Pop Band Hanson to Release New Album on 4-20-04

[GabrielYoungFan]

Hanson is back and ready to release an album, "Underneath" after 4 years of being out of the spotlight.

The band is best known for their jump start with the hit single "Mmmbop" but now the guys are back to prove that they are more than just one-hit wonders. According to the VH-1 All-Access special featuring Hanson on April 12, Hanson spent three years recording over almost 80 different songs all to be turned down by their former label Island/Def Jam. Frusterated the guys, finally got the guts to create their own label, 3CG(which I believe has some connection with their first Indie record, 3 Car Garage). Anyway, the new cd was produced by Danny Kortchmar whom has also worked with Don Henley and Billy Joel.

The cd also features a song with Michelle Branch ("Everywhere' and "Breathe") and compliations with Carole King and Matthew Sweet.

For more info on Hanson check the V-H1 page http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_all_acces...9/episode.jhtml

or the official page at:

http://www.hansonline.com

Edited April 14, 2004 by GabrielYoungFan

[Ken]

Hanson was like the beginning of the "boy band".

They should have been crushed, while they were still young and vulnerable.

Curses.

[joeyz]

Haha I couldn't agree more Ken!!!! ......Except I think the New Kids on the Block beat everyone to the boy band thing...

[GabrielYoungFan]

Guys before you pass judgment and label these guys check out the new material.

[Ken]

I didn't mean they started the boy band era, I meant that they were in the early stages of becoming a boy band like the other aformentioned boy bands.

That's why I said the shoud have been disposed of sooner.

[Shawn]

Hanson spent three years recording over almost 80 different songs all to be turned down by their former label Island/Def Jam. Frusterated the guys, finally got the guts to create their own label, 3CG

I don't know.

I hate to prejudge, but if the label turned away over 80 songs, maybe starting another label won't fix the issue. Maybe it's as bad as we fear.

Who knows? Maybe it was 'change our image' material like Alanis returned with after 5-6 years away.

Always too hot, never too cold

You make your best shot too hot to hold.

:I value your imput:

[joeyz]

Oh sorry Ken ... excuse my lame interpretation of your ambiguity :rotfl:

Edited April 15, 2004 by joeyz

[Ken]

I'm often misunderstood, being an ass and all.

Pay no mind to the Ken....

[Guest .::BeatFactory::.]

wow.... the first time I saw the Mmbop video ... i honestly thought it was a chick playing the drums, a chick on the keyboard and some dude on the guitar.... now they don't look like complete chicks... mmmmmmmmmmmbop ... i might have to see what their new stuff sounds like ... pre-judging just by the way they look now, it looks like they play some kind of rock stuff... we'll soon find out.

[GabrielYoungFan]

Wow, more replies. I am impressed. Thanks it's interesting to read everyone's perspective. They have a video that is currently playing on V-h1's in the mornings so if you have time tune in and maybe you can catch it. It's called "Penny and Me." According to Vh-1 the song peaked on Billboard's single chart at #2. So I'll be waiting to see what happens as well.

Joey, I want to play you a couple songs and off one of their newest cds and we'll compare and contrast against Gabriel Young as far as the types of songs they sing and the musical technicality they have.

[joeyz]

Joey, I want to play you a couple songs and off one of their newest cds and we'll compare and contrast against Gabriel Young as far as the types of songs they sing and the musical technicality they have.

Never!!!! :reallymad: I'd rather be burned at the stake!!!!!

[GabrielYoungFan]

That can be arranged and seriously you owe me. laughs evily :bigsmile:

Hanson.bmp

Edited April 16, 2004 by GabrielYoungFan

[GabrielYoungFan]

Date:

2/16/2004

Details Magazine

They invented nineties teen-pop. Now the masters of "MMMBop" are reinventing indie rock. No, really.

The Chicago gig sold out in 10 minutes. For the past two days a perfumed shantytown outside the hotel has staked out the band around the clock. By 11 P.M., fishnet ****s, white-collar punks, and dead-eyed scenesters are battling for prime spots near the stage. From a box seat above the masses, Billy Corgan--draped head to toe in black wool like a fuzzy Darth vader--nods his bald head to the band's chart-bludgeoning hit: a little ditty calld "MMMBop."

