I was perusing the computer search program at work today and I happened upon an exciting bit of news. A book about the Smashing Pumpkins will be published next August, titled Smashing Pumpkins: Tales of a Scorched Earth. The ISBN is 1900924684, if anybody needs that. It's kind of an odd subtitle, really. "Tales of a Scorched Earth" is their heaviest, fastest song, with something like 40-50 different guitars all going at once. It's nuts.

Given that the band had such a diverse sound through the years, I would think that they could've picked a better title. "The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music" is a pretty good title, even though it's already used as a title of two different bootleg collections. What about "Bleed in Your Own Light", the first line from "Rocket"? Maybe just simply, "Rawk."

I wonder how much research is going into this book. Much can be gleaned from reading old interviews with the band, but they weren't always very forthcoming. This was because they were usually tired, wasted, arguing, depressed, and stubbornly resistant to ever giving straight answers. I hope the author (Amy Hanson) is a fan and a scholar. If she never mentions June I'll be sorely disappointed.