CelebMix

Next time you find yourself at the cinema watching the latest hip feature, pay a little attention to the film score: there’s every chance an equally cool musician has composed it. Films such as The Social Network, Tron: Legacy and Trespass Against Us all have scores by bands or pop stars rather than traditional film composers.

A film score, as opposed to a soundtrack, is the instrumental music that accompanies a picture, setting the overall mood and tone. Written specifically for the film, it is not designed to stand out but rather to complement the action. Indeed, film-makers often say that the sign of a good score is that the audience doesn’t even notice it.

To celebrate the release of Trespass Against Us on DVD and Blu-ray (July 3rd), scored by Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers, we take a look at some of the most stimulating scores by musicians you might not have guessed!

Dust Brothers—Fight Club

As producers, The Dust Brothers have created some of the most defining and celebrated sounds of the ‘90, from The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique to Beck’s Odelay to Hanson’s “MMMBop.” As the guiding musical hands behind David Fincher’s 1999 masterpiece, however, the group created a chaotic yet exhilarating score that reflected the mindset of that film’s disturbed protagonist.

May The Rock Be With You

Twenty five years as a band is no mean feat, I mean I guess when you’re brothers you’re stuck with each other but in terms of making music Hanson continue to do it, and while here on this twenty fifth anniversary of their existence as a band and twenty years since the release of their debut album this ridiculously packed sold out Enmore Theatre is ready to hear the songs they’ve essentially grown up with over the last twenty years and I have to say that I’m one of them and ready for some pop rock goodness!

Oh hello Jason Singh! You’ve gotta love a bit of Taxiride and here he is opening the night for us with ‘Everywhere You Go’ and tonight as a trio and more of an acoustic vibe he hits us straight up with one we all know and even gets the crowd joining in on the chorus which is a great way to start the set, leading straight into solo single ‘Hold On Forever’ which is a really great song in fact and one that the crowd latched on to, but following that up with ‘Get Set’ which they all know and the song suits this set up and it’s always good to be reminded of a perfectly crafted tune. Back to his solo album ‘Humannequin’ with ‘I Can Dream’ and it’s keyboard ridden goodness followed by a brand new ballad written for these shows called ‘Strangers’ which was damn good and I look forward to hearing that recorded after I grab one form the merch booth after the set. Then in the what I like to call the ‘Whoa! I never expected that’ files right now he’s covering ‘What’s Up?’ by 4 Non Blondes and well played Mr Singh as you have the crowd loving it right now. Closing his set with ‘Creeping Up Slowly’ which was a gimme he finishes the set strong and I have to say I wish it was longer but it’s also made me want to go home right now and bust out the old Taxiride albums, man they are good songs. Go Bombers!

It’s time, cue ear piercing screams.

Hanson walk onto the stage and start things off with ‘Already Home’ and that amazing musicality of the band instantly kicks into gear and you just know that this sold out crowd is gonna go nuts tonight and without even stopping to take a breath the band take it into ‘Waiting For This’ as we shout it out and you can tell they love that one, I particular I liked Isaac’s guitar solo but I can’t help but smile as the crowd goes nuts when ‘Where’s The Love’ starts and as I stand at the back taking it in, actually more like for my own safety I watch the crowd and just everyone around me dancing, singing, smiling and loving every second of this excellent pop rocker.

‘Look At You’ is a soul filled rocker and again the seamless transition into the next track ‘Tragic Symphony’ shows me just how good these guys are at their craft. It’s actually a pleasure to watch as they haven’t missed a beat, a note or well actually anything as they just did it again with ‘Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ and if any first time Hanson concert goes still had any preconceived notions about the ‘MMMbop’ band then they’d be shut up by now as all it takes is a few songs to show people what they can do and do well. Isaac addresses the crowd but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the screams so I’m just going to assume it was to tell is how much San Dimas high school football rules. ‘Been There Before’ might just be one of my favourites of the band and it’s always a treat to hear live, but I say that and then Taylor hits the opening notes of ‘This Time Around’ on the piano as phones get raised and the hands that aren’t holding phones up clap along. As the band trade vocals they lap it up, but in terms of a big ballad this one powers up, hold the phone we just had a dueling guitar solo! Badass. Things just got a little ‘Weird’ in here, see what I did there?! We’ve just gone from power ballad to simply ballad with this one moving straight into ‘Go’ which has always been a standout for me in their catalogue, just one of those songs with a kick ass vibe to it and with Zac on vocals and Taylor and Isaac hitting it with underlying vocals it’s so well arranged.

