Hawthorne Heights
Photo: Brian Appio

Hawthorne Heights have developed a unique touring strategy: Complete a run of sold-out arena gigs, marry off a bandmember or two and then go back to playing shows.

Version 1.0 of the concept launched roughly two weeks ago when Hawthorne wrapped a stint on Fall Out Boy's Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour (see "Fall Out Boy Start Divulging New Tour Dates — The Real Ones, That Is"). And they began the nuptials phase of the plan when bassist Matt Ridenour tied the knot recently (guitarist Casey Calvert takes the plunge this week).

After the honeymooning, they'll kick off a string of dates, beginning with appearances at a couple of radio festivals — Edgefest in Frisco, Texas, and the 89X Birthday Bash in Detroit — both on June 18.

Hawthorne's headlining tour begins the following night in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with Anberlin, Halifax and Hit the Lights along for the ride. Over the next month, they'll also share the stage with Yellowcard, Matchbook Romance and Story of the Year.

They're also sitting on a pair of videos for singles off If Only You Were Lonely (see "Hawthorne Heights Deny Ne-Yo Beef, Pick Oreos Over Cristal"). The band shot a live clip for "This Is Who We Are" at the Minneapolis stop of the Black Clouds Tour on April 14. And a few weeks later, they filmed a video for "Pens and Needles" in Miami with director Dale "Rage" Resteghini, a host of their most fervent South Florida fans and five cameras.

"The shoot is going down in an ultra-sexy Spanish monastery in Miami Beach," Resteghini wrote on his exclamation-point-packed MySpace page. " ... About 750 of their nearest and dearest fans who can dance, back-flip off our stage and mosh will be in the video. This is a huge video that we will be shooting on five 35mm film cameras, which will capture all the fun and chaos. The location is absolutely sick. It's like some ancient Aztec war ground."

Sounds killer, dude.

Hawthorne Heights tour dates, according to Victory Records:

• 6/18 - Frisco, TX @ Pizza Hut Park, EdgeFest
• 6/18 - Detroit, MI @ State Theatre, 89X Birthday Bash
• 6/19 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere's
• 6/20 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Orbit Room
• 6/22 - Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
• 6/24 - Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
• 6/25 - Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock Cafe
• 6/27 - Johnson City, NY @ Magic City Music Hall
• 6/28 - New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
• 6/29 - Providence, RI @ Station Park
• 6/30 - Wilmington, DE @ Big Kahuna
• 7/9 - Costa Mesa, CA @ Pacific Amphitheatre
• 7/13 - Buckingham, QC @ Festival D'Ete
• 7/14 - Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
• 7/15 - Ottawa, ON @ Bluesfest
• 7/19 - Thunder Bay, ON @ Community Auditorium
• 7/20 - Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
• 7/21 - Saskatoon, SK @ Prairieland Park
• 7/22 - Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
• 7/23 - Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Center
• 7/25 - Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Center
• 7/29 - Bonner Springs, KS @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
• 7/30 - Council Bluffs, IA @ Westfair Amphitheatre
• 7/31 - Springfield, MO @ Ozark Empire Fair
• 9/2 - Seattle, WA @ Seattle Center, Bumbershoot Festival

• Hawthorne Heights
• Yellowcard
• Halifax
• Matchbook Romance

Jaheim
Photo: Keith Major

Hip-hop balladeer Jaheim hit the top 10 back in 2001 with his debut offering, Ghetto Love, and got one step closer to the top a year later with Still Ghetto. More than three years later, the singer's third release, Ghetto Classics, achieves what his previous efforts couldn't: a #1 debut on Billboard's albums chart.

With first-week sales of more than 152,000 copies, Ghetto Classics (produced by Scott Storch and Bink) swipes the #1 spot from last week's victor, the Jack Johnson-rich film soundtrack Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the Film "Curious George," which slips to #2. According to the latest SoundScan figures, Classics outsold the "Curious" collection by more than 35,000 copies, earning Jaheim his biggest first-week-sales showing. (Ghetto Love opened at #9 with 80,000 scans, while Still Ghetto bowed at #8 with 111,000 copies sold).

