Kevin Bronson on November 3rd, 2008

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His close friends call him Shredder, thanks to his talents with a guitar, but two years ago Jeff Schroeder was just a part-time musician — and a full-time graduate student, working toward his Ph.D. in comparative literature at UCLA. Then a mutual friend helped him get an audition with the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, who were rebuilding a band to play behind their new album “Zeitgeist.”

About 150 shows later, the Orange County native” is still carving out his place with the Pumpkins. And as the band hopscotches through a 20-plus-date tour marking its 20th anniversary, Schroeder will share his experiences in a tour diary on this very blog.

This Pumpkins tour comes at an interesting time for the band — the principals have said they will continue to write and record new music, and Corgan refuses, admirably, to let the Smashing Pumpkins become a cover band of themselves. “This tour is a celebration of where we are, not where we’ve been,” he wrote on his own blog last week. His reluctance to become a button-pusher on a greatest-hits machine raised the ire of some fans, but, then again, so did his decision to re-form the Pumpkins without originals James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky (an issue also addressed on the blog).

Of this, Schroeder, who mans Iha’s spot, is acutely aware. “I would be lying if I told you I didn’t care at all about how some fans would react to James Iha not being there,” Schroeder says. “It was in the back of my mind. I have to say, however, the fans have been great and shown both me and Ginger [Reyes, the new bassist] a lot of support. I think the biggest issue with the hard-core Smashing Pumpkins fans is the integrity of the music. Ginger and I have worked really hard to honor the music to the highest level.”

Schroeder, the longtime guitarist in SoCal band the Lassie Foundation, had to ratchet up his game considerably to do so. “I’m definitely not a hired-gun type of guitar player — I don’t really have the skill for that,” he says modestly. “The only reason I was interested in the Pumpkins gig is because I’m a huge fan of their music.”

But he no longer feels like an outsider among his new bandmates: “I think people are very surprised when they see us interact with each other, to see us get along as friends and musicians.”  Regardless of what our business relationships are, when we walk on stage we bring that primal collective mentality with us.”

Watch this space for Schroeder’s observations from the road.

||| Live: The Smashing Pumpkins’ tour ends with shows Dec. 2 and 3 at the Gibson Amphitheatre.

Photos: Schroeder performing, and the Pumpkins on the red carpet, at the Guitar Hero World Tour kickoff party.

…. mention LA dates