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Hollow Victory

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When Bustamante eventually decided it was time for law school, she sent Brummel a resignation letter. The owner even agreed to write her a letter of recommendation, she says.

But one day, when Bustamante was returning from lunch, Brummel summoned her to the conference room. "He was pacing back and forth. His face was red," she recalls.

"How are the interviews going?" he asked, insinuating that she'd been looking for other jobs.

Bustamante had no idea what he was talking about. She asked him to explain. "You fucking cunt -- get out of my office," she remembers Brummel saying.

Bustamante was stunned. She asked to get her purse from her desk first. Brummel said no. "I'm not leaving without my purse," Bustamante insisted.

She burst into hysterics, crying for her things until he finally relented. It was the last she saw of him. "That was, bar none, the worst experience of my life," she says.

Meloni denies Bustamante's claims: "This fictitious event never happened."

But it took Patrick Grueber only three months to realize that Brummel's anti-corporate tirades were little more than show.

Grueber wasn't a typical Victory hire. The 47-year-old was an industry vet when he was hired to do Victory's radio promotion. He'd worked for Reprise for 14 years, leaving in 2002 when the label refused to release Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. "I was the band's biggest cheerleader," he says. "When they wouldn't put that record out, I left in protest."

An avid punk and hardcore fan since his teens, Grueber thought Victory a perfect fit. He'd heard the stories about Brummel, but believed in Victory's philosophy. "I worked for some pretty tough guys in the business," Grueber says. "How bad could it be?"

During his interview, Grueber says he was taken by Brummel's intensity and passion. When Grueber mentioned he had two daughters, Brummel explained that he came from a big family and that there was nothing more important in life.

"But it couldn't have been further from the truth," Grueber says. "He turned out to be . . . just a complete meddling creep."

Grueber's job was to get Victory bands on the airwaves, which wasn't an easy task, he says. Brummel's us-against-them tactics had so soiled the waters, radio stations "wanted nothing to do with us."

He and Brummel would often butt heads. Grueber didn't appreciate Brummel's "addiction to antagonism." And Brummel didn't like Grueber questioning his practices.

When Brummel finally fired Grueber, he didn't bother to do it himself. "He had one of his toadies at the door, waiting for me, demanding my BlackBerry back," Grueber says. "It was the most miserable 90 days of my life, especially because of his BlackBerry obsession. He harasses you 24 hours a day."

Grueber left the music industry for good, taking a job with one of Brummel's favorite former targets, Apple. "Punk rock is something I hold very important to my soul," Grueber says. "And the things I detest most about Tony is that he profited off the backs of people from my generation, and he's a total creep. He was my last dealing with the industry. I thought that if this is how it is, I'm out."

Despite the allegations, there are still many who stand by Brummel.

John Germinario used to manage Hawthorne Heights and now works with Aiden, another Victory band. "I know there is a lot of salacious stuff out there about Tony," he says. "We've not always seen eye-to-eye, but he wants to win, and I appreciate that about him. He expects a lot of his employees and of himself. I've had a lot of success with Victory -- the most I've ever had, and I've been in this business since 1989."

The same goes for Dave Ciancio, who manages Thursday.

Long before Hawthorne Heights sued Victory, Thursday hired attorneys to escape their Victory contract. They eventually moved to Island Records, accusing Brummel of withholding hundreds of thousands in royalties.

But when things didn't work out so well, they returned to Victory. "Hindsight is 20/20," Ciancio says. "Victory had a lot to do with what Thursday is today. You can hate or love anything. In the end, he's a goal-oriented guy, he is driven, he's motivated, and he is always thinking."

Even former staffers who dismiss Brummel as little more than a "fucking psycho" admit that he carries a lot of weight in music. "He's the absolute best thing and worst thing about capitalism rolled into one," says one former employee. "[Hawthorne Heights] are basically proof positive that the label is worth something. All the bands that moved to majors just flatlined. He's a fucking scumbag, but there's something to be said for the old adage of reading something before you sign it."

Moreover, few bands -- if given the opportunity to sign with Victory -- will kill their chance by squabbling over contractual details. Most aren't in the position to bargain. And many are still drinking Brummel's anti-corporate Kool-Aid. They've grown up with the Victory bulldog mascot affixed to their backpacks, accepting the notion that indie equals integrity.

"I really try to encourage artists not to be motivated by some unrealistic vision of what indie is supposed to mean," says Elizabeth Gregory, a Nashville music lawyer. "It is still business. But when you're dealing with these youth that are so idealistic, it's so easy to manipulate them by talking about how you are not corporate America."

Brummel's branding is certainly still working. He scooped up yet another Ohio band, signing Cleveland's Driver Side Impact after they performed at a Chicago showcase. "It was so nerve-racking," singer Branden Langhals told Scene earlier this year.

Like Hawthorne Heights, Langhals grew up on Victory bands. In May, they released their first record, The Very Air We Breathe, produced by the same team responsible for Taking Back Sunday and Thursday.

Despite all the negative publicity, this remains a business -- especially for starving bands with no other suitors.

One poster on Absolutepunk.net put it best: "If you were living on the streets, and George Bush offered you a three-course meal, would you take it?"

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