Barry Manilow's The Greatest Songs of the Fifties holds the #3 slot for a second straight week, moving more than 116,000 units. Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough slips two spots to #4 with sales of 111,000, while Andrea Bocelli's Amore drops a single chart position to #5, selling just 152 fewer copies than Blige's latest.

The soundtrack to the Disney Channel original movie "High School Musical" climbs seven spots to #6 thanks to a 32 percent spike in retail interest that amounted to sales of more than 97,000. An 8 percent sales boost helps Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts return to Billboard's top 10, rising four spots to #7 with 87,000 scans. An 11 percent retail kick bumped James Blunt's Back to Bedlam from #12 to #8 this week, selling just 160 fewer copies than Underwood.

Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable moved another 81,000 units to spend a ninth-straight week in the top 10. Foxx checks in at #9, just in front of Eminem's Curtain Call: The Hits, which finishes at #10 with 73,000 copies scanned.

Jaheim scores the chart's biggest debut, but his latest wasn't the only Billboard newcomer of note. New York rockers Matchbook Romance earned the week's second-best debut, as their Voices sold close to 28,000 copies during its first week on store shelves, securing the chart's #43 spot. At #44 — selling only 115 fewer discs — is Brazilian bossa nova king Sergio Mendes' Timeless, featuring Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Q-Tip, Stevie Wonder and Jill Scott.

British metal act Bullet for My Valentine — who will open Rob Zombie's Educated Horses tour this spring — come in at #127 with The Poison selling close to 10,000 copies its first week out. The Secret Life of the Veronicas, the debut from Aussie twins the Veronicas, sold just 26 fewer copies to bow at #132.

• Jaheim
• Jack Johnson
• The Veronicas
• Matchbook Romance

Matchbook Romance's <i>Voices</i>
Photo: Epitaph

They Heart Loud Music: Matchbook Romance and Bullet for My Valentine must have known there'd be so few Valentine's Day-related releases dropping Tuesday.

Matchbook were farm-bound for their second effort, tracking their Voices in a supposedly haunted barn (aren't they all?) in rural Massachusetts. While fans wise enough to preorder were rewarded with free tees, everyone will be able to sharpen their wiseassery with songs like "You Can Run, but We'll Find You," "Goody, Like Two Shoes" and "Singing Bridges (We All Fall)."

Bullet for My Valentine's brand of loud rock is more of the metal variety, and with "Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow," "All These Things I Hate" and "4 Words (To Choke Upon)," The Poison might be a tough swallow for some. Preorders were packed with a color poster and candies (for the sweethearts), although everyone will be treated to some enhanced goodies on the proper release. (Don't miss instru-metal greats Apocalyptica on the intro track.)

This Bossa Nova's Boss: Is anything possible with a Pea behind the decks? Sergio Mendes will soon find out as he attempts a Carlos Santana-style makeover with Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am. Even though Mendes is largely responsible for importing bossa nova to America, Timeless — his first set of new material in eight years — is more of an urban affair, jacked up with guest spots by Justin Timberlake, John Legend, the Peas, Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott and many more.

Ghettopoly: Even though his grandfather was one of the Drifters, Jaheim is busy trying to make his own classics — Ghetto Classics, that is. He nabbed white-hot producers Scott Storch, KayGee and Bink for his latest outing (although he does twiddle some of the knobs himself). And yup, that's Jadakiss siding with Jaheim on the first single, "Everytime I Think About Her." This title should fit comfortably alongside Jaheim's previous efforts, Ghetto Love and Still Ghetto.

Tori's Story: Still trying to catch your breath after the 12-disc Original Bootlegs box Tori Amos put out late last year? If so, you might not be prepared for another comprehensive item, "Fade to Red: Video Collection," which recaps everything from "Crucify" — the first track on her 1992 solo debut, Little Earthquakes — to "Sweet the Sting" from last year's Beekeeper. (Don't miss two bonus clips — a remixed "Professional Window" and the U.K. version of "Cornflake Girl" — that appear at the end of disc two.)

