Just as the shrieks of preteen ecstasy began to die down last Friday, Hanson prolonged the frenzy for years to come with the announcement that they will record another album immediately following their current North American tour, which ends in Hershey, Pa., on August 15.

Surrounded by gratuitous Planet Hollywood signage and nearly 300 giddy fans, Zac, Isaac and Taylor told a flower-bearing, squealing Chicago crowd that they will go to work on the follow-up to their last studio album, 1997's Snowed In, early this fall. Sucking the celebrity well dry, the blonde brothers -- aged 12 to 17 -- also said they will keep pubescent interest piqued in the meantime with both a live video and a live album, which they recently completed in Seattle.

Before taking the mic at Planet Hollywood, the multiplatinum trio had greeted nearly a thousand fans outside the restaurant, some of whom camped out on the sidewalk overnight. Flashing hand-painted signs and Teen Beat centerfolds, girls who had been in line since dawn caught a thirty-second glimpse of the band before they disappeared inside. Despite the hysteria and shrieking, fifteen-year-old Taylor insisted the Hanson craze is no match for the Beatle- mania that swept America thirty-five years ago.

"We don't have girls chasing after us like [the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night]," he said, as hundreds of ponytailed fans simultaneously sighed. "I guess we have good security."

Though Hanson has no immediate plans to go "Madonna" and launch a simultaneous acting career, big brother Isaac said, "If the right opportunity shows itself, we might try out acting."

Though the group has only begun sprouting ideas for their third studio release, guitarist Isaac delivered a description of the disc on Friday: "There will be differences in the record because there are different songs on it." Deep.