Gin Blossoms - Allison Road

 #Gin Blossoms #alternative rock #jangle pop #power pop #post-grunge #pop rock #college rock #power pop #1990s

There really is an Allison Road that inspired this song. It's in Roosevelt, Texas, off of I-10. A friend of Gin Blossoms lead singer Robin Wilson was driving back from the South By Southwest Festival in Austin on his way to El Paso when he saw a sign for it, and because his sister's name is Allison, he snapped a photo. That photo found its way to Wilson, who decided to use it for the title of a song. The song is about a girl (not really named Allison), with the Allison Road a metaphor for their relationship. Robin Wilson says the lyrics came from a place of joy and with romantic intent, so it seems he's having a revelation that this is the girl for him.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/gin-blossoms/allison-road

“Do you think it’d be all right if I could just crash here tonight?” The introduction to “Hey Jealousy,” the 1992 song by the Gin Blossoms, introduces a lackadaisical ne’er-do-well, one who laments the loss of an old relationship while asking his ex for a place to ward off his hangover, because he has nowhere else to go. Unlike Nirvana or Pearl Jam, the darkness of the lyrics wasn’t matched by a darkness in the melody—the tune, in fact, had more in common with a melodic tune from R.E.M. or The Lemonheads than the sludge from Seattle. (It lent itself to Top 40 radio play as a result.) But lyrically, the tune did not come from a good place. The subject of the song was its author, Doug Hopkins, who wrote some of the best songs on the band’s 1992 album New Miserable Experience. Hopkins was a member of the band until the middle of 1992, just before the completion of this album, when his alcoholism became so out of control that he was fired from the band, which continued to perform his songs.
Not that they ever felt very comfortable with that fact. The band, full of lifers in the Tempe, Arizona music scene, were about to see major success. But Hopkins’ personal problems threatened that success—even though it was his songs that made that success possible. “Without Doug and his songwriting, we never could have signed a record deal,” lead singer Robin Wilson told People in 1994. “Even Doug admitted we couldn’t have succeeded with him in the band. He also felt we had betrayed him.” Hopkins’ bandmates were basically forced into a bad situation by their record label. A Metro Times piece by his friend, Brian Smith, laid some of the fault at his bandmates’ feet, but most of it at the label’s: His band mates were, to me, total bastards then — but kids, really; at least emotionally. They were young signees of a major record label — at the mercy of the A&R and lawyerly suits who lived in southern California-cliché homes in the hills above Sherman Oaks. The label mandate was dump Doug — get rid of the guy who built the band and whose songs got the band the record deal — or else. The label had already spent a small fortune recording a first album, which was scrapped. What’d the band know? Even Doug’s best friend, with whom he grew up, was a Gin Blossom. The band needed a career and took one.
Hopkins was a local legend in Tempe, and he soon found himself in another band, though that broke down, too. His physical state was not good, to say the least. “At that point Doug couldn’t function as a guitarist or a human being,” Smith said. Already suffering from both alcoholism and chronic depression, things got worse after he had been forced to hand over part of his royalties to his Gin Blossom replacement. Understandably, the situation sat poorly with him. Beyond “Jealousy,” Hopkins also wrote “Found Out About You,” a top 40 hit in 1994 that was about an ex-girlfriend who seriously injured him by kicking him in the head at an R.E.M. concert. As that song was starting to chart, Hopkins received his gold record for “Hey Jealousy,” one of 1993’s biggest hits. According to his biography on Lost Horizons, a site dedicated to his memory, he hung it on the wall for two weeks, then smashed it. Soon after, he took his own life — while not one, but two of his songs were becoming major hits. The band, of course, was torn up by the situation, naming their next album, Congratulations I’m Sorry, after the odd dichotomy of success and loss. His local scene was broken up over the situation as well.
From: https://tedium.co/2017/09/28/gin-blossoms-hey-jealousy-tragedy/

Gin Blossoms graduated from the college rock circuit in 1993, when the singles "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You" became top 40 hits. Compared to the waves of grunge produced in the wake of Nirvana's breakthrough, the Gin Blossoms evoked an earlier time - specifically, the big jangle of the '80s, when the South was alive with bands who strove to replicate the ringing sound of R.E.M. Certainly, New Miserable Experience, the group's 1992 major-label debut, sounded like a kindred spirit to '80s college rock, even if it was goosed with loud guitars that made it feel at home in the alt-rock explosion of the '90s. Despite racking up a number of hits during the mid-'90s, Gin Blossoms were plagued with internal problems, chief among them dealing with the fallout, departure and subsequent suicide of guitarist Doug Hopkins, who wrote half of New Miserable Experience. These tensions led the group to split in 1997 but after a five-year break, they reunited for an album and tour. From that point forward, Gin Blossoms were an active concern, releasing albums every few years and touring regularly, pulling in audiences who remember their '90s hits fondly.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gin-blossoms-mn0000947563/biography

