Screaming as if their corneas were being pierced by shrimp forks, thousands of adolescent girls lined up for hours to catch a glimpse of Hanson, the three-brother rock band from Tulsa, Okla.

The band was at the Monroeville Mall yesterday to help raise money during the B94 radio/Adecco Children's Miracle Network radio-thon stationed there.

The minute Hanson appeared at 11:45 a.m., the previously demure girls began blocking and tackling like linebackers for a chance to get an autograph or handshake from the teen-age musicians.

"I'm never washing my hand again. Smell it! That's Ike!" squealed Amy Reider, 17, of Maytown, York County, after Isaac Hanson slipped her a handshake. She and three camera-wielding friends arrived at the mall at 4 a.m. yesterday after a 4 1/2-hour drive to get a perfect perch beside the stage. Fans reportedly came from as far as Seattle, Buffalo, Connecticut and Canada.

"I don't know where these people are coming from," said a wide-eyed Keith Clark, B94's director of operations/programming. "We expected about 750 people. We had no idea this many people would show up."

Hanson played Twister with radio disc jockeys on the mall stage as clusters of fans leaned over the upper deck rails and thousands more crammed into the hallway in front of Lazarus. They waved balloons, flowers and signs, bedecked in T-shirts, buttons and pins, their faces brandishing permanent marker tattoos of band members' names. Camera flashes lit the mall, and some people stood tiptoe with video cameras attached to the ends of their outstretched arms.

The crowd gave waves of banshee shrieks. Hanson brothers Isaac, 19, and Taylor, 16, both in black leather jackets and jeans, and Zac, 14, in a T-shirt and cargo pants, alternately waved and smiled.

But about 30 minutes into the appearance as the band left the stage to sign autographs at a nearby table, the crowd grew impatient and started shoving harder, pressing the 35 mall security guards and radio station employees into action.

"If I wasn't holding that table back, them Hanson kids would've got crushed," said a guard.

The enthusiasm soon took its toll. With a triage in the front of Lazarus, dozens of sobbing, crimson-faced fans sat on the floor between the no-iron Dockers and the Amalfi golf shirts, huffing oxygen from masks and taking relaxation cues from Monroeville Fire Department paramedics. Despite the hyperventilation, the weeping and the groans, no one was seriously hurt.

"It was little girls looking at these guys and fainting because the guys looked at them," said Rick Little, general manager of Monroeville Mall.

Through her tears, Allison Stitt, 15, of Salisbury, Lehigh County, professed her love for the band as she recovered from passing out, probably from the sheer excitement and heat generated by the crowd, said registered nurse Natalie Shoop, who stopped to assist paramedics.

"Sarah, I passed out! Don't ever leave me!" Stitt yelled as her friends walked by.

"Ohmigod, Amber collapsed!" another called to her friends.

"I couldn't stand the smell of people," someone said.

Sharon Capone of Murrysville was at the mall to pick up her 14-year-old daughter who had been there since 4 a.m. Capone remembered the days of her youth when she swooned over "the Beatles and the Monkees. But that'll say how old I am by that, huh?"

Although she never met her heroes, she got to meet Hanson on her way in the mall. "They said 'Hi. How're you doing?' and shook our hands," she said with a little more excitement than expected.

Security guards got an earful from some frustrated teens and their parents who were upset that the kids were jostling them.

"They were just pushing and now I can't meet [Hanson]," a teen bawled.

"You tell the Hansons that they owe me," one mom bellowed.

The band, surprised by the large turnout and enthusiasm, ducked out of the building in a shroud of guards at 12:40 p.m. to sobs from teens with unshaken hands. But those who had autographs were buried in tears of joy, with a story to tell their friends at school tomorrow.

Hanson's newest record, due out in June, may be released early if fan demand in other cities is as big as it was in Pittsburgh yesterday, said Ken Lane, senior vice president of promotion with the band's record label, Island.

The Hanson appearance earned about $13,000 for the Children's Institute and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, including $1,000 from the band member themselves. Fans gave donations to get autographs and jockeyed for the autographed Twister board at an online auction.

