Announcement and "A Song for a Son" (2008–2009) The Smashing Pumpkins reformed in 2006, after a six-year hiatus, releasing the studio album
Zeitgeist in 2007. Although
Zeitgeist went
gold, which Billy Corgan considered an achievement given the state of the music industry, Corgan and drummer
Jimmy Chamberlin decided in 2008 that they would not make another traditional studio album, citing changing listener habits. In March 2009, Chamberlin left the band. Corgan held tryouts to find a replacement, eventually deciding on 19-year-old
Mike Byrne. In April, Corgan laid out his vision for the new album: [I] don't think I'm going to make albums in the old-fashioned way, meaning 12–15 songs, etc. in one small package. My desire at this point would be to release one song at a time, over a period of 2–3 years, with it all adding up to a box set/album of sorts that would also include an art movie of the album... My thinking is that if I focus on one song at a time I would approach them as beautiful, distinct paintings that would each require the attention they deserve. This would also mean I would choose what I am recording quite carefully as there would be tremendous internal pressure to get it just right, and that is the kind of pressure I like, which is to make the most beautiful thing possible. Corgan spent much of summer 2009 in ex-
Catherine member and "
Superchrist" producer
Kerry Brown's home studio, where
Zeitgeist was recorded, recording demos for about fifty songs. In July, Corgan formed the band
Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late
Sky Saxon of
The Seeds. He then toured with the band, comprising Brown,
Electric Prunes bassist
Mark Tulin,
Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist
Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator
Linda Strawberry,
flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist
Ysanne Spevack, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and
Jane's Addiction guitarist
Dave Navarro, playing covers and some of the new Pumpkins songs at several clubs in California. This is the second Smashing Pumpkins album released for free over the Internet, the first being 2000's
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.
Teargarden saw such a release due to Corgan's reported hope that people hear the album before dismissing it, on top of his interest in "subverting a system that works against
holistic thinking when it comes to how art is made and delivered to those who might want to hear it." All of the songs were planned to be released for free as 192-
kbps,
DRM-free
MP3 files, available from direct links on the band's website. Finally, a complete box set release is planned that will contain all of the tracks accompanied by an art film and a making-of documentary. Corgan said he was also considering a single-CD compilation of the best of the forty-four tracks.
Vol. 1: Songs for a Sailor and Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare (2010) On the first two EPs, Billy Corgan handled the bulk of the guitar and keyboards, with Mike Byrne on drums and Mark Tulin handling much of the bass playing. Kerry Brown played congas on "Astral Planes", and
Ysanne Spevack,
Linda Strawberry, and
Lisa Harriton have all mentioned contributing. In these sessions, Corgan consciously focused on finding the rhythmic "groove" in the music, as opposed to focusing more heavily on elaborate production or songwriting. The first physical EP,
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol. 1: Songs for a Sailor, consisting of a wooden box with the 4-song CD, a 7" vinyl record with one additional song, and a hand-carved stone
obelisk, was released May 25 by Rocket Science Music. and released two limited edition 7" singles containing the album's first four songs. "Widow Wake My Mind" was promoted as a radio single, with Corgan appearing on
WKQX in Chicago and several major-market stations adding it to rotation. On April 20, 2010, the band performed the song live with an
Up with People choir on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Initial
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope tracks received generally favorable reviews.
Spin's review of "Widow Wake My Mind" was positive, naming the song "a very pleasant surprise".