Song Title Of The Week:

"If I Drop Names of Exotic Towns That You'll Never See, in the Songs That I Write, It's That That's All I Have When I Miss My Girl & You're Taking Yours Home Tonight" on Luke Doucet's Broken (and Other Rogue States)

Other Notables:

Various artists' I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey and Fahey's The Yellow Princess reissue: Although many had written him off as another folk fogy, John Fahey is getting a posthumous shot in the arm from some of indie rock's finest: Sufjan Stevens, Calexico, Devendra Banhart, M. Ward, the Fruit Bats, Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and Granddaddy. Also this week — to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Fahey's death and the 40th anniversary of his signing with Vanguard — the label is brushing up 1968's The Yellow Princess with three bonus tracks and fresh liner notes.

The Sword's Age of Winters: Not to be confused with the Swords Project, Da Swordzmen, Two Lone Swordsmen or the other metal bands that have also taken up the sharp moniker, the Austin, Texas, outfit is stepping up to the plate for the first time with a nine-track maiden release. Conrad Keely of Austin buddies ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead — who took the Sword on the road in early 2004 — embellishes the Age of Winters cover with some magical sketches, sure to make the LP version even more illustrious.

The Veronicas' The Secret Life of ... the Veronicas: If you don't have someone to smooch with this Valentine's Day, you might want to pucker up with the Veronicas — their debut cover's covered with kisses. Unlike Tegan and Sara, these 20-year-old identical twins are decidedly more pop; for their debut, they've brainstormed with writers and producers who have previously teamed with Britney, Madonna and Kelly Clarkson.

Shawn Mullins' 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor: Somewhat akin to Sonic Youth putting out an album the site of their studio, which was devastated in the 9/11 attacks (Murray Street), Shawn Mullins has titled his latest after the New Orleans studio that used to be located right near the levee on Dauphine Street. Needless to say, some of the songs — "Beautiful Wreck" (the first single, co-written with Glenn Phillips), "Solitaire" and even Mullins' cover of "The House of the Rising Sun" — have a much different resonance now than originally intended.

New Releases:

• Carlos Barbosa-Lima - Carioca (Zoho)
• Batagraf/ Jon Balke - Statements (ECM)
• Stefano Battaglia - Raccolto (ECM)
• The Beautiful Girls - We're Already Gone (Cornerstone)
• Elliott Brood - Ambassador (Six Shooter)
• Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison (enhanced; Trustkill)
• Béla Fleck & the Flecktones - Hidden Land (Columbia)
• Agnes Chan - Forget Yourself (Bungalo)
• Luke Doucet - Broken (and Other Rogue States) (Six Shooter)
• Frog Holler - Haywire (ZoBird)
• Iro Haarla - Northbound (ECM)
• Jaheim - Ghetto Classics (Warner Bros.)
  Buy Now: Ghetto Classics (Warner Bros.)
• Lil G - The Southside Way (Thump)
• The Lucky Tomblin Band - In a Honky-Tonk Mood (Texas World)
• Magnet - The Tourniquet (Filter)
• Paul Manousos - For Better or Worse (Shock and Fall)
• Matchbook Romance - Voices (Epitaph)
  Read: "Matchbook Romance Declare War On Cheesy Music With Voices"
  Buy Now: Voices (Epitaph)
• Sergio Mendes - Timeless (Concord)
  Read: "Will.I.Am Wants To Pull A Rick Rubin With Sergio Mendes, Macy Gray"
• Jeff Merchant - Window Rolled Down (True Classical)
• Mountain Heart - Wide Open (Skaggs Family)
• Shawn Mullins - 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor (Vanguard)
  Buy Now: 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor (Vanguard)
• National Eye - Roomful of Lions (Park the Van)
• New Radiant Storm King - The Steady Hand (Darla)
• Terje Rypdal - Vossabrygg (ECM)
• Sing-Sing - Sing-Sing & I (Aerial)
• Sissel - Into Paradise (Decca)
• Tyler Stephenson - Life (LmgKidSource)
• The Subways - Young for Eternity (Sire/Warner Bros.)
• The Sword - Age of Winters (Kemado)
  Buy Now: Age of Winters (Kemado)
• Three Fantastic - Three Fantastic (Dot Point Period)
• Toto - Falling in Between (Frontiers)
• April Verch - Take Me Back (Rounder)
• The Veronicas - The Secret Life of ... the Veronicas (Sire/Warner Bros.)

