gin blossoms singles poll

My friend's first CD he ever bought was "New Miserable Experience" and his fundie dad made him sell it back to the store because of "Hey Jealousy." He got to "I'm in no shape for driving" and was enraged that the song encouraged drinking. He hadn't even got to the words "sleep around" yet. It was stories like this that made me feel grateful that I was able to slip 90% or so of my music selections past my parents' radar.

oh yeah, and there are much better versions of some of the "New Miserable Experience" singles on "Dusted."

impossible

okay maybe possible

I think if I was going to do one of these at karaoke it would be "Found Out About You."

Hey Jealousy

because it is there best song to drive around to, and why would you be listening to gin blossoms if you're not driving around

what if you're no shape for driving?

Hey Jealousy. But these songs have aged so well, I love hearing them all.

it's crazy that nme came out 18 YEARS ago

These songs were inescapable between '94 and '96.

okay maybe possible

The songs are faster, less produced, and have the wild abandon of a hungry bar band. Think: the Replacements, mixed with a little of the southwest flavor of the Refreshments

take this example, "Fireworks":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD1c4oy7zU4

Weren't most of their biggest hits all on the same album? If so, I should get it someday; I remember thinking most of them were likeable at the time, if never quite great. Good chance they'd sound even better to me now. Anyway, "Found Out About You" is the one that immediately came to mind when I saw the thread title, so I'm going with that.

Iatee you just made me real sad with the 18 year factoid :(

somebody who was born the day this came out can VOTE and SMOKE

also you can sleep w/ them

I wonder if children were indeed conceived during a Gin Blossoms record release party

"Found Out About You"

No one's mentioned the guitarist/songwriter's suicide yet. Songs live or die on their own merits, but that does lurk in the background for me when I think about how "Found Out About You" sounds sort of spooky.

No one's mentioned the guitarist/songwriter's suicide yet. Songs live or die on their own merits, but that does lurk in the background for me when I think about how "Found Out About You" sounds sort of spooky.

It's worse when you hear "Lost Horizons" because it seems to predict Doug Hopkins' suicide. I really think the world lost an amazing songwriter-- one who was way more edgy and talented than the band's reputation would suggest.

The last horizons I can see
Are filled with bars and factories
And in them all we fight to stay awake

I drink enough of anything
To make this world look new again
Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves

She had nothing left to say
So she said sShe loved me
I stood there grateful for the lie

...

The last horizons I can see
Are now resigned to memories
I never thought I'd still be here today

19th century Romantic poetry!

Weren't most of their biggest hits all on the same album? If so, I should get it someday; I remember thinking most of them were likeable at the time, if never quite great. Good chance they'd sound even better to me now. Anyway, "Found Out About You" is the one that immediately came to mind when I saw the thread title, so I'm going with that.

― xhuxk, Monday, October 4, 2010 8:28 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's kind of commonplace now, but for a while Gin Blossoms were kind of infamous for being maybe the first of those '90s bands whose label put out a "best of" comp after they only had 2 albums, and 7 of the 12 songs from New Miserable Experience are on that best-of.

well also they broke up

allison road

had a pretty real bonding experience w/ hey jealousy rather recently so it's got my vote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GinBlossoms_NoChocolateCakeCvr_72.jpg

what a horrible horrible cover

er http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/GinBlossoms_NoChocolateCakeCvr_72.jpg

"Found Out About You" is a really great single; I like most of the other songs here too, but "Found Out About You" is in another league, worthy of the Byrds' debut.

