The SMASHING PUMPKINS’ new album OCEANIA – released June 19 via Martha’s Music/EMI Label Services/Caroline Distribution–has entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart at #4 and earns the #1 spot on the Independent Albums Chart; it is the second highest debuting independently released album this year. OCEANIA now marks the group’s seventh Top Ten album.

Intended to recapture the album experience, all 13 songs on OCEANIA were premiered simultaneously to fans, radio, press and the online world for one week before its release exclusively via the iTunes Store. Forgoing the standard industry launch, the group purposely planned no single or video to be released prior to the full album. Thus, the album’s set-up fulfilled the PUMPKINS’ creative approach to the album.

Before the week of release of OCEANIA, group founder BILLY CORGAN hosted the album’s official release party on a boat on Lake Michigan in his Chicago hometown, where he played the album for friends and family and performed an acoustic mini-set. For the week of release, the band performed a contest-winners-only show for iHEART RADIO in New York City where CORGAN also sat down for much-talked-about interviews with Howard Stern and “Piers Morgan Tonight.” In Los Angeles, CORGAN performed two songs acoustically on KROQ’s “Kevin and Bean” show, had brunch with fans from radio station 98.7 and was interviewed by NPR’s “All Things Considered” for an in-depth chat about OCEANIA.

OCEANIA was recorded at singer/guitarist BILLY CORGAN’s private studio in Chicago with his bandmates: guitarist JEFF SCHROEDER, drummer MIKE BYRNE and bassist/vocalist NICOLE FIORENTINO. The powerful 13-song collection (see track listing below) was produced by Corgan and Bjorn Thorsrud and mixed by David Bottrill. Marking THE SMASHING PUMPKINS’ 7th studio record, it is “an album within an album,” part of their 44-song work-in-progress TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE.

The PUMPKINS’ confirmed tour dates are below, with North American dates expected to be announced for the fall.

July 26 Perth, AUS Challenge Stadium
July 27 Byron Bay NSW, AUS Splendour In The Grass
July 31 Darling Harbor NSW, AUS Sydney Entertainment Centre
Aug 2 Melbourne Vic, AUS Hisense Arena
Aug 4 Auckland Central, NZ Vector Arena
Aug 7 Quezon City, PHL Araneta Coliseum
Aug 14 Seoul, S. Korea Super!Sonic Music In The City

Here’s the OCEANIA track listing:

Quasar
Panopticon
The Celestials
Violet Rays
My Love is Winter
One Diamond, One Heart
Pinwheels
Oceania
Pale Horse
The Chimera
Glissandra
Inkless
Wildflower