Just over two years after Billy Corgan sang the Smashing Pumpkins to sleep, his new band, Zwan, will release its debut album on Reprise Records. The still-untitled LP is slated for release in late January/early February, with its first single, "Honestly," set to hit radio in late November, according to a label spokesperson.

Following the Pumpkins' final show in December of 2000, Corgan hardly took the long, lazy vacation he promised to give himself at the time. "I can sleep in for the first time in my life," he said the night before his 22 million-selling band folded up its tent at the Metro, the hometown Chicago club where it all began.

Instead, Corgan began writing new songs, quickly amassing a fresh batch of nearly 50 tunes. Featuring guitarist Matt Sweeney (Chavez), bassist David Pajo (Tortoise) and former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, the new band made its debut less than a year later, performing at the Glass House in Pomona, California, on November 16, 2001 (see "Billy Corgan Ready To Debut His New Band, Zwan"). Zwan recently recruited Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle), who replaced Pajo on bass. Pajo switched to guitar, giving the band a formidable three-guitar lineup.

Zwan's live sound bears a distinct resemblance to the dynamic of the Pumpkins, down to Chamberlin's muscular, jazzy drumming and Corgan's unmistakable buzzsaw whine vocal, but often without the flowing, psychedelic sweep of the Pumpkins' more experimental tracks. Generous amounts of live material available on more than half a dozen Zwan fan sites, in addition to officially-released audio and video on the Zwan site, offers a glimpse of a band that mixes the fluid power of the Pumpkins with a sometimes more straightforward rock sound.

Among the songs the group has performed live, according to set lists from the Zwan Web site are "Jesus, I," "God's Gonna Set This World on Fire," "Glorious," "A New Poetry," "The World Goes Round," "Love Lies in Ruin," "Baby Let's Rock," "Signal This Strong," "Girl With the Cruel Face," "And So I Died of a Broken Heart," "Freedom Ain't What It Used to Be," "Candy Came Calling," "El-A-Noy," "Chicks Just Get in the Way," "Solace and Serenity," "Careless Love," "Roma Girl," "Silly Sally," "Chrysanthemum," "The Shining Path" and "What Have They Done to Me?"

The hushed acoustic ballad "Jesus, I" can be heard in the trailer for "Spun," the upcoming feature from transgressive music video director Jonas Akerlund (Prodigy, Smashing Pumpkins) (see "Members Of Korn, Pumpkins, Wilco Scoring With Movie Music"), starring Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Mena Suvari and "Almost Famous" star Patrick Fugit.

Zwan are hitting a number of holiday radio shows including KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas (Los Angeles, December 8), WBCN's X-Mas Rave (Boston, December 11), WXRK's Claus-Fest (New York, December 12) WHFS' HFSmas Nutcracker (Washington, D.C., December 13), WPLY's FEASTival (Philadelphia, December 15) and CIMX's The Night 89X Stole Christmas (Detroit, December 17), with more dates to be announced soon.

The band's spokesperson said it was not yet known which songs will make it onto the album, but just moments after the Pumpkins' final show (see "Pumpkins Circus Folds Up With Epic Show"), Corgan promised he would not tread the same ground again. "It won't be a variation of the Pumpkins theme," Corgan said of his next project. "It will be a completely different deal and a completely different part of my person."