Hawthorne Heights

The only ones likely to file Hawthorne Heights under "must-hear" are those stressing over their SAT scores and potential prom dates. Even so, the Dayton, Ohio-based act is turning heads in the corporate world -- well, at least in the head offices of its label, Victory Records. The group's debut release, The Silence in Black and White, not only outsold the debuts of both Thursday and Taking Back Sunday when it arrived in stores last summer, it became the label's fastest-selling debut to date. But with little radio support and virtually no mainstream press, how did Hawthorne manage to ascend to such Heights? Credit 2005's answer to the underground zine and mix tape: MySpace and purevolume.com. Both sites helped spread the band's screamo-punk gospel -- decent if unmemorable variations on post-hardcore angstfests -- among the earnest, quarter-life-crisis-having set. Talk about youth being wasted on the young.