Smashing Pumpkins Unleash "Teargarden" Track "Widow Wake My Mind"

The second song from the Smashing Pumpkins' massive Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, "Widow Wake My Mind," has premiered on MySpace Music and is now being offered as a free download on the official Smashing Pumpkins Website. Whereas debut Teargarden track "A Song for a Son" seemed influenced by ZoSo-era Led Zeppelin, "Widow" finds Billy Corgan and the new Pumpkins crew embracing Houses of the Holy: heavy riffage with a "D'Yer M'aker" bop. And, as far as we can tell, despite being photographed in the studio with Corgan, Jessica Simpson doesn't feature on the track.

Smashing Pumpkins celebrate 20 years of rock in NYC: photos.

As Rolling Stone reported in September, Teargarden By Kaleidyscope will feature 44 songs, and the band will make every track available as a free, no-strings-attached download immediately after it's finished. Each batch of four songs will be released as a limited-edition EP, and the entire 44-song collection will be later be housed in a box set. At his current release rate, Corgan is on pace to finish Teargarden in 2014.

Corgan previously announced that the Pumpkins will embark on a world tour in support of Teargarden in spring 2010, so the Pumpkins better get a move on. Corgan also recently announced plans to start his own record label, which will feature new music by the likes of the Germs and psychedelic era standouts the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Electric Prunes.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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