THE Smashing Pumpkins are more than halfway home on their first album since 2000, according to posts from drummer Jimmy Chamberlin on the group’s MySpace.com site.

Singer Billy Corgan (pic) and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are working on their latest Smashing Pumpkins album.

“We have been working day and night in the studio and I am happy to say that the drums are finished!” he wrote earlier this month. “After almost a year of work, to finally sit down and listen to the drum takes, one after another, was a truly joyful experience.”

Last week, he chronicled a “magnificent guitar symphony” from Billy Corgan featuring “eight guitars resonating in one big harmonic handshake. It is still ringing in my ears this morning.”

His posts carefully worded to avoid any mention of song titles or acknowledgement of who, if anybody, is working with him and Corgan in the studio, Chamberlin has also thanked “the Grateful Dead, Rush (and) Billy Thorpe for their guidance in this hour of need.”

Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date, the as-yet-untitled album is expected in late May, with a tour to follow.

Hail to the Stooges

IGGY Pop and the Stooges have just wrapped their first studio album since 1973. The as-yet-untitled disc is due in March via Virgin and was recorded with engineer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago. Bassist Mike Watt filled in for the late Dave Alexander, while Brendan Benson contributed vocals to Free and Freaky. “The one thing that kind of amazes me is that it sounds like us,” Pop tells Billboard.com. “But it doesn’t sound quite like Fun House, Raw Power or our first one. You put it on, and right away, you’d know, well, that’s them. There they go.” The 16-track set will feature such songs as Trollin’, ATM, You Can’t Have Friends, My Idea of Fun, The Weirdness and Greedy Awful People. After songwriting sessions at Pop’s Miami cabin earlier this year, the group hit the studio and tracked nearly everything live “except for two vocals, which I f***ed up,” says Pop.

Pop admits being in the studio with the Asheton brothers after a three-decade hiatus rekindled some bad memories of the band’s demise. “Some of it is exciting and some of it is scary, and I don’t care to go over there,” he says. The Stooges will master the album at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios next month.

Albarn’s endeavours

NOT content with having two successful bands in Blur and Gorillaz, vocalist Damon Albarn has four new projects underway. On Oct 27, Albarn flew to Algiers, where he spent three days producing Algerian group El Gusto for an album due on his own Honest Jon’s label in spring 2007. Returning to London, the artiste had to knuckle down to a December deadline for completing an operatic score for Monkey: Journey to the West, based on an ancient Chinese legend. The work is due to premiere at the Manchester International Festival of Arts, to be held from June 28 to July 15. The singer says he is also working on a feature-length Gorillaz film with former Monty Python’s Flying Circus animator Terry Gilliam. “The one thing I never want to be guilty of,” Albarn says, “is repeating myself.” Albarn is also making the rounds with a new band, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, which also features former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Afro-beat drummer Tony Allen. The group’s self-titled debut is due in January and is led by the single Herculean.

Pop Philosophy

The album’s all about love, relationships, the things life throws at you – situations, temptations. These are the things that come out when you’re feeling reflective. And whenever I pick up a guitar to write a song it’s never when things are great, it’s late at night when I’m feeling crap. There’s no other way I’ve seen of doing it really. You have to just express your feelings and not care what people are going to think.

– Romeo Stodart on the Magic Number’s new album Those The Brokes( The Independent, November 2006)

Billboard Hot 100: Top 10

1. I wanna Love You – Akon (featuring Snoop Dogg)

2. Smack That – Akon (featuring Eminem)

3. Irreplaceable – Beyonce

4. My Love – Justin Timberlake

5. Fergalicious – Fergie

6. Lips of An Angel – Hinder

7. Money Maker – Ludacris (featuring Pharrell)

8. How To Save A Live – The Fray

9. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

10. Shortie Like Mine – Bow Wow (featuring Chris Brown & Johnta Austin)

Billboard 200 Top Albums: Top 10

1. Doctor’s Advocate – The Game

2. Konvicted – Akon

3. Now 23 – Various Artistes

4. Awake – Josh Groban

5. Hannah Montana – Soundtrack

6. Love, Pain & the whole Crazy Thing – Keith Urban

7. Enjoy The Ride – Sugarland

8. The Pick of Destiny Soundtrack – Tenacious D

9. B’Day – Beyonce

10. When Your Heart Stops Beating – (+44)

Modern Rock Tracks

1. The Black Parade – My Chemical Romance

2. Anna-Molly – Incubus

3. Through Glass – Stone Sour

4. The Diary of Jane – Breaking Benjamin

5. The Pot – Tool

6. Call Me When You’re Sober – Evanescence

7. Love Like Winter – AFI

8. Face Down – The Red Jumpsuit Aparatus

9. When You Were Young – The Killers

10. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

Top Country Albums

1. Love, Pain & the whole Crazy Thing – Keith Urban

2. Enjoy The Ride – Sugarland

3. Some Hearts – Carrie Underwood

4. Me And My Gang – Rascal Flatts

5. It Just Comes Natural – George Strait

6. Your Man – Josh Turner

7. Time Well Wasted – Brad Paisley

8. Small Town Girl – Kellie Pickler

9. Like Red On A Rose – Alan Jackson

10. If You’re Going Through Hell – Rodney Atkins

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

1. Doctor’s Advocate – The Game

2. Konvicted – Akon

3. Me, Myself & I – Fat Joe

4. Like Father, Like Son – Birdman & Lil Wayne

5. Hustler’s P.O.M.E. (Product Of My Environment) – Jim Jones

6. B’Day – Beyonce

7. Once Again – John Legend

8. Now 23 – Various Artistes

9. Between Friends – Tamia

10. FutureSex/LoveSounds – Justin Timberlake

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