By Jason Cohen

(This article can be found in the July 27-July3 issue of TVGuide)

Has the blinking APPLAUSE sign been more superfluous? The instant Jay Leno introduces Hanson, the Tonight Show studio audience erupts in a torrent of piercing shrieks that even a habitat full of Jack Hanna’s monkeys would have trouble topping.

“I haven’t seen this many bra straps in 20 years,” a show staffer cracks, surveying the ocean of scoop necks, spaghetti tanks and baby tees. And this isn’t even Hanson’s coltish core audience. Network regulations prohibit anyone under 16 from being part of the studio taping. That policy resulted in an angry protest the last time Hanson was on The Tonight Show, as a group of girls took to the streets of Burbank- or at least the avenue outside NBC - to protest their exclusion.

Today, there’s no marching or chanting, but several dozen younger fans are camped outside the security gate. Meanwhile, backstage in the greenroom, Leeza Gibbons, former Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and other showbiz figures wait around anxiously. None of them will be appearing on the show this evening - they’re here with their kids, playing the celeb card for an up-close glimpse of the sibling sensations.

The Tonight Show tempest is just an average day’s work for Isaac, Taylor and Zachary - or Ike, Tay and Zac, as their hopelessly infatuated fans call them. Since bursting onto the scene with the blue-eyed hip-hop pop of “MMMBop” a little over a year ago, life for the three wholesomely hunky brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been a theme park where they’re the sole attraction. The band’s first major label release, Middle of Nowhere, has sold more than 5 million copies. Scenes of Beatlesque hysteria have been played out from Tokyo to the Mall of America. Heather Locklear and David Spade have both jokingly auditioned for the role of the Fourth Hanson. And of course, “MMMBop” has been performed more often than the dolphin show at Sea World.

Now the Hanson scrapbook is expanding by several chapters. This week the band offers up a whole hour of music and conversation as part of VH-1’s Storytellers series. The show, part of the network’s Save the Music program to fun music education in classrooms around the country, includes Q&A sessions with the audience of elementary and junior high students, a revealing explanation of how “MMMBop” got written and a performance of the band’s new showstopper, “Gimme Some Lovin” (a cover of the 1967 hit for Spencer Davis Group).

But the biggest news is that the boys are going on the road. On June 26, the night before Storytellers broadcast, fans in Boston will bear witness to America’s first official Hanson concert, as the trio kicks off a nine-city tour. After 14 grueling months of interviews, photo shoots, TV Shows, abbreviated appearances and, yes, Eggo commercials, the Hansons are looking forward to getting back to their roots (and that’s not a reference to hair color).

“We really miss playing,” 15-year-old Taylor says. “We were used to doing performances two or three times a week. Then all of a sudden you get signed, and it’s more about [promotion] than playing.”

Just hours earlier, Taylor recalls he was reminded of how surreal life has become for his family since fame locked the boys in its embrace. Back at the hotel suite, before the clan headed over to Burbank, Taylor heard his youngest brother, 4-year-old Mackenzie, excitedly exclaim, “Oh, I can’t wait to see my friend Jay!” (There are four civilian siblings in the Hanson bunch: Jessica, 9; Avery, 7; Mackenzie; and Zoe, 5 months).

During the taping all the commercial breaks are filled with desperate cries from the audience of Taylor! Zac! and Iiisaaac! When the screams die down , the Tonight Show hose (Mackenzie’s good friend) greets his viewers by quipping, “Welcome back to Teen Talk.” Funny thing is, the Hansons aren’t even the youngest occupants of Leno’s couch on this particular occasion. Actress Hallie Kate Eisenberg, fresh from the talking parrot movie “Paulie,” has that distinction. The pink-touted 5-year-old tells Leno that where Hanson is concerned she likes “the little one, Zac,” but, to be perfectly blunt, her favorite group is - oh the humanity! - the Spice Girls.

The boys aren’t’ too bummed out by this admission - anything to discourage the perception of Hanson as a little girl’s writing the 2,000 letters that arrive daily in Tulsa. While the brothers are in the unusual position of being as cuddly, kidfriendly band that has also been embraced by the critics, they still struggle to be taken seriously. One reason they recently released 3 Car Garage, a repackaging of their obscure independent album from 1995, is to remind the public that Hanson was doing its own thing before crossing paths with such celebrated producers as the Dust Brothers.

The other reason is to undercut the bootleg market; until now, if you wanted to hear Hanson’s early years, you were stuck with , as 12-year-old Zac puckishly puts it, “a copy of a copy of a copy recorded off the internet, put on a bad tape and then recorded to another tape.”

The Hansons know all about the Internet: Regular Web surfers, the boys are both pleased with and disconcerted by the extraordinary amount of bandwidth devoted to their lives and work. Yahoo! lists 405 different Hanson sites, everything from “support groups” for adult aficionados (“we vote, we order wine with dinner, we drive, and we love Hanson,” one proclaims) to 16 “fan fiction” anthologies. “People are wild,” Taylor says. “They write these fantasies about how they met us, how they did this with us or that with us - these complete elaboration’s - like it really happened!”

There’s also the infamous “Mariyln Hanson” page, which juxtaposes the boys with the controversial Gothic rock star. The joke, of course, is that Hanson’s image, music and mortality are diametrically opposed to Manson’s. But Taylor’s not buying that. “He’s hard-core,” says the keyboard player, “but I think he’s actually more of an actor.”

Taylor’s insight into the Alice Cooper of the ‘90’s suggests a savvy beyond his 15 years. But his and his band mates’ unique experience - international stardom following a childhood that already included a lot of travel - has resulted in three wise worldly kids.

For one thing, they’ve all been able to enjoy certain educational opportunities that no classroom could provide. “How many English teachers would love to be able to take their kids to see Shakespeare’s house?” asks Taylor. Both he and Isaac cite Naples and Moscow as two of the coolest places they visited recently. And Zac? “I like Tulsa,” he says stubbornly.

Their musical tastes are also more exotic than on might imagine. They cite Sugar Ray, the Verve, and Fiona Apple as recent favorites, and promise that the next album which should surface sometime in ‘99, will include several stylistic departures. “Nobody stays exactly the same, “17-year-old Ike says. “you’ll defiantly know it’s Hanson but we’re constantly changing.”

“All you can really hope is that the music grows,” says Mark Hudson, who cowrote Hanson’s “Where’s the Love” and produced the trips Christmas LP, Snowed In. Hudson has a unique perspective: Once upon a time, he and his two siblings comprised the pop group and Saturday-morning TV stars the Hudson day-morning TV stars the Hudson Brothers. He knows firsthand that teen idoldom and musical staying power don’t go hand in hand. “If you don’t grow, the audience grows up and leaves you behind,” he says. “But these kids are so talented it’s frightening.”

Hanson’s music may continue to evolve, but one thing that won’t change on the next record is the timbre of anyone’s voice. Zac is still at least a year away from the ravages of puberty, and since the making of Middle of Nowhere, Taylor has completed his move to the lower register. “It’s better because your voice is more expressive,” Taylor says. “It’s also cool because our voices are very similar. We’ve actually confused ourselves at times. [Ike and I] trade off vocal parts, and then playing it back we’ll be like, ‘Hey, you did that.’ ‘No that was you.’”

As such bands as the Beach Boys and the Everly Brothers have proved, there’s a harmonic advantage in genetics. And the indistinguishable voices also make a nifty metaphor for a band that is preternatural friction-free. Says Taylor: “What makes Hanson complete is the fact that we work together so well.” In the end this communal attitude has nothing to do with music and everything to do with blood. “They’re so tight, and that’s what I love about them,” Hudson says. “Where one goes, they all go. bands and groups break up. A family doesn’t.”

HANSON VIDEOGRAPHY Because they haven’t toured until now, Hanson’s renown has been built primarily on their videos. Here’s a clip-by clip rundown of their out put so far.

