When supergroups aren't so super

Zwan

After the Smashing Pumpkins broke up in 2000, Billy Corgan wasted no time in assembling his next group—this ill-fated attempt to pool the talents of several of alternative and post-rock’s biggest cult heroes. Featuring guitar gods David Pajo (Slint, Tortoise) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Guided by Voices), bassist Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle) and Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Corgan’s highly touted supergroup managed to release one album (2003’s “Mary Star of the Sea,” which sold poorly and got mixed reviews) and play a few live shows before disbanding in late 2003.

Corgan, ever the diplomat, later blamed the band’s short-lived existence entirely on his collaborators: “Never have I met such creatures who feel so entitled to all yet contribute so little,” he blogged in 2004. “The world is on the brink of wars and mass terror, and their main concern is whether or not their indy friends still like them.”