Austin 360

Noon Saturday, a Livestream telethon went out live over the website for SXSW4Japan.org, the main South by South Southwest group raising funds for victims of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan.

Organized by the band of Tulsa-based Hanson brothers, the telethon immediately attracted huge names — Michael Stipe of REM (who recorded a message), John “Jo Jo” Hermann of Widespread Panic, members of the North Mississippi Allstars — to the Same Sky Recording Studio downtown and Bubble Recording Studio in the North Campus area.

“I’m enjoying the lack of sleep and the insanity,” said Matt Snyder of MediaMob, who helped whip together the telethon. “It’s been like a revolving door of kindness.”

In the courtyard of the bungalow-plus-studio, Snyder hung out with Taylor, Issac and Nicole Hanson (Issac’s wife). Coffee, water and energy drinks spilled over one table. Artists and techs ducked in and out of the upstairs-downstairs studio and control room, which house four cameras and an array of editing equipment.

“We’ve received incredibly positive vibes from everyone,” Isaac Hanson said. “And the longest we’ve gone without music or recorded messages is two minutes.”

Taylor Hanson saluted the local engineers for dropping everything to contribute digital expertise and equipment.

“So many people have come through,” he said. “We are just going to let it stream.”

Half way through the telethon, SXSW4JAPAN had raised more than $92,000, but that didn’t include the text donations that were being tallied separately.

Although the telethon will end at midnight Saturday, he said, future streaming, YouTube clips and an iTunes album are in the offing.

MTV
(video at the source)

Band organized the event in less than 12 hours, to benefit the Red Cross’s relief efforts in Japan.

AUSTIN, Texas — Like most folks, Taylor Hanson has watched the events unfolding in Japan with a mixture of sadness and shock, not to mention an overwhelming urge to help out in some way.



Of course, unlike most folks, he also fronts a massively popular band: Hanson. And since he and his bandmate brothers were already down in Austin for South By Southwest, he quickly realized how he could help those still reeling in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the nation: by throwing together an impromptu benefit show, streaming live for 12 straight hours over at SXSW4Japan.org.

So, in less than a day, he and his brothers placed calls to their fellow musicians, found a studio compound outside downtown Austin, and got to work. And on Saturday, MTV News showed up to capture some of Hanson’s efforts first hand.



“We came down to this festival hearing about the issues in Japan, and, honestly, kind of assumed there was going to be more of a co-ordinated push,” Taylor Hanson told us. “You know, with South by, everybody’s here to promote their thing, and they’re kind of in a bubble, and I think there just hasn’t been … from South by Southwest, from the big guys, kind of [a message of] ‘Hey, this is important, do something.'”



And so, much like everything Hanson does, the brothers took it upon themselves to spearhead the SXSW 4 Japan benefit, a live Web broadcast featuring performances and messages from the likes of Michael Stipe, John Hermann of Widespread Panic, the Court Yard Hounds. And, of course, Hanson themselves.



“We kind of like to get our hands dirty … And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s just start doing something,’ and the more we talked about it, we said ‘This needs to be something that everybody’s doing,'” Taylor said. “South By Southwest needs to say to the world that the music business is behind the effort to bring relief and bring aid to those that are struggling in Japan right now.”



Fans can donate to the Red Cross’s disaster relief efforts through the SXSW 4 Japan site, or by texting “Redcross” to 90999. It’s just the first step in Japan’s ongoing recovery, but Hanson hope that their effort won’t be the last of its kind. Because, really, in situations like this, musicians possess more power than they could possibly imagine.



“Part of what’s great about this is that music does inspire people to do stuff,” Taylor said.

The SXSW 4 Japan livestream is live at SXSW4Japan.org . Fans can spread word via Twitter, using the hashtag #sxsw4japan.

PopCrush

Like countless other musicians from around the globe, Oklahoma indie-rock band Hanson is at the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas to play live music and promote their new single. But the brothers are taking the extra step to ensure that their music industry peers don’t turn a blind eye to where attention is truly needed — to aid with disaster relief in Japan.

PopCrush caught up with Taylor and Isaac following a short acoustic performance on Austin’s famed 6th street — and as a duo, the two eldest brothers were in rare form. The band’s youngest member, 25-year-old drummer Zac, was missing, doing an interview elsewhere downtown in hopes to spread the gospel a little further.

“Our part in it is, we realized we had enough fans, enough know-how, and enough friends that are here. We use live-streaming content all the time, and so this has just been a labor of getting the word out,” middle brother Taylor tells PopCrush exclusively.

Today, at noon central (SXSW time), the brothers will launch a 12-hour live web cast leading up to their official showcase at Antone’s at midnight. With the help of fellow musicians like R.E.M., Widespread Panic, Ben Folds, The Boxer Rebellion, North Mississippi Allstars, Charlie Mars, Bowling For Soup, Andy Grammer and Portugual the Man, the ‘Penny and Me’ hitmakers are hoping to raise money — and attention — for Japan. In addition to the ongoing web stream, sessions with SXSW bands who donate their time and talent will be turned into an album to be made available on iTunes, with all of the proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

“You’ve got an issue that is so extreme, I think people are overwhelmed by it,” Taylor presses. “They think, oh, Japan — they’ve got an economy that’s strong, they’re not Haiti. This is on a scale that’s really never been seen before.”

This is not the first time the Grammy-nominated trio has sported the philanthropist hat — in 2007, the band joined hands with TOMS Shoes and quite literally took to the streets to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa. With their fans behind them, the band took off their shoes and walked a barefoot mile from each concert venue on their tour to give people a very real idea of what life is like in impoverished countries. The tradition continued on the band’s 2008, 2009, and 2010 tours — and Hanson and their fans hit goals to donate countless pairs of shoes, help build clean water sources, and give less fortunate kids a shot at a proper education.

