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| 2008 PRESS RELEASES 2008 INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS The
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2007 PRESS RELEASES
INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS Wall
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New US Tour dates and one-mile walks with fans to fight Poverty in Africa empower participants with new goal New coffee table book inspired by their efforts to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa will also contain a special EP with newly recorded tracks by the band Band
to guest and perform on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren Friday, September
5 and CBS Early Show on Saturday, September 6 Tulsa, OK –August 2008–With HANSON’s fourth studio album, The Walk, which debuted in the Top 5 on Billboard’s Independent Chart, the band has announced a new set of U.S.dates beginning September 7. The Walk Around The World Tour has a refreshed message in their goals to fight poverty in Africa and a re-tooled live set for the fans. A complete list of dates is listed below. HANSON, known for their energizing and engaging live performances have been receiving rave reviews for The Walk tour. Absolute Punk enthuses “Among all of the incredible live performances I’ve seen this year, Hanson has risen to the top as the best” and New York’s Village Voice calls HANSON “The finest straight-up rock band in America”.
On The Walk Around The World Tour it is not HANSON that is trotting the globe (though they will be touring in South America this Fall) HANSON’s new campaign is to encourage fans and other individuals to continue the one mile walks they have hosted since last Fall to fight poverty – with a new mission of compiling enough miles to walk ‘around the world’ (24,902 Miles.) Through the campaign others can organize their own walks locally coordinated through Takethewalk.net set to launch mid-August or join HANSON for a walk during their tour. For each mile, a dollar is donated on the walker’s behalf - by the band. Most importantly fans are empowered to directly support real solutions on the ground in Africa through the tour and the bands site. “The Walk is about taking action, no matter how small. Our generation has the power to fight global challenges by looking at tangible actions and putting them to work” said Taylor Hanson. Added Zac Hanson “Each mile shows the power of simple actions to make a difference - the real impact comes when participants see how much more they can do”. The Walk Tour began last Fall with one mile walks helping to provide thousands of shoes to children in Poverty in South Africa with TOMS Shoes. Last November HANSON joined TOMS on their second shoe drop, delivering a whopping 50,000 pairs of shoes to children in Africa.
On the road this Fall,
the band will also be featuring a special coffee table book inspired
by their efforts to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa. The book, called
Take The Walk presents the bands
own story and the importance of individuals taking simple actions
to fight poverty and disease in Africa. The book will also feature
a special EP with new tracks recorded especially for the project.
With both the music and the book raising further funds for aid groups
in Africa, including continued support of TOMS Shoes and HIVSA. HANSON will also continue their one-mile barefoot walks with fans, coinciding with their concerts across the US. The exact location of each day’s walk will be announced on hanson.net 3 hours in advance (if you participate in the one-mile walk, you’ll get to “jump the line” for the concert that night so you don’t need to worry about losing your place!). Further details on purchasing tickets can be found at: www.hanson.net. Here’s a list of
cities/venues where you can catch HANSON perform on The
Walk Around The World Tour - more dates to follow:
The Walk follows the 2004 debut release on their 3CG label, Underneath, which went to #1 on the Billboard Independent chart, producing the #2 single, “Penny and Me,” a Top 10 in the U.K. as well. The band’s 1997 debut, Middle of Nowhere, sold more than 4 million albums in the U.S., thanks to the chart-topping hit, “MmmBop,” which U2’s Bono has called “one of my favorite songs of all time.” The group received three Grammy nominations that year, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year. LA Times praised the CD, ““The Walk” is intelligent mainstream rock with a soulful influence. These brothers must be seen live”, and Billboard described it as “an iconic American sound”.
