By Thomas Conner
© Tulsa World In France, they're lauded with headlines like, “Hanson ... groupe de l'heure!!!'' In Germany, the boys show up on shows like “Geld Oder Liebe.'' In Portugal, it's, “Hanson!! Hanson!! A banda que e sucesso no mundo inteiro!'' In Tulsa, the hometown public hasn't laid eyes on them in nearly a year. That's because once the Hanson album hit the shelves in the spring, these three youngsters hit the road (well, boarded the plane) and haven't looked back. With “Middle of Nowhere'' and its hot-agent single “MMMBop'' still resting comfortably in the Top 20 in a majority of the world's time zones, who needs to go home? Europe is absolutely batty for them, and this week the boys are sowing the seeds of their adoration on the western edge of the Pacific. Indeed, these three tykes from Tulsa have gone from zero to hero faster than Disney's Hercules himself, and while Tulsans shouldn't get their hopes up about a hometown performance probably in this century, the boys' bubblegum sounds are certainly taking over the world. Here are some curious bits of news about Hanson's international impression: It Ain't Me, Babe Early in July, the Tulsa World received this desperate plea through e-mail from a teen-ager in Australia: “I have had mounting annoyance at the people that think I am Jordan Taylor Hanson. I have been receiving faxes, e-mails and so forth at all times of day and night. Due to this I am totally distressed and hope that Hanson go away! Nothing personal, but I'm furious. What do you suggest I do???'' His name is J. Taylor Hanson. Not only does he share the name with Hanson's soulful, androgynous, 14-year-old singer, but this Hanson also happens to hail from Tulsa. He's in Australia for six months, and the rabid fans have tracked him down via the Internet thinking he's the famous Taylor. When J. Taylor left Tulsa, the Hanson touring schedule was still a list of private parties in south Tulsa. Now the group is an international phenomenon, much to J. Taylor's dismay. “The trouble really began when "MMMBop' went to No. 1,'' J. Taylor said through an Internet interview last month. “It was really weird. People would ring — mostly of the female gender -- and I'd be like, "Who is this?' and they would be going, "Is this Taylor Hanson?' and I'm like, "Yeah. You are?' but they'd usually hang up. I had no idea what was happening.'' Then his e-mail address was mentioned in Hanson online circles as the famous Taylor's personal address, and the messages began pouring in “hundreds at a time,'' he said. Messages like this one: “Hi! Oh my god, i can't believe this is your e-mail!!! I love u sooooooo much, you're sooo SEXY!!! I LUV ALL OF UZ!!! I LUV your music 2!!! So yeah, if you're not 2 busy E-mail me!!! I luv u babes!!!!'' J. Taylor has had to change his e-mail address twice and his phone number once. “When I'm in a good mood, I just laugh at most of them, although there were a few insulting ones which I found scary,'' he said. It Ain't Me, Babe, Part II Last week a woman phoned the Tulsa World also pleading for help. She claimed that MTV had broadcast the wrong phone number for the local Hanson hotline. Instead, Hanson fans from around the world were dialing her parents' west Tulsa home at all hours of the day and night. Lackeys at MTV could not confirm whether or not they had ever broadcast a phone number in relation to Hanson, and officials at Mercury Records said they were 99 percent sure that a phone number — correct or incorrect — had not been given out. The phone at the Hanson home in southwest Tulsa features a regularly updated recording with information on the trio's current events. Kids may be misdialing the number and getting this woman's parents instead. “It's been going on for two weeks,'' she said. “They've got Caller ID, and they're seeing numbers flash up with area codes from around the country and all over the world. I had no idea.'' Happy Birthday, Tulsa Organizers of the city's “Take Me Back to Tulsa'' centennial homecoming festivities originally had Hanson inked onto the big weekend's schedule. They were going to do a show Sept. 20 at the River Parks Amphitheater, but the boys have backed out in favor of yet another jaunt to Europe. A friend of the Hansons' father contacted the homecoming committee and proposed some kind of live satellite remote for the day while the band was in Ireland, but according to Paula Hale, the centennial coordinator, the project would not be feasible for the event. “It's unfortunate because we really wanted to have something for the younger kids to enjoy during this celebration,'' Hale said. “We've got something for every other age group, and we were trying to different things. This just wasn't feasible.'' Perhaps they'll drop us a line for the state's centennial in 2007. Happy Birthday, Sis Ah, the life of a superstar. Ever the close-knit family, the Hansons still manage some quality time while touring the world. It just requires a bit of cloak-and-dagger to pull off. While in Australia last week, the Hansons stole away to a private room at the Sydney Planet Hollywood so they could celebrate Hanson sister Jessica's ninth birthday. In order to divert the wild throng of fans, an announcement was made that the boys would be visiting the Sega World theme park that day. Psyche! Taking Tulsa to the World They may not come home much, but simply being from Tulsa has helped spread the city's name around the world — a nice treat for our centennial year. Tom Dittus, owner of the Blue Rose Cafe in Brookside — site of a Hanson patio performance that helped secure their record deal -- has been basking in the glow of Hanson's stardom. “We've gotten a lot of mileage out of this,'' Dittus said. “Entertainment Weekly did a big story on them and mentioned us, and we were mentioned on Casey Kasem's "Top 40 Countdown' show. The story gets embellished a little bit each time, but I'm not worried.'' Feature stories and photos of the boys in Tulsa media, from yours truly to several Urban Tulsa stories, have been reprinted in fanzines — online and otherwise — across the world. Urban Tulsa's Jarrod Gollihare and I now have the creepy distinction of having our work appear without permission on a Danish web site dedicated to Hanson drooling. And everywhere they go, in every other breath in every interview, the boys say “Tulsa.'' After they went on at some length describing Tulsa as an oil town in a recent interview for French radio, the translator piped in with this: “The only real attraction in Tulsa are the Hanson now. You are the new oil.'' What was that Dittus said about things getting embellished? Taking the World to Tulsa With Hanson causing major prepubescent hysteria in Europe, journalists from the mother continent have begun taking an interest in writing about every possible detail of the boys' existence and history. That means coming to Tulsa to check out the hometown and report the local color. How Tulsa will translate through, say, the Dutch media is anyone's guess. Last month, a German journalist showed up out of the blue in the Tulsa World newsroom. Claiming to represent a series of publications with a circulation of 6 million, he was after all the information he could scrape up on the boys — knocking on the door of their house, quizzing locals who knew them and some who didn't, and snapping photographs of Tulsa World editors, for some reason. Five other European media organizations have called to determine whether it would be worth their time and effort to travel here and write about Tulsa. Be prepared to give directions to someone with a European accent. Teen Beat Think this talk of Hanson's international hype is just that -- hype? Here's where the boys' product stands on international charts this week, 14 weeks after the first release, according to Billboard magazine: “MMMBop'' single No. 3 in Germany No. 20 in the U.K. No. 9 in France No. 7 in the Netherlands No. 1 in Australia No. 3 in Sweden No. 3 in Denmark No. 5 in Norway No. 1 in Japan No. 11 in the United States “Middle of Nowhere'' album No. 6 in Germany No. 5 in the Netherlands No. 6 in Australia No. 5 in Finland No. 14 in Japan No. 4 in Malaysia No. 7 in Canada No. 6 in the United States The second single, “Where's the Love,'' has begun its climb, too. Also, watch for the boys on a CBS broadcast Aug. 24 and in a milk advertisement this fall. By Thomas Conner
© Tulsa World The pages of a thesaurus easily could be worn thin trying to find the appropriate words to describe Saturday night's Hanson concert at Frontier City in Oklahoma City, but none would better sum up the show's madness and frustration than these two: seven songs. The No. 1 musical sensation in the country finally returned to its home state in a swath of glory, they packed thousands upon thousands of ecstatic young girls and their dumbstruck parents into a venue meant to hold hundreds, they stayed cloistered in their bus before showtime listening to the crowd chant, “Hanson! Hanson! We want Hanson!'' — and they graced us with only seven songs. That's a pile of gall for three kids who were begging for a public gig this time last year. Other bands in their position (with older, stronger audiences) would have been dragged back to the stage — particularly by the sizeable Tulsa contingent that traveled 200 miles round-trip for the Big Event, not to mention paying up to $20 a head to get into the park. Heck, the Mellowdramatic Wallflowers — another Tulsa band more seasoned and deserving of the rocket to superstardom than our young heroes -- opened the show with maybe twice that number of songs. How quickly they forget. They were certainly seven fantastic songs, though, and during that fleeting half hour, the crowd of sardined fans adored their triumvirate of pubescent blonde ambition with the kind of power-drill-in-the-ear screaming that hasn't been heard since the You Know Whos came ashore. The crowd was so huge and so eager to get a decent vantage point on the stage that they were squeezing into the tiny field and crushing the front lines of girls against the barricades. Ten minutes before Hanson took the stage, extra manpower was called in from across the park to reinforce that line of defense and keep the hysterical young'uns from rushing the stage. More than a few were led away for heat exhaustion, despite the afterthought of park officials throwing handfuls of ice into the crowd. When the Fab Three finally jogged onto the stage, they started off with a couple of songs by themselves, letting their a capella foundations show a bit. For “Madeline'' and “Man From Milwaukee,'' Isaac strummed a guitar, Taylor slapped a tambourine and Zac shook a shaker. The harmonies were sweet as ever and further testament to the boys' whopping vocal and performance talents. For the remaining five numbers, the boys went electric along with several other musicians, each of whom lurked discreetly on the back of the stage. For the legions of cynics who wonder, the boys actually do play their instruments, even if they're not always playing the most significant parts of the songs. Every song was hard-hitting and tight, more than thrilling the crowd. The bulk of the signs held up in the crowd were announcing various carnal desires for Taylor, but interest in the young Hanson singer and keyboard player runs far deeper than mere teen-age lust. This boy has soul, and it's evident from the first instant he slouches into a microphone and beats a tambourine. If the boys' career outlives the here-today-gone-tomorrow projections prone to such young acts, Taylor Hanson looks like he's equipped to lead dedicated fans through a lifetime of great and possibly forward-thinking music. It's been a long time since rock 'n' roll had a great white soul man, and I'm sure Tulsa would be proud to say they knew him when. Before any of that happens, though, the kids have got to hook themselves up with a decent tour manager. They played this Oklahoma City gig for free, meaning that each $20 admission from the several thousand fans didn't go to the artists who deserved it. But then again, for seven songs, maybe they didn't deserve a penny. If they are indeed headed straight for Madison Square Garden, they'd better work up a set that offers our money's worth — no matter how adorable they may be. By Thomas Conner
© Tulsa World My head is splitting in two and my eyes feel swollen. For about two hours, I've been staring at several dozen web sites dedicated to Tulsa's own sugar-pop export, Hanson. It's an exercise that, while eventually mind-numbing, is actually quite funny and sociologically telling. The World Wide Web is a sticky wicket in which the ratio of trivial nonsense to actual useful information fluctuates around 9 to 1. Where Hanson information falls into that equation is a bit subjective. But these days, young fans of pop bands do more than create a fan club and titter together at slumber parties. They learn HTML programming and set up a “tribute'' site on the web. The Hanson album hasn't been out for two months, and there are easily 100 Hanson sites ready for search engines to snag. Most of them have the same photographs and the same, misspelled pre-teen gushing about how cute the boys are, and a few are informative, entertaining and goldmines for any sociology student studying mass hysteria. Vicky, a youngster in New York, gets things rolling by swooning all over her page, Vicky's Salute to Hanson (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/1384/index.html). Along with the ritual photo of the boys on the grass, she introduces her page with this statement: “I dedicate this page to the greatest band in the world (Hanson!). Even though they are already very special, hopefully this page makes them recognize it even more! Luv ya guys!'' If you're brave enough to click on her dedication page, you'll see several paragraphs of unmitigated groveling, including a sentence found on most Hanson sites: “I just wanna say I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!'' Actual number of o's varies from page to page. Vicky's site includes some important FAQs (frequently asked questions) about the boys, including “Are any of the Hansons looking for a girlfriend?'' The answer — sorry, girls — is no. Isaac already has one, she reports, and Taylor and Zac say they're too busy to bother. Vicky says that “millions of girls would get down on their knees to go out with one of the AVAILABLE Hanson brothers,'' and, well, I'll leave that one alone. One of many sites titled The Unofficial Hanson Page (http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/5657) coordinates a running poll of your favorite Hanson brother. As of Tuesday, Zac was ahead with 128 votes, Taylor had 110 and Isaac had 102. Perhaps some of these voters should tune into Lisa's Hanson Page (http://members.aol.com/LMW3/lisa/hanson/hanson.html) and read some of her biographical information, which goes beyond the basic favorite color blather and includes things like “hidden talents.'' Isaac's hidden talent is an ability to imitate Kermit the Frog, Bullwinkle and Butthead. Zac's hidden talent is an ability to speak while belching. Taylor is a cartoonist. That probably explains why, despite that one poll, Taylor is the clear choice for young girls' hearts and web sites. He has numerous sites dedicated strictly to himself. The Taylor Hanson Page (http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7320) features a spot where you can post your own declarations of Taylor's cuteness for all to read. The site's author herself writes that when she first heard “MMMBop'' on MTV, she thought “the music was like nothing I had ever heard before.'' In addition to her comparison of Taylor to a young Kurt Cobain, this site serves as a painful reminder of just how old the rest of us are. There's also a Taylor Hanson Fan Club (http://members.tripod.com/~Hanson161411/hansonHITZ.html) and a Taylor Hanson Cult (http://members.aol.com/Shelly737/TayCult.html). If it's actual information you want, look to the official Mercury Records site (http://www.polygram.com/polygram/mercury/artists/hanson/hanson—hom epage.html) or the officially sanctioned Hanson site, where the boys receive most of their e-mail (http://www.hansonline.com). Another fan site, Weird's Hanson Page (http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/1307) also has daily updates on the band's media appearances (a thorough listing of magazines — Tiger Beat, Teen, Sixteen, Seventeen, even Bop) as well as some current articles and tour information. This site even has its own Hanson theme song. A Bartlesville fan put up a Hanson site, Landon's Tribute to Hanson (http://users.aol.com/nadaace/hanson.html), which includes a few choice tidbits about Landon's family's vague connection to the Hanson family, something including a wedding appearance and a handmade wall hanging. The site even features a constantly updated picture window showing the view of Tulsa from a camera atop the KJRH Channel 2 tower. L.A.'s Hanson Reviews Page (http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/9792/hanson.html) features numerous reviews of Hanson appearances written by fans. One writer describes the mayhem at the group's mobbed May 7 appearance at a mall in Paramus, N.J. The scene is summed up when she says, “I do not believed(sic) that I have ever screamed so much in my life.'' Other pages feature aimless nattering about the boys and the girls who love them. Ruby, for instance, is a tad defensive about her love of Hanson on Ruby the Droogster's Hanson Page (http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/4936/hanson.html). She writes, “If any assholes want to make fun of me, I don't give a crap. I can like whoever and whatever I want.'' Other girls are in such a lather they just out-and-out babble. Lisa, for instance, informs us that her guinea pig is named Melody “from the way she bounces around in her cage to ("MMMBop').'' Christine, a 13-year-old in Tuscon, Ariz., on her page, My Hanson and Me Page (http://members.aol.com/TeenAZ/index.html), tells us the fascinating features of her life: “I play soccer and the violin. I like to listen to Hanson and be with friends. I collect a lot of things such as rocks and stickers.'' If you still want more, the Ultimate Hanson Links Page (http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/6540) has links to 86 different Hanson sites, including a Hanson page run by KISS 101.9 FM — a station in Valdosta, Ga. (http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/8156). Wouldn't it be nice if the boys' hometown radio stations gave as much, if not more, such support as a radio station in Valdosta-freakin'-Georgia? (Must this city's print media do everything for local bands?) Not everyone adores Hanson, though. Plenty of anti-Hanson pages are out there, like the Hanson Haters Page (http://www.toptown.com/NOWHERE/fatpo/agree2.html). This site is under construction — photos are being digitally sliced and diced as you read this — but the page's homophobic creators urge anyone to e-mail them various fantasies to “kill, maim and then desecrate the bodies of the Hanson sisters.'' The Marilyn Hanson Page (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/7936/mh.html) is actually run by a fan, but anyone can enjoy the gallery of Hanson photographs here all made up so that each Hanson looks like Marilyn Manson. There's also another site, whose title I can't print in this general newspaper, which contains adult language and situations concerning the digestion of a particular part of the Hanson brothers' anatomy. Find the other two anti-Hanson pages and you'll find this one. Whatever your take on the three Tulsa young'uns, there's a mountain of gunk out there to view. And it's got Excedrin written all over it. By Thomas Conner
© Tulsa World Hanson "Middle of Nowhere" (Mercury) Say what you will about these three well-scrubbed rich boys -- they're going to be big. They'll take the unique sound of south Tulsa to the world! Oh, I, too, thought I was having acid flashbacks when I heard that these cherubic, largely ignorable local whinsies had not only landed a major-label deal but hooked up with the Dust Brothers to produce it. I thought, it's a wonder anyone could turn a doorknob, what with all the greased palms. But however it came to be, “Middle of Nowhere'' is just the kind of tight, slick record that will beat us over the head for years to come. Over each track's hurried, lite R&B and incessant record scratching, 13-year-old Taylor doesn't just sound like 1967-vintage Michael Jackson, he also sounds like 1996-vintage Michael Jackson. Sometimes his thin coo melts your childlike heart (“Weird''), and sometimes his roar is both “Dangerous'' and “Bad'' (“Look at You''). The one thing that will rescue Hanson from the inevitable oblivion of acts of their ilk, i.e. New Kids on the Block, is that they play instruments (11-year-old Zac is a maniac on the drums) and participate in their writing of their songs. Yes, Mercury hauled in some bigwigs to pen hits for the album, but the first single, the frighteningly catchy “MMMBop'' (from their Tulsa indie record of the same name), and a couple of the most interesting tracks are the ones with Hansons in the credit lines. These kids grew up listening to classic soul records, and when those influences show up through their young, modern rock-saturated filters, the result is some surprisingly fresh music. Maybe, just maybe, youth is not wasted on the young. Regardless, though, “MMMBop'' debuted at No. 16 last week, and it will be drilling into your head around every corner in no time. Meanwhile, the Tulsa sound still resides peacefully in Tulsa. By Thomas Conner
© Tulsa World The Hanson album isn't due on record store shelves until Tuesday, but the buzz leaked out months ago. By mid-March, e-mail was already arriving in the Tulsa World queue from people around the world wanting more information on the fab three. “They are sooooooo cute!'' wrote one young woman. “Do you have any pictures of them?'' Another fan wrote, “Hi, I'm from Australia and ... Tulsa is about to be put in the global spotlight in a MAJOR way by none other than your very own local band, Hanson.'' The smart money is on that prediction. While legions of Tulsa kids try to put Tulsa on the map with still more groaning modern rock, along come the three Hanson brothers (Isaac, Taylor and Zac) with the slickest, sweetest pop sound since the Jackson Five — and they're better poised than anyone to win over the world. The album isn't even available yet, but the single, “MMMBop'' has drenched radio and thus debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard singles chart this week. The most recent band to pull off that kind of buzz was