They're a band of photogenic teenage brothers who play pop-rock music, with a high-pitched lead singer.

But if you're thinking Hanson, think again.

The trio is northeastern New Jersey's The Jonas Brothers, who on Wednesday are set to debut their first single on MTV's ''Total Request Live,'' and will release their first CD, ''It's About Time'' in April.

Before they do, they'll open Monday for The Veronicas at North Star Bar in Philadelphia.

The Jonases — Kevin, 18, Joseph, 16, and Nicholas, 13 — didn't come from the ''Middle of Nowhere,'' as Hanson's debut proclaimed. Rather, they've spent the past few years doing television commercials for Burger King, Clorox and Legos and performing on Broadway in ''La Boheme,'' ''Oliver'' and ''Les Miserables.''

But they don't mind comparisons to the group that brought you ''MMMBop,'' Joseph Jonas says last week from Chicago, where they were filming a new video of their upcoming single ''Mandy'' for Yahoo! Music.

''We used to love Hanson. It's like, they sold like 14 million records,'' he says. ''We're cool with that.''

Besides, the Jonases know their primary fans are the ones Hanson tapped into a decade ago — young girls.

Already The Jonas Brothers have toured with like-minded performers The Backstreet Boys, The Click Five, Jesse McCartney and Disney's The Cheetah Girls and Aly & AJ. On this tour, they're joined by another up and coming teen-boy group, October Fall.

Though The Jonas Brothers say their name pops up as ''also likes'' on Hanson message boards, ''we actually haven't got that as much as you would think,'' Joseph says. ''Our music is a little harder than theirs. They're on the more poppy side, and we're like more rock 'n' roll.''

True. ''Mandy,'' for example, races at the speed of early punk (Joseph says The Ramones are a strong influence) while still sounding pop. But whatever the music sounds like, the inspiration is similar: school, teenage angst.

And girls.

Joseph says he wrote ''Mandy'' about a girl he used to date, but when they were still together.

''She was Nick's best friend when they were little,'' Joseph says. ''But she got older and [he laughs] I guess I saw something in her different and we started dating. And it was really cool, but it didn't work out. We're still like the best of friends.''

Mandy's excitement about having a song written about her was magnified when the brothers filmed a three-part video for the song, all with the real Mandy.

''I don't want to give it away, but it's really awesome,'' Joseph says.

Though all the brothers were musical, they didn't perform as a band growing up in Wyckoff, N.J., until Nicholas —- performing in ''Beauty and The Beast'' on Broadway — wrote a song with their father for the annual Broadway ''Equity Fights AIDS'' CD in 2003.

The song, ''Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer),'' in two weeks was the Most Added and Most Increased Airplay song on Record & Radio's Christian Adult Contemporary Chart. A Columbia/Sony Records executive heard it and contacted Nick for a solo product.

Joseph says he and Kevin then started writing songs with Nicholas for the disc, and when the executive heard them, he decided to hire them on the spot as a band.

Daylight/Columbia Records helped publicize the band by having them do anti-drug shows in schools throughout New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

''We were totally for it, because we definitely want to make a difference,'' Joseph says. ''We totally wanted to be a good influence.''

''It would be so funny because we would show up at the school, and it would be like 7 o'clock in the morning. Kids would walk to school like, 'Oh, I want to go to bed' — totally super tired, did not want to be in school that day.

''And we'd go, like, 'OK, now here's the band,' and we would like totally rock out and the kids would go nuts.''

These days life is a bit of a blur, Joseph says. On the day of the interview, they wrapped filming the video, were scheduled to be interviewed by MTV's ''You Hear It First'' at their hotel, then play a show that night. They're scheduled for the CBS ''Saturday Early Show'' April 29.

In fact, they've been on the road so much, Joseph says he hasn't even been able to get his driver's permit.

But he says it's been worth it. He said he's gotten to hang out with Ryan Cabrera, who joined new girlfriend Lisa Origliasso of The Veronicas for a week on their tour, and met Jon Foreman, lead singer of his favorite band, Switchfoot, in the bathroom at Sony Music.

''It's so exciting. It's exactly what I've always dreamed about,'' Joseph says. ''Somebody said to us yesterday, 'I really hope you guys lead the new pop rock generation.' ... We were like, 'Whoa, that's a strong statement,' but, well, we hope so, too. That's a pretty big compliment.''