Not all bands that had a top 10 album in 1994 still exist. Or if they do, they're not making new music.

That's something Bill Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins likes to point out. His band still makes new music, whether it's "Teargarden By Kaleidyscope" — released one track at a time on the Internet — or the band's coming album "Oceania."

Fans certainly are still responding. When tickets went on sale for the band's sold-out Omaha stop on Tuesday (one of the band's 13 in this country this year), all the tickets were claimed within 30 seconds.

Just because Corgan — the band's leader and only original member — and his band are making new music, he's not stuck on it. He's as excited about reissues of "Siamese Dream" and "Gish" as he is about the band's new stuff.

He said "Drown" is one of the best songs he's ever written and he's still fond of songs such as "1979" and "Cherub Rock."

Corgan called us the day after the band kicked off its tour in Los Angeles to talk about the band, its contemporaries, The Smashing Pumpkins Record Club and why he still plays under The Smashing Pumpkins name.

Q. The tour just started. How has it gone so far?

A. Shockingly well. We're playing a pretty interesting set this time around. When you're rehearsing, you're thinking this could go really well or just terribly.

Q. You're playing in small venues all over, but Slowdown in Omaha especially is a pretty small club compared to others on the tour. Why is that?

A. What happened there is that I get these schedules — kind of a spec schedule — and then you get a final schedule. There was a two-day gap between Denver and Milwaukee and I hate having those days off. I said, 'We're ready, let's go play. Let's just play somewhere small and have some fun.' Sometimes, it's too late to put the tickets on sale. But they came back and said 'This date,' and I said, 'Perfect.'

Q. Very few of your contemporaries are still playing together. What do you think of that?

A. And of those that are playing, very few are playing new music. I'm so embarrassed by my contemporaries cashing checks.

I mean, are you kidding me? Guys playing old songs, that's fine. We play some old songs. That's great. But if you're not going to write new music . The whole point of the grunge movement in that time was we're gonna make music and change the status quo. Now these guys are saying, 'I've gotta pay my alimony.' I just shake my head and say, 'OK, whatever.'

But a lot of us knew back then there were more posers in that crowd than the outsiders did.

Q. So you'll play a lot of new music as well as some old songs?

A. Actually, we play a very interesting selection of old music. I don't know if you want to dig up the setlist from the L.A. show, but there's a lot of firepower. I think it's a very exciting show.

L.A.'s not the easiest crowd. 'Jaded' is a word that's usually associated with an L.A. crowd and they loved it. Rolling Stone wrote a great review.

Q. The Smashing Pumpkins Record Club, which started with a demo release of "Drown," is an interesting project because you're releasing kind of behind-the-scenes pieces.

A. Thanks. That's something we've been working on for a long time.

The record companies have really lost touch with the personal end. People really invested in bands, but (the labels) have gotten too caught up in 'What's a hit song? We don't care who's in the band or what the band looks like. Let's just get the song on the radio.'

It's become so about the song and I still think people come to the shows to listen to the band and feel the band. People still talk to me about the old band because they felt them as people and they were interesting people. And they are interesting people.

It's time to go back to the personal end of it. I think the way that The Smashing Pumpkins made music was really chaotic. We're really excited to be able to share.

We've been going back through all this stuff and even finding songs that are half-finished. 'Let's give that one away for free.' When we find something valuable, we're going to put a value on that so fans can support the whole idea of being able to give away even more stuff for free.

The movie business figured this out 10 years ago. Buy an old movie and you got deleted scenes, the commentary. People who are fans, they want that other level of experience.

Q. You're the only original member of The Smashing Pumpkins and I've heard a lot of people say, 'Well, that's not the real Smashing Pumpkins.' What do you say to that?

A. I say, of course it's not the real Smashing Pumpkins. (Laughs) It's not like we're pretending. The question then becomes, 'Why continue under The Smashing Pumpkins name?' A, I want to play Smashing Pumpkins music. B, I want to make new Smashing Pumpkins music. And C, Who are you to tell us who The Smashing Pumpkins are?

When I'm onstage — and I'm speaking personally — I'm playing my songs and except for maybe one song in the show which was co-written with (former guitarist) James (Iha). I wrote the song by myself. I stood in a room and played those songs and wrote them all alone.

If I call it Billy and the Flecktones or Billy and the Condors and I'm playing Smashing Pumpkins music, why not call ourselves The Smashing Pumpkins?

I'm going to stand here and play the music that I wrote for The Smashing Pumpkins, new and old.

I love those kinds of questions. I love that we're still controversial, kind of 'What the (expletive) is it?' That's what rock and roll needs. Rock and roll doesn't need apologizing.

The people onstage with me are in The Smashing Pumpkins 2011. Is it The Smashing Pumpkins 1994? Of course not. Do you really want to see that band? Maybe you want to see that band stand next to each other, but maybe not play together.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com

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