Oh good, I’m now somehow deafer, Zac just came off the drums and to the front which causes screams as Taylor talks about the first time they came to Australia twenty years ago and they throw in an acoustic rendition of ‘Madeleine’ where they again trade vocals. Hold on, what’s going on here, Zac just took keys and Taylor jumped behind the drums to play ‘Juliet’ as Zac takes lead vocals and hype man duties getting the crowd waving in unison. Taylor tells us “It’s not about the battles it’s about winning the war” which is a great way to look at things as that takes them into ‘Strong Enough To Break’ which is as good as it should be as a big acoustic driven hook laden, catchy little ditty. The ‘Underneath’ album is definitely my favourite from the band so it’s always good to hear songs from it, but as good as that one was ‘Penny & Me’ steps it up one. This was the lead single from the aforementioned album and still stands out to me as when the band came back, so this one seems to be a favourite for many here.

Isaac takes lead again on ‘Watch Over Me’ and harmonies run wild! This song should be a hit, damn this one is just so good. Time now for an acoustic interlude with simply a piano and three vocals giving us ‘With You in Your Dreams’ and some seriously impeccable vocal talent here and that continues with ‘On and On’ as three acoustic guitars come out this time. Ok so it’s time for the new single ‘I Was Born’ which after a long intro kicked off and is already a favourite for the fansons. Plus it has a bitchin’ middle 8 and I love the arrangement of this one so much. If this is a snippet of what’s to come then I find your songs intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

‘Minute Without You’ and its catchy chorus gets plenty of love, I tell you what if this one had a key change in it I just may have needed a moment. Thankfully my moment was not required, but a big rock and roll ending that blended into ‘Get the Girl Back’ worked and this groover sees Taylor on lead tambourine. ‘And I Waited’ is a great addition to the set and a more mature song I’ve always felt as it gets away from the pop rock style but still maintains that Hanson feel. Then we get a little ‘Crazy Beautiful’ with some excellent speed clapping, followed by ‘Hey’ sticking back with the ‘Underneath’ album.

OK, so it’s time for the song, the one that 90% of the world think is the only song this band have and base their opinion of the band on by it. Yeah it’s ‘MMMbop’ and if you want to continue to do that then so be it but hearing a version twenty years since its release is pretty rad, the band have matured with the song and every single person here loved it, I mean how can you not? It’s catchy! Then from everyone’s favourite to my favourite ‘If Only’ which is pop rock at its best and if more bands wrote songs like this today the world would be a better place, the energy the band still have this far into the set is amazing, plus some excellent jumping while playing the harmonica gets Taylor a gold star. Time to get ‘Fired Up’ which sounds like an early 80’s rocker and I have no issue with that at all then straight into ‘In The City’ and again another groove type rocker, just full of soul. I dig this!! The band leaves the stage as the screaming and stomping begin.

The screaming continues, actually gets louder as they come back and kick everyone’s ass with their vocal talent with an acapella version of ‘Rockin’ Robin’ before Isaac McFly hits the riff for ‘Johnny B Goode’ and they belt out a little Chuck Berry. Back to the Hanson catalogue and ‘Lost Without Each Other’ is just so damn happy and brings a 2hr 15 minute, thirty song set to a close and with a well-deserved bow and that’s the end.

