Today is not the greatest day Billy Corgan’s ever known. The Smashing Pumpkins founder is being hauled to court after a eucalyptus tree on Corgan’s Beverly Hills property collapsed during a storm onto the home of his famous neighbors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayhart, Click Here to Read Entire Story!

M83′s Anthony Gonzalez is giving Billy Corgan one less thing to complain about (or at least he’s trying, anyway). In an interview with

“Even though I pronounced the album dead, I guess I still wanna do another one,” Billy Corgan said this past fall when he announced the Smashing Pumpkins’s upcoming Oceania…

Dave Matthews, Billy Corgan, Noel Gallagher, and Scott Weiland will all turn 45 this year. Kurt Cobain would have joined them today had he not sadly joined a more morbid club on April 5, 1994.

SPIN has done a lot of Cobain appreciating in our time, but last summer we went all out celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s landmark 1991 album Nevermind. Why? Because at that point, the word “Nirvana” had appeared in our pages 1,484 times since its release. Because as Eddie Vedder told us of his first listen to the LP, “Just hearing that tape with the white label, it had an impact. It felt like a change.”

What would have happened if Cobain did live past his 27th birthday? Chuck Klosterman tackled the idea, dreaming up a future for Kurt that lasted until 2003. But today, we’d like you to reflect once again on the massive impact this one man had on our lives, our culture, our ears, and our hearts:

• What Nevermind Means to Me: Eddie Vedder, Wayne Coyne, Dave Grohl and more share their personal histories with Nirvana’s landmark album.

• Kurt Cobain Scrapbook: Images of Kurt through the years, as we ran them in the pages of SPIN.

• Eight Myths About Nevermind: Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross answers two decades of burning questions.

Plus: Watch Nirvana’s performance of “School” at 1992′s Reading Festival. No recess. We miss you, Kurt.

Two previously unreleased recordings from two surviving alt-rock titans hit the web over the holiday. The first to surface was “Chinese,” a Stone Gossard-penned Pearl Jam demo from 1991 that Pearl Jam 20 writer/director Cameron Crowe premiered on Peej’s Sirius/XM radio station just after Christmas. It features the most new age-y Eddie Vedder vocal this (or any) side of “Arc.”

Then there’s “Have Faithe, Be Merrie” an acoustic, barely there Christmas ditty from Billy Corgan that the Smashing Pumpkins Record Club shared yesterday. It’s a gentle reminder to seek out those recently released vinyl reissues of both Gish and Siamese Dream (via Consequence of Sound).

Smashing Pumpkins’ Twitter feed has posted a link to a bizarre yet informative video interview filmed backstage at London’s O2 Academy, Brixton, where the band plays tonight and tomorrow night. In the short clip, Billy Corgan and his troops discuss their upcoming album, reject the notion of becoming a nostalgia act, and — in the case of Corgan, at least — down pill after pill:

Fans will have to wait until at least March 2012 to own the band’s upcoming ninth album, titled Oceania, Corgan says in the interview. “We actually thought it was going to be coming out now, but the response behind the scenes has been so strong we actually pushed it back a little bit, because everyone told us we were crazy to not put it out with sort of a formal release,” he explains. He also reiterates a previous announcement that Oceania will be a 13-song, hour-long record.

Then, as the other members of the band speak, Corgan can be seen popping a ridiculously huge number of what appear to be pills. As a guy who recently jumped into the pro wrestling biz, Corgan would seem to be playing a character here — he has previously said audiences “just aren’t sophisticated enough to know that I’m playing around.” Then again, his sinuses sound a bit congested. Regardless, Corgan’s performance — complete with a winter hat you might expect to see in South Park — is a fine source of bemusement.

Without naming any names, Corgan also takes shots at other bands from the ’90s. “It’s amazing how many people from my generation have totally sold out and just cashed in and just gone and played their old songs, and they have no ambition and no future,” he says. “They don’t call you an old band anymore, they call you a heritage act. That’s the last thing we’re gonna be.”

That isn’t to say Corgan is ignoring fans of early SP hits. On November 29, the Pumpkins will launch their reissues campaign with newly remastered and expanded versions of 1991′s Gish and 1993′s Siamese Dream. The band recently wrapped up a fall U.S. tour and will be playing across Europe through December 9, with more tour dates expected next year. Read SPIN’S review of SP’s Los Angeles show here.

Steve Austin. Jesse “the Body” Ventura. Now professional wrestling can add a new name to its impressive list of bald-headed stars: Billy Corgan. The Smashing Pumpkins frontman has formed his own professional wrestling company.

SP will be performing at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre tonight as part of a tour to promote ninth album Oceania, due in late November. But Corgan is also acting as creative director of the new firm Resistance Pro, he told FOX News Chicago. “We’re going to try to bring back to Chicago some of the glory days,” he said, drawing a contrast with the more “entertainment”-focused WWE. “We want to go back to a little more old-school kind of feel.” Resistance Pro’s first wrestling event takes place November 25 at Excalibur in Chicago; more information is on their website.

Corgan is no stranger to the world of wrestling. In fact, rock music and professional wrestling happen to have a lot in common, he tells Detroit News. “You have a very strong indie scene, and a lot of times guys and girls build up their names there, and when they try to go to the big leagues they get a lot of [grief] from fans saying, ‘You sold out,’ etc,” he says. “It’s totally the same thing as in music.” Also: Bob Mould. And that time Corgan was attacked onstage by a crew of Mexican wrestlers. Now it’s only a matter of days before James Iha smashes his former bandmate over the head with a chair.

Fans disappointed by some of Corgan’s antics during his band’s most recent tour have wrestling to blame. He has at times played the wrestling role known as the “heel,” as opposed to the good guy or “babyface,” he acknowledges to Detroit News, saying audiences “just aren’t sophisticated enough to know that I’m playing around.” But this time he isn’t playing, he says: “That guy’s been put to bed. I’m babyface from now on.” Still waiting for Oceania‘s Eric Clapton collaboration.