Eric D. Johnson’s longstanding indie-folk project Fruit Bats have shared a breezy cover of Smashing Pumpkins‘ ‘Today’ – listen to it below.
The cover will appear on an album-length reworking of ‘Siamese Dream’, the 1993 alt-rock masterpiece by Johnson’s fellow Chicagoans the Smashing Pumpkins.
Johnson, who has been busy as of late with his Bonny Light Horsemen supergroup, plays all the instruments on ‘Siamese Dream’, which comes out on August 21 via Turntable Kitchen’s Sounds Delicious series.
“In 1993, I was the prime age to be swept up in alternative radio. But truth be told, while I loved Nirvana and Jane’s Addiction, in my heart I was still secretly wearing a hole in my cassette copy of Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits (1974–78),” Johnson said in a statement.
“Somehow, Smashing Pumpkins spoke to all sides of me – angsty on the surface but really filled with a kind of Midwest mysticism that spoke directly to my 17-year-old-kid-from-Illinois brain. It’s also the first tape I ever listened to while driving a long distance alone.”
Speaking on his reworking of ‘Siamese Dream’, Johnson said: “I’m pretty sure my version of this album is based on subconscious memories of that drive. I played all the instruments on this. And no, of course I’m not going to be able to recreate Billy Corgan’s crushing, epic guitar tone. Nor could I dream of touching Jimmy Chamberlin’s floaty (yet ever-shredding) drumming.”
He concluded: “This version is all about hazy memories for me, and how Corgan’s brilliant pop hooks can travel through time and exist in any possible instrumental configuration.”
Fruit Bats’ version of Siamese Dream arrives August 21 – you can pre-order it here.
Back in January, Corgan revealed that he and the group had 21 songs ready to go for a “pretty different” album. He later confirmed that sessions had begun in Nashville, and said the record would be arriving at some point in 2020.
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