Read: "You Hear It First: The Veronicas"
Buy Now: The Secret Life of ... the Veronicas (Sire/Warner Bros.)
• Watermelon Slim and the Workers - The Coolest New Name in Blues (Northern Blues)
• Various artists - I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey (Vanguard)
• Various artists - "Firewall" soundtrack (Varèse)
• Various artists - "Tsotsi" soundtrack (Milan)

Notable Reissues And Archival Material:

• Cannonball Adderley - Spontaneous Combustion (Savoy Jazz)
• Burt Bacharach - The Definitive Collection (Hip-O)
• Bad Company - Bad Company (gold disc; Audio Fidelity)
• Etta Baker - Traditional Years: Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians (Empire Musicwerks)
• Miles Davis - Out of Nowhere (Savoy Jazz)
• Doris Day - The Love Album (Feinery)
• John Fahey - The Yellow Princess (Vanguard)
• Red Garland Trio - At the Prelude (two CDs; Prestige)
• Freddie King - Live at the Electric Ballroom, 1974 (Shout! Factory)
• Los Lobos - The Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos (Rhino)
• Liza Minnelli - The Definitive Collection (Hip-O)
• Charlie Parker - Now's the Time (Savoy Jazz)
• Django Reinhardt - An Introduction to Django Reinhardt (Fuel 2000)
• Nina Simone - Broadway-Blues-Ballads, High Priestess of Soul, I Put a Spell on You, Let It All Out, Pastel Blues and Wild Is the Wind (Verve)
• Talking Heads - Little Creatures, Naked, Speaking in Tongues and "True Stories" soundtrack (DualDiscs; Rhino)
• Various artists - A Tribute to Nicolette Larson: Lotta Love Concert (Rhino)
• Various artists - The Best of the 80's Reloaded (Water)
• Various artists - Constellation: The Brightest Stars of Jazz (Savoy Jazz)

DVDs:

• Tori Amos - "Fade to Red: Video Collection" (Rhino)
  Read: "Tori Amos Assembles A Valentine's Day Gift For Her Fans"
• The Moody Blues - "Lovely to See You: Live" (Image Entertainment)

February 21:

• Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino)
  Read: "You Hear It First: Arctic Monkeys"
• Ray Davies - Other People's Lives (V2)
• William Orbit - Hello Waveforms (Sanctuary)

February 28:

• Hawthorne Heights - If Only You Were Lonely (Victory)
• Kid Rock - Live Trucker (Atlantic)
• Ne-Yo - In My Own Words (Def Jam)
  Read: You Hear It First: Jay-Z's Picks

March 7:

• Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas (V2)
• Juvenile - Reality Check (Atlantic)
• Matisyahu - Youth (Epic)

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• Matchbook Romance
• Tori Amos
• Jaheim
• The Sword
• The Veronicas

Matchbook Romance
Photo: Epitaph

Lots of successful bands have strong work ethics. Then there are those like Matchbook Romance who make other workaholics look like sloths in comparison.

Just days after the release of their 2003 debut, Stories and Alibis, frontman Andrew Jordan started writing the band's next album on the road. During 18 months of nonstop touring, the back lounge of the Matchbook bus served as a mobile studio, and whenever they had a moment, Jordan, guitarist Ryan DePaolo, bassist Ryan Kienle and drummer Aaron Stern furiously experimented with different riffs, beats, melodies and vocal passages. Then, when Matchbook Romance finally got off the road, Jordan locked himself away and worked obsessively for more than 70 hours a week.