Wait a...What the...You mean--?

Yes, Hanson are back. That Hanson.

The three-part-harmonizing, cute-as-a-bug's ear brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma--a.k.a. the "Middle of Nowhere," title of their 8 million-sold debut--who kicked the late nineties into pop overdrive.

Hanson? Weren't they on a box of Eggo Waffles? Well, yes, but six years later, Isaac, 23, Taylor, 20, and Zac, 18, have gone from "MMMBop: to Mmman-meat, stalked by dirty little minxes who have long since outgrown their training bras. The girls aren't lobbing flowers and teddy bears onstage anymore; they're tossing thongs and room keys. And in November, as is so often the case with hard-livin', hard-lovin' longhairs, Isaac was rushed to the hospital, the result of what his publicist calls too much "rocking out."

With millions in the bank, a legion of loyal fans, and tossed-off chops that make peers like John Mayer and Michelle Branch sound like American Idol rejects, Hanson are in an interesting position. After wriggling out of their record deal, they've un-plugged, all Neo-like, from the industry matrix: This month they'll release the self-produced Underneath on their own 3CG Records label, and they've managed to get it distributed to all the big chains. With no label to siphon off profits, Hanson stands to make [a lot].

Ever since downloading began kneecapping the majors, forward-thinking audiophiles have been waiting for someone--Aimee Mann? Wilco? Pearl Jam?--to lead the way into the post-MP3 future. Nobody figured that maybe--just maybe--rock's savior would be Hanson

That Hanson.

"Did you know they wanted to make Hanson lunch boxes?" Isaac says, as he tries to light a dog-turd cigarillo.

"The likenesses always come up a little shy," Zac says, shaking his head. "And besides, they couldn't get my package size right."

Folded inside the dark shadows of a bedouin tent in Chicago's Kaz Bar, the Hanson brothers, who once preached the value of strong bones with a "Got Milk?" ad, are momentarily snipped free of their marionette strings. Out come the smokes, the booze, the profanity. Along with road stories that might shatter their fans' little tween hearts: tales of stalkers, hotel-room invasions, and Taylor's 2002 wedding, which preceded the birth of his son by six months. But somehow the brothers went through the Tiger Beat meat grinder and came out pretty normal, if a little [angry] at the way their label [mishandled] their careers. It has been four years since their last album.

"I think some people thought of us as one-hit wonders," says Isaac. "They probably wondered where we went. And where were we? We were in Tulsa recording 80 songs for a new record."

None of which will sound like "MMMBop." That song made them rich, but it also dug the band's grave as a novelty act and harbinger of the boy-band revoloution. But when Hanson took a stab at mature, Byrds-style organic rock with 2000's This Time Around, it barely went gold. "It'd be retarded to say we weren't disappointed," Taylor says. Kicking them in the nuts while they were down, Universal punted Hanson from Mercury to its rap stable, Def Jam. Predictably, Def Jam met the Underneath demos with a shrug. "They figured Hanson was done," says a former Universal employee.

In hindsight, it's a good thing the brothers were too nerdy to obliterate their trust funds on boob jobs for their girlfriends, blow, and other rock-star frills. Let's not forget this is a band that moved in excess of 9 million albums--$12 million in sales--and grossed nearly $9 million on their 1998 tour alone. "We didn't suddenly become jackasses and buy really stupid stuff," Isaac says. Their only confirmed spending vice is a pure middle-American lust for dirt bikes and paintball guns. Instead, Isaac says, "We invested in ourselves and built a studio."

With financial guidance from their dad, an accountant, and spiritual advice from Bruce Hornsby, Hanson regrouped and formed 3CG Records, spending $1.5 million to produce and distribute Underneath. And thanks to a self-constructed business plan--yes, Hanson has a business plan!--they'll keep about $6 for each disk sold, rather than the less than $2 bands get in conventional deals. Their new manager, Allen Kovac--who's updated the careers of Blondie and Motley Crue--claims the trio can break big."

The rebound may be here already, even if it doesn't equal the boys' precious-metal past.

