Billy Corgan has taken a break from his semi-professional wrestling and tea drinking duties to unleash a pair of new Smashing Pumpkins songs during a recent Chicago festival appearance. The tracks — “Orange Burnt Black” and “Methuselah” — were played at the city’s Ravinia Festival, which Corgan headlined earlier this week. The former song was introduced by the singer as “a pre-Halloween treat,” which is honestly a little bit early as far as treats go, but we’re not complaining since it means we get a crackling slow-jam.
“There was a time I cried,” Corgan sang over the anthemic “Orange Burnt Black,” taken from the recording sessions for the Pumpkins’ pair of upcoming albums, as backing musicians hummed alongside him. On “Methuselah,” however, the alt-rock survivor got intricate with his lyrical wordplay. “We are Chinese boxes, equal parts pleasure and pain,” he sings on the gloomy, slow-burn of a track. Consequence of Sound points out that fans might recognize “Methuselah” from the sessions for 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Until now, the song was only available in box set form.
In other Pumpkins news, the band’s former drummer, Jimmy Chamberlin, now serves as the CEO of LiveOne, the parent company of the streaming social media applet CrowdSurfing so any way you look at it, the band’s members seem to be doing alright for themselves. Check out “Methuselah” below and the slightly better-shot “Orange Burnt Black” above.
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