The recently announced lineup for this year’s Splendour in the Grass Music Festival contains some very big names that will be heading down under later this year.

The Shins, Jack White and the Smashing Pumpkins all will appear at the Australian festival this year, along with a slew of other notable acts.

The three-day festival, presented by Village Sounds and Secret Service, will take place at Belongil Fields Byron Bay July 27-29. Other notable acts include At the Drive-In, Bloc Party, The Kooks, Azealia Banks, Explosions in the Sky, The Afghan Whigs, Lana Del Rey, Metric and Wolfmother.

The festival was held at Belongil Fields for most of the last decade, though it was temporarily held in Woodfordia, Queensland for the past two years.

In addition to the music festival, an arts festival will be held on the grounds, as well. In addition to art vendors will be special interactive art experiences set up throughout the grounds. There also will be a Kidzklub since the festival is all ages. Kids under 11 are admitted to the festival free.

This is the twelfth year of the festival, and co-producers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco recently released a statement about the event.

“The show has grown over the past few years with the addition of an extra day,” said the two in the statement. “We have a bunch more bands on the lineup and new venues like The Forum, the Very Small Mall and Day Spa etc., plus we’ve got some surprises in store this year. It will definitely be the best Splendour ever staged in Byron Bay.”

Byron Bay is known as one of Australia’s premier vacation spots, and its mayor, Jan Barham, spoke recently of the festival’s return to her city.

“Splendour’s home is Bryon Bay,” she said, “and there is defined benefit that the festival delivers to the area, especially in winter, so it is a welcome return.”

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan minced few words about his thoughts of the music business yesterday at Austin’s South By Southwest Festival.

In a one-on-one conversation with author Brian Solis entitled “The End of Business as Usual” – the name of the author’s recent book – Corgan candidly expressed his thoughts about the current climate of popular music, at one point saying, “I was part of a generation that changed the world – and it was taken over by posers.”

Throughout the conversation, Corgan expressed qualms about artists specifically, as well as the music industry as a whole. He claimed that young artists now “have grown up thinking that being famous is the goal. Not to be respected – not to be dangerous.” He also compared new successful artists to prostitutes, saying that once a deal is made, “you’re just the fresh stripper.”

Corgan called out singer Lana Del Rey specifically to cite as an example, expressing his thoughts about her widely panned appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this year. “It doesn’t surprise me that she crashed and burned, because she wasn’t ready for it,” he said. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

After the chat, Corgan headed over to the Samsung Blogger Lounge for another interview. In this one, Corgan proclaimed himself “official online techie geek influencer social media elite expert.” He also spoke of the role of technology in music.

“There’s nothing wrong with technology,” he said. “It’s when technology is the story and not the artist, that’s the problem.”

Corgan currently is in the midst of working on the Smashing Pumpkins epic Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which is a concept album set to eventually include 44 tracks. The album is being digitally released track by track as it is recorded, and it was recently reported that the band will issue Oceania, an “album within an album” later this year.

This fall, the Smashing Pumpkins; consisting of frontman Billy Corgan, bassist Nicole Fiorentino, drummer Mike Byrne and guitarist Jeff Schroeder; will be returning to the road for a 12-city intimate tour of the U.S. The outing will be a warm-up for the band’s big touring year in 2012. Their fall tour will kick off on October 5 in Los Angeles at Wiltern Theatre with the trek wrapping up on October 22 in Philadelphia at Tower Theater.

The tour will mix deep cuts, classics and a few tracks off “Oceania,” their upcoming album that is scheduled to be released in early 2012. The outing will include dates for Chicago, the band’s hometown, on October 14 and on October 18 the band will perform at Terminal 5 in New York City. Following the critically acclaimed 2010 shows of the band’s, concert tickets will be going on sale soon. The Smashing Pumpkins, at all of their shows will be supported by bands Light FM (Nicole Fiorentino’s former band before she joined the Pumpkins) and Fancy Space People (which features Don Bolles from 45 Grave, Celebrity Skin and the Germs).

Currently, the Smashing Pumpkins are working hard to complete “Oceania.” It will the first full album from the band since “Zeitgeist” was released in 2007. “Oceania” is part of the band’s in-progress “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope” 44 song work and is an album inside an album. “Oceania” features 13 new songs and is scheduled to be released in the early part of 2012.

