Quelling speculation which began after the exit of founding bass player D'Arcy Wretzky, Smashing Pumpkins [ tickets ] has added as bass player Melissa Auf Der Maur, who recently departed from Hole [ tickets ]. According to The Raft, a Virgin records publicity website, the new line-up will be in place when the band opens an 18-month world tour in January.

The fifth Smashing Pumpkins album, bearing the oddly capitalized title ''MACHINA/the machines of God,'' is slated for release on Feb. 28., but the band will launch a European tour in Sweden on Jan. 7, according to Virgin UK. No North American tour dates have been confirmed.

''MACHINA,'' which was completed before Wretzky left the band, was produced by Flood and head-Pumpkin Billy Corgan. The same duo was responsible for the double-CD epic ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.''

The new album features drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who returned to Smashing Pumpkins [ tickets ] earlier this year following a three-year separation prompted by his drug problems. (Chamberlin was exiled by the band when after-show partying claimed the life of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin in the midst of the 1996 ''Mellon Collie'' tour.)

''MACHINA'' fulfills Smashing Pumpkins' commitment to the Virgin label. The band escaped its long-term contract with Virgin in March of 1998 after citing a California statute limiting personal service contracts to seven years.

Auf Der Maur joined Hole [ tickets ] in 1994 after the band's founding bassist, Kristen Pfaff, died of a drug overdose. It was a strong recommendation from Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan that first led Love to call Auf Der Maur in for an audition. Corgan reportedly had been impressed by Auf Der Maur when her previous band Tinker opened for Smashing Pumpkins in 1993.

Wretzky runs Chicago indie label Scratchie Records with former bandmate James Iha and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger.