Fredericksburg.Com

BY JESSE SCOTT

FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Listening to “MMMBop” in the late ’90s, you couldn’t help but wonder where Taylor, Isaac and Zac Hanson would be today.

Would the brothers shed their polished image and become male versions of Lindsay Lohan? Would they retire into obscurity out in Oklahoma? Or would they somehow break the teeny-bop mold and become respected musicians?

There were a lot of questions back then, but now it’s clear: Hanson is legit, and they have grown into a pretty amazing band.

The trio played the Hat Factory in Richmond last night and will head to North Carolina this weekend for stops in Asheville and Raleigh.

“Our live performance is a really music-heavy show,” said lead singer Taylor Hanson, in a recent phone interview from the set of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” in New York City.

“Wall to wall, it’s everything we’ve ever recorded mixed with an incarnation of the music we love.”

If all you know about Hanson is the band’s 1997 pop hit “MMMBop,” you’ve got a bit of catching up to do. First and foremost, the boys have been through puberty (heck, Taylor even has four kids), and have come into a musical element that’s both unique and lasting.

Nothing captures the 2010 edition of Hanson better than their latest album, “Shout It Out.” The band’s eighth studio album, released on June 8, is injected with heaps of catchy hooks and the harmonies that only these three brothers could effortlessly weave.

To top it all off, Hanson has broken away from the iron fist of major labels, and the brothers now release everything under their own label, 3CG Records.

“We’ve lived a pretty bohemian lifestyle, which has been similar over the past decade,” said Taylor Hanson. “The lifestyle of carrying your life on your back, like a turtle, and making music and being devoted to it has always had an appeal to us.”

But, he added, one thing that continues to evolve for the Hanson brothers is the level of control they exert on the business side.

“We run our own label, merchandise and all of our marketing and promotions. When we’re out on the road we jokingly call ‘off days’ ‘non-show days.’ No sleep for the rock ‘n’ roll pioneers!”

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Tune In Music City

Hanson — that trio of “MMMBop”-ing brothers who’ve grown up before our very eyes — have seven children between them. Seven! That’s how old we all are.

But over the span of time since 1997 breakout Middle of Nowhere, the band has scraped the bubblegum off their shoes and settled into harmless, classic-leaning pop/soul territory — check the tight harmonies, stabbing brass and handclap-driven soul groove of “Thinking ’Bout Somethin’ ” from this year’s Shout it Out via the video above for evidence. The Jonas Brothers better start hitting the record crates hard if they want to sound this mature in 10 years.

Hanson returns to Nashville on Tuesday, August 3 for a stop at the Wildhorse Saloon (120 Second Ave. N., 902‑8200). The show also features Los Angeles pop outfit Rooney (touring in support of new album Eureka). It kicks off at 7:30 p.m., and tickets run $39.06-$69.33.

New Raleigh

The majority of New Raleigh readers likely remember the Hanson brothers as being cute little tweeners mmm bopping their way to the top of the charts well over a decade ago. And a good portion of our readers were also probably old enough to not get caught up in that whole boy band craze (I myself was already in grad school!). Yet, while popular conjecture assumed that the Hanson brothers would be a flash in the pop cultural pan, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, now 29, 27, and 24, respectively, are not only still recording and touring, but are continuing to branch out into a variety of musical endeavors and styling, and doing so independently, via their own record label.

Fresh off the release of their newest album “Shout It Out,” and Taylor Hanson’s collaboration with the power pop group Tinted Windows, Hanson has recently embarked on the first leg of their nationwide tour. Isaac Hanson, guitarist for the band and the eldest of the three brothers, took a few minutes to talk with us at New Raleigh about Hanson’s newest release, their recent touring experience, charity work, and more.

NR: “Shout It Out” is your fifth studio album since 1997. That’s a pretty long career by anyone’s standards, but especially since you started recording and performing at such an early age. How has your musical styling changed over the years?

IH: We’ve always been heavily rooted in later 50s and early 60s R&B. That was the seminal inspiration for us to create music. Sometimes leaning a little bit more R&B, sometimes leaning a little bit more rootsy Americana. For somebody who is only familiar with our first record, one might find them saying ‘Oh is that the same band?’ The biggest reason someone would say that is because of the perspective that youth provides, meaning the age of our voices might skew someone’s perspective in making them think it’s a lot more different than it really is. I think that ultimately soulful pop rock is what we do and what we’ve always done. I think this record is one of the most soulful records we’ve ever done, with a full horn section, and a very kind of upbeat and groove-oriented album.

NR: The video for “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’” is an ode to the Blues Brothers. Have any particular blues and soul musicians had a great influence on your song writing and performance style?

IH: The Blues Brothers movie and the music in that film were a huge inspiration for us as young kids. People like Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and singer songwriters, like Billy Joel, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Simon and Garfunkel as well as people like even Aerosmith. We’ve hit a lot of different scenes throughout the years on some level, some of the records being a little bit more guitar-driven, a little more rock, a little bit more gospel-infused. We really rediscovered our love for old R&B and it heavily influenced the record. But that being said, there are a bunch of songs that have very strong leanings to groovy versions of people like Billy Joel, because it’s very piano driven album.

(NR: link to video here. And yes, that is Weird Al.)
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Richmond.com

It’s hard to single out the most impressive quality about Hanson.

Brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac have been an intact musical unit for the better part of two decades. Their breakout single, “MMMBop,” still sounds as fizzy and fun as it did with its 1997 release.

And somehow they’ve managed to weather label changes and a public’s endlessly shifting musical tastes to emerge in 2010 with a new album, a healthy fan base and even some hard-won peer and industry respect.

The chirpy vocals of early days have matured a bit, of course, but “Shout It Out,” the new album released on their own 3CG label, shines with the energy of a new band and the song craft of seasoned vets. Keyboards and guitars alternately drive these power-pop songs, with horns stepping in regularly to add a funky punch, offering a musical reach that spans from a ‘70s AM radio vibe to Keane.

Fresh from Taylor’s stint last year in the power-pop supergroup Tinted Windows (with members of Cheap Trick, Fountains of Wayne and Smashing Pumpkins), the brothers Hanson are hitting the road to reach all those folks who happened not to be in the trio’s Tulsa hometown on May 6 for the 13th annual salute known as Hanson Day.

Hanson plays Richmond with pop rockers Rooney tonight at Hat Factory.