Although Monroeville Mall has seen its share of soap opera stars, Little couldn't think of any event that has generated such a buzz. "Most of the kids were pretty good," he said with a laugh. "We didn't lose any of our guards."

In last week's AllPop survey, we gave our readers the opportunity to decide the future of pop. From the results, we can tell that Hanson is still the pop favourite, with Backstreet coming in second place.

Out of 1303 people who answered the question, "Which band will out-live the rest?" 70% said Hanson; the Backstreet Boys were in second place with 26%.

Meanwhile, Britney Spears may be the pop princess but the teen queen isn't the singer most girls look up to. When we asked "Who is your role model?" 41% of our readers said Christina Aguilera.

The Backstreet Boys are important to a lot of people but when we asked "If the Backstreet Boys broke up you would?" 40% of the 1269 voters said 'jump for joy' while 35% said 'be depressed but get over it'.

On the other hand, Hanson fans continue to show their dramatic side when they answered "If Hanson broke up you would ...". Out of 1305 voters, 53% said that if Hanson broke up they would 'dress in black for a month and wonder if they'd ever be happy again."

We're a little suspicious that some of our readers might have been a bit dishonest in answering the next question. We asked what they would do if they were a pop star. Now, being a pop star means you have lots of money and thousands of adoring fans. That means you could go on the biggest shopping spree ever and maybe even date someone you've always had a crush on. But our readers showed their sensitive side.

Out of 1275 votes, only 5% went for "Blow all you money on clothes, cars, houses and trips"; 31% voted for "Donate half of all you make to charity" and 32% went for "Give a world-wide concert tour every year so fans can see you". Some of our voters were thinking about their secret crush, though, because 32% voted for "Date a famous pop star you've always had a crush on."

The rest of our questions were pretty far-fetched but our readers voted anyway. The song they'd pick to listen to for the rest of their lives is "Mmmbop", they think pop stars are normal people who can sing, and they hope Hanson never breaks up.

The three Hanson brothers are returning to the music world on April 4th with a new single titled "This Time Around". Their new album is scheduled for release on May 9th and is also titled "This Time Around".

According to Dotmusic, Hanson will release "If Only" as their first single in the UK on April 3rd and will release the album on May 1st.

"With Isaac 19 years old, Taylor 16 and Zac 14, the new album features pop cuts with trademark Hanson harmonies, alongside more guitar-driven tracks which reflect how much the boys have grown-up since their breakthrough," a spokesperson for the group said.

New photos of Isaac, Taylor and Zac with shorter hair, are on their way to AllPop and should be up some time next week. There's also a possibility that we'll be interviewing Hanson when they come to Toronto in May.

March 13th will see the new single, "IF ONLY" released in Australia. It will be a special collector double pack format. March 20th will see the second disc for the "IF ONLY" collector pack released. We know that won't be enough for you Hanson fans, not by a long shot. So, wait for it, the new album "THIS TIME AROUND" will be released on April 17th.

To celebrate Hanson's new releases, Isaac, Zac & Taylor will be vising Australia for a few days of promotional activity from on March 19th to 26th. They will be in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and are sure to be on all the tv shows and radio programs, do interviews for your favourite mags, as well as some appearances where you can see them strut their stuff. We're working out with them now just what they can fit in when they're here and we can tell you, they are very excited about coming back to Australia and seeing all their fans here again.

As soon as we have details of where Hanson will be appearing, and everything else they will be doing, we'll be putting them up here on the site. If you'd like to be informed of all the latest news, then EMAIL US!. Be sure to put "HANSON NEWS" in the subject line.

One thing he had fun doing a few months ago was contributing guitar parts to the upcoming Hanson record. Lang met the Tulsa trio when they came to his last Tulsa performance Jan. 4, 1999, at the Cain's Ballroom. "They're really nice, and later they called my manager and asked if I wanted to play on their record, and I said, `Hell, yeah!' I played on a couple of tunes -- three, actually, though I'm not sure if they'll use all of them. "I hate saying I'm impressed, because that makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about, but those guys were really impressive. They're really pros in the studio. Their musicianship is as good as you can be."

