Music

Victory Records is suing Streetlight Manifesto for $1 million

by Richard Howard

If you’re an avid fan of ska-punk band Streetlight Manifesto, then you know they really, really hate their former label Victory Records.

Once describing the label as “the largest, meanest, most despised bully in the schoolyard,” they’ve been sparring with Victory non-stop for the past three years and have expressed relief that their contractual obligations are finally over. Problem is, Victory doesn’t see things that way – and has now decided the solution is a million-dollar lawsuit.

The extent of the animosity between the band and the Chicago power-indie label that once counted Taking Back Sunday, Atreyu, Silverstein and other genre-defining acts as signees came to light in 2012. After accusing Victory of withholding royalties and general suckage, Streetlight Manifesto announced that on the same date they released their final Victory Records album, The Hands That Thieve, they would independently release an acoustic version of the same album under frontman Tomas Kalnoky’s Toh Kay moniker cheekily titled The Hand That Thieves.

Unsurprisingly, Victory Records shut that down mighty quickly. They then withheld pre-order copies of the official album from Streetlight’s personal web store – so the band retaliated by telling fans not to buy the album and to illegally download it at will.

Throughout the ensuing kerfuffle, the band has maintained that the album completed their contractual agreement with Victory Records, and good riddance to ‘em. However, the label has now filed a complaint in Federal Court alleging that the band violated their contract by not delivering “a fourth album” and is requesting a ludicrous $1 million-plus in damages.

To those keeping score, this will be a bit confusing as Streetlight Manifesto’s discography consists of five albums, all released by Victory. The problem is those silly billy score-keepers don’t realise they need to be doing math, instead of, you know, math-math. Apparently, the band’s second album Keasbey Nights doesn’t count because it’s basically a re-recorded version of an album from Kalonky’s old band Catch 22 – and, they claim, the band agreed not to count it towards the contract in exchange for a $10,000 advance. But that still leaves four albums, right? Aha – but the cover album 99 Songs of Revolution: Vol. 1 didn’t count either because what are they, a covers label? GTFO with that source of revenue you provided for us, you silly ska-punks.

While each side’s claims remain to be proven in court, Victory’s history with bands seems to be swaying public opinion in Streetlight Manifesto’s favour. A Day to Remember and Hawthorne Heights have both sued the label in the past, with multiple bands including Thursday and Aiden accusing Victory of being quite the shady bunch. Also, this excerpt from the complaint isn’t going to help their image as a creativity crushing monster:

“Kalnoky, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, once acknowledged in an update to the SLM website his band’s penchant for persistently delaying completing production of studio albums: ‘We are aware of our reputation to take forever to release records and miss our self-imposed deadlines.’ Whatever the subjective basis for Kalnoky’s proclivity to procrastinate, it had the objective effect of holding albums hostage long after he had received the recording advances from Victory.”

I dunno, Victory. You may be on firm legal ground, but suggesting striving for artistic perfection is a bad trait and then shitting on an artist for missing self-imposed deadlines (presumably prior to releasing one of his critically acclaimed albums)? If you do win that million dollars, you might want to spend some of it on retooling your PR division.