Ready to Bloom Again

Nineties hitmakers the Gin Blossoms are reunited with a tour and new album, and will bring their rock/jangle sound to Princeton’s June Fete.

By: Susan Van Dongen
   Like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the Gin Blossoms thought they had broken up for good but just couldn’t resist getting back together. After huge successes with ’90s songs like "Hey Jealousy," "Found Out About You" and "Allison Road," the various members of the Arizona-based quartet went their own ways, pursuing solo and other projects. It was Y2K that brought them back together.
   Since the band has roots in Tempe and nearby Phoenix was having a big blast to celebrate the coming of the year 2000, the planners tapped the Gin Blossoms to take part.
   "Someone got the idea to get us to reunite for the New Year’s show and that’s where the whole idea started," says guitarist Scott Johnson. "We thought, ‘Maybe we should continue on.’ So we rehearsed and boned up on all the songs. The reunion was so successful we set a ‘reunion tour’ for the summer, which went really well, and then we had the idea to make another record. There was a demand for us, which was surprising."
   "I didn’t even know if we could get back together," says bassist Bill Leen. "I didn’t know we’d have a fan base. I think it helped that our songs never left the radio."
   The uptempo, jangly guitar sound of the Gin Blossoms is the band’s signature, and the group stayed true to its roots with its 2006 release Major Lodge Victory (Hybrid/RED).
   "I felt it was important to stick to what we do best," Mr. Johnson says. "We had grown up and changed, obviously. But this was our music and our thing so it seemed like we should bring our brand of rock ‘n’ roll back to America. So far, we’ve been back together (officially) for five years. We kept touring and finally got around to making another record and releasing it."
   The Gin Blossoms will bring its inventive, appealing, "smart-pop" to the 2007 June Fete on June 9 in Princeton. The 54th annual event, facilitated by the Auxiliary of University Medical Center, is a daylong mix of fun, food and shopping, and benefits maternal child health. Opening for the Gin Blossoms will be the rock/comedy/blues band Big House Pete and singer-songwriter Allison Cipris.
   Major Lodge Victory is the Gin Blossoms’ first album in 10 years, its fourth in all. Mr. Johnson says the songwriting process never got rusty or changed, but the music business had become a whole new ballgame in the time that had passed.
   "We’re with Hybrid Records now, which was created by the president of A&M records, our label for years," he says. "Although they kept the really big names like Sting and Amy Grant, A&M had been eliminated. But its president, Al Cafaro, started his own label, so it was the perfect situation. Here was someone we’d had history with, from us being signed to having a multi-platinum hit record. Al (and others) came up with the money for the project and we recorded the album in two weeks. Last time we made a record, we had two months.
   "The industry has changed drastically, between the combination of satellite radio stations and people downloading music instead of buying CDs," Mr. Johnson continues. "But we’re still the same band. We have our thing that we do really well, this classic alternative sound, and we stick with that. We’re not trying to re-invent the wheel."
   Mr. Johnson adds that he personally doesn’t like it when bands change their style drastically — for example, a guitar-based rock group experimenting with an electronic dance album (or Spinal Tap’s hilarious "Jazz Odyssey").
   The new album has at least one archetypal Gin Blossoms song — "Learning the Hard Way," penned by guitarist Jesse Valenzuela, evokes the band’s club roots. Mr. Valenzuela also wrote the ballad "Someday Soon," a bit of a departure for the group. Singer Robin Wilson contributed the rocker "Come on Hard," while he and Mr. Valenzuela collaborated on "The End of the World," filled with lush choruses and Beatles-style harmonies. Fans can expect the Blossoms’ signature blend of melody and poignancy in the rest of the songs, 12 in all.
   "Even when we were apart, everybody had been active in writing," Mr. Johnson says. "The challenge was to write Gin Blossoms songs and to play like a Gin Blossom again. I’d been playing in an alt-country band for a few years, so getting back into the rock/jangle kind of thing that we do required a really different mindset. We had about 50 songs, which we had to pare down to 24, and then pare down even more in the studio, then rehearse. That was a huge amount of work in itself. The album came out in August, so we’ve been out promoting it for almost a year. We still have a whole summer’s worth of dates.
   "In the past, we were young and naive and, instead of dealing with our problems, we made the classic stupid move and broke up," he continues. "Now we don’t take it for granted. I’m very proud of the Gin Blossoms, our sound and style, and I’m excited about bringing that to the world again."
The Gin Blossoms will perform at the 2007 June Fete at the Princeton University Football Stadium, Washington Road, Princeton, June 9, 2 p.m. Opening acts begin performing at 10:30 a.m. Fete hours: 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Free admission. (609) 497-4069; www.princetonhcs.org/auxiliary. The Gin Blossoms on the Web: www.ginblossoms.net