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| photo: Shervin Lainez |
Back when grunge ruled the rock radio airwaves, Gin Blossoms
managed to cut through the noise.
The Tempe, Arizona band enjoyed success with its first major
label effort, 1992’s jangle rock and power pop-leaning “New Miserable Experience,”
a year being released. The quadruple platinum album spawned five hits singles
at various formats, including “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You” and “Until
I Fall Away."
Jesse Valenzuela thinks all those fans probably connected
with the album because grunge “was so aggressive and demanded so much
attention; we didn’t have that. Maybe it was an alternative (to alternative
music) for people.”
Yet when the group created the music, he was “trying to play
way beyond my depth because I was young, and I thought that’s what I was
supposed to do,” recalled the guitarist/singer (and writer on half of
“Experience”), in a phone interview.
During the past year, the Tempe, Arizona band marked the 25th
anniversary with a tour featuring an entire album set and a first-time issue on
vinyl. Now Valenzuela believes “Experience” stands as a “a high-water mark” for
us and is “aging pretty well.”
Gin Blossoms – which headlines SBD Fest air show in San
Bernardino on Saturday – recently returned with “Mixed Reality,” the first
studio album in more than seven years. Recording was done quickly in North
Carolina with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, the team best known for overseeing
classic early R.E.M. albums together. Another R.E.M. associate, Peter Holsapple
(the dB’s), added keyboards.
Frequently boasting jangly guitars throughout, the
melancholy opening track “Break,” a rustic “Mega Pawn King,” contemplative and
dreamy “Wonder,” insanely catchy “Angels Fly,” harmony-rich “Here Again” and driving
mid-tempo rocker “Fortunate Street” are among the standouts.
“There’s sort of a nursery rhyme melody, which I like,”
Valenzuela said about the latter. “It’s taken me a long time to realize I have
to simplify more.” He collaborated on four tracks with longtime songwriting
partner Danny Wilde of The Rembrandts (Wilde also mixed them).
Having four band members contribute to the writing process in
various combinations “was really freeing. It’s the first time we’ve ever done
that. I liked it.”
An exceptional design for the CD and LP configurations of
“Mixed Reality” (hopefully Grammy voters noticed) really makes a strong case
for purchasing the physical version. Lead singer Robin Wilson worked hard in
putting everything together.
He gave the album its title (the first time it
wasn’t chosen by consensus), got noted pop art illustrator Mitch O’Connell to
create the female space alien on the cover and graphic designer Joseph Allen
Black to do the retro three-dimensional box inspired by old household products.
With Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees to be announced in
the coming months, Valenzuela said Stevie Nicks, who he did session work for in
the late ‘90s (and can be heard on the box set “Enchanted”), should definitely
make the cut as a solo artist. Recalling that period, Valenzuela said he got a
call about Nicks looking to work in the studio with a new guitarist. “We hit it
off and wrote together.”
Lately, Gin Blossoms have been performing a cover of Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers’ “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll” during concert encores.
Valenzuela has cited the late rocker as a formative influence in his playing
style.
“When I was in high school, I liked what he was saying. It
struck me, it was really simple and very heartfelt. I think that started me at
becoming a lifetime fan.”
A version of my interview originally appeared in Southern California News Group papers.
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