Smashing Pumpkins‘ frontman Billy Corgan has laid into Radiohead, declaring them “pompous”.

The singer, whose band release their new studio album Oceania on Monday (June 18), said that Oxford band were a symbol of the current culture of “valuation” which he despises.

Speaking about how rock music is viewed in popular culture at the moment, Corgan told Antiquiet: “I can’t think of any people outside of Weird Al Yankovic who have both embraced and pissed on rock more than I have. Obviously there’s a level of reverence, but there’s also a level of intelligence to even know what to piss on.”

He then went on: “Because I’m not pissing on Rainbow. I’m not pissing on Deep Purple. But I’ll piss on fucking Radiohead, because of all this pomposity. This value system that says Jonny Greenwood is more valuable than Ritchie Blackmore. Not in the world I grew up in.”

Corgan went to compare Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood to Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore and himself and said that the veteran was better than both of them.

He added: “So I find myself defending things. Is Ritchie Blackmore a better guitar player than me and Jonny Greenwood? Yes. Have we all made contributions? Yes. I’m not attacking that. I’m attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I’m sick of that. I’m so fucking sick of it, and nobody seems to tire of it.”

Oceania is the seventh full-length effort of the band’s career and is currently streaming online via iTunes. Visit iTunes.com to hear the record.