Gin Blossoms

Gin Blossoms Thursday May 22, 2008 Doors 7PM Showtime 8:30PM Genre: Rock & Roll / Adult Alternative Pop Rock Hailing from Tempe, AZ, alternative power popsters The Gin Blossoms signed with A&M in 1990, and after an impressive 1991 debut EP, Up & Crumbling, they rocketed out of the college pop charts and into the mainstream with their 1993 hit single "Hey Jealousy." Combining the ringing guitar hooks of the Byrds and R.E.M. with a solid, rootsy drive, the band's breakthrough full-length album, New Miserable Experience was filled with songs equally as strong as "Hey Jealousy," including the second hit single, "Found Out About You." New Miserable Experience and its singles dominated radio and MTV for the following year -- "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You," both penned by founding member Doug Hopkins, were in heavy radio rotation nearly a year after their initial release -- pushing the sales of their debut album to over one million copies. Dusty, alcohol-soaked, nervous, emotional, tattered and a little broken down, New Miserable Experience laid out a heavy dose of pathos while wrapping it up in tightly contained guitar licks, intricate melodies, and wistfully engaging vocals. In the summer of 1995, The Gin Blossoms contributed "'Till I Hear It From You," a song they co-wrote with Marshall Crenshaw, to the soundtrack of the film Empire Records. "'Till I Hear It From You" became a major radio hit, but was never released as an official single until it was the B-side of "Follow You Down," the first single from the group's second album Congratulations...I'm Sorry. Call it melodic rock, grunge-lite or southern pop, the Gin Blossoms are one group you never get tired of.