Rolling Stone included it in their "hot list", calling it "[Corgan's] sweetest pop melody since
Kennedy left
MTV." Nokia's Inside Music review lauded the free download scheme that Billy Corgan has implemented: "I'm completely stunned that tunes of this quality are up for grabs free for the anticipated 5 year duration of this project." The review continued, praising the maturing drumming of Mike Byrne: "It's worth pointing out that 19–20 year old drummer Mike Byrne is beginning to show signs that he may well be capable of filling the horrific void of Jimmy Chamberlin's departure". After completing work on the then-unreleased second EP, the band recruited new bassist
Nicole Fiorentino. While "Widow Wake My Mind" failed to chart, the follow-up single, "
Freak" was released on July 20, 2010, and reached #27 on the
Billboard Alternative chart and #34 on the Rock Songs chart. Also in July, the band launched an American tour, and went on to tour several continents throughout 2010, playing songs from the new album and promoting the free downloads. On October 12, 2010, "The Fellowship" was released on the television soundtrack for
The Vampire Diaries. The second EP,
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare, which was named after a lyric in their song "Tom Tom", was released on November 23, 2010 in the form of a cardboard box with the 4-song CD in a
letterpressed sleeve and a 12" vinyl
picture disc with all four EP tracks and a b-side. Jon Stone of
American Songwriter reacted positively to the second EP,
The Solstice Bare, stating that "The songs are not mind blowing, but for once, Billy doesn't seem like he is trying to prove his relevance to both old and new fans on every track. Respect is given to the song, rather than just the hook—quite an accomplishment from one of the most prolific and talented of hook writers." began contributing to
Teargarden after the band's 2010 tour
Stand-alone songs and Oceania (2011–2012) "The Fellowship", from the second EP, was released for free January 12, 2011 via the band's website. The band, including
Jeff Schroeder on guitar, recorded two further songs as a group, "Lightning Strikes" and "Owata". On March 17, 2011, "Lightning Strikes" was made available for free streaming on
Rolling Stone's website. The song was made available for download the following day on March 18, 2011, on the band's website. On May 3, 2011 the band released "
Owata" for streaming on LA Weekly.com. A
music video for the single was directed by Robby Starbuck, and will be first released as a 12-minute film on
Yahoo! Music, June 29, 2011 at 9:00 PM Pacific. It is the first video to use a
Red Epic-M camera. Before the third volume could be completed, the band decided to rework the project. In April, Corgan announced that the entire lineup would now record a full-length "album-within-an-album" as part of the
Teargarden project, to be titled
Oceania. Released in spring 2012, the album's arrival meant that just over half of the planned project had been released. The switch back to the album format had to do with both artistic interests and promotional intentions. But when asked in June 2012 whether he would return to the original release format, Corgan stated that he was "kind of mulling that around":
Monuments to an Elegy, Day for Night, abandonment (2014–2018) The Smashing Pumpkins' album
Monuments to an Elegy (2014) and the planned
Day for Night conclude the
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project. The original plan was for
Monuments to an Elegy to be a pop/rock album and then be followed by an experimental "weird, arty" album,
Day for Night. Corgan was unsure when
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope would be packaged as a box set, as originally planned. In 2014, Corgan said he was uncertain for the future of the band after the completion of the
Teargarden project. In 2015, Corgan said, "Originally it was going to be forty-four songs, but now it's going to be more like sixty, eighty. There's a lot of
demos that are release-worthy, but I don't want to be
Don Quixote, rushing forward with my box set to an audience of no one. Maybe I'll let it marinate. See how it feels in ten years' time." The perceived lukewarm response to
Monuments to an Elegy caused Corgan to change his plans for
Day for Night. Critics' reviews of
Monuments to an Elegy, which holds a rating of 70/100 at
Metacritic based on 31 reviews, were criticized by Corgan for being "middling, muddling" reviews and not offering a "fair" evaluation of the album, while also admitting he did not even read any of the reviews. Corgan said: "I thought for sure I would get really strong reviews for our new album
Monuments to an Elegy, based on all the feedback I was getting. But I'm getting the same reviews I got back in the day, these kind of middling, muddling reviews that just won't fucking say: 'This is a fucking brilliant album from a brilliant artist,'" and also elaborated that, "It's not a three-star fucking record. Nobody believes it's a three-star record. Nobody! OK, these people obviously did, so maybe I shouldn't be so absolute. But I've been in this business for 25 years and there is nobody in it who believes this is a three-star record. Nobody!" By August 2018, Corgan had announced the abandonment of the
Teargarden project as a whole. ==Concept and sound==