Smashing Pumpkins sue Virgin

Two former members of the most excellent Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records, saying the label shut them out of profits after signing a deal with the rock band's frontman Billy Corgan.

James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky-Brown, both 40, have accused Virgin Records America of not paying them for music downloads and other digitally delivered music by the band.

The two founding members of the group said in their lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday that, five years after the band first broke up in 2000, Virgin entered into a deal with Corgan, 41, and began licensing SP music through electronic transmissions.

The Pumpkins, a Grammy-winning alt rock band that formed in Chicago 20 years ago, achieved mainstream success with albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Corgan, the group's primary songwriter, resurrected the Smashing Pumpkins last year, without Iha or Wretzky-Brown.

Wretzky-Brown, who quit the band in 1999, has largely left the music business while Iha has kept busy with a variety of musical collaborations.