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Chicago, IL - The surviving members of platinum selling rock band Hawthorne Heights have agreed to drop, in its entirety, their August 2006 lawsuit against Victory Records entitled Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, Casey Calvert, Micah Carli, Matt Ridenour, JT Woodruff, p/k/a “Hawthorne Heights” v. Victory Records, Inc., et al, and Victory Records, Inc. v. Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, et al. (No. 06 C 4258) filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Victory Records will release Hawthorne Heights’ third studio album titled Fragile Future on August 5, 2008. Fragile Future follows two highly successful albums with Victory Records. The Silence in Black and White (2004), peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 reaching platinum status. The band followed up in 2006 with If Only You Were Lonely which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Chart and was certified Gold shortly thereafter.

Victory Records Owner Tony Brummel commented, “Everyone at Victory is ecstatic about the forthcoming album from Hawthorne Heights. It is by far their best material to date. When Victory and Hawthorne started our relationship in 2003 it was always about beating the odds. Our country has just seen and experienced historic change with the Democratic nomination of Barack Obama. Everything happens for a reason and there is tremendous positivity in the air. We have lived in a reality of petty disputes, unresolved misunderstandings, unhealthy friction and negative sensationalism for too long. Forgiveness and the ability to reunite are powerful gifts. They create a spirit. Couple that spirit with great music and you have something that is extraordinary and transcendental. You cannot change the past but you can affect the future. There is a bigger lesson and story here than just releasing a new album. Victory, and I know Hawthorne Heights, are thankful to be a part of that.”

Hawthorne Heights‘ Drummer Eron Bucciarelli reflects, “We now regret having begun the lawsuit we filed in 2006. We should not have listened to those, who, for whatever reasons, were then advising us to pursue this strategy. We are sorry for having put Victory Records and Tony Brummel through this ordeal, and regret any negative publicity that may have resulted. Many false, hurtful and incorrect statements were made, especially on the Internet, none of which were true. Tony Brummel and Victory gave us our start, and did an unprecedented job with our first two albums. We hope they can repeat that success with our third studio album. Unfortunately, we cannot change the past, but we’re now taking steps to heal the wounds and start fresh.” Singer JT Woodruff offered, “We are so excited to release our third album. It feels absolutely amazing to finally have a release date in sight. Over the past year or so we have written a lot of songs, thrown away a lot of songs, and over the last month wrote a lot more songs. This last batch totally sums up where we are as a band, what we have been through and most importantly…where we want to be. Through all of the smoke and fire, we feel these songs are the best material we have ever released”.

Well at least the record had a badass producer. Not sure if it’s public knowledge or not, but let’s just say as far as Chico goes, he’s Number One.

Victory Records has signed 1997. That’s all. I was going to say something funny, but it’s too early so instead read the press release and come up with your own humorous anecdote riffing off the fact that 1997 is possibly the lamest band name ever of all time, or if you’re one of those people (and you know who you are) you could probably do well with something along the lines of “1997, which is coincidentally the last time Victory put out a good record.” That might work:

Victory Records announces the signing of Chicago’s 1997, whose purpose as a band according to guitarist Caleb Pepp is simple: (We want to make music that my younger brothers and sisters would enjoy, and inspire other kids into listening to and making their own good music.â€? (We don’t want to be the next fad band,â€? bassist Allan Goffinski adds. (We want our music to last and stand the test of time.â€?

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