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I don't know if you guys remember that band, Gin Blossoms, but my older brother just let me listen to their old album "Congratulations, I'm Sorry." I googled them and found that they have a new album coming out next month. I found this article on them http://bit.ly/aGxxiL You guys should check it out.

Man that's just sad - to aspire to have a tee sold at Hot Topic.

I liked them until their guitar player succumbed to alcoholism. Then they went to poop.

Hey Jealousy
Found out about you
Follow you down

... Good stuff. You can hear the strains of sadness in there... obviously authentic seeing as the guy that wrote those songs killed himself.

gtZip wrote:Hey Jealousy
Found out about you
Follow you down

... Good stuff. You can hear the strains of sadness in there... obviously authentic seeing as the guy that wrote those songs killed himself.

x 2 on all points.

I remember them back in the early and mid 90s, always loved the guitar's (mainly), lyrics & vocals were espeacially well done, I think they broke up around 96 or 97, they reunited in '06 and released their fourth album after 10 years, "Major Lodge Victory", but my personal favorite album by the Blossoms has always been ('92s) "New Miserable Experience".
In colleboration with 'Doug Hopkins', the singles Hey Jealousy and Found out about gained success, but 'ironically' in 93 after 'Hopkins' apparent suicide, a year later in '94 is when Found Out About You was at its peak of success on the charts, etc.
The Gin Blossoms are classified in the Pop Rock genre, but I personally always thought of them as, or at least arrange their music in my personal library as more.. of Alternative Rock when they came out in the 90s, around the same time as other bands 'that were similar in thier induvidual style of music' with bands like, Live, The Wallflowers, Matchbox 20 and so on, although.. I thought that the band Live were a little more intense (as to say) musically.
A fifth album "No Chocolate Cake" by the Gin Blossoms is due to be released next month, Sept. 28th 2010, cant wait to hear it, Ive always enjoyed listening to the Blossoms music.

philbymon wrote:Man that's just sad - to aspire to have a tee sold at Hot Topic.

Uh actually, it isn't. Hot Topic is now featuring bands in their stores and helping bands get exposure. Kids buy everything they can get their hands on which is why the big corporate machine markets to them. I have two kids who love Hot Topic so I'm there and I buy them this stuff. If people would consume stuff from artists like us, record companies would go back to signing us and stop looking for 15 yos to sign up. So hell yeah, put my stuff in HT. I will have all sorts of merchandise to go with my CD and book when it comes out. Give me a commercial and movie credits while you're at it. That broke artistic thing is just so dead now.

Chaeya

Uh actually it's hardcore cheeseball to have that as a goal.

It may be a great way to make $, but it has nothing to do with the music. Imho, they'd be better off going into graphic design, if that's their goal. A better stated goal for a band might be ticket sales, DVD sales, concert sell-outs...tees would be way down on my list, if I wanted to be extremely popular...but perhaps I'm just that out of touch & you & they are right.

It just sounds so sad that musicians have been reduced to this - that the hawking of merch has become more important than the actual music or the live experience to them...& yeah, financially, I know that's the case...

philbymon wrote:It may be a great way to make $, but it has nothing to do with the music. Imho, they'd be better off going into graphic design, if that's their goal. A better stated goal for a band might be ticket sales, DVD sales, concert sell-outs...tees would be way down on my list, if I wanted to be extremely popular...but perhaps I'm just that out of touch & you & they are right.

It just sounds so sad that musicians have been reduced to this - that the hawking of merch has become more important than the actual music or the live experience to them...& yeah, financially, I know that's the case...

I see where your coming from, this is a subject that I am not very well developed in, (the politics of music) as well as I am concerning the genealogy of music genres, the above quote/opinion suggests a very good insight that is just as important, as the music itself is in certain instances.

neanderpaul wrote:Uh actually it's hardcore cheeseball to have that as a goal.

I didn't read it that way.


It seemed clear to me, that his "goal" is to make Gin Blossoms relevant again. To get their music exposed again to a larger audience... particularly... an American audience... who largely is unaware that these guys are still together and making new albums.

