HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS and Victory launch new online community

Chicago, IL - Hawthorne Heights and Victory Records launched Thisiswhoweare.org today - a ground-breaking new online community with incredible features to connect fans of Hawthorne Heights. Profiles can be created, with photos, friends, private messages, a search function and exclusive Hawthorne Heights videos to download. Fans can add Hawthorne Heights as a friend and enter the "Saying Sorry" contest starting February 14th. As the online home to the contest, contestants can create a profile, tell the band why and to whom you are ‘sorry' and win a chance for a personal apology from the band, onstage during the "Black Clouds and Underdogs" tour with Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects this spring. Three winners will receive tickets and backstage passes for the show nearest their home, while the grand prize winner will get free tickets, backstage passes and a personal, on stage apology in front of thousands from Hawthorne Heights. Join now at www.thisiswhoweare.org.

With Hawthorne Heights' first DVD release, This Is Who We Are, in stores now and upcoming release of their second album, If Only You Were Lonely February 28th, the band is making waves. Their headlining tour kicks off February 10th in Toledo and runs through March 5th and they are bringing along label mates June as well as Emery, Anberlin and Bleed The Dream on this run. June will tour in support of their debut album, If You Speak Any Faster, showcasing dueling vocalists and killer rock hooks. In mid-March, Hawthorne Heights will join Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects for a two month arena tour of North America.

With a debut album that has been on the Billboard Top 200 for over a year and is heading rapidly for platinum certification, there is a great deal of anticipation for If Only You Were Lonely. The first single, "Saying Sorry" has been hailed as a hit in the industry. AOL Music launched the world premiere of the new video in their First Look program, Alternative radio stations across the country are adding it into rotation and national press rolling in, with cover stories confirmed in Alternative Press, Metal Edge, Billboard, Chord and Synthesis and features running in Blender, FHM, Guitar World, Guitar One, Outburn and Revolver. The new soundtrack to Underworld: Evolution in stores now as well, with a remix of "Where Can I Stab Myself In The Ears" by Legion of Doom. EA Sports releases their MVP 2006 Baseball video game this month, which contains a track from the new album, This Is Who We Are. Hawthorne Heights will be featured on Yahoo! Music's Pepsi Smash as well as AOL Sessions and a live broadcast from the El Rey Theater on AOL Music February 7, 2006, and they will perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live February 16th, with a date on Conan O'Brien to be announced soon.

If Only You Were Lonely is a tour de force, showing remarkable achievement from a band that has scarcely left the road since their debut album was released. Written partially on their bus during last summer's Warped Tour, the disc is produced by veteran David Bendeth, known for his work with bands like Breaking Benjamin and Towers of London. Musically, it tests the limitations of the emo and screamo music genres, adding deeper and darker guitars and a more diverse selection of material. From the uber-catchy emo tracks they are known for to more metallic offerings and even a piano ballad reminiscent of the Beach Boys, Hawthorne Heights sought to built on the foundation laid on their debut album and expand from there. Influenced by bands that range from Led Zeppelin to Quicksand to Nirvana, Hawthorne Heights's brand of radiant and fiery post-hardcore is expansive and textural, and their triple guitar attack alone sets them apart from the rest. "With JT, Casey and Micah all playing guitar, we can add a lot of layering effects and intricacies to our music along with legitimately pulling in different musical styles," said drummer Eron Bucciarelli.