The Hanson Brothers, November 1996 (2024)

The Hanson Brothers Drop the Gloves

The Hanson Brothers are one of those Canadian bandsthat just need to be heard. They sing of hockey, beer and girls-- but mostly hockey -- and their new release, Sudden Death,reeks of fun and old time hockey. It has been called the quintessentialpuck rock album. But, for the Hansons, talk is cheap and, likea great ex-Canuck so often did, they decided to step into actionand drop the gloves.

Just like Dave "Tiger" Williams. He pouredhis heart out for the Vancouver Canucks for a number of years,and is the all-time penalty minutes leader in the NHL. The Hansonsare pushing to get Tiger inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame,and it hasn't gone unnoticed in the hockey community, with over1,000 fans so far supporting the cause. Not much support fromthe Canucks, though (or the Leafs, for that matter). That's disgraceful!Why wouldn't they support one of their own? Tommy Hanson addsan interesting perspective:

"Maybe Tiger boned them [Orca Bay, owners ofthe Canucks] with the Voodoo [Tiger's roller hockey team]. Maybehe took them for a ride when he sold it. Maybe there's some badbusiness blood. Also, right now I don't think the NHL looks toofavourably upon it."

Adds Robbie Hanson: "Ya, it doesn't go alongwith the type of hockey they want to sell to kids in Orange County,they want to turn it into the Mighty Ducks essentially, they wantto keep it a funny, fun game. It's the ugly side of hockey that'skept it out of the limelight. To Americans, the classic depictionof hockey is all fighting and then a game breaks out, which obviouslyisn't true."

"The NHL, with its American influence is becomingvery calculated... it's becoming more like the WWF [pro wrestling].The emotion is still real, it's just more restricted and packagedfor the public's consumption. It used to be that the teams reallydidn't like each other and it was the players like Tiger Williamsthat created that animosity, and that produces good hockey. Itmay not make for good baseball, but it makes for good hockey."

Johnny Hanson agrees: "It's that toughness inhockey and the attitude towards it that made it our national sport.When the guys in the mine in Sudbury would go out and watch theWolves play, they were the same type of guys... you know, forbetter or for worse and that is Canada." Tommy: "Toughnesswith character."

This toughness with character is definitely a bindingparallel between hockey and punk rock. Robbie puts it anotherway: "Punk rock is music that's had all the bullsh*t strippedaway."

The Hanson Brothers haven't toured since 1993, butseem to be always on the road, and they hold the honoured distinctionof having attended every NoMeansNo gig ever.

Robbie: We've been touring so long, the cool factorisn't really there anymore. We all really enjoy playing live,No Means No always has some good shows. It's a lot of fun. Thereis no pressure, we don't have to worry about playing complicatedmusic correctly. It's not as seriously focused as it is fun. It'snot like starting from square one, it's like adding on to whatwe have, and we can sit back and enjoy it."

And enjoy it they have, all over the world, havingplayed in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. While in Germany,they discovered a musical treasure that inspired the song, "You Can'tHide the Heino." And Heino is... ?

Tommy: "Heino is a walleyed albino from Bavaria.He's sold like 50 million records. Nobody knows who he is, he'skind of like the German Roger Whittaker... except with a morefascist tone. Heino has a lot of sailing songs. It kind of goesalong with that lounge comeback. He's like an albino Marty Feldmanand Roy Orbison singing German sailing songs with a Roger Whittakerfeel to them."

Huh? "I think we're releasing the 'Hide theHeino' single in Germany, and with the lounge comeback, we'llbe at the forefront of it... " Robbie interjects: "... riding off of someone else's coattails." Tommy: "I justhope there's no proctologists around, I don't want to ride onthose coattails."

The Hanson Brothers will be riding on their own coattails,however, when they tour Canada during the playoffs, and in themeantime they'll be down south trying to pound some old-time valuesinto the Americans.

Now, we also talked about a cure for hemorrhoids,Stanley Cup predictions, sleeping in the same bed with your bandmates,Mike Tyson and some other interesting topics that are on the unabridgedInternet version [ed. coming here... someday] of this coach's corner interview. So go surf! Or else I'll be showingyou personally just what it takes to get a ten-game suspension.