Having T-Shirts in Hot Topics is not the "goal" but instead, a "path" to the goal... which is, becoming a force again musically, to the size of audience they were playing for, in their heyday.

It has always been an eternal struggle, for artists to pursue their art, while supporting themselves financially. In past times, composers took PAID POSITIONS to be in the court of rich patrons, who contracted with them, to produce compositions. The composer often wrote what he was contracted to write, whether he wanted to write it personally or not. In later times, metal bands learned to make sure they had at least one "power ballad" on their albums, recognizing it opened them up to the masses, and gave them a better chance to realize COMMERCIAL success as well as ARTISTIC success, with their music.

And when successful, this allows a band a longer career, and ultimately, the finances to create MORE MUSIC and MORE ALBUMS.

The only real problem I detected in the views presented, is that apparently, some of the band believes they can be relevant again, and others do not, and instead are content to rest on their past laurels.

So. being on a tee sold at Hot Topic, today is like being on the cover of Rolling Stone, yesterday, right?

Sheesh! At least RS TALKED about music...this tee thing is just a fashion statement, & not a musical one, to me.

philbymon wrote:
....this tee thing is just a fashion statement, & not a musical one, to me.

T-Shirts which promote a PRODUCT.... ANY product, are MARKETING tools. Hot Topics is one of the hot chains for young people. Having a shirt in there, promoting your band, brings you into the CONSCIOUSNESS of younger fans, where you then have an opportunity to be embraced by a whole new generation of potential fans. Merch has always been, a tool to bring finances into a band. As well as a marketing tool. I can't even count the number of times COMPLETE STRANGERS saw a well-designed shirt of mine, with my band's name on it, and asked... "Hmm... are they a band or something?" or... "Oh cool, I've been hearing about those guys... been meaning to check out one of their shows!"

If it is a worthy endeavor for a struggling band to pursue (Merch sales) then why would it suddenly be a problem, to continue employing this same strategy by a band who has already made it?

That's almost like saying... "Well, it's ok for struggling bands to sell a few hundred bumper stickers each year, but it is NOT ok, for a band to then get successful and sell a hundred thousand of them!"

In any event...

Kids determine what is new and fresh. You get a few kids wearing your band's shirt, and before long... thousands upon thousands are wearing them. This increases awareness and then demand, and possibly before you know it, the band is getting a second life, with a whole new generation on music fans.

While kids may determine what's hot, they aren't necessarily the buying demographic they once were, as they're more likely to file-share than other age groups...

I dunno if this is good or bad. it doesn't look like the best for advertising to me, for that reason alone. It IS a good way to make $ off of the non-CD-buying youth, though.

Had a chance to see them in 1999 when they played at the college in Marrietta, OH. My daughter and then wife went and said it was a good show.

philbymon wrote:While kids may determine what's hot, they aren't necessarily the buying demographic they once were

But they ARE!

They simply have a different philosophy than previous generations (and you know... not so different actually) and they believe that they should be able to LISTEN to music for FREE, and they then support the bands that they like, by going to their concerts, and buying their merch. Previous generations did a similar thing actually, by TAPING music off the radio (remember the radio? That thing that allowed ANYONE to listen to all the new music for... FREE? *advertising not withstanding)

The real problem is that technology now allows pristine copies of the music.

Reading the article, it is clear that they have stayed alive, by CONSTANT TOURING. So, getting into the consciouness of more young people, means more tickets being boought, a greater demand, and therefore the band plays the large venues again!

Were the Beatles "NOT" financially successful, we would not have enjoyed their transition as a band, into several distinct phases, allowing them to grow and constantly produce relevant music for each successive generation. Sure, they could have written the music, and even recorded it, but without marketing and financial success... who would know? If they were ALWAYS struggling financially, the Beatles would have broken up LONG BEFORE they did. It is hard enough for a musician to do ONLY MUSIC, when it does not financially support the musician's existence... but this is even more difficult, for an entire BAND to go that route. So they are forced to work in "real" jobs, taking time away from their music creation.

Is the mark of "true" creative success, that you take a vow of poverty, and always struggle to feed yourself, so that you can produce music which is free from the necessity of marketing?