U2, and they had the luxury of resting on the laurels of a nearly 20-year career. All Hanson has are three cherubic faces and numerous glossy grooves. That was plenty to get Mercury Records excited enough to sign them and back the Tulsa trio with unheard-of support. When we caught up with the Hanson family last week, they were in London, still traveling across Europe to promote the new album, “Middle of Nowhere.'' Oldest brother Isaac, 16, was blase about his travels. “We're just back from Germany. We spent 10 days in the U.K., five days in France, three in Germany, doing interviews with different magazines, TV and radio,'' he said. “We've lived all over the world, so the travel we get to do now is fun, but it's not like we've never done it before.'' Walker Hanson is head of the clan (in addition to the singing trio, there are three younger siblings), and his job in international finance moved the family from Tulsa to Trinidad, Ecuador and Venezuela before returning home. He encouraged the boys to sing together one evening after a dinner blessing, and something serious began. “I never dreamed it would lead to this,'' Walker said last week, proud but slightly exasperated. The Hanson brothers debuted their act in 1992 on one of the Mayfest stages. They sang a capella, doo-wopping to standards from the '50s and '60s, and enough people gushed about how cute they were that they were encouraged to continue. Three years later, guitars and drum kits were purchased, and an independent record of lite R&B, “Boomerang,'' quickly followed. “We had all each played keyboard, but we'd been very interested in other instruments. We wanted to make our own music instead of singing to a background track all the time. Playing guitar gives you a whole different inspiration than the keyboard, and we needed that different inspiration,'' Isaac said. Zac, 11, took to the drums, and he's a maniac behind the kit. He offered a humble explanation for his choice of instrument. “I'm not that great a drummer, but everybody says I can play, so I'll take their word for it,'' he said. “The secret is, nobody else's arms are as long. I couldn't play guitar or piano, so I went to the drums because I've got long arms.'' By the time a second album, “MMMBop,'' had been recorded locally, the phone at the Hanson residence was ringing with serious business calls as well as the usual blather of giggling girl fans. Mercury Records signed the band last summer after seeing the kids perform on the Blue Rose patio — at 16, 13 and 11, they aren't allowed inside the bar — and the big wheels started turning. In February's Billboard magazine, the Hanson brothers appeared in a photograph next to two Mercury execs and the Dust Brothers, John King and Mike Simpson, who produced Hanson's debut disc for the big label. (Steve Lironi, of Black Grape and Space expertise, also produced parts of the record, and the Dust Brothers' last project was the Grammy-winning “Odelay'' album for Beck — whose last name, oddly enough, is Hansen.) When Billboard runs photos like that, boring shots of people just staring right into the camera, it usually means the corresponding label has made quite a fuss about the upcoming project. The record, fortunately, is worthy of the fuss. Both sets of producers found a sturdy balance between the brothers' latest pop leanings and their original soul-flavored sound, a sound that developed during those years living far away from home. “Before we left, we bought a bunch of these tapes of old '50s and '60s rock 'n' roll,'' Isaac explained. “We had no radio to listen to, and it was just coincidence that we picked this particular style to take with us. But it was very inspirational in our minds. It's just great music, all that Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, old Beatles. These people are the origins for what all music is today. They're the ones that started it all out.'' This week, Hanson will take that reverence for rock's roots and debut their chirpy songs on national television. They're on “The Late Show With David Letterman'' on Monday (10:35 p.m. on KOTV Channel 6) and “The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' on Tuesday (4 p.m. on KTUL Channel 2). They're not even nervous. “Nah. If you get nervous, you don't act like the natural you,'' Taylor said. “It's Letterman! It's like, whoa, why would Letterman want us? But if he wants us, I'll go,'' Zac said. |
Thomas Conner
These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office. Archives
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