't think that we're the type of band that people look at and say, 'I want to grow up to be just like that.'" Corgan said. "I mean, we're like a train wreck. We're the greatest train wreck in the world, but the gloriousness in what we do is in the soulful penetration part.

"It's not about copping a pose, or it's not about being cooler than thou. It's never been about that." [RealVideo]

The Smashing Pumpkins are presently on a promotional in-store tour that rolls into Minneapolis and Los Angeles over the weekend. The band's publicists indicate that more dates will be added to the outing, which is currently scheduled through a March 7 appearance in Seattle.

On March 9, the Smashing Pumpkins will be in MTV's Times Square Studios for "@MTV Week." During the group's special, which will air at 4:30 p.m. (ET), the Pumpkins will perform live and premiere the interactive video to "The Crying Tree Of Mercury," a clip directed by Corgan.

article courtesy of MTV.com