EMI Music this fall will be honoring The Smashing Pumpkin’s legacy with a campaign that is extensive. The albums of the iconic band from 1991-2000 will be reissued in deluxe versions that are fully remastered, with each one also containing bonus material.

A global catalog campaign will be rolled out by EMI, with guidance and full support from The Smashing Pumpkins. “Gish,” the 1991 debut album of the band’s and “Siamese Dream” from 1993, will both will be released on November 15. The band has sold more than 30 million albums over their career.

In 2012, there will be more excitement when EMI reissues “Pisces Iscariot,” a compilation album from 1994, “Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness,” the 9x platinum double album from 1995, “The Aeroplane Flies High,” a five disc boxed set from 1996 and “Adore” from 1998.

Their albums from 2000 “Machina” and Machina II” will be released in 2013 as one package. Also in 2013, there will be a best-of compilation released. The many hits of the Smashing Pumpkins helped to define the alternative rock era and continues to resonate with modern rock radio and influence new generations.

Alt-rock act Smashing Pumpkins had just unveiled the itinerary for their upcoming tour to support their newest release, the EP “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol. 1: Songs for a Sailor.” It has been two years since Billy Corgan and the rest of the Smashing Pumpkins has torn the road with their live performances.

The upcoming tour, which will feature the band’s new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, will kick off in Cleveland on July 6 and will be hitting 12 other cities including a performance at the Forecastle Festival in Kentucky on the 10th, which will then conclude with a show in Memphis on the on the 24th.

The band will also be hitting three cities in Japan come August and will also be performing in Australia and South America later this year, details of which will be confirmed in the coming days.

The group is also planning to have a set of intimate sound checks with their most loyal fans where they will be singing all new material with some of their classic hits. Although the details for the sound checks are still being worked out, the band says that entrance to the venues will be solely by invitation.

Smashing Pumpkin’s new EP “Teargarden” which features four new tracks surfaced in the market in December and can also be heard through streaming by visiting the band’s official website.

The EP also comes in a silk-screen, collector’s package wooden box which is available only for a limited time.

2010 Smashing Pumpkins Concert Tour
July 2010
6 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
8 – Grand Rapids, MI – Orbit Room
9 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
10 – Louisville, KY – Forecastle Festival
12 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live
13 – Richmond, VA – The National
15 – Norfolk, VA – NorVa
16 – Charlotte, NC – Fillmore Charlotte
17 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm
19 – Lake Buena Vista, FL – House of Blues
20 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
21 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz Ybor
23 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
24 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall

August 2010
7 – Tokyo, Japan – Chiba Marine Stadium
8 – Osaka, Japan – Maishima
10, 11 – Tokyo, Japan – Studio Coast

For the 9.7% of the population scouring the want ads daily, I’ve got a job lead for you. Billy Corgan is looking for new band mates to play with. Notorious weirdo Corgan, who once took out a full-page newspaper ad to whine about how much he missed Smashing Pumpkins, is looking for a keyboardist and bassist to fill out the band. As for qualifications, you had better be a gushing fan of prog rock and be able to play a mean Jon Lord or Rick Wakeman to be able to fondle Corgan’s discerning ear.

Former Pumpkins bassist Ginger Pooley has recently left the band to raise her new baby. Upon her departure, Pooley released the statement, “with sorrow and yet with much thankfulness for the opportunity to have played in the Pumpkins, I am sad to say that I can no longer tour with the Pumpkins,” Pooley said in a prepared statement. “… I wish Billy all the best and look forward to seeing the Pumpkins in the near future. I would also like to thank all of the Pumpkins fans for all of their support. I will see you at the Pumpkins shows!”

All this scurrying about for new band members comes on the eve of the announcement of a Smashing Pumpkins world tour. For those interesting In ‘Slappin’ the bass’ with Billy, should kick him an email at pumpkinsbass@gmail.com or pumpkinskeys@gmail.com for keyboardists. Be sure to include your age, resume with any bands/recording work you’ve done as well as photos and performance web links. Only applicants with video clips will be consider. Think YouTube. Get those applications in by March 31.