So the last two times I saw Hanson when they toured here they were great but I just feel they’ve gotten better, maybe like a fine wine (that they’re now able to drink) these brothers go from strength to strength as they mature and continue to make and play music. They may be celebrating twenty five years as a band and twenty years since their debut album but here’s to another twenty five more of this pop rock goodness. Sure I’ll be over sixty in that time but hey, good music lasts forever and I’ll still be listening if they keep making it, I might just have to turn it up a little louder by then…

Essential Information

Venue: The Enmore Theatre – Sydney

Date: June 21, 2017

Presented by: Chugg Entertainment

Support: Jason Singh –

Website: http://www.hanson.net

Photo By: Annette Geneva – Every Day Is Saturday – Check out our full gallery HERE

Set List:
Already Home
Waiting For This
Where’s The Love
Look At You
Tragic Symphony
Thinking Bout Somethin’
Been There Before
This Time Around
Weird
Go
Madeline
Juliet
Strong Enough To Break
Penny & Me
Watch Over Me
With You in Your Dreams
On and On
I Was Born
Minute Without You
Get The Girl Back
And I Waited
Crazy Beautiful
Hey
MMMBop
If Only
Fired Up
In The City
Rockin’ Robin
Johnny B Goode
Lost Without Each Other

Billboard

Pop music tends to evolve slowly, gradually swaying from one trend to the next without sharp turns or dramatic spikes. Some years, though, you can listen to the radio and really feel the ground shifting, if not outright quaking, beneath your feet. 1997 was one of those years.

The first half of the ’90s was largely defined by the fallout from the grunge explosion of Nirvana and Pearl Jam and the rise of West Coast hip-hop, as shepherded by Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg. As late as ’96, alt-rock and G-funk still held serve as the dominant sounds of the moment. But by ’97, most of the leading lights for both genres had either faded, gone on hiatus or left the game altogether, creating a void at the mainstream’s center that badly needed filling.

What came along to fill it was the return of mega-pop: Massive, barnstorming, top 40-geared breakouts from groups like Spice Girls, Hanson and Backstreet Boys — artists that bore some of the sonic signifiers of decade’s beginning, but lacked any connection to the angst of grunge or the edge of G-funk. In hip-hop, the Bad Boy empire was springboarded to the top of the food chain, as label head Sean “Puffy” Combs was reborn as Puff Daddy, and quickly became the best-selling rapper in the universe thanks to a series of gigantic, top 40-recycling pop-rap smashes for himself and his labelmates.

Within a year or two, post-grunge had been replaced by nu-metal and pop-punk on alternative radio, West Coast had almost totally given way to East Coast in the hip-hop mainstream, and pop’s center was dictated daily by teen-pop soothsayer Carson Daly on Total Request Live. But while the core of top 40 was fundamentally evolving in ’97, a lot of other weird stuff was going on, from the rise of nu-soul and crossover country to the last gasps of trip-hop and hi-NRG dance. And of course, there were one-hit wonders: plenty of dance-pop novelty smashes, international flukes and alt-rock parting shots to give the year character.

Here are Billboard‘s 100 favorite pop songs — capping it at one song per lead artist, and broadly defining “pop” as music that either was played on top 40 at the time or could conceivably have been — from one of the most pivotal years in the genre’s history.

(Word of warning: To make our list more authentic to the experience of living through 1997 pop, we counted songs as eligible if they peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 — or if they were disqualified from the Hot 100, but peaked on our Radio Songs chart — within the 1997 calendar year. That means that some songs that came out earlier but crested in ’97 are here, but many songs that came out in ’97 but hit their mass-culture moment later on aren’t. So apologies, “My Heart Will Go On,” “Torn,” “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” “Make ‘Em Say Ugh” and many more — see you all in ’98.)

3. Hanson, “MMMBop” (No. 1, Hot 100)

Despite literally being a band of boys, Hanson weren’t actually a boy band in the traditional sense — musically and structurally, they had more in common with Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors than New Kids on the Block or Take That — but they did signal to anyone paying attention that the world might be ready for another round of ’em. “MMMBop” was alt-rock in construction but pure pop in impact, with a non-verbal chorus that stands as one of the most iconic of the entire decade, and an irrepressibly positive energy that disguised the fact that the song was three teens singing about the ephemeral nature of life and the inevitability of death. The debut single set the brothers Hanson up for both meteoric success and an extended post-phenom career, and it never stops being a jaw-dropping achievement: a perfect pop song that simultaneously marvels at the world’s wondrousness and sighs about how none of it lasts forever.

