Hawthorne Heights
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Their follow-up, If Only You Were Lonely, as well as the DVD This Is Who We Are, arrived in 2006. Leading up to the albums release, Victory urged street team members to help it debut above urban singer Ne-Yo, whose own hyped release came out on the same day. Questionable promotional tactics included rearranging store displays to hide Ne-Yos record and make Hawthorne Heights more prominent. Lonely debuted at number three on the charts, though, unsurprisingly, more than a few eyebrows were raised in the band and labels direction. Regardless, the album continued to sell well, as its first single, Saying Sorry, garnered airplay on many a modern rock radio station.
However, controversy came to a head in early August when Hawthorne Heights suddenly announced that not only were they leaving Victory Records (despite a contractual obligation of two more albums for the label), but also suing them over various issues including unpaid royalties and tarnishing their name and relationship with fans over the aforementioned incident (the band claimed to have no knowledge of the street team letter that was issued as though personally from them). In a statement issued online, the band compared their time at the label to being in an abusive relationship and directly attacked greed driven label head Tony Brummel. As issues were sorted out behind the scenes (and Victory counter-sued the band claiming they just wanted to jump to a major), Hawthorne Heights continued touring nationwide and served as headliners on the fall 2006 version of the popular Nintendo Fusion Tour with openers Relient K, the Sleeping, and more.
