According to Hits Daily Double: On top of Victory’s lawsuit against the band for signing an agreement with Virgin while still under contract, Hawthorne Heights has now fired their manager John Germanario and booking agent Jeremy Holgerson. Insiders are asking if the band is receiving bad information from its attorney, Dan Friedman, and making too many enemies in an ever-shrinking business.

Eron of Hawthorne Heights responds to HitsDailyDouble’s recent article on absolutepunk about the band parting ways with their manager and booking agent.

Read the message below

Don’t believe the hype, especially from HITS Daily Double (the only “news” site that didn’t pick up our story on us suing Victory because Tony is a paying advertiser, but did pick up Tony’s countersuit against us…suspicious????). The decision to terminate our agreement with our booking agent and management was purely OURS and not due to poor legal counsel as HITS and Tony would have you believe. We made the decision because we want a fresh start in every sense of the word.

New label, new management, new booking, new record and more. When a football team fires the head coach, all support staff are let go as well (maybe this wasn’t totally accurate, perhaps a better analogy is a merger in the corporate world, many times the new regime replaces everyone from the old so there are no residual feelings about the former company). Same idea applies to us.

Our lawyer, Dan Friedman has been the ONLY person that I’ve met in this entire industry filled with scumbags that I would trust. All this is, is just the most recent tactic of Tony Brummel’s to hurt us in the eyes of the industry. He’s trying to hurt our reputation and the reputation of our lawyer, (which is completely uncalled for) and build his own back up. Interesting that part of our lawsuit against Tony is about him damaging our reputation in the industry…thanks for further support on this claim!

In regards to Tony suing JT personally, If Tony is that hard up for cash and feels the need to file more ridiculous lawsuits to generate income (because he can’t sell records any more), why doesn’t he go sue the other three major labels that we have also NOT signed “exclusive recording agreements” with, so he can extort some more money from them? Imagine how big and profitable Victory would be if they treated bands right in the first place (Thursday, Hatebreed, TBS, Atreyu, HH)…he would run the biggest rock label out there right now, not just the “#1 independent label.”

Now imagine how much money he would have saved in lawsuits alone. Lawsuits aren’t cheap and I can count 5 lawsuits right now that involve us and Victory and I’m not even going to go into the other lawsuits that he’s busy fighting between other bands and producers. Perhaps the unfair treatment of bands and the lawsuits that followed are what lead to him being low on cash and therefore unable to promote records properly now?

“If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident, you need someone with the most experience in the court room, call Dyer, Garafolo, Man & Brummel. We’ll sue everyone in site and get the money you’re owed from someone, anyone, it doesn’t matter who its from.”

So hurting our reputation, doesn’t repair your own, but if he can’t have us, no one will I guess. That’s mature.

Eron

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Check out new music from the Illinois alternative act The Alpha Couple. The six piece just independently released a record produced by Dan Duszynski (The Hush Sound, Fall Out Boy, & Hawthorne Heights). Check out the live video here. No Management or legal yet. Check out the song Its a Virus.  For more information email Mike ORourke

Upcoming Show dates:
Feb 10th Keith School Rockford, Illinois
Feb 15th JT Music Midlothian, Illinois
Feb 24th Ashbary Coffee House Willow Springs, Illinois
Mar 2nd Central High School Salem, Wisconsin
Apr 20th Calvary Assembly of God Flossmoor, Illinois

The rumors that Capitol and Virgin were about to merge into a single unit were true…Here it is folks…………….

EMI is merging its North American pop, rock and urban operations. The company today announced plans to combine its Capitol and Virgin labels into a single unit called The Capitol Music Group. Jason Flom who joined EMI as chairman/CEO of Virgin in November 2005–is named chairman/CEO of the new organization. He reports directly to EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli and will now oversee the combined Capitol and Virgin rosters in the US.

Capitol president/CEO Andrew Slater is stepping down from his post of six years.

The shakeup is part of EMI Group’s recently announced effort to deliver $217 million in annual savings across its business.

• Producer Jermaine Dupri is in negotiations with Universal Music Group about joining its Island Def Jam label, according to the NY POST. A deal with Island would again reunite CEO L.A. Reid with Dupri, who is seen as a double threat – functioning both as a producer and as a special guest rapper on albums from heavyweights as Jay-Z. Dupri resigned from Virgin in October after disappointing sales from Janet Jackson.
• Warner and Sony Invest in Mobile Technology Company
  Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, and Access China Media Solutions are working together to develop and distribute solutions for delivering mobile music and multimedia entertainment to wireless customers throughout China and other Asia Pacific marketplaces.
• Rick Rubin rarely recieves negative press. But Velvet Revolver became “uninspired” working with Rick Rubin, accusing him of not giving the band enough attention in the studio. Scott Weiland explains, “If you’re gonna work with a producer, unless you’re gonna produce something yourselves, if you’re gonna pay a producer, get in the trenches with us and work with us.
• Check out this article ‘The Industry’s Reframing Of Music’s Role In Society’. It talks about the changing musical landscape and how consumers percieve music today. Welcome to the future.
• The former treasurer of NBC Universal was charged with stealing $813,000 from the company to finance private jet trips to the Caribbean, a summer home in the Hamptons and catered meals featuring Veuve Cliquot champagne.

Virgin has signed Australian alternative act Sick Puppies. The video
‘All the Same’ created a viral buzz that resulted in 9 Million+ views to date and a record deal. Is the concept of the video a smash? or is the song a smash? Check them out on myspace, the rest of the material is pretty good, especially My World. If you want to be rock band, you need to write songs like My World.

In other news…….

Spiral Frog an ad-supported music service that caused a media frenzy may be falling apart. The CEO along with 6 other employees were fired. Sprial Frog was backed by Universal. According to the Times ‘A lack of deals with other major record labels, as well as a shortage of cash, may have been reasons why Mr Kent, the former chief executive of Universal McGann, the advertising agency, had been asked to leave.