Looks like Canadian anarcha-core band Fucked Up are taking it, not to the streets, but to the courts. It's the people vs. the man, and this time "the people" are 186 of your favorite bands. Joined by Xiu Xiu, which the complaint describes as "often thematically dark, marked by non-narrative, evocative lyrics delivered in small fragments," the two groups have motioned for action, seconded that action, and filed a class action lawsuit against RJ Reynolds and Wenner Media on behalf of all 186 bands name-checked in the four-page Camel "Indie Rock Universe" spread featured in Rolling Stone's November issue.
The suit, filed in Alameda County on December 17 and which reads like it was written by a devoted-reader-of-Pitchfork attorney, alleges the unauthorized use of artist names, unauthorized use of artist names for commercial advantage (right of publicity), and unfair business practices. The lawsuit, the first calling for accountability by Rolling Stone for its part in the ad, requests that the magazine issue an admission that the artist names were used without consent in a spread equal to the size of the original advertisement in question, along with punitive financial damages. The equation conceptualizing damages at $750 per issue, per band, could amount damages at nearly $200 BILLION. Zing!
The bands cited in the ad -- in what Rolling Stone is defending as a "special editorial fold out" -- were surprised to find their songs streaming through Camel's thefarmrocks.com without authorization from both the artists and their labels, inciting the Kill Rock Stars letter of complaint sent to RJR on December 13 (TMT News). As an interim solution to the accusations, Camel has suspended the website and disabled the tracks, but the damage has been done.
Reprehensibly, Rolling Stone claimed the spread had nothing to do with Farm Rocks' (committed to "supporting and promoting independent record labels") nine-page ad campaign appearing on either side of it, which is not only shameless bullshit, but an insult to readers' intelligence. As section 17 of the Fucked Up lawsuit states, "It is obvious to any reasonable person viewing the actual offending foldout... that it is the star attraction of a carefully designed and executed marketing and advertising pitch for Camel cigarettes. Indeed, that is the only possible impression that can be left on the mind of any sentient twenty-first century being with eyesight." And as such sentient beings, we can conclude that Reynolds and Stone are trying to play us for fools, attempting to reduce the indie community to a mindlessly consuming and unquestioning target audience, which Fucked Up and Xiu Xiu have asserted we certainly are not.
We could go even further, interpreting the legal action as a refusal to allow major corporations to appropriate independent culture simply for product endorsement. This is calling bullshit on wolves in sheep's (or in this case indie kids') clothing, who were trying to gain credibility with their next generation of smokers, as section 16 reads "The intendment of the entire multi-page advertising pitch generally, and the foldout in particular, is in its essence an effort at ingratiation, insinuation into target readership favor, and association in readers' minds of Camel members of the target audience, which defendants planned, predicted or hoped would be generated by the use of the ersatz taxonomy of 'indie rock.'"
So, Jann Werner, come on down! You're 2007's embarrassment to us all! And Xiu Xiu, Fucked Up -- our heroes.
The "Indie Rock Universe" spread, name-checking the following bands in the November 15 "fold out":
!!!, 1990s, A Place to Bury Strangers, Against Me!, AIDS Wolf, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Arcade Fire, Architecture in Helsinki, Arctic Monkeys, Art Brut, Babyshambles, Band of Horses, Bat For Lashes, Beirut, Belle and Sebastian, Biffy Clyro, Bjork, Black Dice, Black Mountain, Bloc Party, Blonde Redhead, Boards of Canada, Bonde de Role, Boredoms, Boris, Bright Eyes, Brightblack Morning Light, Bucks and Gallants, Built to Spill, Cat Power, Celebration, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Coco Rosie, Comets on Fire, CSS, Daft Punk, David Pajo, Dean and Britta, Death Cab for Cutie, Deerhoof, Devendra Banhart, DeVotchka, Diplo, Dirty Pretty Things, Dirty Projectors, DJ Mehdi, Dr. Dog, Dungen, Ellen Allien and Apparat, Emily Jane White, Emma Pollack, Erase Errata, Explosions in the Sky, Fall Out Boy, Feist, Fields, Franz Ferdinand, Frog Eyes, Fucked Up, Fugazi, Ghostland Observatory, Girl Talk, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Gogol Bordello, Grizzly Bear, Guided by Voices, Guitar Wolf, Gym Class heroes, Handsome Furs, High on Fire, Home Blitz, Hot Chip, Husker Du, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Interpol, Iron and Wine, Jans Lekman, Japanther, Jesu, Joanna Newsom, Jose Gonzalez, Joy Division, Junior Boys, Justice, Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons, Last Days of May, Laura Veirs, Lavender Diamond, LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre, Les Savvy Fav, Liars, Lightning Bolt, Little Claw, Low, M. Ward, M.I.A., Mates of State, Matmos, Minus the Bear, Modest Mouse, Mogwai, Mountain Goats, Mum, My Chemical Romance, My Morning Jacket, Neutral Milk Hotel, New Pornographers, New Young Pony Club, Nirvana, Oakley Hall, Octopus Project, Of Montreal, Panda Bear, Panic! at the Disco, Parts and Labor, Pavement, Peter and the Wolves, Pissed Jeans, Pixies, PJ Harvey, Plain White T's, Prinzhorn Dance School, Psapp, Radiohead, Ratatat, Ryan Adams, Scout Niblett, Sea Wolf, Shitdisco, Sigur Ros, Simian Mobile Disco, Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Sons and Daughters, Spoon, St. Vincent, Stephen Malkmus, Sufjan Stevens, Ted Leo, The Cribs, The Cure, The Decemberists, The Fiery Furnaces, The Fratellis, The Futureheads, The Go! Team, The Gossip, The Hold Steady, The Killers, The Magik Markers, The National, The Nightwatchmen, The Ponys, The Rapture, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Rogers Sisters, The Shins, The Silver Mt. Zion, The Smiths, The Stills, The Strokes, The Thermals, The Thrills, The USA Is a Monster, The World, TV on the Radio, Tyvek, Vampire Weekend, We Are Wolves, White Denim, White Magic, White Stripes, Wilco, Will Oldham, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Xiu Xiu, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yo La Tengo