"If I wasn't working on the record I felt bad," Jordan explained a month before the Valentine's Day release of the band's sophomore disc, Voices. "If I took two hours to go shopping or hang out with friends, I was like, 'Dude, what am I doing? In those two hours I could have written the greatest song ever.' It was the worst stress I've ever experienced in my life."

Jordan's anxiety was largely the result of success. Stories and Alibis sold more than 200,000 copies and established the group as a contender for the emo/pop-punk throne. Matchook Romance had a lot to live up to heading into the second record, and the pressure was even greater because Jordan was determined to stray from the group's proven musical roots and create something truly original.

"We kind of had to prove ourselves after Stories and Alibis," Jordan explained. "All these naysayers and nonbelievers were like, 'Yeah, OK, we've seen what happened to all the other bands that came out of your scene. Can't wait to see you guys fail.' That's what fueled our fire. We wanted to show everyone that we're really musicians and we can really play our instruments well and write great songs."

It seems that Matchbook Romance's ambition and dedication have paid off. Voices is sonically unconventional, but it's packed with enough strong melodies to keep listeners hanging on through the sudden twists and hairpin turns. "You Can Run, but We'll Find You" opens with tender, reflective piano; "Monsters" is a carnival ride embellished with handclaps; and the elegiac "Goody, Like Two Shoes" and the desperate "What a Sight" feature weeping strings that buffer heavier guitar blows.

"I'm just fed up with a lot of these bands that aren't doing anything and are just spinning their wheels," Jordan said. "They don't give a sh-- about how they sound when they play live. They don't give a sh-- about the messages they send out. There's nothing backing up what they're doing. So I just declared war on that and declared war on cheesy music."

Clearly on a roll, Jordan continued: "We didn't just want to have another CD that's taking up room in a CD store. We actually wanted to contribute to the evolution of music. Even if we just do a second of something cool, and then that inspires someone else to say, 'Hey, that's pretty rad,' and they experiment with that and go off and do an amazing thing. Even if it's just that, we want that tiny knowledge that we might have done something meaningful."

Jordan is equally passionate about his lyrics, which are unflinchingly confessional and filled with equal doses of self-pity and self-loathing. Pretty much anything that's on his mind is fair game for exploration in a song: "Say It Like You Mean It" is about his contempt for vacuous pop-punk bands, while the first single, "Monsters," examines the tenuous relationship between celebrities and the people who look up to them.

"[People] tend to idolize [celebrities] and think they're the most beautiful people in the world," he explained. "When really they're coke fiends, heroin addicts and complete f----ups. They have people run their lives for them because they can't handle it, while there are people who aren't famous, who are living life way more and doing way greater things than all of these celebrities combined."

Other songs are far more personal. "Surrender," for instance, is about Jordan's unusual perspective on past sexual indiscretions. "I really blew this one relationship because I wasn't completely truthful," he explained. "I never told this person about the sh-- that went down because I feel like it's better to pay off your debt to somebody by not telling them and just totally facing it by yourself. I think a lot of people just say, 'Hey, you know, I f---ed up. Real sorry.' And the other person freaks out and cries and gets f---ed-up permanently over one of your mistakes. Then they're always looking over their shoulders.

"The way I pay these people back is to go, 'I'll never do that again to anybody else, ever,' " he concluded. "That's more of a punishment than anything because secrets eat you alive and haunt you. Those people wind up hiding in the back of your head forever, like voices."

• Matchbook Romance

2006: The Best of Studio Photos

• Lil Jon
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Kelis
• Beck
• Nelly Furtado

MTV.com Exclusive: Matchbook Romance Photos 02.14.2006

• Matchbook Romance

Warped Tour in Kansas City, KS 06.22.2005

• The All-American Rejects
• Atreyu
• Matchbook Romance
• My Chemical Romance
• The Offspring