Good god that is a horrible album cover. I just checked out their new single "Miss Disarray" on YouTube and unfortunately, it's the mid-tempo adult contemporary Gin Blossoms of Empire Records, not the rocking Gin Blossoms of Dusted and New Miserable Experience.

that album cover and title doesn't even have the excuse of being from the 90s

their previous 00s album cover is okay!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/GinBlossomsMajorLodgecover.jpg

okay not the fontt

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

God I want chocolate cake suddenly.

listening to dusten versions on youtube v interesting

dusted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0OurHnqWp0

you're right, def hear the replacements in that

found out about you--they really were a different band before/after that dude left

found out about you--they really were a different band before/after that dude left

Same guys, I think-- but they kicked out Doug Hopkins after recording New Miserable Experience (although by many accounts he was uselessly drunk during the sessions). I think the production work on NME made their music sound uncomfortably like maudlin sentimentality instead of the shambolic self-destruction of Dusted, which unfortunately didn't work in the music's favor.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i can go for that

woah the Dusted versions posted upthread are awesome! dunno how I missed them for so long

Do any of you GB fans rate The Best Kissers In The World? They came from the same scene, but with a bit more punch and less of that Toad/REM thing going on...

no love for "Follow You Down" is surprising

these Dusted versions - holy Replacements, frealz. Gotta get a copy of this.

frealz, this is one of the most overlooked rock albums of the last 20 years

no love for "Follow You Down" is surprising

surprising but deserved

haha okay if we're going to namecheck Mats, Toad and REM I'm going to post the link: Taking Sides: Gin Blossoms vs. Toad The Wet Sprocket

I love love love the Best Kissers In The World song "Bleeder" & thought their whole first album was good to very good.

Wish I had voted in time to throw my support behind Allison Road. I love that song even though my friend Allison used to play it all the time and be a total dick about it

Best Kissers In The World

I haven't heard them, but that name has got to go

there should really be an early-90s band names poll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO466hDc0b8

it's kind of commonplace now, but for a while Gin Blossoms were kind of infamous for being maybe the first of those '90s bands whose label put out a "best of" comp after they only had 2 albums, and 7 of the 12 songs from New Miserable Experience are on that best-of.

― algernod shiplies (some dude), Monday, October 4, 2010 9:15 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well also they broke up

― iatee, Monday, October 4, 2010 9:18 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, but my point was an '70s or '80s band that broke up after 2 hit albums wouldn't get a best-of comp a few years later

would've voted for "Follow You Down" if i'd remembered to vote

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6101GbcaQWL._SS500_.jpg

ah yes, the cover of a Greatest Hits album culling songs from Boston's first 4 albums that was released 20 years after their debut really knocks down my point! good job!

u got sonned

7 years for Tom Scholz was like, 1 for everybody else.....

i'm not even arguing! just another example of a "greatest hits" that's just the debut album minus a couple of great tracks and plus a bunch of filler to make it look like it's not just the debut album minus a couple of tracks. is all.

Closest comparison I can think of is the Fine Young Cannibals best of, but that came out over a decade after the first album

there's also the sort of hilarious way silvertone kept repackaging their exact same stone roses catalog (one album plus singles and b-sides), including as "the very best of the stone roses."

(oh i take it back, the very best has tracks from second coming. i was thinking of the complete stone roses, which didn't. still.)

I actually like the idea of the Gin Blossoms as the American Stone Roses, except one that doesn't suck...

I think the repackaging of the stone roses catalog had something to do with contractual limitations. They switched record companies (Silvertone to Geffen) between the first and second albums, which is also part of the reason there was such a huge time gap between the two.

yep. and while they failed to release a second album, silvertone just kept finding ever more ludicrous way to keep releasing the stuff they had.

I was checking on something and realized that I would have seen these guys in 1993 at KROQ's first Weenie Roast show -- but I have no memory of their set at all. Everyone else, yes, but not them.

i'm not even arguing! just another example of a "greatest hits" that's just the debut album minus a couple of great tracks and plus a bunch of filler to make it look like it's not just the debut album minus a couple of tracks. is all.

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Thursday, October 7, 2010 2:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ah ok, gotcha

Alison Road is so gorgeous

Love "Lost Horizons" and "Found Out About You"

Haven't thought about this band in ages. "Not Only Numb" is tres pretty.

"Not Only Numb" is tres pretty.

― Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, November 15, 2015 10:46 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this wouldve got my vote.

Follow You Down -> Not Only Numb -> As Long As It Matters is a great run