Rule #1: Never buy beer from a dude with a soul patch
Hanson is a band that only assholes like. And this is coming from someone who pretends to like Creed because it is ironic, being Jewish and hip and whatnot. Liking Hanson is comparable to liking Nickelback in 2006. You only do it because you love pissing everyone off.
Which is why Hanson would try to get into the microbew business. With an IPA. And why they would still try to squeeze every last, meaningless dollar out of their hit 90s song MMMbop! So they are calling their Indian Pale Ale MMMhop.
While I hope Hipsters everywhere buy their beer and then proceed to hate-blog the hell out of it, I’m less concerned about that. I’m more concerned with how far they are willing to whore out their shitty name.
“We of course make records — they are fundamental to what we do,” said Zac Hanson, now 26, told a crowd of students at Oxford University Union, according to the Toronto Star. “But we wanted to create a brand so that our fans have a greater experience.”
The Grammy-winning trio also sells a boardgame on their web site — Hansonopoly. Instead of hotels and railroads, players can buy and sell music venues and collect fan club cards.
Still, the pop band has its merchandising standards. “We will never make dolls, lunch boxes or toothbrushes that play our songs for example,” he said. (NY daily news)
And then the Hanson brothers continued, “Unless they made us money. But we ran the numbers, and it turns out test groups thought that those were all really idiotic ideas.”
On a side note, has the term ‘Grammy-winning trio’ ever sounded more worthless? Always hating you, Hansons bros.
*Hat tip to Yona
Rej
08/05/2012
Zac Hanson is actually a joker, not to be taken too seriously as he doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously sometimes… he usually is trying to be funny…Many fans actually initially thought Zac was only kidding with the Mmmhop and that journalists had misinterpreted him ‘coz they didn’t know he likes to joke around.. And there r times when he jokes it seems that when one may read/examine the words it is like obnoxious, but to those quite familiar with his sense of humor, he is just bein’ a goofball..
Hanson seems to fall off the radar in comparison to the Mmmbop period..But mostly it’s also ‘coz they decided to become independent in 2003 and form their own music label. Their original label, Mercury Records, which first discovered and honed them, sadly got dissolved because of a business merger; hundreds of bands were suddenly dropped and yet Hanson remained – but found themselves under a rap label Island Def Jam. It is all in their Strong Enough to Break film documentary – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Enough_to_Break.
They left that label because of the lack of artistic freedom in making decisions for their next album. The label was more focused on hits – while Hanson was more focused on just creating the music they feel like creating without thinking if it falls under a certain characteristic / ‘formula’ of a hit that the label had in mind…They finally decided to leave the label after struggling with them for a long time. Arista Records offered Hanson a deal, but Hanson declined because they had learned from their Island experience that record companies may treat artists as dispensable items, and Hanson just wanted to have more say in their music. They thought why not deliver music directly to the fans or anyone that will listen.
Being in the independent route also meant less budget and marketing resources in comparison to what multi-million/billion dollar record companies churn out for their artists. Hanson are really happy though just making music. If they wanted primarily the fame and money, they could’ve just stayed or made deals with the major record labels who have all the funds and connections and resources for worldwide mega marketing and promotion…But Hanson are just doing it on their own now, and they have made a lot of good songs throughout the years…Here is in my opinion one of their best work: “Been There Before” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMk7oXWR_U0