WHAT THE PRESS ARE SAYING: “The Walk” “It’s been a while since the confection of “MMMBop” and the Hanson brothers have matured into a solid, hook-laden rock band. “The Walk,” their current release, is a soulful slice of pop and they have always delivered the goods as a live act.” – Los Angeles Times “”The Walk” feels like a natural progression… gratifyingly strong. B+” – Entertainment Weekly “An iconic American sound” – Jeff Vrabel, Billboard “…they can still make you swoon with the pure pop bliss of ‘Go’.” – People Magazine “The fans hanging on the balcony and on every word have grown with the band. Sure, the audience ate up “MMMBop,” but they were loyal enough to support Hanson wherever they decided to take the show, which was a long way from the “Middle of Nowhere.” – Chicago Sun-Times “… the band’s last two albums are full of catchy, guitar-driven pop that’s both musically accomplished and accessible to a wide audience. The brothers from Tulsa are excellent songwriters and musicians, and if you let memories of “MMMBop” keep you from finding that out, you’re only depriving yourself of some great music.” – Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly “…one of the sturdiest (and best) pop-rock bands around…” – Philadelphia Inquirer “Hanson might just be indie’s best-kept secret. Yeah, that’s right. Hanson is a genuine indie rock act – less in the sense of some contrived A&R “indie” sound, and more in the sense that, ever since 2004, Hanson have been producing their own music and releasing it on their own label 3CG records.” – Philadelphia Weekly “…as infectiously fun, as ever. They’d be a guilty pleasure if they weren’t so good.” – Jonathan Perry, Boston Globe “Killer hooks and harmonies” – Lauren Carter, Boston Herald “…classic pop-rock like they don’t make much anymore” – Providence Journal “Hanson wasn’t really a “boy band…” There was no prefab element, no svengali, just three brothers playing in their garage. The brothers have matured from teen pinups into some hook-friendly pop/rock songmakers.” – Houston Chronicle “The trio delves into blue-eyed soul, funk/pop that gives Maroon 5 a run for the money” – Inland Valley Daily Bulletin “When I listen to Hanson, I find hope in pop music.” – AbsolutePunk.net “Hanson is in it for the long haul… and has blazed its own path in the industry.” – Mansfield News Journal “As always, with
Hanson, it’s the music that really satisfies. Taylor Hanson
remains an exuberant blue-eyed soul singer, and his older brother
Isaac drops big crunchy guitar chords liberally throughout “The
Walk.”” – No Depression Magazine
I Have
Hope –
“Ngi ne themba, ngi ne themba” chanted a group of 20 South African kids in their native isiZulu language on a July afternoon in 2006. When I first heard the rhythm and tone of this isiZulu phrase with the timbre and feel of those simple voices, I was awed. When I realized that this driving chant beneath our song “Great Divide” meant “I have hope,” I became wholly entranced. My brothers and I went to South Africa to better understand the issues facing many AIDS ravaged nations. As a part of our journey we wanted to capture the voices of this choir to help us remember and hold on to our experience. These were ordinary kids in a middle school music class, only this class was in the Soweto (South Western Township) outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. They sang of hope in an area far more accustomed to poverty and disease than afternoon field trips to sing with a few guys from the West. The corrugated metal hills of shanty towns in areas of Soweto are a microcosm of the horrific situation many African countries face and the fate of those who don’t observe it’s lessons—over 2 million AIDS deaths in Africa in 2005, 25 milllion AIDS orphans by 2010. Ghettos of millions facing the onslaught of a disease that is the most pernicious and virulent killer in history, a reminder of how our greatest enemies are those that destroy us quietly from the inside out. They can be pushed aside and forgotten, because they are silent.
Like many naïve westerners, we could have been overwhelmed as we passed a labyrinth of shacks, but not being new to the third world that was less distracting. Instead, as I watched out the window of our van and walked past market street vendors, my eyes were drawn to what seemed to be an aberration but proved to be common -- cell phone stands advertising the local cell phone providers perched in many of these poverty stricken settlements, where people struggle to survive. Ironically the existence of those cell phones were the very thing that brought us to Africa. We went to South Africa with a group of friends from our hometown who developed a technology utilizing cell phones to connect doctors and patients to one another. Driven by a passion to create change they were donating their technology to be used by a hospital in Soweto. The technology gives patients access to their doctors in countries or communities where the lack of basic infrastructure would otherwise deny medical services to patients.
As you look at the doctors running the perinatal HIV research unit at the hospital we visited in Soweto, they have every reason imaginable to despair. At the heart of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS situation, they are faced with indifference from their government and denial from the people they attempt to treat, but their drive is intoxicating. They are there to bring real solutions -- like 13 years of research that dropped the transmission of AIDS from pregnant mothers to their newborns from almost 40% to 2%, and like embracing a new cell phone technology that would expand their ability to serve patients in overwhelming circumstances. Looking at the work they did you can see that their pioneering actions are the only real thing that will turn the tide, not a single solution, but one of many solutions --a cell phone solution, a doctor’s solution, a lot of blood, sweat and tears solutions.
Completing our recording
session with the Soweto choir we were enveloped by the reality that
we were able to connect our two worlds through a few simple phrases
and melodies, a song, a few hopeful words. If only we could harness
that hope, it could be the greatest solution yet. www.hanson.net |
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