Taking Sides: Gin Blossoms vs. Toad The Wet Sprocket

THIS DOESN'T MAKE MY POINT INVALID DAMMIT

I'll also stump for the earlier Goo Goo Dolls records. But Soul Asylum was once a pretty great rock band...ye olde tymers in Mpls tell me they were quite teh sight to behold live back in the day.

Toad's songwriting strengths were always far more evident in their album tracks than in their singles, although "Come Down" from the Coil album is still one of my favorite singles of '90s alt-rock radio.

---hahahahahahahaha!

STEP, YO.
(went to the ttws reunion tour)
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TS: Toad the Wet Sprocket vs. Toadies

you mean MARCHING BAND? 'cause that'd be AWESOME

Bump for 90s night...

found out about you is a tune

GBs for sure

Gin Blossoms resurfaces memories in my head of the type of music you'd hear in the mid-90s for a "Party of Five" promo (or any generic Fox drama that appealed to teens). Waiting for the Simpsons' to come on and seeing promos for Fox shows accounts for a sadly significant part of what I remember about mid-90s music and television.

yup Found Out About You is one of the prettiest Byrds rips ever.

Goo Goo Dolls > Soul Asylum > Gin Blossoms > Toad The Wet Sprocket

you've gotta be kidding me

My loud neighbor played Hey Jealousy tonight. It ruled.

gin blossoms are criminally overlooked. not kidding. maybe in a couple decades after everyone is able to jump over the mental hurdle of having lump them in with terrible shit like goo goo dolls and toad the wet sprocket, everyone will realize it. start with their first album, Dusted.

Poliopolice OTM. Poor Doug Hopkins.

i think in a lot of respects they channeled the spirit of Big Star way better than Teenage Fanclub or any of the other ersatz 'power-pop' rip-off artists who worshiped Big Star. There's actually a palpable sense of defeat, melancholy, loneliness, and failure embedded in most of GB's songs, which, mixed with jangle, is basically the Big Star template.

^^ good call imo

terrible shit like goo goo dolls and toad the wet sprocket

I prefer either one of these bands to Gin Blossoms. THE WEAKEST SHIT IN THE NINETIES.

Throw Matchbox 20 in that equation as well. STILL more listenable than Gin Blossoms.

so RONG (and I even like that one mb20 song)

Better Than Ezra is probably less enjoyable than Gin Blossoms, but then again...I like the way the singer makes a totally unnatural noise ("wanh hanh") in "Good".

Alison Road is a nice tune

that's all I'm sayin'

There's a lot of venom to go along with the "defeat, melancholy, loneliness, and failure" in Big Star's songs. Humor, too. Neither exist in GB's music.

the toad the wet sprocket song reminds me of ELP's "lucky man"

you don't hear venom in "Found Out About You"?

no humor in gbv???????? ok....

jesus christ, the humor is at least half the point of the early 90s gbv stuff that is so well loved!

oh god. GB. nevermind, SB away

gb > gbv

otm

like i said, SB away

sorry, i'm still experiencing hallucinations after having read accounts of people listening to toad the wet sprocket songs OTHER THAN the one that sounds like "lucky man".

toad the wet sprocket were from my hometown so I may have a skewed perspective but they had like 4-5 radio songs

dishwalla also from my hometown, historians will look back at this as some cultural renaissance

yeah they had several big hits though looking over a list i could only remember two of them - 'walk on the ocean' (which i guess is the one that sounds like 'lucky man') and 'all i want'.

Heard "Fall Down" more than "Walk on the Ocean."

Gin Blossoms wrote good pop hooks... I only wonder why Geir never expressed love for them.

Just heard "Alison Road" in the grocery store and I thought of this thread. The querulousness of the vocal - a little bit fuzzy, a little anxious - is of its times in a way that I cannot adequately describe but I know it when I see it.

And holy chimichangas it is almost ten years old. I have children who are younger than this thread.

Why oh why did I neglect Counting Crows in the group including Gin Blossoms, Toad TWS, Goo Goo Dolls?

The category "90s louche rock" is far far larger than these. Hootie, Marcy Playground, Smashmouth, Rembrandts.

If it's 1992 and your age begins with a 2, and more than 20% of your band is currently wearing a trenchcoat, and your lead singer hasn't shaved in approximately three days, you are Louche Rock.

A while ago I happened to be at a show given by a 90s tribute band (Bayside Tigers). Every song sounded like it could have been the theme to "Friends." And, in a way, they all were.