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Zwanmusic.org |
| Era Milestones and History: |
Mary Star Era Releases (Official): |
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Not long after The Smashing Pumpkins were done for good, Billy Corgan approached Matt Sweeney (Skunk, Chavez)
to form a band, something they had discussed years ago. In early 2001, Zwan was born, with fellow Pumpkins'
Jimmy Chamberlin at the drums, and David Pajo was recruited (Papa M, Slint) to play bass. The band kept Pajo's
identity a secret until their first live show, instead listing him as 'Skullfisher' on their official website.
The first incarnation of the band was dubbed 'The True Poets of Zwan', which kicked of a 5 day tour in November 2001 at the Glass
House in Pomona, California and ended with a gig at the Roxy in L.A. The band would re-emerge in December, playing a series of all-acoustic shows
in Grand Rapids, MI and Indianopolis under a new name, Djali Zwan. This new incarnation performed a completely new set of songs not performed by
the band as 'The True Poets of Zwan'.
While practicing and preparing for their debut album in Key West in the Spring of 2002, Zwan welcomes a new bassist, Paz Lenchantin,
formerly of A Perfect Circle. With Paz taking up the duties on bass, David Pajo became the third guitarist for the band, alongside Billy Corgan and
Matt Sweeney.
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Paz played her first show with Zwan on April 5, 2002 at the Blue Note in Columbus, Ohio.
Mostly playing electric, the band also included material they previously introduced such as "Jesus I" (The True Poets of Zwan) and "For Your Love" (Djali Zwan).
Zwan would also played their first Chicago gigs in April at the Double Door. After a stint at Q101's Jamboree in May, the band would continue work on their debut album
at Electric Audio in Chicago, with former SP recording engineer, Bjorn Thorsrud as co-producer throughout the summer.
After a series of open-mic nights at the Hideout in Chicago during the fall, and Christmas related gigs across North America in December, the band's
debut single, "Honestly" hit the airwaves. This was followed by a 5-night stand at the Metro in January and the release of their album Mary Star of the Sea
on January 28,2003 by Reprise Records in North America. The album would debut at #3 on Billboard, and #4 on Soundscan (Canada). However, the album quickly dropped off the charts
and has failed to reach even gold status to this date.
After embarking on a North American tour, Zwan released it's 2nd single/video, "Lyric" in April 2003. The song was rarely, if played at all on commerical
radio, and its video premiered on MTV, but subsqeuently was not put into high rotation. They performed "Lyric", as well as
"Settle Down" on Saturday Night Live shortly thereafter.
In June 2003, Zwan cancelled the remainder of their European tour due to 'family matters'. In August, Paz announced she had left Zwan to join David Pajo's
other band, Papa M. Any rumours that Zwan had broken up were finally confirmed on September 15, 2003, when Billy announced that they had disbanded in a radio interview. He said
he neglected to tell anybody the band was over because he no longer was running "around trying to generate news". Billy stated in the interview that Zwan was longer worth
being involved in because there wasn't the same band loyality and sense of family as The Smashing Pumpkins once had. With the end of Zwan, a Djali Zwan DVD set for release in 2004
was shelved.
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