Hanson have parted from Island/Def Jam and will release their third album, Underneath, on their newly formed 3CG records next year. The brothers made the announcement this morning at New York's legendary but embattled Bottom Line club.

Hanson have been at work on the record for more than three years, and several of its fourteen tracks were included on Underneath Acoustic, an EP the trio has been selling through its Web site and while on an acoustic tour this summer. That tour was scheduled to wrap in September, but a set of October dates were added, and the band will now close out its U.S. dates on November 5th at New York City's Carnegie Hall before heading overseas.

Early next year the group will turn its attention to Underneath and the business of running a label. "There's been a lot of change in the industry," keyboardist/vocalist Taylor Hanson said. "For us to start our own record company was a fresh new way to approach what we were doing."

The label's name was pulled from the trio's 1998 odds and ends release, Three Car Garage: Independent Recordings 1995-1996. "We're just getting back to the bare bones," guitarist Isaac said.

Added Taylor, "This is what we do, we sit and play songs. It's kind of like bringing people into songwriting sessions."

For the time being, Hanson will utilize 3CG only for their own recordings, but the brothers (Zac, the youngest at seventeen, plays drums) are planning to create a roster and release material by other artists in the future.

Underneath finds the trio continuing to develop its hooky pop/rock chops heard on 2000's This Time Around and features several collaborators including Matthew Sweet (who co-wrote the title cut with the Hanson sibs) and Danny Kortchmar (Don Henley, Billy Joel) who co-produced the first single, "Penny and Me."

Remaining Hanson tour dates:

10/10: Toronto, Guvernment
10/11: Buffalo, The Sphere
10/14: Cleveland, Odeon
10/15: Cincinnati, Bogarts
10/17: Alexandria, The Birchmere
11/5: New York, Carnegie Hall

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 1, 2003)