1.7.00 10:15 EST	Smashing Pumpkins Launch European Tour; Auf Der Maur Reminisces
Melissa Auf Der Maur RealVideo	The Smashing Pumpkins will start a three-week European tour today in Stockholm, Sweden, just weeks after debuting the band's new touring bassist, Melissa Auf Der Maur, at a pair of hometown shows in Chicago. As with last month's shows at the Metro, the Smashing Pumpkins are expected to use the short jaunt to road test new songs and material from the band's forthcoming album, "MACHINA/the machines of God." Auf Der Maur, who officially resigned from her bass-playing duties in Hole back in October, says that hooking up with the Pumpkins has been a gratifying experience so far and adds that her life changed when she saw the band play in her hometown of Montreal in 1990. "I pretty much found one of the loudest sounds inside myself," Auf Der Maur said, "[as I was listening to] this band. And I felt this thing when I watched this band. I pretty much started playing the bass that year, and Billy would weave in and out of my life giving me a 'thumb's up' or --" "A kick in the ass," interjected frontman Billy Corgan. "Absolutely," [RealVideo] Auf Der Maur agreed. Corgan was the one who recommended Auf Der Maur to Hole's Courtney Love when her band was looking for a bassist to replace Kristen M. Pfaff, who died of a drug overdose in 1994. "MACHINA/the machines of God" is due in record stores on February 29. -- Kara Manning