Photo: Billy Corgan (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images); Third Eye Blind (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Like Frank Costello, Vincent Gigante, and Sammy The Bull before him, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has aligned himself with a truly malevolent organization: Third Eye Blind. The “Semi-Charmed Life” hit-makers announced their sixth LP today, and, ominously, they credit Corgan as the album’s “musical consigliere.” Does this mean Corgan negotiated with the suits as singer Stephan Jenkins slowly pet a white Siberian in the studio, instilling fear in producers while quietly, forcefully demanding “more echo.” They’ll never tell.
They will, however, share the fruits of their labor. The synth-driven lead single, “Screamer,” features Sleigh Bells’ singer Alexis Krauss, and the influence of her long-running noise-pop outfit can be heard in the song’s vocal manipulation and stormy layers of distortion.
Screamer, which is also the name of the album, found Jenkins adopting “an open door policy” that encouraged potential collaborators to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Krauss’ contributions accompany those of Poliça’s Ryan Olson, who lent his touch to two different songs.
“My current mood resonates with rebellion, energy, courage, and risk,” Jenkins said in a statement, presumably while cast in half-shadow in a smoke-filled room. “I seek to combine it with a percussive level of musical immediacy in this collection of songs to cultivate collective idealism and an unapologetic aspiration towards humanistic values.”
You can hear Screamer on October 18th, provided, of course, you’re not wearing concrete shoes at the bottom of the Hudson.
