The Gin Blossoms and I

So last week was not enough. This will probably not feel like enough either, but at least it covers more.

I once had a well-organized CD collection, and when I started taking CDs into work, and bringing them back, that fell apart a little. When I got Gin Blossoms tickets I wanted to jam in preparation, and I could not find them. (Yes, I realize this could be used as an argument in favor of going digital.) I used Spotify as backup, and also dug out my old concert DVD.

I discovered some interesting gaps with it. First of all, Spotify did not have Dusted or Major Lodge Victory. They did have a lot of compilations that I was not familiar with, and the “Rarities” version of New Miserable Experience brought in a lot of the tracks from Dusted, so it was there, but still, it was weird. Also, Spotify has no Gas Giants and no Northey Valenzuela, and that was frustrating because there were some people that needed to hear “Hurting on the Outside” and there was nothing to link to.

Spotify were not the only ones lacking. When I found my CDs I realized that somehow I had never acquired Major Lodge Victory and I had never even heard of No Chocolate Cake. I requested, and got, No Chocolate Cake for Christmas, and Major Lodge Victory arrived today, due to an Amazon gift card for my birthday, but I was trying to figure out how I had been so remiss.

Major Lodge Victory came out in 2006. That was the year of the divorce, and buying the house, and other scary and stressful things. On the plus side, those things went relatively smoothly, and I think that’s why the name and the cover are familiar to me.

2010, when No Chocolate Cake came out, was a completely different story. That was adjusting to the new job while drowning in frustration with the writing partner, and the first knee surgery and the refinance – well, I’ve written pleny about that time. I never even heard of it.

Naturally, I can’t help but wonder if they will release something new in 2014, and in what interesting way my life will fall apart then, but after all, now I know that if I miss music on its first release I can still find it later, and also, they’re on Twitter now; surely I would at least see an announcement.

In thinking of where Gin Blossoms fit in with my favorite bands, they hold a unique spot. A-ha and Charlie Sexton came to me through MTV, when everything was exciting and new, and I could fall for a band and get to see them in a few months, and I could always find their releases at Tower Records, and view pictures and interviews in teen magazines. Neil Finn sort of comes out of that period too, and if I can’t remember ever seeing a Crowded House spread in Tiger Beat, they were at least guest VJ’s once.

The Clash and the Ramones were bands that I vaguely knew of, but did not really get a chance to hear until they were dying off, and so it was kind of instant nostalgia, as well as starting to realize the ways in which MTV was not my friend—well, not a completely reliable one anyway.

Now I am in this phase where it would be really easy to miss good bands. I knew about the All American Rejects and My Chemical Romance and liked something of them before I got really into them, and now I am finding bands that may or may not be new, and I don’t necessarily have a strong sense of time with them. That is partly that I am disconnected from the contemporary music scene, but possibly also that good bands are as well, and that those two disconnects are connected.

The Gin Blossoms are special because they were kind of the first band that I loved as an adult, at least as much of an adult as my college self was. Yes, I have them associated with the Presidents of the United States of America and the Cherry-Popping Daddies, because they were all bands that I should have seen in Eugene, and couldn’t, but the Gin Blossoms are the most important of those three. The other two are both great, and I am glad that I have seen them now, but it’s not the same. Actually, the first time I saw the Presidents was on MadTV, and based on the serious name and the unserious music, I kind of thought they were a joke.

The Gin Blossoms were just always more serious. There was a touch of melancholy in their songs. It’s not that it was depressing to listen to them, and I have never been into that kind of band, but still, you could feel like there was sadness there. As I was no longer reading teen magazines, I did not know their background then, but they have had some rough times.

They had humor too. One of the fun things about the concert DVD is that Robin was handing out Three’s Company trading cards, and then one of the Spotify live albums has them doing a great bluesy cover of “Moving On Up”, the theme from the Jeffersons. This shows me that not only are they fun, but we watched the same shows back in the day. But still, there was that touch of sadness.

That’s one thing that made it so amazing to finally hear their newer stuff. No Chocolate Cake sounds so happy! It’s not that there are no hard times, but it seems more optimistic about overcoming them. I was also able to listen to the Major Lodge Victory tracks via Youtube. The songs were heading in that direction, but also, the name itself I think is a reference to the late Doug Hopkins, and doing that openly seems to be a sign of being able to remember the past with less pain now, and I appreciate that.

I think at the time they were classified as alternative, and maybe that makes sense. I used to get my music from MTV and VH1, and they still were playing videos when I got back from my mission, but I turned it on, and my impression was that it was all grunge and rap, and not old school rap. It was like everything had gotten angrier and meaner—uglier. It wasn’t working for me.

The Gin Blossoms were beautiful and caring and vulnerable, which appealed to me then, but also they are survivors. I go through phases where different songs resonate with me more. “29” means more to me now than when I first heard it, or than when I was 29, and it’s because of a line that I didn’t even think about when I first loved it. That can happen, because they have depth. There is familiarity, but no staleness.

Of course, “Hey Jealousy” and “Till I Hear it from You” are wonderful, and those are the ones I tend to sing, along with “29”, but let me make some other recommendations for tracks to check out if you are interested.

Dusted is their independently produced debut. It is interesting in that it has a live feel, even though it isn’t, and also, some of the tracks are ones that show up later, but here everything is at the same fast tempo, so “Found Out About You” and “Cajun Song” here are kind of a trip.

New Miserable Experience is the most familiar, and I’ve already mentioned a lot of the tracks on it, but it’s worth listening to the whole thing, especially for the diversity it shows, as along with the regular rock you get some country, some Cajun, and some harder-edged songs, as well as the hauntingly beautiful. “Until I Fall Away” should not be missed,

Congratulations I’m Sorry is not as well known, but “Follow You Down” got at least some play. I am also very fond of “As Long As It Matters” and “Perfectly Still”.

I have not listened to enough of Major Lodge Victory yet to call any out, but I will say that I am reading Leaves of Grass now, and I am assuming “Jet Black Sunrise” is a reference to that. My favorite might be “Curious Thing”

No Chocolate Cake is so good! I feel bad for not finding it sooner. “Miss Disarray” is beautiful, and I can see why it was the release, but I think I love “Don’t Change for Me” most. It combines that need to strive for improvement with that desire to just be loved as is. I also appreciate the Rapunzel imagey in “If You’ll Be Mine”, and like “Go CryBaby” quite a bit.

Follow You Down: Okay, I really thought I was not going to get into this one. I don’t even know what to call it. 45, cassingle, and what for CDs? It’s not even a single, because there are four songs on it, but I can’t skip it because “Seeing Stars” does not seem to appear anywhere else, and it has an interesting flow to it and no one will find it except by finding this 4-track disc.

Okay, actually, my subtext on all of these is that you should listen to them all, but see, I can pick and choose. Also, my feelings about different tracks have changed over time, and so you might feel differently now, and I might in the future.

However, since I am in fact a completist, I am just going to throw in the side projects, and say that you can, and should, via Youtube, get a listen to Gas Giants “Quitter”. It’s harder with Northey Valenzuela, but “Not a Lot Goin’ On” was the theme song for Corner Gas, and so you can find a few versions of that.

And so after trying to explain all of that, it seems anticlimactic to just say I love the Gin Blossoms, and I am grateful for them, but it is nonetheless true.