Recently, Lang shared studio time with Hanson whom he met in England some time ago. "It is very cool to know a guy your age who can play like that; it is really inspiring," Isaac Hanson said of Lang. The trio certainly shares a foundation of musical inspiration from which their recordings are produced: the creme de la creme of R&B from the likes of Otis Redding and others.

If you want to see the benefits of taking a good, long time-out, you've just got to get caught up with those Hanson guys.

In the years since Hanson released the giddy breakthrough hit "MMMBop" and the 1997 debut "Middle Of Nowhere," we've been poked with all three points on the dreaded filler triangle: the holiday album ("Snowed In"), the "rarities/demos" comp ("3 Car Garage), and the live album ("Live From Albertane"). A dry spell, it seemed.

What we weren't privy to, however, was how the towheaded trio of Oklahoma hermanos -- Isaac, Taylor, and Zac -- stretched out and bulked up, settling into their young adult selves with comfort and confidence, radiating with good health and good vibes. The picture is so reassuring, you just might think for a moment that all is right with the world, or something.

Take a listen to what the brothers have been up to in the studio, and you may feel the need to jump back and smack yourself. The group's infectious melodies and sunny harmonies remain intact on the tracks readied for the group's true follow-up disc, "This Time Around" (due out in May), but the expected bubble-gummy, cavity-causing sweetness has been displaced by grit, gospel, and a few strong whiffs of patchouli and incense.

Jackson 5 comparisons of old will be lost as you find yourself making sonic allusions to The Black Crowes (and, in the band's more romantic moments, Matchbox 20). Hooking up on the LP with H.O.R.D.E. Tour-ready folk as Blues Traveler harpsman John Popper and blues-travelin' guitarist Jonny Lang (who appears on the title track, which is also the first single) seems only to point up the group's metamorphosis from a cute lil' caterpillar into a groovy-colored butterfly.

MTV News' very own John Norris met up with Los Bros. Hanson to get the scoop on the eternity between albums, the current boy-band climate, the fans who've stuck by them through thick and thin, and early reactions to the new LP -- something Isaac describes as "a good wow."

Oh, and let's not forget the new haircuts.

Taylor Hanson's new look. Not bad, huh?
We caught up with Hanson this past Wednesday at a press conference Isaac, Taylor, and Zac held to announce the release of their upcoming disc, This Time Around. Three years after the release of the band's breakthrough Middle of Nowhere, the guys not only look totally different -- Isaac and Taylor have both chopped their long locks ("It was just time.") and formerly pint-sized Zac, 14, has gone through a major growth spurt -- they've also got a new sound. This Time Around is a total rock album -- complete with serious guitar riffs, mucho attitude, and guest appearances by Jonny Lang, John Popper of Blues Traveler, and Rose Stone of the famous '60s group Sly and the Family Stone. "It's a little bit more rock 'n roll. The chord structures are more complicated. We just took a little different perspective with the songs," says Taylor, 16. "Everything we think, see, and experience has influenced us. And being on the road has definitely changed our perspective."

Currently, the guys are in the studio, putting the finishing touches on the CD, which is slated to hit stores May 9. Expect to catch the first single, "This Time Around," on the radio sometime in March, and after that, the guys say they're going to launch a world tour. How do they think old skool Hanson fans are gonna react? Says Isaac, 18, "If you're only familiar with "Mmmbop,"' and you haven't really listened to all of Middle of Nowhere, then This Time Around will be quite a jump." We can't wait!

This week sure started off with a bang!!! We were invited to Los Angeles to catch up with HANSON!!!… and they're doin' just great! Zak, Ike & Tay let us hear 5 tracks off their brand new CD, "This Time Around" which comes out May 9th… and do those tunes ever ROCK!!! It's gonna be a great CD! The guys have been away far too long and we really missed 'em, we're so happy they're on their way back! The wait is almost over Hanson fans!!!

Just to let you know, we shot an entire "Hanson Special" with them. It will air as soon as the Record Company decides when to release their new video - "This Time Around"… so we'll keep you posted on that. (Just keep checking my "Tattle Tale" page for updates!) The video has been shot, but the release date has not yet been set. In the meantime, (to hold you over), Exan did an interview with Zak, Ike & Tay that will air during Fan Club on February 18/19th.

