No Doubt Has New Manager

No Doubt, Orange County’s hottest-selling rock band, has chosen Jim Guerinot, the county’s highest-profile music executive, as its new manager.

Guerinot’s Laguna Beach-based Rebel Waltz management company also represents the Offspring, another heavy-hitting O.C. rock act, with total worldwide record sales rivaling the 14 million No Doubt reaped with its 1995 release, “Tragic Kingdom.” Guerinot also owns a record company, Time Bomb Recordings, financed by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Mitch Okmin, No Doubt’s longtime booking agent, said Monday that the Anaheim band had gone about a year without a manager since parting with Tom Atencio, a Los Angeles-based veteran who advised No Doubt through its “Tragic Kingdom” rise in 1995-97.

No Doubt, known for the four core members’ hands-on approach in handling business as well as creative affairs, had been scheduled to begin recording its follow-up to “Tragic Kingdom” this month in New York City with producer Michael Beinhorn, Okmin said. But that plan is now “up for grabs.”

Dave Tomberlin, a spokesman for No Doubt at Interscope Records, said the band had “no real statement” to issue about its decision to ally itself with Guerinot, starting Nov. 1. Guerinot, 39, had no comment when reached in New York City.

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Guerinot’s roots in the Orange County music scene are deep: He grew up in Fullerton, began promoting concerts at Fullerton College and UC Irvine in the early 1980s, and since 1984 has managed Social Distortion, a linchpin of the local punk-alternative movement.

Guerinot rose to general manager of A&M; Records, overseeing the marketing of such hit acts as Sheryl Crow and Soundgarden before leaving in 1994 to return to Orange County and launch his own record company.

“It’s good to have a band from Orange County represented by somebody who knows exactly where they came up,” said Paul Tollett, who as head of the Los Angeles concert company Goldenvoice has been a longtime supporter of No Doubt. Goldenvoice’s in-house record label, Goldenvoice Recordings, is distributed by Time Bomb.

“[Guerinot] knows the clubs they played coming up, but he can steer them about what to do in Italy as well,” Tollett said. Tollett said No Doubt didn’t ask his advice in choosing a manager, but “it certainly didn’t hurt that Jim manages Social Distortion and the Offspring. [He’s] kind of the face of Orange County.”