Mountain Xpress

Pop band Hanson, who rose to fame in the 1990s, are still going strong. But now the three brothers — Isaac, Taylor and Zac — are all grown up (youngest, Zac was a pre-teen when the band’s hit “MMMBop” charted; this year he and his wife had their second son) and, though still pop-savvy, have more magnanimous goals than mere pop stardom. Enter Hanson’s Shout It Out tour, which arrived in Asheville today.

From a press release: “HANSON is proud to announce the first two legs of their North American tour in support of their highly anticipated fifth record, Shout It Out. The announcement of the tour follows a whirlwind week of excitement for the band’s debut single, “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’” which was released to digital outlets Friday in conjunction with the premiere network television performance of the song on the Late Show with David Letterman, and the music video debut on Myspace, garnering praise from fans and critics alike including Perez Hilton, MTV, Entertainment Weekly, Absolute Punk and Salon. The video, featuring “Weird” Al Yankovic, was viewed over a million times in the first few days of release, and is still rising. The exuberant homage to classic film The Blues Brothers, recreates an iconic scene where the band’s soulful music incites over 300 people to dance in the street.”

The tour combines with the brothers’ ongoing Take The Walk campaign where, at each tour stop, they walk one mile barefoot with their fans. The walk raises awareness about poverty and AIDS in Africa where many children can’t afford footware. Fans walk barefoot in solidarity with those misfortunate children; each walker also pledges to donate $1 to a cause such as fighting AIDS, building schools or donating shoes. Hanson has teamed with TOMS Shoes, a company which donates a pair of shoes to a needy child for each pair sold. Many fans at today’s walk — which left The Orange Peel around 3 p.m. — were wearing TOMS shoes.

Info about the walk came via Twitter: “join us for the walk at the orange peel today! 2:30, C U there -Taylor.”

Hanson plays the Orange Peel tonight. 8 p.m., Rooney opens. Tickets are $28 at the door and are still available.

Head to the source to view photos from the walk!

St Louis Today

While you weren’t looking, the members of Hanson grew up.

The brothers, who scored a hit in 1997 with the irresistible “MMMBop,” are all in their 20s now — guitarist Isaac Hanson is 29, keyboardist Taylor is 27 and drummer Zac is 24 — and are family men, to boot. They’ve continued to make records through the years, but none has captured the exuberance of that initial smash like their current album, “Shout It Out.”

“It’s a record that, in general, goes a little bit more back to our roots,” Zac says by phone from a stairwell in the GE building in New York. He’s on his way to “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” where, later in the day, he and his brothers are slated to perform.

“While writing this album over the last year, we were listening back to the stuff that originally inspired us to be musicians — ’60s rock and Motown records,” he says.

For the single, “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin’,”‰” the brothers wanted to do something that matched the high energy level of the song. They ended up paying tribute to a favorite movie scene, the “Shake a Tail Feather” sequence from the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers.”

“We are huge Blues Brothers fans,” Zac says. “We’re too young to have seen that movie when it came out, but we were lucky enough to be watching TBS one night when it came on. The humor, the car chases, the great music — we just fell in love. I think all of us, when we were going to get married, said to our prospective wives, ‘Have you seen “The Blues Brothers?” This is key to our married life that you know this movie exists.'”

Taylor pulled up the movie clip on YouTube and played “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin'” along with it, and the trio saw how well they synched up. They built the “Tay’s Music Exchange” set in their rehearsal space in Tulsa, Okla., found a street a few blocks away that could pass for Chicago in the 1970s, hired a choreographer to teach them some dance steps and off they went.

Oh, and they asked their friend “Weird Al” Yankovic to join in the fun. (He’s the anonymous tambourine player boogieing in the background.)

“That was the icing on the cake,” Zac says. “We’re huge fans of his. We’re not doing what he does so well, making a parody. Ours is an homage. But for him to put his seal of approval on our work, that was kind of like the ultimate ah-ha moment.”

Citizen Times

ASHEVILLE – “Waiting for This,” the opening track on Hanson’s new album, came to life in Asheville before the band’s 2008 show at The Orange Peel, according to guitarist and older brother Isaac Hanson.

“I clearly remember starting to feel good about the song at that venue,” he said. “We played it during sound check. It wasn’t finished yet, but it started taking shape. I remember thinking, ‘We’ve got to put this on the next record.’”

That record, “Shout it Out,” hit stores in June, and the trio of Hanson brothers returns to The Orange Peel tonight as part a nationwide summer tour. An energetic blend of R&B-spiced pop rock, the new album is the fifth from Tulsa, Okla., natives Isaac, 29, Taylor, 27, and Zac, 24.

The photogenic family’s pop gem “MMMBop” broke huge back in ’97, making drummer Zac the youngest Grammy-nominated songwriter in history.

An ensuing label shake-up led the band to form its own record company in 2003, and recent side projects include Taylor’s stint as lead singer in Tinted Windows with members of Cheap Trick, Smashing Pumpkins and Fountains of Wayne.

Take5 reached Isaac Hanson on the road in the Northeast.

Continue reading →

Richmond.com

Hey, you remember Hanson?

You know … three brothers (who some say looked like girls) that “MMMBopped” their way into every 14-year-old’s heart back in 1997?

Yeah, them. They’re back!

This time they’re older, more musically diverse, and definitely look like boys (err, men).

Their new 36-date-tour “Shout It Out” is piggybacking off the release of their album with the same name. They made a stop at the Hat Factory on Wednsday evening and this R&B-flavored pop-rock is not what you’ve heard from these guys before.

Their piano heavy, funk infused tunes lend themselves to the new audience. I haven’t seen piano playing on stage like that since Jack’s Mannequin.

Hanson started out their 20 song set with a track off the new album “Waiting For This.” This high energy song definitely got the crowd screaming. Loud. And singing along.

After a few more songs, they transitioned into a three song acoustic set, with the brothers sitting on stools, singing coffee shop style. Boy, that had the ladies screaming!

They played an assortment of songs from their seven previous studio albums including “Runaway Run,” “If Only,” and, of course, “MMMBop” and “Where’s the Love.”

Overall, this was a great, high energy show. These guys have been performing since they could walk, and it definitely shows.

Check out Hanson and all their screaming fans in the photos below.

(check out the source for a gallery including 20 hanson photos)

IndyWeek.com

Earworm probably wasn’t yet a valid term, but Hanson’s international smash of a single, “MMMBop,” was nonetheless the earwormiest single of the late ’90s. It was a slice of jump-rope pop so perfectly constructed for dual captivation and aggravation you’d swear Super K Productions was behind it. Hearing how “MMMBop” sounds 13 years down the road might be reason enough to hit this show. But Isaac, Taylor (a member of super-ish group Tinted Windows) and Zac have managed to dodge the one-earworm-wonder tag and stay relevant, too. Showtime is 7:30 p.m., with fellow hookmasters Rooney opening.—Rick Cornell