atalush

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

"I have had it with these motherf*ckin' snakes on this motherf*ckin' plane!" may be the most memorable movie quote of the summer.

In fact, "Snakes on a Plane" has already reached cult status, and it hasn't even been released yet. And the band Cobra Starship is adding to the hype with the theme song, "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)," which last week debuted at No. 38 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart.

The band is the brainchild of former Midtown singer Gabe Saporta, and the single features William Beckett of the Academy Is..., Maja Ivarsson of the Sounds and Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes.

Saporta tells Billboard.com that "this recording is -- I hate the term 'solo project,' which is why I came up with the name Cobra Starship -- but this is definitely a representation of my influences and the kind of songs that I wanted to make. I have a band that I'm going to be playing with live, though."

Cobra Starship's full-length Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen album, "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets," is scheduled for release Oct. 10.

The band came together under unusual circumstances. "Last year, I did a spoof of [Gwen Stefani's] 'Hollaback Girl,' and I was already using that name [Cobra Starship]. Then the 'Snakes on the Plane' movie came around, and it was like, 'Wow, this is fate,'" Saporta says. "The weirder thing is I had the song already -- including lyrics like 'Cheap champagne / we're going down in flames' -- before I even knew about the movie. So I just changed the vibe of the song and used 'Snakes on a Plane' as a metaphor for what the song was already about. It was meant to be."

The infectious track may surprise some Midtown fans, though, because it leans heavily towards pop. "When I first started, I was very elitist about who I wanted to listen to my music. But then I realized that's bullsh*t. I just want to make music for everybody," he says. "The attitude of Cobra Starship is to have fun. I'm not concerned with punk rock credibility. Right now I just want to have fun and make party music, but the album will also have real songs that aren't campy."

That said, Saporta promises one song on the album features 1980s freestyle group the Cover Girls. "It almost sounds like Miami Sound Machine," he says. "Their voices -- they are all Spanish girls from the Bronx -- just add exactly the right dynamic."

But despite that fun-loving spirit, Saporta isn't just riding the coattails of a possible summer blockbuster with Cobra Starship. There's definitely more to come, and soon. The band is hitting the road next month, and Saporta expects to "put out another record in like nine months."

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand
and chaining a soul
and you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts and
presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of a woman
not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting
for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn
that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye you learn.

Veronica A. Shoffstall

Hawthorne Heights has filed a lawsuit against its record label, Victory Records, and label head Tony Brummel today (Aug. 7). The band claims that Brummel's "overly-aggressive, unethical and illegal schemes and tactics," including physically threatening music industry figures and scheming against other artists, have severely damaged the band's reputation and its relationship with fans.

In February, Hawthorne Heights and Ne-Yo were vying for the top of The Billboard 200. On Feb. 28, an email from someone at Victory appeared to urge its street promotions team to tamper with Ne-Yo's sales potential. "If you were to pick up [a] handful of Ne-Yo CDs, as if you were about to buy them, but then changed your mind and didn't bother to put them back in the same place," the message read, "That would work ... just relocating a handful creates issues."

Within hours of the email's appearance on an industry message board on March 1, a second email appeared calling the first message "a joke." The Hawthorne Heights record, "If Only You Were Lonely," wound up debuting at No. 3 on sales of 114,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while Ne-Yo's "In My Own Words" bowed at No. 1 on sales of 301,000 units.

Band members Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, Casey Calvert, Micah Carli, Matt Ridenour and JT Woodruff claim that Brummel then signed the band's name without their knowledge or approval to a so-called manifesto, which falsely stated that the band believed it was in some type of war with artists in the hip-hop and R&B music genres, leading many to brand the band as racist.

In the suit, the band also charges Victory and Brummel with "egregiously fraudulent accounting practices." Despite sales of nearly 1.5 million units of the band's recordings and videos, Victory and Brummel claim that the band owes the label in excess of $1 million, the suit says, even though Victory has received in excess of $10 million in revenues from their sale of Hawthorne Heights' CDs, DVDs and merchandise.

he suit, filed in the federal District Court in Chicago, follows the band's posting of its own "manifesto" on its Web site, in which it describes the way it claims Brummel has treated them.

Hawthorne Heights wants the court to stop Victory from distributing its recordings, to order that the recording agreement be rescinded and to order the company and Brummel to pay unspecified monetary damages.

The complaint alleges a slew of claims, including copyright and trademark infringement, invasion of privacy for placing the band in a "false light," fraud and interference with business relations.

In a statement, Victory Records said, "The lawsuit filed by Hawthorne Heights has no merit whatsoever. Victory Records fully expects Hawthorne Heights to honor their commitment to deliver two additional studio albums to Victory pursuant to their recording artist agreement with Victory."

------------------------and the letter from the band--------------------------------------

Due to recent events we have decided to leave Victory Records. Our departure is anything but amicable. We have decided to leave Victory, in part due to the actions of the man who sits at the head of the label, Tony Brummel. Tony Brummel is a man that cares more about his ego and bank account than the bands themselves.