Hanson wins again - AllPop sends out a challenge The loyalty award goes to Hanson fans.

After several AllPop polls, it's become obvious to us that Hanson fans are more loyal than Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Britney Spears fans combined.

In our latest poll, "Which group or artist has the most loyal fans?", hundreds of Hanson fans came to AllPop to vote.

Out of 3158 votes, 68% voted for Hanson. The Backstreet Boys fans came in a distant second place with 13% while Britney Spears and 'N Sync fans tied for third place with 10% each.

Congratulations to Hanson fans everywhere for showing your loyalty.

We have the sneaking suspicion once we post the poll results we'll get hundreds of hysterical emails from Backstreet, 'N Sync and Britney fans claiming they are more loyal than Hanson fans.

Here's our challenge to fans of other pop bands besides Hanson.

If enough people email us about the results of this poll, we'll put it up again to let other fans prove their loyalty. Send an email to AllPop with the subject heading: RUN THE POLL AGAIN! and in the email, tell us which band is your favourite.

If your favourite pop band or artist wasn't included in the original poll - don't worry. We could be open to adding more artists if we run it again. But remember, Hanson will definitely be included in the next poll so you'll have to get lot's of people to vote for your favourite group if you want them to beat the champions.

Because by the time we print it in the mag it will be months from now, we're letting you Hanson fans know some details now, by e-mail:

5 of the songs were really fast, driving rock songs, and there was 1 ballad.

The obvious pick hit (to our ears) was "If Only"it has the sound of one of those songs radio programmers will want to play over and over. It begins with a really bizarre musical hiccupping noise that is so catchy it just might helps make some Hanson hatas into Hanson playas. "If only I had the guts to feel this way/You'd look at me and want to stay/I'd take you in my arms and say/ That I won't go because I need you/Please don't go be- cause I need you now"--these are *not* exact lyrics, just a guesstimate to give you a taste. It's a reallllly ro- mantic song and is a possible single.

The other possible single is an equally strong ditty called "This Time Around" (nope, not a Michael Fredo remake, ha). This one is really lush and heartfelt, and contains melan- choly lyrics like "I'm feeling older" and "It's getting cold now" It's very Goo Goo Dolls...but very '70s...but totally Hanson.

The other uptempo titles were "Do You Love Me?" (really driving rock song with Jonny Lang guesting and a defiant edge), "Run Away Run" (this one had a Bryan Adams wail and a short but amazing Zac drum break), "Dying to Be Alive" (really fragile and sweet vocals backed up by Rose Stone and her choir for an orchestral feel).

The ballad was a sweet one called "Song to Sing" that was really reminiscent of an old Billy Joel song, complete with extreme piano usage.

Overall, the effect on the room was, "Wow."

It's clear thatas from the beginningHanson is a rock band with serious cred. These guys have followed up their previous success with impeccably produced pop that Hanson fans will find mesmerizing.

Now we just have to make people FORGET all their negative ideas about Hanson, because the guys really deserve a strong reception for this music.

Extra trivia: They've recorded 14 tracks, but are expected to whittle that down to 11 or 12 for the final CD. All of the above are set to appear

The follow-up to "Middle of Nowhere" is scheduled for release on April 25.

Isaac, Zach and Taylor wrote all the new songs themselves and the album features guest appearances by Jonny Lang and John Popper (Blues Traveller).

Early reports on the new material are positive so keep your ears open and ready.

Hanson fans can't wait for the new Hanson album.

Just when you think the Hanson craze is over for good, Hanson fans come out in droves to prove their loyalty.

In our latest AllPop readers poll, "Who's upcoming album are you looking forward to?" Hanson won by a landslide.

Out of the 2392 people who voted, 76% said they were most excited about Hanson's upcoming album. Boy-band 'N Sync came in at a distant second with only 14% while Britney Spears grabbed 8% of the votes putting her in third place.

It seems that most people have forgotten about Aqua as the fun-loving popsters only managed to get 2% of the votes.

Since Hanson fans continue to stand strong, we've decided to put out a challenge to all the other fans out there. Our next poll will determine which popular pop stars have the most enthusiastic and loyal fans.