Norma Jean has always been pretty bad A, and even though the Deftones inspired a lot of really shitty music they are legit. So while Norma Jean was working on their new album “The Antimother” they invited Cheno Moreno to come down and collaborate on a song with them. It seems like a strange pairing at first, but I have to say I’m interested in what the results will sound like.

Here is youtube footage of the sesh. Enjoy.

Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain told Spinner that him and Billy Corgan plan on hitting the studio later this spring, but added “I don’t think we will make records again.”

Pointing out that the band’s contractual commitment to Reprise Records is finished, the drummer explains “I look at it like the old business model is dead and the music business doesn’t know how to move forward. We want to keep things vital and keep things viable and get our music across while remaining relevant. Music has in many ways just become an advertisement for your tour. ”

“I think what we’ll do is start releasing songs,” Chamberlin continues. “The record or CD format places too many limitations on your piece of art. People just don’t buy records anymore. Anyone under the age of 24 just buys songs. It’s just in our best interest to release blocks of songs. And I think what we’ll do – not to let the cat out of the bag too much – is to create the framework where we can release a number of songs and maybe create a title. We can gather three or four songs, but it will all flow up to a larger body of work. But to call it record in the traditional sense would be anachronistic.”

Guess its a lot easier to buck the system when you’ve scanned 10 million or so units, own your own studio and have legions of fans who will gladly pay for your warmed-over noodlings, ie Zeitgeist.

Godcore luminaries, and one of my personal favorite bands, Underoath announced yesterday that they are currently finishing up the writing for the follow up to 2006’s Define the Great Line, and are planning on entering the studio next month to begin tracking:

So we’re less than a month away from going into the studio! It feels just like it was yesterday when we recorded Define the Great Line. I’m having a lot of fun writing this record. It’s one of our heaviest things we’ve ever done, and at the same time really experimental. A few months ago I felt like this record would be the least we’ve changed in a while. It seemed that for the first time we were going into a record we hadn’t been dissatisfied with our previous effort, and therein had no predisposition toward alienating ourselves from it. I look back at Define the Great Line and wouldn’t change a thing artistically, and although I feel a sense of achievement to have finally made a piece of art that I wouldn’t have changed years later, it also opens up new pressures of matching or exceeding what has already been done. I think our new record is going to be less of a attempt to disassociate the 24 year old men we are now from the 22 year old men we once were, but rather embracing what creativity we have and expanding on it with new influences and new experiences. I’m super pumped to see Matt’s new studio, and to work with Adam and Matt again. It will be a really fun experience.

Adam and Matt are of course producers, Adam D and Matt Goldman, the production team from Define the Great Line and a big reason why that record has scanned upwards of 500,000 copies since its release. Someone at Wikipedia is claiming the new record will be titled “I Am the Culprit” but that shit is highly doubtful since Wikipedia is made mostly of FAIL. Read an interview I did with Underoath frontman Spencer Chamberlain in the music archives and see for yourself just how hard I jock this band. Seriously.

Photo by Jeff Shaner, 1337 shooping by Daniel Taylor