Hanson Brothers Continue To Break Hearts

Although only two members are technically brothers, The Hanson Brothers are united by something far more important than blood – a love for The Ramones and hockey. Lead singer Johnny Hanson admits that he wasn’t particularly fond of The Ramones when he first heard them as a 15-year-old boy. He was more inclined to listen to stuff like Styx, Queen and Black Sabbath. "But then we saw D.O.A. at UVIC and my brother was, of course, totally into all the punk rock that was coming out," Johnny says. "He was like, ‘This is it. All the other music is crap. This is what it’s all about.’ And he dragged me out to the show. It was such an insane show. I had just never seen anything like it. That’s when I got converted." Sometime later, John and Rob Wright would get their own punk rock band together as Nomeansno. Not your typical punk rock – it was more skilled, more complicated. After a while, the guys wanted to get another band together just for fun. It was spawned out of something Johnny calls ‘Nomeansno clones The Ramones.’ It had Johnny getting out from behind his drum kit and dressing like Joey Ramone with Robbie playing his trusty bass. After an early guitar-player turnover and a more recent one on the drums, they guys have Tommy workin’ the guitar strings and Ernie handling the sticks. Both guys balance their Hanson Brothers gig with their other bands and musical endeavors. But right off the bat, The Hanson Brothers was intended only for their own amusement. They never planned on taking it as far as it’s come. "It was never a conscious decision, but I just decided, ‘I’m gonna try and write my own Ramones songs. What would The Ramones write?’" Johnny explains. "And then The Hanson Brothers, it was well, if you’re going to be fictitious brothers, hockey is so Canadian. It was kind of a Canadian Ramones." The Hanson Brothers were characters in the extremely popular hockey flick Slapshot. The guys adopted the name for their band because they thought it was funny. They never had any intention of making records as "The Hanson Brothers," but at the urging of a manager at Alternative Tentacles, they had to reconsider. "Greg Workman had gotten a hold of some demos we did and he’s like, ‘Well, you gotta put out a Hanson Brothers record,’" Johnny says. "I was like, ‘No. Robbie doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to do this at all.’" They eventually convinced Rob to change his mind and the band has now released their third CD, My Game. The name Hanson Brothers has caused its share of confusion over the years. When three prepubescent girly-boys named Hanson hit the music scene, The Hanson Brothers got a phone call from one of the other band’s people, asking them if they were going to sue the young band over the name. They also offered The Hanson Brothers a tidy sum as settlement. According to guitar player Tommy, their response was, "Fuck, just go ahead. We don’t care." Tommy explains that the confusion has broken hearts on a few occasions. When they played a show in Cleveland, two young girls somehow managed to get into the bar they were playing at. Their father had driven the excited girls down, expecting to get a Hanson show. After talking to Tommy, the fog began to clear. "They came over to the merch booth and said, ‘I don’t recognize this record. Is this the new one?’" Tommy says. "I said, ‘Well yeah, it is.’ ‘Oh. Well, are you their dad, their manager?’ I said, ‘Well no, I’m in the band’ and it started dawning on them that it wasn’t Hanson AT ALL and there was a lot of open weeping. They were crushed." Luckily the audience at Toronto’s Horseshoe weren’t the least bit crushed to see The Hanson Brothers on stage this past weekend, when they played to a packed house for both Friday and Saturday’s shows. Now the guys are hitting a few more Canadian venues before going to Europe to let everyone in on the importance of loving hockey. Johnny and Tommy sigh with disappointment when they talk about the current hockey situation in Canada. The guys are awe-struck by the rabid Maple Leaf fans in Toronto. "I don’t know why [The Leafs] bother really," Johnny says. "But I guess it’s better than being a [Montreal] Canadian’s fan right now. Jesus, what a team. They’re just fuckin’ right down the sewer now. It’s an embarrassment really." March 21 Regina, SK @ The ExchangeMarch 22 Lethbridge, AB @ Mullegan’sMarch 23 Cranbrook, AB @ Side Track’sMarch 24 Nelson, BC @ Queen’s HotelMarch 27 Nanaimo, BC @ Queen’s PubMarch 28 Victoria, BC @ Lucky BarMarch 30 Tofino, BC @ Tofino LegionMarch 31 Saltspring Island, BC @ Talon’sApril 12 Edmonton, AB @ The Rev (Hockeypalooza)—April Labine