hawthorne heights

Absolutepunk is reporting that Casey Calvert, guitarist and backing vocalist for post-hardcore/emo band Hawthorne Heights, passed away this past Friday of as-of-yet unknown causes. The shocking news came to light just before the band did sound-check for a now canceled show. While no details have been released, the band did issue an official statement on their website;

"Today is probably the worst day ever. Its with our deepest regrets that we have to write this. Casey Calvert passed away in his sleep last night. We found out this afternoon before sound-check. We've spent the entire day trying to come to grips with this and figure out as much as possible. At this time we're not sure what exactly happened. Just last night he was joking around with everyone before he went to bed. We can say with absolute certainty that he was not doing anything illegal."

The band have been embroiled in recent legal troubles, both with their ex-label Victory Records, and most recently, their former management company. Hawthorne Heights rose to prominence with the release of their platinum-selling debut album The Silence In Black And White. Our condolences to the Calvert family, the band, and all those involved.

After eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Ohio, Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert boarded a bus with his bandmates on Friday morning to start their "Wintour 07," a grueling schedule of back-to-back concert dates that included a show in Washington on Saturday night.

But the fast-rising indie group, which finished up a show in Detroit on Friday night, never got a chance to perform for local fans. D.C. police were called to the 9:30 Club in Northwest Washington about 2:30 p.m. Saturday and found Calvert unconscious on the band's tour bus, according to police spokesman Officer Junis Fletcher.


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Calvert, 25, was pronounced him dead at the scene, Fletcher said, and police are awaiting the results of an autopsy from the medical examiner's office.

Family, friends and fans were reeling from the news. On the Hawthorne Heights Web site -- www.hawthorneheights.com-- where fan tributes poured in, band members Eron Bucciarelli, Micah Carli, Matt Ridenour and JT Woodruff announced that their "quirky and awesome" best friend had "passed away in his sleep."

"At this time we're not sure what exactly happened. Just last night he was joking around with everyone before he went to bed," the band members wrote on a posting dated Saturday.

The group, which has had several of its singles in regular rotation on MTV and VH1 since forming in 2001 and releasing two albums, sought to quickly put to rest any rumors about Calvert's death.

"We can say with absolute certainty that he was not doing anything illegal . . . We don't want his memory to be tainted in the least," the band wrote.

Reached at the family home in Middletown, O., Calvert's stepmother Tammy Calvert said the family was in shock and mourning. In addition to his stepmother, Casey Calvert is survived by his wife, two stepsisters and his mother and father, Tammy Calvert said.


Calvert picked up a love of music from his father Greg, a member of Gary and The Hornets, a 1960s band that once performed on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His father played bass but the younger Calvert preferred guitar, his stepmother said.

He loved Dr. Seuss books, Tim Burton films, and was so fastidious about his health that he was a vegetarian, she said. He was still a newlywed, marrying his wife, a schoolteacher, a little over a year ago. He spent Thanksgiving with his relatives in Ohio, then took off for the tour on Friday morning, she said.

"He was a very good and kind young man, and right now there aren't any answers
Hawthorne Heights have written two dozen songs and have a producer ready to hit the studio to start recording them, but the Dayton, Ohio band have to get out of legal limbo before they can move forward.

The emo/punk quintet have done some pre-production work for their third album with producer Howard Benson (Daughtry, Hoobastank) and are hoping to start more extensive work on the tracks as soon as they can, but they're still entangled in a legal battle with Victory Records.

Hawthorne Heights filed a lawsuit against Victory in August 2007, citing fraudulent accounting practices among their accusations. At the same time, the group announced that they were leaving Victory because they didn't like the way that label head Tony Brummel did business. Victory maintained that the band still owed it two more studio albums, according to their agreement, and filed a countersuit for breach of contract and libel. Victory also sued Virgin Records and EMI Music North America, which it claimed wrongfully interfered with its contractual relationship with the group and was trying to steal them.

A judge ruled in March that Victory doesn't have exclusive rights to Hawthorne Heights and that the band are free to record for any label, but he maintained that they still owe two albums to the Chicago-based punk label.

Hawthorne Heights' former management company, Wild Justice, has sued the band for breaching a verbal contract. But drummer Eron Bucciarelli told Billboard.com that the group hadn't yet paid an agreed-upon severance fee to the firm and that the matter should be cleared up soon.

"We're just concerned with making a new record, getting it out there to our fans and getting back in the swing of things, basically," he said.

Hawthorne Heights launches a 28-date U.S. headlining tour with Escape The Fate, Amber Pacific, The A.K.A.s and The Secret Handshake on Friday night.

