That Victory Records founder Tony Brummel has received a venomous open letter from HOODS frontman Mike Hood, who suggests Victory owes the band $ 10 000 in royalties. Mike posted on the band’s official Facebook:
Tony Brummel is a fake pair of tits. Hey big shot how about pay us some honest numbers. You fucking fake ass Chicago bitch. Let’s fight 1-1 call you out
HOODS. this is why we don’t play the songs from Victory Records yes he did: in this world there are those that give a fuck, have a spine, and are honest. I was 19 years old mr. Tony Brummel please give what an honest man would. Give me all my albums back. Last 1/4 statement was almost $10K. Thats quarterly. I spent 20+ years of my life in HOODS. Still poor, still proud, still working and loving hoods. There’s a lot of bands that could use some help. You sit with your yachts, houses in Jamaica, ect ect. If you are a man with a spine I will gladly eat my words. I will also gladly fight you in any street across the USA…. All the hardcore kids know you’re a fucking spineless coward. Even the emo kids at this point.
Tony Brummel has been raising controversy in the music industry for years. A couple of bands filed a civil action against the label for breach of contracts. Back in 2006 HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS claimed that Brummel developed many “overly-aggressive, unethical and illegal schemes and tactics” while dealing with bands from his roster.
Former Victory Records employee Ramsey Dean commented earlier:
Royalties were payable quarterly and, before each quarter ended, I’d get the amounts, totaling into millions of dollars, that were to be dumped into bogus marketing programs to prevent the band from getting a royalty. It was nothing short of malicious. “Fuck those guys, they’re not entitled to that money,” was his quarterly lament. The royalties, which ranged into hundreds of thousands of dollars, would be calculated and I’d get the amounts I’d need to spend. The last quarter I was there he laid $360,000 of Taking Back Sunday’s money on me. I couldn’t even find enough places to dump it: television advertising, print ads, sale pricing, endcaps, and then we’d play around with dating to try and make it stick, but sometimes even that didn’t purge it all.
HOODS released 2 albums (Time… The Destroyer in 2001 and Pray For Death in 2003) and one split with FREYA (2005) on the label. The band released their latest album Gato Negro on November 25th via Artery Records.