XTC - Ball and Chain

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #1980s #1990s

XTC were a long-running cult favourite Alternative Rock band from Swindon, UK, active between 1976-2006. From 1982 to 1998, the band had the following core members: Andy Partridge (vocals, guitar), Colin Moulding (vocals, bass) and Dave Gregory (guitar, keyboards, string arrangements, backing vocals). The band's other two initial members were keyboardist Barry Andrews and drummer Terry Chambers. XTC throughout their existence were based around the two main songwriters, Partridge and Moulding. Their initial style was a frantic, hyperactive variation of New Wave that added in elements of Funk, Punk Rock, Ska and Reggae. This stylistic fusion found favour with the contemporary Punk Rock movement, and the band gained some success with its first two albums. Andrews' resignation from XTC in 1979 and replacement with Gregory proved to be a pivotal moment in the band's career, as Gregory's sixties-influenced guitar style steered the band towards its later sound, and his invaluable contributions to the band's albums helped drive Partridge and Moulding to new musical heights. For a while after Gregory's arrival, the band got slightly more attention from the mainstream and managed to score a few hits, such as the goofy, Moulding-penned single "Making Plans for Nigel" and Partridge's "Senses Working Overtime" and "Sgt. Rock is Going to Help Me". The band retired from touring definitively in 1982 after Partridge suffered a severe mental breakdown, forcing their world tour to be cancelled. They remained studio-bound for the rest of their career, making occasional live appearances on radio and television. In response to the loss of touring income, Chambers left and moved to Australia. Partridge, Moulding and Gregory didn't bother to replace him, instead recruiting session drummers on an album-per-album basis. Once Chambers left, the group completely changed their style, with the dreamy, pastoral folk-rock of Mummer arguably serving as their New Sound Album. From that point on XTC became a full-blown Psychedelic Rock band, taking production cues from The Beatles and The Beach Boys, jangly guitars from The Byrds and idiosyncratic, humorous lyrics critical of society from The Kinks. Soon afterwards, XTC recorded the album commonly regarded as their masterpiece, Skylarking. Besides critical accolades, Skylarking managed to gain them a controversial hit single as well, the Beatlesque rock of "Dear God", where Partridge basically embarked on a long Nay-Theist Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter rant, railing against God's horrendous, callous treatment of humanity. God was so incensed by Mr. Partridge's display of testicular virility that he personally purchased 250,000 copies of Skylarking. Around the same time, XTC recorded some outright Psychedelic Rock Affectionate Parodies, under their alter egos The Dukes of Stratosphear. As The Dukes, the band released an EP, 25 O'Clock (1985), and an album, Psonic Psunspot (1987), where they were all credited under Stage Names (Partridge was Sir John Johns, Moulding was The Red Curtain and Gregory was Lord Cornelius Plum) and did their damnedest to pass the material off as genuine Sixties psychedelia. The EP and album were initially available on vinyl only, but simultaneous with the album the two were compiled as Chips from the Chocolate Fireball on CD only. It wasn't until 2009 that the original works were released on CD separately, with bonus tracks and credited to XTC as The Dukes of Stratosphear. The Dukes were also jokingly thanked in the Skylarking liner notes for allowing XTC to borrow their instruments.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/XTC

Letters to Cleo - Acid Jed

 #Letters to Cleo #Kay Hanley #alternative rock #indie rock #power pop #neo-psychedelia #pop punk #post-grunge #1990s

If this Boston quintet goes down as a ’90s one-hit wonder for the Top 10 “Here & Now,” it won’t be for lack of effort. Originally released by the independent CherryDisc, Aurora Gory Alice was a respectable local seller before Giant reissued it in 1994 (with a fancier booklet but no major changes); aided by exposure on MTV’s Buzz Bin and inclusion on the Melrose Place soundtrack album, “Here & Now” broke big a year after the album’s original release. The record’s airy sonics, Kay Hanley’s soaring vocals and the band’s smart pop-rock songwriting make for a solid, if not especially challenging, effort. “Get on With It” typifies Cleo’s approach — big swathes of guitar swirl set off by pretty singing — but “Rim Shak” features some aggressive riffing that could’ve come from a Soundgarden session, the sunny guitars of “I See” evoke timeless pop imagery and the unplugged “Step Back” offers pleasant pop minimalism.
While the production (again by Mike Denneen) is less intimate and organic on Wholesale Meats and Fish, the band’s second album is better, featuring grittier songs, stronger performances and more stylistic diversity than the debut. Sure, “Fast Way” sounds like the Pixies, but it’s a cool track, bolstered by Greg McKenna’s and Michael Eisenstein’s buzzing guitars and Hanley’s yearning vocals. “Awake,” a playful breakup winner, benefits from a percussive groove (check the handclaps and shakers!). Hanley’s kittenish coo on “Laudanum” is convincingly sexy, and the clever lyrics (“I want you to be like me / It would be so easy if you’d just agree”) help, too. “Little Rosa,” the album’s highlight, is ’60s-influenced jangle-pop genius. “Do What You Want, Yeah” is a discordant, throwaway genre exercise, and “He’s Got an Answer” packs some misdirected hooks that backfire, but “Acid Jed” successfully attacks neo-psychedelia.
With a new label, a new producer (Peter Collins) and a new drummer (Stacy Jones departed to join Veruca Salt and then pick up a guitar and form BMX Girl, the band that became American Hi-Fi), Letters to Cleo made their third and final album. On Go!, Hanley explores the titular theme of dispatching an ex, singing her disillusioned and bitter lyrics (“Find You Dead,” “I’m a Fool,” “Because of You,” “Disappear”) with conviction and power against loud rock-pop that reaches its apogee in the nearly Breeders-like surge of “Anchor.” If the balance of venom and sugar doesn’t quite match the woozy effect of another such combination, absinthe, the album is effective and likable.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/letters-to-cleo/

Letters to Cleo was a alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, that originally formed in 1990. The group achieved minor mainstream success, and had a huge following in the indie rock scene, but eventually ended up splitting by 2000. Their name came from the fact that lead singer Kay Hanley had a pen pal named Cleo when she was younger, although the letters she wrote would often be returned. Hanley kept them in a box under her bed marked “Letters to Cleo”, and happened to stumble across the box as the band was attempting to think of a name for itself.  From: https://thevogue.com/artists/letters-to-cleo/#bio