Taking Sides: Gin Blossoms vs. Toad The Wet Sprocket

the thing with the Gin Blossoms is that they were almost sorta cool at the beginning of their career and have unfairly been lumped in with the likes of Tonic and Marcy Playground

they were a bunch of alcoholic-lowlifes from Arizona singing the praises of Westerberg and writing jangly, perfectly good pop rock. the difference between them and Teenage Fanclub or something is that they were careerists who wanted to make money

any interview i've listened to with the lead singer he just gives off a really terrible vibe

including Counting Crows would have obfuscated things, somehow. They were something different.

and of course they ripped that poor dude off who wrote all their hits. that's another way to make your career go downhill fast

i'd love to see an article that reaffirms their legitimacy

Maybe some CC is different. Maybe "Mr. Jones" is something different.

But "Round Here," "Omaha," "Cannonball," "Raining in Baltimore," elicit a particularly 90s anxiety, one that I also hear in "Sex and Candy," "Found Out About You," "Let Her Cry," "Iris," and "Alison Road."

There's a wobble in the vocal that I hear as a fuzzy wired fear - someone who's just barely holding his shit together.

I mostly hated this music at the time, but in retrospect I feel it was appropriate, because that's exactly how I felt.

Dulcinea is a pretty good album, really won me over to Toad The Wet Sprocket after disliking their first couple hits.

smoking on stage = pretty louche

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

"Something's Always Wrong" at CVS this morning. Good song!