“MMMBop” (or “Hey, Hey, We’re the Hansons!”) Captures the brothers exactly as we want them to be: three carefree, rollicking kids, jammin’ in the family room. Directed by Tamara (“Billy Madison”) Davis. Style point: Zac’s cornrow braids.

“Where’s the Love” A glossary of MTV glamorama, includes smoke machines, disco balls and alterna-babes in brightly colored clothing. Directed by Davis. Style point: If everyone had Taylor’s rosy cheeks, Revlon would go out of business.

“I Will Come To You” The bands presence as a luminous superherolike trinity is contrasted with a procession of lonely pallid, leather-jacketed types. Directed by Peter Christopherson. Style Point: Hipness bonus for recruiting Christopherson, the programmer for the industrial band Coli.

“Tulsa Tokyo And The Middle of Nowhere” This 82-minute you-are-there compendium is mana from Hanson. A fully authorized, utterly sincere account of the band’s adventures in stardom, including celebrity testimonials (Cindy Crawford!) and behind-the-scenes verite. Directed by David Silver. Style point: What a coup- and Al Rocker cameo!

“Weird” Hanson is cast as shabby street musicians wandering a New York city subway full of punks, Wall Street drones and sets of identical twins. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Style point: Props to Taylor. he’s the only brother who avoids wearing a floppy fisherman’s hat that even Hanson Hill would find hokey.

“River” A “Titanic” parody, with the movie’s Gloria Stuart as a hanson fanatic. Directed by Al Yankovic. Style point: The Snazzy I Love HANSON tattoo Stuart sports.

WHEN THE GOING GETS “WEIRD” Gus Van Sant seems an awfully unlikely candidate to mastermind a Hanson video. While the director recently won mainstream acceptance for “Good Will Hunting” he is best known for his portraits of junkies (“Drugstore Cowboy”), gay hustlers (“My Own Private Idaho”) and deranged adulterers (“To Die For”).

Hanson’s “Weird” video isn’t as sinister as all that, but the song’s lyrics do seems to call for an outsider’s perspective: “When you live in a cookie-cutter world/If you’re different, you can’t win.” Hmm, that could almost describe one of Van Sant’s alienated love-starved characters. The video itself casts the brothers as ragged, downtrodden figures slogging their way through and urban underworld in a wild, Fellini-esque treatment of the New York City subway system.

While Van Sant gave the video its garish look, the concept was actually Hanson’s. The two parties first crossed paths late in 1997, when Van Sant approached the Hanson camp with a vague proposal to showhow use the boys in a feature film. “It wasn’t really an idea,” the director admits. “I just had this basic concept of like, Hanson in a movie.” When the scheme didn’t fly, Van Sant volunteered to turn one of Hanson’s songs into a video, but that collaboration never got off the ground either.

Van Sant had finally abandoned his urge to direct the brothers in something when, to his delight, they approached him with their carefully thought-out vision for “Weird.” “They just called me and said would you do this,’” Van Sant recalls.

So how well do that Hanson really know his work? “They’ve heard about ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ and ‘Idaho’ but they haven’t seen them.” the director says. “‘Good Will Hunting’ has a lot of swear words in it but they did watch that film.”

(April 24,1998 issue of Entertainment Weekly, page18.)

MMMBRAT- Do Hanson need a nap? At Nickelodeon's 11th annual Kids' Choice Awards, held April 4 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, the flaxen-haired threesome known for their wholesome piety met the media with a surprisingly less-than-Christian attitude. At a press conference following their wins for Favorite Group and Favorite Song ("MMMBop"), one reporter inquired about the teen rockers' religious convictions. Though the group offered a diplomatic response about the matter "being private," the reporter persisted, asking whether they sought out churches while on the road. The query sparked an annoyed Zac Hanson, 12, to blurt out, "You're a weirdo." And when another journalist attempted to break the stunned silence by asking "How does it feel being sex symbols at such a young age?" Zac was again quick to snark: "Oh, we have another weirdo in the room," which quickly put an end to the interview. Has the pressure finally gotten to the adolescent superstars? A spokesman declined to comment on Zac's cranky behavior. Then again, maybe he was just trying to promote the group's new single. It's title: "Weird." -Carrie Bell

