Photo: Jason Renaud
Smashing Pumpkins are heading out on a North American tour at the end of the month, and it looks like fans might get to hear some new material during the shows. On Friday (July 19), the band announced their 13th album Aghori Mhori Mei and Billy Corgan revealed the 10-track collection is inspired by their '90s sound.
“In the writing of this new album I became intrigued with the well-worn axiom, ‘you can’t go home again.’ Which I have found personally to be true in form but thought well, what if we tried anyway?" the bandleader said in a statement. "Not so much in looking backwards with sentimentality but rather as a means to move forward; to see if in the balance of success and failure that our ways of making music circa 1990-1996 would still inspire something revelatory.”
Aghori Mhori Mei is slated for an August 2 release.
The Pumpkins' upcoming tour will be a mix of headlining dates and support on Green Day's Saviors Tour. It will be their first North American outing with new touring guitarist Kiki Wong. The band connected with Wong after putting out an open call on social media in January, following Jeff Schroeder's departure from the band. They received 10,000 applications, but only auditioned a handful of musicians. In April, they announced Wong has their new touring guitarist. Billy Corgan recently revealed what made her stand out amongst thousands of musicians, saying "there was something about Kiki's presence and personality and sweetness that we just were really attracted to. She just felt like a real breath of fresh air."