Last night, Billy Corgan was in Berlin, spiritual homeland of David Bowie in his late-’70s art rock period. As our friends at Stereogum point out, he used the occasion to debut a handful of new songs, including “Zowie,” a piano ballad tribute to the late icon that sounds more like Hunky Dory than Heroes or Low. Corgan also played another new song called “The Processional,” whose studio version features guitar work from his old Smashing Pumpkins bandmate James Iha, as Corgan recently revealed in a Rolling Stone interview. Both songs will appear on Ogilala, Corgan’s forthcoming new album. (He’s releasing it as William Patrick Corgan, his full name.)
In addition to those two, Corgan also played several other Ogilala tracks: “The Long Goodbye,” “Half-Life Of An Audodidact,” “Mandarynne,” “Antietam,” and the previously released singles “Aeronaut” and “The Spaniards.” Watch a high-quality video of the set, which begins with “Zowie” and “The Processional,” below.