“They need so much,” Taylor adds, referring to the recent disasters that have shaken Japan. “What matters is that everyone at this event tried to do something. Because if this event ends, if SXSW ends, and people didn’t galvanize and focus on trying to respond in the moment, then it’s going to be a horrible, horrible notch in the belt for the music business — and the rest of time, for that matter. So we’re digging in and trying to do our part.”

SXSW as a whole is backing Hanson in their efforts, and all donations from today’s live-streaming web cast will go directly to the Red Cross. View the SXSW 4 Japan live-stream with Hanson, and for more information, and to lend a hand to those in need in Japan, visit here.

Chicago Sun Times Blog

Hanson returned this year to the festival that made them famous — and then they got all Bob Geldof on us.

The three Oklahoma brothers first came to SXSW 17 years ago, strolling the streets as under-age hopefuls, singing for anyone who would listen (and getting kicked out of the Four Seasons lobby for doing so). One guy did, and the rest is “MMMBop” history. Now grown up, married, each with kids, they look around Austin and Zac, 25, sighs and says, “South-by definitely put a mark on us.”

This year, the Hanson guys returned to SXSW to play a showcase — only their second time to do so — in support of last year’s spot-on pop-soul record, “Shout It Out,” their eighth. But then something else happened. Maybe it was the presence of Geldof, but Hanson decided to whip together, in the span of about two days, a telethon to raise money for the recovery efforts in Japan following the massive earthquake there and subsequent nuclear power threats.

“When we got to South by Southwest, we expected to see more of a unified effort,” Zac said Friday afternoon from a makeshift base camp in an office building on North Congress Ave. “It was like, all we’ve got going is four tables at the convention center? That’s not great. … All these important people are here, from IFC to CNN, arts and culture people who should be talking about this, and no one really was. So yesterday we decided to throw this thing together, and started calling everyone we know to participate.”

“And everyone we don’t know,” added Isaac Hanson.

The result, they hope, is a 12-hour live stream from noon to midnight Saturday, viewed at sxsw4japan.com (a different address from sxsw4japan.org, but related), featuring live and pre-recorded performances and messages from a variety of musicians. It was still early when I spoke with them, but on board a day ahead were Widespread Panic, the Boxer Rebellion, Ben Folds and the Courtyard Hounds.

“Even if we raise $12, we just felt something had to be done — by someone, and if we could step up and be those people, OK,” Zac said. “We don’t want to be so jaded and say, ‘Well, we helped out with Haiti, and that was pretty recent …’ I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, it’s Japan, they’ve got money.’ It didn’t seem right.”

Money raised through this awareness project will be via text messaging and go directly to the Red Cross.

Hanson will oversee the stream and appear several times. When it’s over at midnight, they head to Antone’s for an all-ages showcase at 12:30 a.m.

“Live Aid was put together in two weeks,” Isaac said. “We can do this in two days.” He looked at Zac. A beat. “Right?”

VH1 Blog

Most artists have a better chance of winning the lottery than selling out stadium-sized shows, a feat Hanson accomplished as young teens thanks to their single “MMMBop.” Despite the success, brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac broke with their major label over creative differences and started their own (3CG Records) instead of signing with another. This makes Hanson a rare phenomenon — a boy band turned indie act, which puts them right at home at SXSW. Last month, Hanson released a video for “Give A Little” to support their most recent album, Shout It Out.

After the jump, Taylor Hanson’s SXSW picks.

Cee Lo Green
“A phenomenal artist with pipes and stage presence to spare, very excited to catch Mr Green live.”

Brett Dennen
“Brett is an awesome talent with a totally unique sound.”

The Jim Jones Revue
“This raucous outfit has made one of the most exciting albums I’ve heard this year. If the live show has a fraction of the energy of the record, it’s going to melt faces and I hope to be there to watch the melting.

From David Garza to Dan Wilson to John Popper, a ton of friends are at SXSW this year. One of the things I am excited to do is catch the many amazing artists that we have shared stages, songwriting and other collaborations with.

There are a whopping 2,000 or so acts performing at South By Southwest in Austin this year. A few are household names (Duran Duran, Erykah Badu, The Strokes), some are respected indie veterans (Low, Hieroglyphics) and others feel like they’re about to be the next big thing. We’ve asked a diverse group of 2011 SXSW artists to name acts in the lineup they’d love to see. We’re hoping this ongoing series will serve as not just a guide to the fest, but also an interesting snapshot of today’s music scene.

Nylon

Best Celeb Sighting
During South by Southwest, every third person you see on the street in Austin is in a band. It’s just a fact. So after the first day, spotting indie celebs just seems normal: Oh, there’s Zowie! There’s Ben Kweller! There’s Patrick Wolf! (Or at least I think that was Patrick Wolf…) But when I was sitting at the Four Seasons having lunch with the amazing New Zealand electro-pop band the Naked and Famous and spotted Hanson? Now that was exciting. And Alisa Xayalith, the Naked and Famous’s lead singer, couldn’t agree more. Turns out she wrote them a fan letter when she was 14—and they wrote back! Hanson took a seat at the table next to us and Alisa worked up the courage to introduce herself and ask them for a photo. They obliged, of course, and afterward Taylor Hanson (um, dreamboat) came over and asked where they were playing next and said he’d try to come. Earlier that day, Alisa got her photo taken with Jack White, so needless to say her first South by Southwest experience was shaping up to be pretty amazing.