Hanson to debut new songs on fall tour

Members of the pop music group Hanson, brothers (L-R) Issac, Taylor and Zach Hanson pose at the 10th Hollywood Film Festival Awards Gala in Beverly Hills October 23, 2006.

DETROIT (Billboard) - Hanson plans to play a bunch of new music for its fans this fall, even though the sibling trio's new album probably won't come out until the spring of 2010.

"We've tried since we started to not go more than a year without throwing something new to the fans," singer-keyboardist Taylor Hanson told Billboard.com. "So this (tour) is kind of a warm-up to the new record and ... just being a touring band and staying active."

Hanson said the new album, the group's third for its own 3CG label, is finished but still untitled. Recorded mostly at Sonic Ranch in Torrillo, Texas, the set was produced by the group, without any co-writers. "In that light it's kind of all-Hanson, all the time," the middle brother said. "That wasn't actually the plan initially; it just seemed like the right thing to do. We're probably going to do the opposite of that for the next record."

Hanson described the new material as "just a little more straight-ahead" than 2007's "The Walk."

"There's a different energy to a lot of the music for this new record. I think the last album was sort of, 'We're surviving. We're chugging along.' This one there's more of a sense of, 'We've survived. We've gotten this far. We're still in one piece.' There's this sense of, 'Wow, we've been doing this for a while.' It's a little more energetic. There's a freshness and excitement about it. You'll hear it in the songs."

Hanson will give fans a taste of the new material not only in concert but also via an EP, "Stand Up, Stand Up," that features the full-band album track "Worlds on Fire" plus acoustic versions of four songs -- "These Walls," "Use Me Up," "Waiting for This" and "Carry You There."

The Hanson tour, with Hellogoodbye, Steel Train and Sherwood, kicks off September 30 in the group's home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hanson said he'll also be playing some shows during the fall with Tinted Windows, his all-star side project with Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

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