Live and Electric Tour ’05 tickets on-sale Aug. 27 for Oct. 18 start date; The Best of Hanson Live and Electric album set for Oct. 11 release on 3CG Records; Strong Enough to Break documentary to be screened at colleges in each tour market, with online contests to choose opening acts.

NEW YORK, August 16, 2005—You may think you know Hanson, but the trio’s Live and Electric Tour ’05, which begins Oct. 18 at the Roxy in Atlanta, GA, and runs through a Nov. 23 performance in their hometown of Tulsa, OK at Cain’s Ballroom, shows a side of the band that has taken eight years of what the New York Post calls “talent and perseverance” to “brilliantly display what you can achieve.” Tickets go on sale Saturday, Aug. 27, with every purchaser receiving a free limited edition Live and Electric Tour ’05 CD sampler, to be distributed at each performance.

Hanson brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac continue to demonstrate that evolution on the brand-new album The Best of Hanson Live and Electric, which hits retail stores Oct. 11 on their own 3CG Records label. For a band that has sold more than 15 million albums, Live and Electric spotlights Hanson performing all their platinum-plus hits, as Entertainment Weekly put it, “newly energized as they kick out brawny guitar-rock jams,” recorded live last June before an enthusiastic audience in Melbourne, Australia. That includes the chart-topping “MmmBop” along with “Where’s the Love,” “If Only,” “This Time Around,” “I Will Come To You” and “Penny & Me,” as well as bonus tracks “If Only” and “A Song to Sing.” Showing their versatility, the album also includes Hanson’s covers of Radiohead’s “Optimistic” and U2’s “In a Little While.” A limited edition CD/DVD version will also be available with new live footage, never-before-released track, “Being Me,” music videos, and a photo gallery among the bonus features.

The 24-date U.S. tour will include visits to local colleges, where the band will talk to students about their experiences in the music business, and especially their quest to succeed as independents outside the consolidated corporate culture. At each campus along the tour route, Hanson will screen their self-produced documentary, Strong Enough to Break, illustrating the current state of the music business, why the band decided to set up their own record label. At the conclusion, they will hold Q&A sessions with the students.

“Our choice to become independent again was about our belief in the relationship between us and our fans,” said Taylor. The band’s last album, Underneath, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Independent Album chart in 2004. “We’re passionate about the future of independent music.”

Pointing to the success of their 3CG Records, the band looks to build a grass-roots community of artists, labels, promoters and fans to help bring independent music to the forefront.

“The future depends on the commitment and passion of musicians, fans and the industry to career artists,” said Zac. “If we don’t get involved, we only have ourselves to blame.”

To demonstrate their support for independent music, Hanson will work with local college radio stations and newspapers to sponsor a contest to select a developing band as its opening act in each tour market. Bands are invited to submit music to 3CG Records, with three finalists chosen by the label to be spotlighted on hanson.net and the winner chosen by a public online vote. Indie bands in Hanson tour markets can get further information through local college radio outlets.

The Hanson track, “Crazy Beautiful,” from the new album, will be available pre-release as an iTunes exclusive starting Tuesday, Aug. 30, while “Underneath,” also from the new disc, will be carried by selected online retailers before the CD hits stores nationwide. Live acoustic versions of tracks including “Misery” and “Underneath” will be featured as part of a Hanson Connect Set on Sony Music’s online retail site Connect.com, also launching Tuesday, Aug. 30. On that same day, the band will participate in an online chat on USAToday.com at 2 p.m. (ET).

The venerable Village Voice predicts, “These hardworking brothers’ valiant quest for independence shall be rewarded.” With a headlining tour and brand-new live album coming their way this fall, Hanson’s fans will be rewarded, too. For more information, go to www.Hanson.net.

Oct. 18 Atlanta, GA The Roxy
Oct. 19 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
Oct. 21 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues
Oct. 22 St. Petersburg, FL Jannus Landing
Oct. 23 Pompano Beach, FL Club Cinema
Oct. 26 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock
Oct. 28 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
Oct. 29 Atlantic City, NJ House of Blues
Oct. 30 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Nov. 1 Toms River, NJ Ritacco Center
Nov. 2 New York, NY Nokia
Nov. 4 Boston, MA Avalon
Nov. 5 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino
Nov. 6 Patchogue, NY Patchogue Theatre
Nov. 9 Detroit, MI Royal Oak
Nov. 10 Toronto, ON Kool Haus
Nov. 12 Cleveland, OH House of Blues
Nov. 13 Cincinnati, OH Bogart's
Nov. 16 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Nov. 17 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Nov. 19 Milwaukee, WI The Rave
Nov. 20 Minneapolis, MN The Quest
Nov. 22 Lawrence, KS Liberty Hall
Nov. 23 Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom