Former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha has extended an olive branch, of sorts, to remaining frontman Billy Corgan.

Promoting his new solo album "Look to the Sky," Iha told the Chicago Sun Times that even though it's been "eight or nine years" since he's spoken with Corgan, he doesn't rule out the possibility of working with him again:

"Never say never, but as I said, we haven't talked in a really long time. I haven't heard the new record (the Pumpkins' 'Oceania')."

Corgan made "Oceania," as well as 2007's "Zeitgeist," with other incarnations of the Pumpkins, and despite Iha's conciliatory words he does not sound to us like someone who wants to put the old band together:

"I saw this sort of dark underbelly, these weird fantasies where people were wanting us to fail so we'd bring back James and (bassist) D'Arcy and all this weird...stuff that comes up the sides. But I think that that's been good. There's been an exorcism there that was necessary because James and D'Arcy weren't coming back."

"So if I was gonna continue, what did I need to learn about continuing? And it wasn't get (producer) Butch Vig and make 'Siamese Dream II'...I had to kick the intellectual part of me and just get back to making Rock 'N' Roll music."

"Oceania" debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in June. The Pumpkins will be releasing an expanded edition of 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," featuring demo and alternate tracks as well as a few love performances, remixes and a DVD featuring a pair of 1996 live performances.

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