Taking Sides: Gin Blossoms vs. Toad The Wet Sprocket

Toad The Wet Sprocket have always sucked swamp ass

You, sir, have taken leave of your senses.

Heh. Per Miccio above, it's a relative measure. The Blossoms clearly liked and listened to Let It Be more than Toad did.

Gin Blossoms, fer sure. The other "Miserable Experience" singles were no pox on "Hey Jealousy."

It's close. For me Toad had slightly artier ambitions, and fewer rock-solid catchy songs. I would have said TTWS five years ago, but I'll say GBs now (much as I'm leery of the bandwagon).

Next up: Barenaked Ladies v. Counting Crows? Or Goo Goo Dolls vs. Blues Traveler?

(x-post)

LOUCHE NINETIES WUSSROCK S/D

Soul Asylum don't belong in there. True, they started to suck in the same way those other bands did, but once upon a time, they were a Twin-Tone band who actually rocked (something those other bands -- Goo Goo Dolls included -- could never do).

They had dinner, arrived in the middle of Chevelle's set, figured that the Gin Blossoms would go on last.

Gin Blossoms had actually gone on first. Like at 5:00 PM.

That is what they've been reduced to: opening for Guster.

I love you, gygax.

Yeah, I am. I had the album whereupon they covered both "A Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls (an amazing song they managed to make shitty) and some Prince tune.

They sucked then. They suck now. They will suck for all time.

As The Mad Puffin said, Toad were rated the more serious act at the time (paceAlex in NYC - this is, again, relative), produced their share of inescapable radio hits and had the more durable career. So someone somewhere must be willing to make the case.

Sprocketheads to thread?

STEP, YO.
(went to the ttws reunion tour)
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TS: Toad the Wet Sprocket vs. Toadies

you mean MARCHING BAND? 'cause that'd be AWESOME

Bump for 90s night...

found out about you is a tune

GBs for sure

Gin Blossoms resurfaces memories in my head of the type of music you'd hear in the mid-90s for a "Party of Five" promo (or any generic Fox drama that appealed to teens). Waiting for the Simpsons' to come on and seeing promos for Fox shows accounts for a sadly significant part of what I remember about mid-90s music and television.

yup Found Out About You is one of the prettiest Byrds rips ever.

Goo Goo Dolls > Soul Asylum > Gin Blossoms > Toad The Wet Sprocket

you've gotta be kidding me

My loud neighbor played Hey Jealousy tonight. It ruled.

gin blossoms are criminally overlooked. not kidding. maybe in a couple decades after everyone is able to jump over the mental hurdle of having lump them in with terrible shit like goo goo dolls and toad the wet sprocket, everyone will realize it. start with their first album, Dusted.

Poliopolice OTM. Poor Doug Hopkins.

i think in a lot of respects they channeled the spirit of Big Star way better than Teenage Fanclub or any of the other ersatz 'power-pop' rip-off artists who worshiped Big Star. There's actually a palpable sense of defeat, melancholy, loneliness, and failure embedded in most of GB's songs, which, mixed with jangle, is basically the Big Star template.

^^ good call imo

terrible shit like goo goo dolls and toad the wet sprocket

I prefer either one of these bands to Gin Blossoms. THE WEAKEST SHIT IN THE NINETIES.

Throw Matchbox 20 in that equation as well. STILL more listenable than Gin Blossoms.

so RONG (and I even like that one mb20 song)

Better Than Ezra is probably less enjoyable than Gin Blossoms, but then again...I like the way the singer makes a totally unnatural noise ("wanh hanh") in "Good".

Alison Road is a nice tune

that's all I'm sayin'

There's a lot of venom to go along with the "defeat, melancholy, loneliness, and failure" in Big Star's songs. Humor, too. Neither exist in GB's music.

the toad the wet sprocket song reminds me of ELP's "lucky man"

you don't hear venom in "Found Out About You"?

no humor in gbv???????? ok....

jesus christ, the humor is at least half the point of the early 90s gbv stuff that is so well loved!

oh god. GB. nevermind, SB away

gb > gbv

otm

like i said, SB away

sorry, i'm still experiencing hallucinations after having read accounts of people listening to toad the wet sprocket songs OTHER THAN the one that sounds like "lucky man".

toad the wet sprocket were from my hometown so I may have a skewed perspective but they had like 4-5 radio songs

dishwalla also from my hometown, historians will look back at this as some cultural renaissance

yeah they had several big hits though looking over a list i could only remember two of them - 'walk on the ocean' (which i guess is the one that sounds like 'lucky man') and 'all i want'.

Heard "Fall Down" more than "Walk on the Ocean."

Gin Blossoms wrote good pop hooks... I only wonder why Geir never expressed love for them.

Just heard "Alison Road" in the grocery store and I thought of this thread. The querulousness of the vocal - a little bit fuzzy, a little anxious - is of its times in a way that I cannot adequately describe but I know it when I see it.

And holy chimichangas it is almost ten years old. I have children who are younger than this thread.

Why oh why did I neglect Counting Crows in the group including Gin Blossoms, Toad TWS, Goo Goo Dolls?

The category "90s louche rock" is far far larger than these. Hootie, Marcy Playground, Smashmouth, Rembrandts.

If it's 1992 and your age begins with a 2, and more than 20% of your band is currently wearing a trenchcoat, and your lead singer hasn't shaved in approximately three days, you are Louche Rock.

A while ago I happened to be at a show given by a 90s tribute band (Bayside Tigers). Every song sounded like it could have been the theme to "Friends." And, in a way, they all were.

the thing with the Gin Blossoms is that they were almost sorta cool at the beginning of their career and have unfairly been lumped in with the likes of Tonic and Marcy Playground

they were a bunch of alcoholic-lowlifes from Arizona singing the praises of Westerberg and writing jangly, perfectly good pop rock. the difference between them and Teenage Fanclub or something is that they were careerists who wanted to make money

any interview i've listened to with the lead singer he just gives off a really terrible vibe

including Counting Crows would have obfuscated things, somehow. They were something different.

and of course they ripped that poor dude off who wrote all their hits. that's another way to make your career go downhill fast

i'd love to see an article that reaffirms their legitimacy

Maybe some CC is different. Maybe "Mr. Jones" is something different.

But "Round Here," "Omaha," "Cannonball," "Raining in Baltimore," elicit a particularly 90s anxiety, one that I also hear in "Sex and Candy," "Found Out About You," "Let Her Cry," "Iris," and "Alison Road."

There's a wobble in the vocal that I hear as a fuzzy wired fear - someone who's just barely holding his shit together.

I mostly hated this music at the time, but in retrospect I feel it was appropriate, because that's exactly how I felt.

Dulcinea is a pretty good album, really won me over to Toad The Wet Sprocket after disliking their first couple hits.

smoking on stage = pretty louche

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNGWozPjihk

"Something's Always Wrong" at CVS this morning. Good song!