Warning: Excessive greed may cause baldness, artistic impotence
Well, that's the nail in the coffin, then. Just when we were slightly, slightly starting to care about the Smashing Pumpkins again-- what with the release of their long-awaited new album Zeitgeist, and its not-terrible first single, "Tarantula"-- here comes something that makes us more than a bit mellon collie.
Billy and company would like you to know that they fully support the extinction of the American independent record store at the hand of large, faceless, little-guy-crushing big boxes. They also support bleeding their fans dry. How? By releasing FOUR different versions of Zeitgeist.
Best Buy and Target each get a version with an exclusive bonus track. So does iTunes. Like, a different one for each. Everybody else gets the regular version with no bonus tracks. So if you want all of the bonus tracks, you have to buy an album at Best Buy, an album at Target, and an album at iTunes. (Ooh, the presale iTunes version also comes with an extra set of Smashing Pumpkins covers by the Bravery, the Academy Is..., Panic at the Disco, Test Your Reflex, and +44. Ooh.)
Making fans who've been waiting the better part of a decade for new Smashing Pumpkins tunes buy an album several times over is, you know, bullshit. My god, you have to go to Target (and only Target!) to get the version with the title track! That just ain't right.