Many of you are familiar with the greed driven letters sent out by Mr. Brummel: his manifesto calling rock supporters to arms and virtual declaration of war on hip-hop and Ne-Yo done under the guise of a band message; as well as the street-team letter which instructed people to re-arrange our CDs, putting them in higher visibility areas in stores. Unfortunately, the head of street-team, Abby Valentine, who understandably resigned following the incident, took the fall for this. At the time of the letters we were branded as racists by some, all over a letter we did NOT write, targeting a genre which we have NOTHING against whatsoever. Because of these letters, our second album debuted at ..3 on the charts, an incredible feat, which would normally be cause for joy, but now is tainted much like Barry Bonds statistics.

When questioned about the letters Tony was more upset that we had told the press that he actually wrote the letters (not us) because he was more worried about rumors surrounding Taking Back Sunday and Thursdays exoduses being justified than the credibility and reputation of his current biggest band.

Couple these letters with him threatening the head program director at Q101 in Chicago for putting the new Taking Back Sunday song into rotation to the point in which the program director pulls Saying Sorry from rotation and you can see why we would more than question whether or not the head of our label cares about us or his own ego more.

Tony is a man whose greed knows no bounds. After selling more than 1.2 million copies of The Silence In Black and White and If Only You Were Lonely, we have never seen a single dollar in artist royalties from Victory Records. Tony will claim that we have not recouped, a term used by those in the music business which means the label has spent more money in advertising than has been made by CD sales. In fact questionable accounting practices are the culprit and we are in fact owed substantial amounts of money much like audits from Taking Back Sunday, Thursday and Atreyu have uncovered.

You may be wondering, why now? Why did they wait three years before saying something? Why did they sound happy in that interview??? Like being in an abusive relationship, we let certain things slide as we were afraid, as many of the bands on Victory are, to stick our neck out for fear of being beaten, in this case represented by the threat of not being promoted as has been the case with certain bands on the roster. Were done being abused. The reasons stated above represent the final straw in a huge pile of hay that broke our backs.

Undoubtedly Tony will proclaim that we are ungrateful and our success was due solely to his promotional efforts. In reality, promotion is only a portion of the equation in a bands success. Even then, in our case especially, promotional efforts can be attributed to the hard work of the band and staff at Victory, many of whom recently resigned or were fired due to differences with Tony. Non-stop touring, dedicated fans and songs (we challenge Tony to sell over 1 million blank CDs) account for the rest of the equation.

Weve accomplished more in three years than most bands do in a lifetime and for that we are extremely grateful and consider ourselves very fortunate. Our situation with Tony Brummel is indicative of issues that all bands on Victory Records encounter on some level or another.

We have decided to remove ourselves from the negative situation so that we can continue to do what we love best and focus on writing and playing music to people that care about what we have created.

Hawthorne Heights

--------------------------

I'm not a fan, but GO HH!

From gigwise.com, if any of you were wondering why they had to cancel the show in San Diego this past weekend....

My Chemical Romance were forced to cancel their appearance at this weekend’s Street Scene festival after being involved in a car crash.

According to AOL music the band travelled to San Diego to play the show but pulled out at the last minute because their injuries were too painful.

The crash apparently took place last Thursday and drummer Bob Bryar is said to be the most seriously injured having possibly received third degree burns.

Front man Gerard Way also suffered a broken ankle in the crash.

It is not known as of yet if the injuries will affect MCR's future gig commitments

AND FROM ROLLING STONE:

As reported on RollingStone.com's Rock Daily blog yesterday, MY
CHEMICAL ROMANCE apparently cancelled their appearance at the San
Diego Street Scene Festival this past weekend due to a video shoot
gone haywire. Another band that performed at Street Scene told us that
drummer BOB BRYAR suffered burns from wayward pyrotechnics and singer
GERARD WAY broke his ankle. A spokesman for the band confirmed the
injuries but insisted, "I don't think it's as serious as people have
been saying." 


who knows... someone ask G

Rock act My Chemical Romance is finishing up work on its next, as-yet-untitled album, due Oct. 24 via Reprise. The set is being recorded at Eldorado Studio in Los Angeles with veteran producer Rob Cavallo. Tracks were conceptualized in a portable studio on the band's tour bus over the past year.

"We all have records that shaped our childhood and teen years," says bassist Mikey Way. "When you hear a song, it shoots you back to a moment in time. We want this album to do that for people. We want the entire world to be moved."

The upcoming album is the follow-up to My Chemical Romance's 2004 breakthrough, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge," which has sold more than 1.4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The group is expected to roadtest some new material at a handful of shows in the coming weeks, beginning Saturday (Aug. 5) at San Diego's Street Scene festival.  My Chemical Romance will also play Japan's Summer Sonic festival, the U.K.'s Reading and Leeds festivals and two dates in Pennsylvania and New York in early September with Taking Back Sunday.


And another little tidbit....

My Chemical Romance has recently been working on their third album, which was thought to be titled The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance but in a recent interview with Kerrang! magazine Gerard Way denied this was the title of the next album, stating "It was never the title of the album, more a spoof, or joke." The album, whose title has yet to be announced, is scheduled for release on October 24th, 2006. The band started recording the album on April 10, 2006 with Rob Cavallo, who has produced every Green Day album since Dookie except Warning:.

The new single for the upcoming CD has been said to be called "The Black Parade" and is to be directed by Sam Bayer, the same director who did Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" and all of Green Day's American Idiot videos.

I guess the Stonehedge scene was based on a true event:

DRUIDIC DISASTER