The Industry Observer

Milwaukee Mag

I shed my preconceptions about the squeaky clean ’90s boy band and went to go see Hanson for the first time. This is my report.

“MMMBop” came out when I was 10 years old—you know, right at the start of those formative pre-teen years when musical tastes are molded into your brain and discovering a certain punk album can change the course of your high school experience for the worse. I remember hearing that infectious Hanson single constantly in 1997. Even with its radio ubiquity, I can’t recall my exact feelings about the song, however. I must have thought that the track was pleasant but maybe not meant for me. Instead, that its target audience was directed at the next generation of Backstreet Boys- and NSync-listening tween girls. Regardless, if I heard it today, I don’t think I would be put off or consider it a relic of the ’90s. I’d probably just sing along.

Still, I have only thought about Hanson twice since “MMMBop” ended its mainstream radio coup—aside from the spare “remember Hanson?” conversations, of course. In 2008 while on staff at The Marquette Tribune, one of the three brothers walked barefoot down Wisconsin Avenue to raise awareness for children throughout the world who lacked the most essential items, like shoes. And then in 2013, I thought about them again when the band returned to Milwaukee with their own beer, cheekily named Mmmhops. Both causes I could easily get behind.

Twenty years since the release of “MMMBop,” I decided to check out Hanson for the very first time at the group’s Summerfest gig at the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage on Thursday, June 29. Was the band simply a nostalgic act at this point? Did they have enough material to carry a set? Would I actually like them? I went into the show cold, without catching up on any of their albums beforehand. I wanted to get my first full Hanson experience live at Summerfest. Here’s what I learned:

Following the Big Bang fireworks, which were rescheduled from the previous night due to rain, five members of the band walk on stage. Worry sets in about how to differentiate between the three Hanson brothers and the two touring musicians. That turns out not to be that difficult because the touring members are a black guitarist and a bassist with long frizzy hair. Is looking drastically different possibly a requirement to tour with the band?

“We celebrate playing 25 years of music tonight,” the Hanson brother with long blond hair (but not as long as the drummer) says—I find out later that this is Taylor. Hanson is officially half the age of Summerfest, which this year enjoys its 50^th Anniversary. But within the initial ten minutes, I can tell time hasn’t left Hanson in the past. The first couple songs the band plays reach into blue-eyed soul and heartland rock that invoke big sing-a-long choruses. Hanson comes off less like a pop band than a current take on a classic rock band only with prettier faces and better voices.

It’s surprising that the energy of the crowd can stay so high for so long. If things were slowing down a bit, Hanson kept the show moving by playing some crowd-pleasers. First each brother got a turn singing a cover in a three-song medley, starting with The Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man” then seamlessly transitioning into “Gimme Some Lovin’” and finally The Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Running.” This segment was both spirited and unexpected—the praise of Steve Winwood especially caught me off guard. Later, they would rip through a rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” and perform an a capella, three-part harmony of the ‘50s doo woop song “Rockin’ Robin,” later made famous by Michael Jackson.

Near the end of the show, I looked around the audience and saw that I was lost within a sea of women in their mid-30s. I became mesmerized watching the giant screen to the side of the stage for crowd shots. Every once in a while the camera caught a guy hanging on to every word. I feel like I am becoming closer to understanding that feeling. So many people think of Hanson as this ‘90s boy band with one big hit song—and they did play “MMMBop,” and it was fun for nostalgia’s sake. But in reality, in 2017, Hanson’s live show is dynamic and compelling. If more people lost their preconceptions about them, they might end up actually enjoying their music. I know I did.

12 Photos from the Hanson Summerfest Show