Pumpkins Sue Virgin Over Pepsi Cola

Billy Corgan must not drink Pepsi. Either that or he’s just pissed someone did something with the likeness of Smashing Pumpkins where he didn’t reign control over every atom comprised of the idea. Nevertheless, the front man is pissed that his band – which he has completely uprooted and re-bore this past year – is being used to sell stuff. Because Smashing Pumpkins don’t “sell stuff.”

According to Billboard, the band, nee probably just Billy, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles yesterday suing former label Virgin Records for unsolicited use of the band that they claim hurt their reputation. Hurling breach-of-contract animosities at Virgin, who released major Pumpkin records Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the filing claims use of their likeness in a Pepsi Stuff promotion with Amazon.com hurt the bands “artistic credibility.”

The lawsuit says they would "never grant such authority to Virgin, or any other entity." That other entity could be defined as the Pumpkins’ Warner Bros. label, which released 2007’s Zeitgeist. Billy, screw these record labels. I think it’s time to latch onto the latest trend of going label-less and releasing albums on the cheap, digitally, so you can defend yourself endlessly about how your idea is different than Radiohead’s.