my worthless thoughts:

Again, Again, Again - one of the more poppy pumpkins tunes, this could have been a single for the EP if they wanted one. The drums didn't quite sound like they were produced all too well, espeically with the toms. they sound like they were recorded in a month, thats a me thing though. Sort of repetitive with the word "again" but i liked it. I really dig electric guitars in the background

Rose March - i hadn't heard this song before because i pretty muched avoided the residency songs. but i enjoyed it how it builds up from just acoustic guitar to include bass and percussion. the song actually changes a bit right at 3:10, which is cool to see some varying structure. billy's vocals are way out in front along with the bass; that was kind of a bummer. also, i would loved to here some female backup vocals, i was kind of disappointed that there weren't any. la da da la da da da da.

Sunkissed - very groovy; i like the bassline. the line "if i'm gunna live" doesn't seem like it belongs or flows well, similar to "we are starz." i'm going to attribute that to the phrasing. it's a nice mellow song though, very easy to listen to.

Pox - first impression is that this song would sound great electric. Pox has a very different mood than the rest of the EP which is good, but could take away from the cohesiveness that an album is supposed to have but it still sort of fits, even though its less folky. Solid drumming, as always

Overall - i enjoyed this EP. It's not quite on par with the rest of the pumpkins catalog (maybe Machina), but I would definitely say that considering both albums on the whole, American Gothic is better than Zeitgeist. I would trade out a lot of the songs on Zeitgeist for the tracks on American Gothic as well as the production. Again, i'm bummed there aren't any female backup vocals because i think they work better than 3+ Billys, but there's really a lot to like here. I'm really digging the electric guitars other instrumentation on what was supposed to be an acoustic album. I don't think this is even close to Zeitgeist either. There is definitely a different ambience to the songs except for maybe "Pox". The pumpkins have stayed true to form by not making this album a rehashing of any previous album. I listened to this album having absolutely no expectations other than that AG is going to be an acoustic album on which it delivered and then some. I give it a 7/10

Where at on the Netphoria message board are these new songs exactly?

do you think any song will get pushed with decent radio time? i would hope so but in today's world... i would love to hear rose march on radio.

So as a New Year's resolution I am forbidding myself to download music for free, but I'm just not privy to joining iTunes. That said, has it been determined exactly which European retailers will be selling the physical EPs, and when those will be available for exporting? Thanks.

Trillian wrote:
That said, has it been determined exactly which European retailers will be selling the physical EPs, and when those will be available for exporting? Thanks.

Well I checked out HMV this morning and they havent even got it in their database yet. Ive no idea how to get it in the UK so far

kozworth wrote:
Where at on the Netphoria message board are these new songs exactly?

They're discussed on this thread

Please don't post links, or links that lead to any commercially available music.

I finally got to listen to these songs.
They're good and all, but once again, not a big fan of Billy's vocals.

I kinda like Pox.
It has a different sound to it then the other Zeitgeist songs.
The only problem is that to me it sounds a bit repetitive.

But yeah, like I said, I'm praying for a vocal change in the next release.

Ditto for Australia, I have checked with multiple retailers and no-one has a release date.

I re-read the news story on smashingpumpkins.com and whilst it states that it will be available on iTunes on the 2nd of Jan it doesn't actually state what the release date is for overseas.

I think it is time that someone came out with an offical release date so that we can all stop wasting our time.

You know, I think if Ginger did some of the vocals (the lala's in rose march especially), it could sound ALOT better. It wouldn't be as awkward as Billy making himself sound like he is on the "man-on-man" side of the fence if you catch my drift.

I like Again, Again, Again. I think it's the most familiar sounding song on the EP. Pox has a cool sound, but I think it has a weak chorus.

I can't believe no one else thinks Sunkissed is not only the best song here by far but also one of the best songs since the revival! I think it would've been right at home on TAFH, actually... ^_^

well, my brother in law pulled these things off itunes and put 'em on a CD as a late Christmas present so now I've heard them.

i love POX. it's awesome. best song of the 4 by far. the sound is very different and the groove is very easy to get into. i think it would work really really well recorded with driving electric guitars instead of the acoustic. keep everything else the same and it would be a new version of "quiet". it has a very siamese dream feel to it.

sunkissed is my 2nd favorite. it sounds like a 1960's folk rock song....and i don't mean that in a bad way.

the other 2 were not really that memorable for me...just 2 more OK songs from the Corgan library.

2uantuM wrote:
You know, I think if Ginger did some of the vocals (the lala's in rose march especially), it could sound ALOT better. It wouldn't be as awkward as Billy making himself sound like he is on the "man-on-man" side of the fence if you catch my drift.
Agreed. Even on songs like Starz and Bleeding The Orchid, I much preferred the initial live versions of the songs over the studio versions. Billy's voice is great, but layering it over and over like that can get a little spooky after a while.

sunkissed and the rose march are the best 2 songs on the ep

haha im going to be different to the lot of you guys and say that i dont like just 2 songs off the ep ... i like the whole lot

but if i do have to pick two favourites i would have to go with murder and say "again, again, again"

and i also like pox just as much

I like how overall it's being well received. I finally burned the songs to a CD with all the original Zeitgeist songs, plus "Stellar," "Zeitgeist," and "Death From Above" to create a "corgasmic" CD of all studio songs from the new era...and it's pretty amazing. Since everyone else is tossing around their favorites, I think "Again" is the most catchy and it stuck out to me at first and is still my favorite to listen to. After that, I like the remaining three on an equal level. "If I'm gonna live! If I'm gonna live!" in "Sunkissed" would probably win the award for most awkward moment of the EP, and the chorus of "Again" would probably win for most pleasing moment. I also really enjoy "The Rose March" when it transitions from LADADALDLALDLADLALDLADLALA to Billy playing the chords. Happens at about 33 seconds in and is very nice to listen to, and when the vocals enter, followed by the electric guitar, it's a great way to start a very good song.

Overall I'd say this is a quality effort from Billy and Jimmy. I'm satisfied, in fact, I'm very satisfied. I went into this not expecting to hear something that sounds just like classic acoustic Pumpkins. I went into this expecting some more great music from Zeitgeist-era Billy, not Siamese Dream-era Billy, and I was very satisfied. Some may think that means I'm settling for less, but I think it means I'm expecting the best music he has to offer NOW. Yeah, I don't like some bits and pieces of the songs and the overdubbing of his nasal whiney voice can get a little bit irritating, but I think we're still on the verge of greatness here. Billy has this band headed in the right direction, and I'm very optimistic about the future. Even though the sound of the band has changed from what it used to be, he's still an amazing song writer, and along with Jimmy, just about anything they do together will be a pleasure to listen to.