Legal News

Sue, Evan Dando, Sue!

By Ashby Jones

Remember the Lemonheads? If you were born after about 1966 and before 1976, chances are that you do. There was a moment around 1992 when the band and its hunky lead singer, Evan Dando, burned really brightly on the indie scene. So brightly, in fact, that a nearly instantaneous backlash against Dando ensued, spawned in part by a “zine” (remember them?) called “Die, Evan Dando, Die!”

Evan hits the Law Blog today because, according to various reports, he sued General Motors in federal court in Los Angeles recently, accusing the car maker of ripping of the Lemonheads’ song “It’s a Shame About Ray” in a 2008 Chevrolet commercial. Click here for the report from Pitchfork media, an oft-bookmarked for indie-music fans; here for the writeup from the Huffington Post.

So does Dando have a case? We’ll let you decide, LBers. First, take a listen to the original song here in a video that partly stars a young Johnny Depp; then click on over to the commercial to see if you can discern the “Ray” melody.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 08, 2009 (boomark / email).