Here's the part where I blow all my saved up credibility

So a discussion on early 90's alt-pop made me drag out those old Gin Blossom albums. Goddamn those records hold up. And you can laugh all you want, but they were the first band I really loved. My dad got me their first album on cassette for Christmas one year and I was HOOKED. When I would help my mom do the shopping, I would inevitably be found wandering the base commissary pushing a cart and quietly singing "Lost Horizons" to myself. I had no idea where I was going (I did not and still don't have a lot of stock in Ambition, Inc.), but if they ever make a movie about me, a scene of nine year old me inspecting loaves of bread while singing "I'll drink of enough of anything to make this world look new again" is bound to be in the final cut. The malaise of early 90's music seems to have found it's way into my adulthood, and it seems only appropriate that miserablists like the Gin Blossoms hold up to my ears.

Of course it helps that a lot of their tunes involve stuff that ended up defining my musical taste - catchy songs, lots of guitars, slacker lyrics, country angst, and most importantly most of the songs are uptempo. They are also the first band that made me realize that the radio singles are not always the best songs on an album and a lot of the time you have to pay attention, otherwise you'll miss some great stuff. Songs like "My Car" and "Hands Are Tied" are, I think, way better than their radio hits (but those songs are still pretty rad).

So once again, laugh if you want (and Andrea would probably join in, but only because she hates me), but this band was my true introduction to rock 'n' roll. I'm sure you could listen to both New Miserable Experience and Congratulations, I'm Sorry and hear where a lot of my musical preferences come from.

/history lesson

Lost Horizons - http://www.mediafire.com/?tuedva13bwz

My Car - http://www.mediafire.com/?gjfquh3ycyw

Hands Are Tied - http://www.mediafire.com/?rpquzmtww0l

Perfectly Still - http://www.mediafire.com/?ntr19ecytip

Competition Smile - http://www.mediafire.com/?balaaaaznuk