Hanson has already sold almost 50,000 copies of an EP online and at stops along their recent acoustic tour, which culminated in a sold-out, ear-shattering show at Carnegie Hall. Last night, at the House of Blues, the boys wrung blue-eyed soul from the simplest songs. Top 40 blasts like "Where's the Love" have grown a big, swaying backside of groove. And when they put their Chuck Taylors to the floor and rock, the club's trademark yogi quakes in his frame.

"We want people to think we kick ***," says Taylor. "Girls, our peers, guys who like Led Zeppelin, 40-year-old soccer moms, all of them-- don't you know that we kick ***?"

Maybe not yet...but soon? So says Steve Greenberg, who originally signed Hanson to Mercury:

"They're one song away from a comeback." Or something even more ambitious. Chris Holmes, a Chicago indie fixture who's played with the Smashing Pumpkins, among others, says simply, "These guys have a Pet Sounds in them."

"I still drive a 1986 Econoline van," says Zac, playing post-show fun boy. "It's totally [decked] out, with, like, fluorescent lights and sheepskin and a bed in the back. It's a shaggin' wagon."

As the youngest Hanson shoves a mangled backstage pizza into the fridge, Isaac talks about the rise of Black Eyed Peas with a DJ friend and Taylor discusses chord progressions in the corner. King Corgan just left the premises. ("He said he enjoyed the show," Isaac beams. "That's good, right?")

Among the tribe of friends are a few members of Chicago indie-upstarts the Assassins. You know they're in a band because they look miserable and hang like carcasses on the couch. "Have you heard these guys?" Isaac asks. "They're great--and good friends. They're thinking about signing with RCA."

Funny. Don't they know major-label deals are for suckers? (from the March 2004 issue of Details magazine, p. 109-110.)

[GabrielYoungFan]

Date:

4/29/2004

HANSON’S UNDERNEATH #1 INDEPENDENT ALBUM

Hanson’s third studio album, Underneath released on their own, self-funded 3CG Records last Tuesday debuted at #1 on Billboard’s independent sales chart and #25 on Billboard's Top 200 , making it one of the most successful self-released albums of all time. The success of Underneath puts Hanson in rare company with the few other artists such as Prince and Ani DiFranco who have scored Top 25 chart positions on previous self-released titles.

Hanson formed 3CG Records last year after deciding to leave their label, (Island Def Jam). "We have a passion for making music," says Zac Hanson, "and having our own label gives us the opportunity to make our music and deliver it directly to the fans." While artists like Liz Phair and Jewel have succumbed to major label pressure to release titles that fit the mold of manufactured hit records, Hanson has chosen to stay true to their own music.

“I knew if I wanted promotional dollars, I would have to turn in something to get on the radio,” Liz Phair told Billboard about the process of making her last record with song-writing team, Matrix. Phair admits it was a compromise.

“Penny & Me” the lead single from Underneath is getting early support from radio stations around the country with programmers such as WXXL/Orlando’s Pete DeGraaff remarking,"We can play it between Usher and Linkin Park, and between Simple Plan and Black Eyed Peas. I wish we had 5 more songs like this. More of the music we play will be coming from independent labels...as long as the song is good and it fits our station. "Penny & Me" sounds great on the air...Top 10 phones!" This sentiment is echoed by Brian Kelly of WXSS/Milwaukee who states that his station’s phones are “blowing up” whenever he plays the track. The commercial single from the album, "Penny and Me" debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 30 Singles Sales Chart last month (#1 independent) and remains in the top 10 after 5 weeks.

With massive support from media outlets including Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, OnAir with Ryan Seacrest, The View, Ellen (Monday, 5/3 check local listings), MTV and VH1 (both of whom added the music video for “Penny & Me” and featured the band in long form programming), Hanson is paving the way for other independent artists who may want to release their own recordings. This unique strategy has not gone unnoticed by publications such as Details Magazine, who recently remarked, “Nobody figured that maybe – just maybe Hanson would be the saviors of rock.” (Details Mar 04 Bart Blasengame).

“The reality is that great songs, hard work and talent is paying off for Hanson. These guys put together a great strategy for their release” says Rick Krim, VP of Music & Talent at VH1.

"Hanson has the spirit and the balls to not only reinvent themselves, but do it on their own terms.” Motley Crue's, Nikki Sixx recently told VH1 on "All Access - Spotlight Hanson", a 30 minute special documenting the band's journey as they set up their own label.