Corgan's Zwan Preps Album

Billy Corgan announced that his new band Zwan's debut album is nearing completion.

"The Zwan album is just about done and we are all very excited and proud that we were able to come together to make this possible," Corgan said in a Web post. "We've been having a lot of fun, working like wizards under red lights here in the studio . . . Everyone has worked very hard so we could make the first Zwan record a reality by the end of this year, and it looks like we will probably be playing some shows after Thanksgiving."

Zwan's current line-up is Corgan on vocals and guitar, former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin resuming his old post; Matthew Sweeney, formerly of New York indie band Chavez, on guitar; David Pajo, formerly of Slint and Tortoise, on guitar and Paz Lenchantin, formerly of A Perfect Circle, on bass.

In other Corgan news, the singer commented on the November 19th Smashing Pumpkins DVD release of Vieuphoria, a re-release of the 1994 home video of the same name. "Everyone agreed that it was the most exciting and dramatic footage of the Pumpkins that we had ever seen from around the Vieuphoria time period of 88-94," he wrote. "The tapes are from 1994, and prior to finding them we didn't even know these tapes existed. They are a little raw, but really do capture the spirit and aggression of the band back in the good old days."

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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