Former Smashing Pumpkin to Put Out a “Fantasy Noise Experiment”

Melissa Auf Der Maur isn’t content to just put out a solo album. Which makes sense, she used to rock out on the bass for The Smashing Pumpkins and Hole. And after experiences like that, you’re bound to have a little bit of both artsy and sheer insanity rub off on you. Combine that with Auf Der Maur’s natural talent and ambition and you don’t just get an album. You get what’s being called a “Fantasy Noise Experiment.”

The project is, in Auf Der Maur’s own words “a three dimensional concept art,” featuring music, video, photography and comic illustrations. Set to be released as an album, a film and a comic, all titled “Out of Our Minds,” focus on a strong and fairly dark theme: blood. “It’s the connector between you and me, the animal, and the tree,” Melissa said. “It’s the life force that connects us through our pulsing heart.”

Jack Forbes has provided the comic illustrations for the project, rendered in black, white and red. It, like the film, will be totally wordless (don’t worry, the album will be the exception to this!). The reason for this goes deeper into the theme of the project: “How do you strip everything away, including words, and lose your mind, leave your mind, and follow — we use the word lightly, but — our heart. We follow our heart to the center of the conflict, or the center of the lifeforce. It sounds very general, but it’s not.”

While “Out of Our Minds” (or OOOM, “which is maybe the eternal sound,”) won’t be out until next spring, fans can look forward to a three song LP in digital and vinyl formats called “This would be Paradise” and the launching of Auf Der Maur’s website (hopefully later this month) which will be updated for the next two years with more information and bits and pieces of the project.

What do you think? Intriguing idea? Or too clever for it’s own good? How do you think this “Fantasy Noise Experiment” will all work out in the end?