News reaches us that the Smashing Pumpkins plan to release an EP of four acoustic tracks exclusively through Apple’s iTunes store.

The EP will be titled American Gothic and is due to be released on 2 January 2008. Although the release will be iTunes only stateside, the rest of the world will see a physical release also.

The songs on the American Gothic EP are:

• The Rose March
• Pox
• Again, Again, Again (The Crux)
• Sunkissed

The songs were recorded by the band during a break in touring earlier this year and the EP was produced by Billy and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. On the official website, it says:

“We have always regretted not recording more in between tours because albums have never caught the full story of the group…it’s sort of Zeitgeist+,” says Billy of American Gothic, the title of which is “continued comment on the state of our country.”

“I had written a bunch of material during the residencies in Asheville and San Francisco [earlier this year],” continues Billy, “and fans kept asking us if we were gonna put any of that stuff out. iTunes came to us wanting to do something together, so it just felt right.”

That said, there have been a lot of negative reviews of Zeitgeist, suggesting that the Pumpkins reforming was not the second coming of Christ that people expected it to be.

Will American Gothic improve upon that? Guess we’ll find out in the new year…