IE: What were you doing up in Northern California over Christmas?
Billy Corgan: Uhhh . . . girlfriend things. My girlfriend’s family lives up there.

IE: Jessica?
BC: Heh heh heh. Let’s just skip all that.

IE: Well, several entertainment sites promise to tell us who you’re dating. It’s sad that you’ve now turned into prey for tabloid predators. Even reality-TV shows all feature cutthroat people competing for some sleazy prize. What’s gone wrong, as you see it?
BC: I think we’re in a sort of exponential, continually accelerating sort of . . . self-examination? And one that’s probably unprecedented in human history. And technology, of course, is facilitating that. And there are interesting upsides. Like, for example, now people are their own media server. I don’t need anyone to print my quote – I can print my own quote, and if people wanna pick it up, they do. Which is interesting, because sometimes I say things that I think are pretty edgy, and nobody gives a shit. And then I’ll say something that’s really benign, and people pick up on it and suddenly it’s on somebody else’s Web site. But then you get into the whole Andy Warhol thing, where we’re now counting down to four minutes, 59 seconds. And it’s a fascinating insight into the human psyche in that everybody, in some sort of way, really wants to be famous. And you can’t say they’re wrong to want to be famous, because there’s something about being famous that feeds the inner ch…

We've finally broke down and joined Twitter... Feel free to look us up. http://twitter.com/sivapumpkins

Update: Download Widow Wake My Mind

According to Kerry Brown, we should be expecting a new track in a few days!

http://twitter.com/studiodog/status/7789966906

Wisconsin's most famous music studio, Smart Studios in Madison, will shut down this spring, the Shepherd Express has learned. An employee of the recording space confirmed the news. No final date has been set, though March 1 has been discussed. The reason for the closing is "the same reason any business closes," the employee wrote the Shepherd. "Money out > money in."

The studio was a fixture of the Madison rock scene throughout the '80s before becoming a national destination in the '90s after resident producer Butch Vig recorded there with Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. Vig and fellow Smart co-founder Steve Marker made the studio the home of their own alternative band, Garbage, recording each of the band's albums there. More recently Fall Out Boy and Death Cab For Cutie have recorded albums there, as well.

The studio was still busy in its final years, and to the outside eye seemingly indestructible. Infamously in 2003, a wayward backhoe from outside street work on East Johnson Avenue tore through the studio's wall, but the owners rebuilt it and resumed operations quickly.