On the heels of today’s earlier announcement that Hawthorne Heights had dropped its suit against Victory Records and would be releasing their next full-length August 5th, the band has posted a clip of a new song called “Rescue Me” on their Myspace. If you’re just guessing who produced Fragile Futures, you can, and should notice the way the letters in this post look.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ:

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.

From HITS:

RED ALERT: Tony Brummel’s marketshare-leading indie label Victory Records has re-upped for distribution with RED. In other Victory news, the label has settled its differences with Hawthorne Heights and will release the band’s new studio album later this summer. The group just played last weekend’s Bamboozle Left Festival at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, CA, their first gig without guitarist Casey Calvert, who passed away last November, and will go out on Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution Tour this summer. (4/7p)

I guess this adds a whole new level of meaning to the old music industry adage “That’s why it ain’t called ‘music friends.’” And all else aside, I’m personally stoked for this news, as the band is set to start tracking said untitled new record with a good friend of mine in the very, very near future. As it hasn’t been announced yet I will refrain from spilling the beans, but its pretty badass for anyone who likes good music and good people which the Hawthorne dudes (and their new producer) definitely are.

Today it was brought to my attention that The Warriors, presumably named after the totally rad movie (Baseball Furies, anyone?), may have just about the most wicked album art ever made.

1. Zombie dude.
2. Zombie dude is playing air guitar.
3. A Demon Wolf is coming out of Zombie dude’s belly.
4. Little red Demon Nymphs are coming out of the Wolf’s mouth.
5. Said Demon Nymphs are fighting each other.

The music? Well, it’s on Victory Records so it’s fronted by some guy who’s growl-screaming about some super emotional personal issues (or something), and the guitars are down-tuned, heavy and chugging away, and the rhythm section sounds like the ocean crashing against a sheer rock cliff face. … Not really my bag, but at least the album art makes me wanna stare death in the eye and roll a 20-sided die.

The Warriors‘ Genuine Sense of Outrage is available on Victory August 7th.

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€?

(more…)

- JOHN BEATZ HOLOHAN, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU -

The Sad and Terrible News:
Anthony Raneri of Bayside talks about the events of October 31st, and their plans for the future:

“The worst day of my life is over. It lasted 72 hours, but it’s over. I know now that everyday for the rest of my life will be a piece of cake to wake up to, I’m just glad that I get to wake up to them. On Halloween I lost my best friend, big brother, mentor and band mate. I find a lot of comfort in knowing that I had a best friend, big brother, mentor and band mate in the first place, when so many people will never know what it is like to have someone as magical as Beatz in their lives. I’m so lucky for that and so lucky that I survived this thing to tell everyone about him. Anyone that knew Beatz fell in love with him instantly. Whether you were his brother, his wife, his friend or you met him for five minutes. This letter, this week and the rest of my life is not going to be a mourning of a lost life, but a celebration of a wonderful one. He will live forever in all of our hearts and in the music he created so passionately.

On behalf of Bayside, everyone in the Bayside/Victory camp and the Holohan clan, I thank you all so much for your support through all of this. I have to thank the members of Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein and Aiden, all of their crews, everyone at Victory, our manager Nate Albert and our families and friends for everything they have done since the second this happened, to get us past the last few days. Our guitar tech Nicky Raneri, tour manager Scott Robinson, guitar player Jack O’Shea and I are all home safe. Nick is going into surgery in a couple of hours and will make a full recovery; our drum tech Dan Marino is out of surgery and we hope to get him home by the end of the week. Every one of the fans, the press and any other company or person that has gotten in touch with us has just been amazing and it’s all that support that got us through this.

On November 16th, Jack and I will be flying out to St Petersburg, FL to join up with the Never Sleep Again Tour. We will be playing an acoustic set that night and every night through the end of the tour on December 11th. We loved this tour. Beatz loved this tour and this is something that we need to do for ourselves, for our band and for John Beatz, who would kick my ass if I didn’t finish up what he gave his life for. After that, we will be taking the holidays off, as planned, and then getting back on the road again as a band in 2006. Aside from the next two weeks, we can not let this situation slow our band down or cancel one more show or tour. All any of us ever wanted to do was play music and make this band into something that people would know and love. That hasn’t changed and we can’t let it. Beatz wouldn’t have it any other way.

It will take me a long time to get the horrible images from that night out of my head and it will take some time for my friends Nick and Dan to get their asses out of bed, but I will, and they will and life will move on with only the happier memories of my best friend.

Thank you all for your support. The whole Bayside camp and the Holohan family are living on it right now. Please look into the John Holohan Memorial Fund. It’s not about money; it’s the thought that counts. For all of us and his family to know that he made a huge impact on the world is all we have right now.

Thank You,

Anthony Raneri

& Bayside”

courtesy of Victory Records