Dear Billy,

I think we need to take some time apart for a little while.  I definitely do not want to break up or anything like that, it’s just I don’t feel the same spark that I used to.  Some time apart would do us good, you know, I just need to see some other bands, listen to other music.

You will always be my first love, yeah I had some serious flings with Rush, Pennywise, and Oingo Boingo, but they could never compare to you.  You’ll always have a piece of my heart.

So lets just take a little break, you do your thing and I’ll do mine, and we’ll see what happens.  It will be kind of hard, but I’m not even going to play you on my iPod for a couple weeks.  I look forward to hearing your new material when its released, and I’m not taking your pictures down.  When this is over, I really hope that we are both moving in the same direction and that the spark and connection is there like it always has been.

from, Jen.

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Basically at this point it has been so long since last I posted that I am doing a big blogging faux pau, and writing about all kinds of stuff at one time. Tac, my social media expert and husband will not totally love it, but what are you gonna do? Besides, he’s too nice to say anything.

So much has been happening in the land of music! I haven’t been writing about it, but I’ve sure been thinking about it a lot. I feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to play catchup and making separate posts for all this, hence the all at once.

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First of all, I love White Lies and their new album To Lose My Life. Of course Scary Larry told me about them. Tac and I both have listened to then a ton. They are best loud, but quieter works too.

Cover of Tale to Tell

The Mummers have turned their EP “Tale to Tell, part 1″ into a full length album. Seriously, if you haven’t, please listen to them and feel the love, and if you didn’t like them the first time TRY AGAIN! They added 4 wonderful songs, of which I am so impressed with all four. When I am in the mood for pure beauty and magic I turn to them.

My daughter got an iTunes gift card and I was so proud when she bought some more Relient K (her favorite band) and an EP from HelloGoodbye (the one with the avocado on the front). She is adorable.

Jimmy Chamberlain left The Smashing Pumpkins! And, I’m totally excited about it too. Why not be happy about it, since its that or be upset. I am entirely hopeful that Billy Corgan will just crank out some wonderful things with a new creative juice or something like that. I also wish the best for Jimmy, he is amazing, I love his work with The Pumpkins, but like I said earlier: I choose optimism over sadness and despair right now. Plus, I really love Adore, and that was done without Jimmy for all you non-pumpkin nerds.

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The Silversun Pickups have a new album, Swoon, and it has made me very happy. One of my favorite songs is called “Growing old is getting old.” My brother Adam is turning 30 today, so I am dedicating this to him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!! I am saying this is going to one of the albums on many people’s “best of 2009″ lists. I just keep listening, and it gets cooler every time.

If you are still reading: “hey thanks.”

And Happy Late Birthday to you, Larry!

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This is kind of a short post, mostly I just wanted to see what you think about it.  James Iha formerly of  The Smashing Pumpkins is finally in another band: Tinted Windows.   I just listened to their new song, Kind of a Girl, here.

Over all I would say they are musically talented for sure, but the lyrics? (to this song anyway)  Not so much.  It was too bubble gum for me, but that is what they were going for I guess, so they did a good job.  I was hoping that it would be better, so James could feel cool too.  He’s kind of like the ex-girlfriend that wants to look super hot and be all that, next time she sees her ex-boyfriend (Billy Corgan) at a party.

Prediction: Kind of A Girl, will surely end up on the soundtrack of a Disney-type tween movie.

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How many of you saw the Super Bowl commercial featuring The Smashing Pumpkins new song “FOL,” (Feel Our Love)? I didn’t see it during the actual game, but still I watched it several times.

You can download the whole song for free here, if you’d like. I love it, there is some real energy in this song, you do kinda “feel it.” And you end up singing it repetitively, maybe that’s what happened (Billy got his own song stuck in his head when he wrote it). Seriously though, I was a little nervous when I heard the new song would be released through a car commercial, I can’t really even think of a logical reason why.

After hearing it, and it is straight up Pumpkin goodness, I realized how silly that was. Because its actually really cool; I just got a great song from Billy for free. Take that Corgan nay-sayers, he was creative and managed to get paid for his work, but his fans didn’t have to be the ones to do it.

After listening to that one song many times, today I listened to a shuffled mix of everything Smashing Pumpkins (yes, Billy, I do listen to entire albums) and at once my super fandom was totally validated when “Bye June” came twinkling out of the speakers. That was followed by “Rose March” and I was as happy as I was the first time I listened to Siamese Dream.

(Below) enjoy some “Bye June” accompanied by some wonderful pictures taken in Scotland.

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