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I don't know. Once you strip away the generational differneces and marketing terms and listen to the records, those bands are more alike than they are different and they all tend toward the power pop end of the spectrum.
Ah, some more info from Taylor and Hanson.net, answered the question I was wondering about regarding who is doing what:
First off, we hoped to be the first to officially tell you guys about it on hnet, but there was a mixup...anyways. Over the last couple years, Adam Schlesinger from fountains of Wayne and James Iha have been working on this project – We first met Adam years ago when we were making Middle Of Nowhere. So the deal is a band that I am mostly taking the vocals on, with James and Adam on bass and guitar, as well as the legendary drummer Bun E Carlos of cheap trick. All of us have just sort of made time for the creation of the album when we could over the last couple years, and now it is going to be coming out, with all the trimmings.
It is a fun thing that is musically different but i think (hope) you will dig. We will premier it at sxsw this year, and we will be telling you guys more about what will be happening with it as it rolls out.
So some members of bands that I have had no interest in got together and formed another band. I had a juvenile passing interest in Cheap Trick way back when, but other than that, we have some folks who created some completely incomprehensible pap get together to make what? Even less comprehensible and more papish stuff? Or, no, really, these were the true talent in these completely mediocre musically, but still popular bands?
jesus, eek, yea ok music's subjective and all, but I think that amount of vitriol is a little over the top. I mean, even jonmc admitted that Hanson has talent, regardless of what one may think of their boyband deal.
SXSW has introduced me to a ton of fantastic stuff over the past couple years. Sure it's a random supergroup but if they're getting airtime there, then I'll be interested to see what this produces.
oh, and... christ but that whole Pitchfork cynically dismissive too-hip-to-be-bothered attitude in their articles seriously chaps my ass, truth be told. Granted I read them somewhat regularly to keep track of what's going on in indie/modern music but an hour spent surfing Pitchfork articles generally leaves me with a general lingering malaise coupled with an uncontrollable desire to stab someone in the face.
Carlos is an incredibly talented drummer and Cheap Trick ran almost 25 years non-stop recording and touring. That's a lot of experience. Iha was responsible for filling in his own rhythm guitar parts around Billy Corgan, no easy task, yet he pulled it off with some of the most creative riffs and fills in modern rock. The Hanson kid is fairly good and brings his own fanbase, so marketing the group has a headstart. I can't say anything about Schlesinger, but if Iha chose to work with him, he can probably hold his own on bass.
I'm somewhat interested in hearing the result. It HAS to be better than that Chinese Democracy mess.
I think this has the potential for some real power-pop goodness. Just hearing Iha and Schlessinger work together would be cool for me... the addition of some Cheap Trick influence is just gravy.
As a powerpop fan, I'm quite interested in what comes out of this. As someone said upthread, the bands have more in common musically than might be apparent at first. Like most, I dismissed Hanson early on as empty fluff, but they actually write some pretty solid pop songs worthy of repeated listens. I was never a Pumpkins fan, but Iha's solo record is also pretty good. As for the Cheap Trick and Fountains of Wayne, they've both been faves of mine for a very long time - so I'm very intrigued in this combo.
I might listen to this album. I have started to dig power pop recently, and although I pretended to hate Hanson when I was in high school, I secretly had a crush on them.
I don't really have much of an opinion on this subject (I'm not really a fan of any of those dudes, or the groups they were in, but it's not like I have any beef with 'em either--well, I don't like that fake-turntable-scratch in the chorus of 'Mmmbop,' but, hey, that was a long time ago, time to live and let live), and it feels pretty good.
This could only be made better if they included Kenny G.
Hahahaha Vitriol! Really!
Notice I never said anything about talent. One of my favorite artists started off in a completely crap glam-rock band. As I said, these might be the the truly talented people in some pretty musically mediocre bands, and they might make something good. Then again talented doesn't necessarily translate directly to good, nor does popular. Look at the only musician I mentioned in this comment.
OMG this is brilliant. Brilliant! And Bun E Carlos to top it off! (He always struck me as a jazzman playing rock.)
Fountains of Wayne has some of the best lyrics and is great fun, and Schlesinger's other band Ivy is tres cool as well. Iha has already played on FoW (and I think Ivy) projects. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the Hanson bros are serious musicians (with people like John Popper of Blues Traveller hanging with them.)
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