SOUNDTRACK: HANSON-Tiny Desk Concert #659 (October 16, 2017).
It should come as no surprise that Hanson has been around for 25 years. What comes as a surprise is that not only are they still together, but that they have been together all of these years and have a huge fan base.
As the blurb notes:
The audience for Hanson’s first Tiny Desk concert could be cleanly sorted into two distinct camps: the curious and the committed. The curious were the ones who’d inquired about whether the band would play its 1997 smash “MMMBop” (answer: nope), or wondered what Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson have been up to since the ’90s (answer: touring constantly, putting out records, starting their own label, raising families, launching a music festival, developing a line of Hanson Brothers-branded “MMMHops” beer). As for the committed? They were psyched.
For this Tiny Desk Concert the boys (who are now men) play some catchy piano based pop songs. And their vocals harmonies are frankly, outstanding. After Taylor mutters “to the bridge, y’all” on the first song 2010’s “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin'” the three of them hit some absolute gorgeous notes.
The middle of the song features a clap along and afterwards Taylor jokes about it: “So um, it’s okay to clap if we ask you to. I love how you guys are like ‘can we clap?’ You’re the most obedient audience we’ve ever seen.”
They say that 20 years ago “Mmmbop” came out He notes: “that was obviously big” [chuckle]. But Taylor says the key song was on our second record. It helped us connect with our fans and it’s called: “This Time Around.”
Issac sings the second verse and I have to assume that his voice has dropped quite a bit since they recorded that song. (Well, actually he was 16, so maybe not. But Taylor was 14 and Zachary was 11 (which means he started playing with them when he was 6!)). This song has a classic blues vibe that if you didn’t tell me was Hanson I would have thought it was a lost song from the 70s, maybe.
Zac teases Taylor: “Look at you sweating at your Tiny Desk.”
Taylor: “It feels like a show now, I’m taking things off.”
Zac: “That’s not something we do at a show–you’re sending the wrong message.”
They say that the final song is a perfect message for our band, for this time in our career, for this time in the world–a positive true message about everybody’s place in the world. Sometimes you need to be reminded that you were born to do something nobody else is going to do.
It’s two guitar and big harmonies. I like the falsetto moments in the bridge in particular.
I can’t say I’ve become a fan of the band, but I have a lot more respect for them and will no longer think of them as that band of little kids.
As the show ends, Taylor says, “We’ll see you for Christmas, everybody.” And then a to be continued…
[READ: August 31, 2011] “Black Widows”
This short piece deserves an introduction because it is unlike anything else that Saunders has done in the New Yorker
SKETCHBOOK illustration by Pierre Le-Tan, in the style of Edward Gorey accompanied by a George Saunders poem in the style of Edward Gorey… The illustration depicts four women and a man near a fire place in the living room of a manor house or castle. The figures in the illustration are wearing fashions from recent collections by Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs and Rochas. The poem describes the people in the illustration.
Okay, got it? Should you want to see the illustration, click here. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 