March 15--Though Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has referred to millennials as "a generation of narcissists," he appreciates their taste in music.
"The millennials love (1993 album) 'Siamese Dream.' Who'd've guessed, I mean, no one's harder on the millennials than me. But they loved 'Siamese Dream?' Great!," Corgan told Rolling Stone magazine in an article posted online Monday. "But I'm not gonna go out there and hack around just to reclaim some light that I don't feel has gone out. The light is still in my eyes. I'm still more than capable of producing new work. I wrote a new song this morning and that's what I'm out here doing."
Corgan, who lives in the Chicago area, and the Pumpkins are slated to embark on their acoustic-electro "In Plainsong" tour next week that includes a April 14 stop at the Civic Opera House with Chicago singer-songwriter Liz Phair.
The band is expected to perform interpretations of classic Pumpkins songs. But don't expect members to play the entire 1995 album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."
"The idea of getting up and playing an album that was never meant to be played live in that sequence smacks of consumerism," Corgan said. "That stuff is the dregs of the music business. I have a hard time believing that everybody out there doing it really wants to do it."