Hawthorne Heights
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Background information
Origin Dayton, Ohio
Genre(s) Emo[1]

Post-Hardcore[2]
Screamo[1][3][4]


Years active 2001 – present
Label(s) Victory Records, Universal Records
(also able to release music on other labels)[5]
Members
JT Woodruff
Micah Carli
Matt Ridenour
Eron Bucciarelli
Former members
Casey Calvert (deceased)
Hawthorne Heights is a post-hardcore band formed in Dayton, Ohio in June of 2001. The band was originally known as A Day in the Life but changed its name as its music and lineup also changed.

Contents
1 History
2 Incident with Ne-Yo
3 Wild Justice Records Lawsuit
4 Currently
5 Death of Casey Calvert
6 Band members
6.1 Current members
6.2 Former members
7 Discography
7.1 Albums
7.2 Videography
7.3 Singles
7.4 Tribute Albums
8 References
9 External links



History
Originally known as A Day in the Life, after one album (Nine Reasons to Say Goodbye), an EP, Paper Chromatography (which was later re-released as part of the compilation From Ohio With Love), and significant line-up changes, the band changed its name to Hawthorne Heights. On the DVD portion of The Silence in Black and White, drummer Eron Bucciarelli states that the band took their current name from the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Their first album The Silence in Black and White, was released in 2004. The album was slow to build sales at first; however, soon the video for the song "Ohio Is for Lovers" began getting airplay on MTV, and the band enjoyed breakout success at radio as well as a growing nationwide fan base, and the album became Victory Records' highest selling debut. The Silence in Black and White peaked at number 56 on the Billboard charts.

When their second album If Only You Were Lonely was released on Feb 28, 2006, it debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts, powered by the lead single "Saying Sorry" which has received regular airplay on MTV, VH1 and Fuse. The band performed on the 2006 Nintendo Fusion Tour.


Incident with Ne-Yo
In February of 2006, as the band was readying the release of If Only You Were Lonely, Victory Records issued two statements to fans through the band's mailing lists as well as their MySpace page, stating that "ROCK music needs your support"[6] and that "the #1 slot that belongs to us." They also pleaded with fans to go into chain stores and make sure Hawthorne Heights CDs are in stock and to sabotage the sales count of Ne-Yo's record In My Own Words, which was being released the same day. The statement said:

" As for Ne-Yo, the name of the game is to decrease the chances of a sale here. If you were to pick up 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, that would work. Even though this record will be heavily stocked and you might not be able to move all the stock, just relocating a handful creates issues: Even though the store will appear to be out of stock, the computer will see it as in stock and not re-order the title once it sells down and then Ne-Yo will lose a few sales later in the week."[7] "

They ended their rallying cry with by quoting Winston Churchill: "Victory at all costs, Victory in spite of all terror, Victory however long and hard the road may be; for without Victory, there is no survival."[8] Later, group members claimed that the statements were issued by their record label, Victory Records, without their consent.[9] On August 7, 2006, the band announced they would be leaving Victory Records, and sued the label for breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, fraud and abuse.[10] Victory Records then countersued for breach of contract and libel in September 2006.[11] In October 2006, a Chicago judge dismissed two of the three main claims in the band's suit, ruling that the trademark and copyright violation allegations were unsound.[12] On March 5, 2007 a federal judge in Chicago ruled that Victory Records does not hold exclusive rights for the band's recording services and that the band can record for any label. Specifically, the Judge stated: "The agreement contains no exclusivity provision, nor does any of its language appear to prevent [the band] from recording elsewhere during the life of the agreement".[13] The judge later reaffirmed this ruling on May 17, 2007, stating that Hawthorne Heights is still contractually bound to deliver two albums to Victory, but may record albums which are released elsewhere.[14]


Wild Justice Records Lawsuit
On October 16, 2007, Wild Justice Records sued Hawthorne Heights for breach of a verbal contract, stemming from a dispute over the management company's share of the band's revenues.[15]


Currently
The band has written 21 songs for their upcoming third album, and is "eager to start recording."[10] However, a third CD cannot be released until their legal issues are taken care of.

Hawthorne Heights recently released a demo for their new song "Come Back Home" on their MySpace page. It is one of the fourteen tracks that made it on to the new album. The album will be produced by Howard Benson. A second song was released on their Myspace, a cover of Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings". Along with the song "Come Back Home," two other new songs, "Rescue Me" and "The End Of The Underground," are both rumored to be on their new album, as the band is playing the latter two on their current tour.

While the song "Come Back Home" is a lighter song in contrast to previous works, the band also briefly added umbrellas to their logo to help promote the release of their custom Mountain Dew bottles, which depict the same artwork. On their current tour, they have reverted back to the double H. This time with a bulleye between the two.


Death of Casey Calvert
Music website Absolutepunk.net is reporting that guitarist Casey Calvert died on November 24, 2007.[16] This is also posted on the main Hawthorne Heights website. The D.C. Fox affiliate has reported that Calvert used an inhaler for acute asthma and, pending official toxicology results, this condition could have caused his death