I LIKE IKE

''We might as well be Tupperware,'' Isaac Hanson said on the phone yesterday from Los Angeles, where he and his brothers, Taylor and Zac, are rehearsing for the acoustic tour they hope will revive their career. (The towheads from Tulsa, Okla., who scored a monumental hit in 1997 with ''MMMBop,'' play the Middle East on Aug. 12, one of only a dozen shows the band is playing before the release of its new CD, ''Underneath.'') Isaac, who's the oldest of the three brothers, sounded a tiny bit bitter as he talked about the business of making music. ''It's not about being the next big thing. . . . It never was for us,'' he said. ''The problem is there's a growing trend in the industry of putting uncreative people in creative positions.'' (The effect is that artists are mass-produced, like Tupperware, Hanson said.) The brothers Hanson produced much of the latest record themselves but also worked with Matthew Sweet, Carole King, and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies. Isaac said he's looking forward to coming to Boston because he's buddies with Bleu, whose CD ''Redhead'' is a favorite of Hanson's. ''You heard that? That's an amazing record,'' he said, sounding suddenly excited again. ''This is going to be a cool tour.''