A Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone -- With Writing Worthy of Rolling Stone

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Indie rock greats Xiu Xiu (left) and a second band we can't name due to polite discretion have filed a class action suit on behalf of 186 artists against Rolling Stone magazine for featuring them in an "Indie Rock Universe" feature within a Camel cigarettes advertisement spread. (Click here to view the spread.) The plaintiffs say the publication made an "unauthorized use of artist names for commercial advantage."

Whatever the merits of the suit, the complaint itself, by Christopher Hunt at BartkoZankel, is one of the most entertaining we've ever seen, deserving of inclusion in "Best Music Writing 2007."

Did this lawyer ever want to write for Rolling Stone? His descriptions of the parties in the case sure seem like it. And here's an example of how he illustrates the offending material:

"After getting this advance billing, the visual equivalent of a drum roll, one opens the gatefold pages, as one would open French doors, and the foldout makes its appearance...A verbal description of the multi-page advertising section with its centerpiece foldout is necessarily sequential, abstract, cumbersome, incomplete and indirect (as are verbal descriptions of music..." (Read the rest.)