Rolling Stone- 3 Car Garage gets 3 Stars Ah, sweet nostalgia! Try to remember, boys and girls, back to those carefree mid-Nineties, the magical post-grunge time before Spiceworld came to the mall. Back then Isaac, Taylor and Zachary were just obscure Oklahoma kids without a major-label deal. Now that they've climbed to the top of the pops, it's time for them to share with us the glorious early results of their well-spent youths. A few of the songs on this Isaac-heavy, stripped-down set deserve their place back in the garage, but the best material here -- including early versions of "MMMBop" and "Thinking of You" -- is proof positive that these guys are no mere product of their A&R man's imagination. 3 Car Garage may not be what's normally thought of as indie music or garage rock, but it sure is fun, fun, fun, even if you're not yet a lifetime member of MOE -- The Official Hanson Fan Club. This is a worthy, historic addition to the Hanson oeuvre -- file it in your collection between the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits and Lou Reed's Growing Up in Public. ***

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This came from an ad I got out of a local newspaper.

After 12 Million Albums Sold Worldwide Get Ready To Go Back To Where It All Began.
HANSON 3 CAR GARAGE
Put it in drive...and go!!!
A new album showcasing the raw talent of the three brothers from Tulsa, who have taken the world by storm. Comprising material culled from their early releases on an independant label. THREE CAR GARAGE contains the first ever recordings of Mmmbop, Thinking of You, and With You In Your Dreams which are all included on MIDDLE OF NOWHERe. The other songs included here show why the band has reached the heights they have hit. The harmonies, the beats, and the musicianship all shine through and give a rare glimpse into the growth of one of today's most influential and powerful groups.

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This is Entertainment Weekly's Review of 3 Car Garage.

3 Car Monty The trio promises one thing but delivers another Hanson (Mercury)
Once upon a time (okay, three years ago), back when they hadn’t yet sold 5 million records and their career decisions weren’t guided by record execs, the Hanson clan worked more like a family than a marketing machine. Which meant that Ike, the biggest, oldest brother, got to be the lead singer, while pre-teen-idols-to-be Taylor and Zac had to, for the most part, settle for backup duty.
Big mistake. On 3 Car Garage—a collection of “early” songs recorded in 1995 and ’96—Ike’s voice is competent but charmless. It’s when Taylor takes the token lead, with his hint of a rasp and intuitive grasp of how to slide around a melody, that the trio is immediately transformed. Suddenly, they sound ripe for major success.
Consider two such Taylor-led tunes, “Thinking of You” and “MMMBop,” which would eventually be produced by the Dust Brothers for Hanson’s multiplatinum breakthrough, Middle of Nowhere. Remarkably, both songs sound almost fully formed, like roughly drawn but precise blueprints for their Middle of Nowhere remakes. Sure, the Nowhere versions are slicker (“MMMBop” in particular is much improved by a beefier beat and more sophisticated guitar work), but the vocals, arrangements, and personality are already largely in place. If nothing else, these unpolished but promising recordings prove that Hanson is no novelty act born in a major-label conference room.
But while Garage makes for fascinating history, as a listening experience it’s far less transfixing. Only 3 of these 11 tunes made it onto Nowhere and the rest are woefully full of Ike (don’t get me wrong: I like Ike, just not as a lead singer). Slight songs—like “Soldier,” a six-minute-plus love story about a toy soldier and a ballerina doll; “River,” a vaguely religious, organ-driven trifle; and “Surely as the Sun,” a would-be-soulful ballad in the vein of Nowhere’s far superior “Weird”—were wisely scrapped.
Why, then, are Hanson and Mercury Records resurrecting them? To make a buck off those 12-year- old completists, of course. For everyone else, Garage would have been best left in storage. C+ -- Rob Brunner