Manholing the competition... Houston's Manhole recently scored a victory in a scuffle to retain exclusive rights to its name. Late last month, the local heavy rock institution won a lawsuit that pitted the female-fronted group against a West Coast band with the same moniker. A federal judge found that the Los Angeles quartet also dubbed Manhole was guilty of trademark infringement and awarded the founders of Houston's Manhole, Eev Rodriguez and Allison Gibson, unspecified damages. The judge also ordered the California thrash/rap group to cease using the Manhole name. Noise Records, the L.A. act's label, must eliminate any references to the band on its web site and surrender all Manhole merchandise -- CDs, tapes, posters, T-shirts, etc. -- to Rodriguez and Gibson, who have owned the trademark on the name since 1993.
Such name battles can get ugly if a band feels its identity and, in turn, its livelihood are at stake. That may or may not have been the case when L.A.'s Manhole, in keeping with its bad-ass reputation, began a campaign of harassment against its Houston competitor. There's plenty to suggest that the group knew full well that it didn't have a legal leg to stand on. And it appears it simply decided to milk the scuffle for all it was worth, seeing it as a fine publicity tool. By the end of last year, whatever legitimate reasons L.A.'s Manhole might have had to defend its rights to the name were obscured by a series of ridiculous antics.
Rodriguez says the trouble started about three years ago, when her band's label at the time, the Austin-based Direct Hit, began receiving anonymous phone calls touting the West Coast version of Manhole -- which, incidentally, was formed in 1992, a year after its Texas counterpart. The calls spread from the label to the homes of band members, says Rodriguez, who suspects (but was never able to prove) that they came either from fans of L.A.'s Manhole or the members of the band itself. Through it all, though, Rodriguez and Gibson saw the taunting as only a mild irritant. Between persistent lineup changes and a full-scale breakup or two, they had issues closer to home to keep them occupied.
By last year, however, the nasty episodes had burrowed a bit too close to the bone. L.A.'s Manhole had signed a deal with Noise, which released the band's 1996 CD All Is Not Well; the cover of that disc featured the words "Los Angeles" in small letters beneath the group's name, apparently in a halfhearted attempt to differentiate between the two acts. In the following months, L.A.'s Manhole began to find its commercial stride, opening for well-known national acts. It was only a matter of time until the band found its way to Houston.
There were two momentous visits within months of each other late last year, during road trips with headliners Madball and Type O Negative. It didn't surprise Rodriguez that L.A.'s Manhole strutted into town with a chip on its shoulder, bashing its Houston competition on-stage and even goading its fans. Details of the band's behavior before, during and after performances at the Abyss and Westpark Entertainment Center spread among fans of the original Manhole like the stench from a cracked sewer line.
"We had one fan who showed up [at the Abyss] wearing our T-shirt, and their singer [Tairrie B] threw a glass of water in his face and tried to start a fight with him," says Rodriguez. "Everyone I talked to who was at that show said it was really kindergarten-type crap."
At the Type O Negative show, the L.A. band upped the ante by dedicating its song "Hypocrite" to Houston's Manhole. The members also spiced between-song patter with epithets, proclaiming that they were the only real Manhole. The band stopped just short of begging for a fight, and it was about to get one.
"We got tired of being harassed," Rodriguez says simply.
So she and the other members of Houston's Manhole hired an attorney, who sent a series of letters to Noise threatening legal action against the group and its label if use of the Manhole name continued. "I didn't want to start a big mess. But people were getting the two bands confused," says Rodriguez. "We're very anti-violence. I grew up in the Fifth Ward, and I hate all that gangsta crap."
When it came time to back up its tough talk, L.A.'s Manhole folded. Neither it nor its label bothered to show up for the March 14 hearing on the trademark infringement issue. Not surprisingly, the hearing lasted only a few hours, and on March 25 the judgment enjoining L.A.'s Manhole was handed down. At present, Noise's only response has been to take Manhole off its web site. Rodriguez's lawyer, Suzanne Tomkies, is still awaiting the L.A. Manhole merchandise, which the label has until April 24 to hand over.
"We're gonna have a big bonfire -- burn it all," says Rodriguez, with a sinister giggle.
For their part, the L.A. band formerly known as Manhole plans to abide by the ruling. "It's all been kind of a drag," says the group's manager, Jeff Jacquine. "The whole thing was handled wrong, and the bottom line is, they're going to change their name."
