Favorite e-mail pitch of the day:

We live in RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, and we’re scheduling a SPRING 2008 TOUR. Also, we won a battle of the bands and never got our prize so we’re suing the guy on Judge Greg Mathis!!!

The pitch was from five-piece Cougar Magnum, a modern jam band not afraid to meld four-part harmonies with trippy guitar solos. Think moe. and Weezer holding hands on a Saturday afternoon walk through a field of orchids.

And they really are going to be on Judge Mathis. Turns out Jam Solid Productions (formerly Rock Hard Entertainment) headed by talent buyer Adam Graham, held a Battle of the Bands at the Downtown Event Center in Raleigh featuring 30 bands.

We all know about these battle of the bands competitions. They often offer studio time and opening slots for major bands. It’s not terribly unusual. This one’s grand prize was $400 cash, 20 hours of studio time, a promo deal and a guaranteed gig at a large event. Fairly typical.

Well, Cougar Magnum won, BUT Jam Solid welched on the deal and had an office manager only pay out the $400, which is $80 per band member and not even enough to cover a night at the bar. If the situation is really this simple, that’s absolutely terrible on Jam Solid’s part. (See below)

And Cougar Magnum did what any self-respecting Battle of the Bands winner would do….they took their case to Judge Judy, got rejected and ended up on Judge Greg Mathis. Filming is January 23, 2008 with an episode airing February or March. I wish them luck and hope the publicity stunt pays off.

It’s scary that Jam Solid Productions lists 19 cities in their roster, including Minneapolis. In fact, they have a local Battle of the Bands final booked at the Varsity Theater on January 11, 2008 with JAY WALK AND THE MISDEMEANORS, BLACK OPAL, REVERA, AMONG THE CHAOS, WASHED AUDIO, HATE BEAST, LUST FOR BLOOD and THIRTY ODD SIX. Will they be screwing over a local Minneapolis band, too? (See below)

I just e-mailed them to ask for their side of the story. We’ll let you know what they say.

In the meantime, check out CM’s MySpace page for tracks off their new EP, Green. I’m sure you won’t have any “objection” with this band (sorry…).

UPDATE (12/16/07: Here’s the response from Adam Graham at Jam Solid:

“I will answer your questions because we have nothing to hide. We are one of the most reputable companies out there working with local bands today. I can provide you with hundreds of bands, venues, and contacts who will all agree. Cougar Magnum is an unfortunate circumstance of miscommunication and lack of organization both on our part as well as there part. You see they were scheduled by a member of our staff to compete in a finals round from a series of Battle of the Bands that they had played in, after a few of the bands had dropped out do to other obligations and the fact that the talent agent responsible for that market and that show left to pursue other opportunities, we were forced to make a decision and change the show.

We called all of the bands and informed them that this would be a regular show if they still wanted to play it and once everything settles down and we figure out an appropriate date that works for everyone we will reschedule the finals. Apparently this was not communicated to the rest of there [sic] band members however we did speak with someone from that band. Now when they got to the venue a former employee of ours Anna Johnston who still collected the ticket money for us but now managed the venue we booked shows at did not receive this information. Anna took it upon herself to judge this show as a finals and award a cash prize of $400 (which should have been our profit for the night) and tell them I would contact them about the studio time.

After I realized the situation I informed Cougar Magnum that was not the finals, there would be another opportunity, and since they already received the $400 to keep it and use it for the band and whatever they needed. This apparently did not sit well with them. I received many harassing phone calls at 1-2am so much so that I had to file a harassment report with the local police. I feel awful about it because I like the guys and think they are talented musicians, it is hard to communicate with someone who calls you at 2am to just laugh and be annoying.

They did start discussing the option of going on court TV . They asked if I would be willing to do a court show with them and if they won the court show would pay for it and if not they would forget about it once and for all. I agreed and said you know what if that settles it lets go for it. The court TV show heard there story and saw there proof and decided they did not have a case and told me to sue them to get my $400 back. This is something I would never do. They were turned down by 3 different shows. When you get turned down by court TV you know there is definitely no case. So now they are contacting people in the media like you, which is fine I am happy to explain myself.

The answer to your other question is yes we do operate in Minneapolis it is one of our biggest and strongest markets. We do shows at the Varsity Theater regularly, we just had one with Sick of Sarah, Undone, Soviet Machine etc. and guess what it was huge everyone including all of the bands got paid, street promotion was incredible, and everyone had a great time. I co-produced this event with a friend and A&R rep from Geffen Records, along with The Jimmy Hendrix Liquid Experience who sponsored it and is a part of the Grammy Foundation to support local music and give back to schools and low income neighborhoods.

We are doing some incredible things. I strongly urge you to dig deep into our company and speak with bands, venues, etc. find out all about us. I think you will find the results extremely favorable. We do the best we can and always try to take care of the artists but with any business sometimes you have the occasional angry customer who falls through the cracks and there is just no talking rationally about anything.”

Definitely looks like some miscommunication going on. Yes, the band was told something false and Jam Solid probably should have done more to make up for the error, but it also seems the band didn’t exactly handle the situation like professionals.

I guess we’ll see what Judge Mathis has to say next month (dun dun dun!).

UPDATE from Cougar Magnum (12/17/07):

This is going to be so exciting when we go on TV.  His response just adds to the pile of lies.  It’s tv entertainment material for sure.