Scott "Kooze" Kusmirek - Current Touring & Studio Drummer
FAQs
"Who takes care of this page?"
Two people do with one of them being an ACTUAL Gin Blossom. So yes,
this page is the authentic Gin Blossoms MySpace page. The "Gin Blossom" logs in when he can therefore he sometimes reads messages sent here.
"When will the Gin Blossoms come to [insert town name]?"
Check the tour dates section for the latest information. We try to keep it up-to-date
"I heard you guys are doing a private show in my town, is there any way I could get in?"
We're sorry but private shows are just that...."private" so please do not ask us if you can get in, etc. regarding a private show. Don't worry we will EVENTUALLY come to your town or a town near you...after all, patience is a virtue.
"How can I book the Gin Blossoms?"
Booking information can be found underneath the "Booking Inquiry Section" under the "About Gin Blossoms" area. Two booking contacts are listed there. ALSO included in that section is contact info on our PR person.
"How can my band open for the Gin Blossoms?"
It's not exactly easy nor is it hard. You would mainly have to contact the promoter/venue where the GBs are playing and ask them if your band could play with the GBs for "free." Yep, that is the magic word...FREE. Overall, it mainly depends on the promoter/venue, but be sure to use that word...FREE
"Can you put [insert song title] on your music player?"
We try to rotate the songs on there from time to time, mix in the classics with the new. So please be patient on wanting to hear a certain song you want on the player...it WILL eventually turn up on there. And songs can not be uploaded right away, they MUST be approved first. As always, thanks very much for the support!
Please check our other pages if you want to hear a particular song online
PureVolume
"Long Time Gone"
"Jet Black Sunrise"
"As Long As It Matters"
"Found Out About You"
Virb
"Come On Hard"
"Someday Soon"
"Hey Jealousy"
"Something Wrong"
"Fireworks"
AND please don't request "Breakfast at Tiffany's" it's not even a Gin Blossoms song (it's by Deep Blue Something).
"What's with spamming bulletin posts?"
Most people on MySpace have hundreds/thousands of friends and therefore can miss a certain bulletin post on their account. If
information is posted repeatedly, it's mainly just to get the message
across to others, etc. We wouldn't send bulletin posts 4 or 5 times a
day like most band pages do, we just send them out on sporadic time
intervals and/or we delete the original bulletin post if necessary such as re-posting a new bulletin if we forgot to include information.
Influences
Tommy Keene, The Replacements, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, The Long Riders, Nick Lowe, REM, The Church
On the heels of a summer outing which brought the band to over 100 cities in 40 states, the Gin Blossoms continue touring this fall. Fans can expect to hear songs from the group’s most recent album, Major Lodge Victory (Hybrid Recordings, August 2006), a preview of brand new songs and band favorites.
Major Lodge Victory is the band’s first new album in 10 years and features the tracks, “Learning the Hard Way,” and “Long Time Gone.” Billboard reported, “Learning the Hard Way is an effortless triumph of melodic perfection, organic production and collaboration that sounds familial in its ease.” About the album, USA Today raved “If you miss the sweet, simple pleasures of early-'90s guitar-pop the non-grungy variety, this collection of honeyed rockers from the reunited Blossoms is just the ticket to ride.”
The twelve songs on Major Lodge Victory deliver that same signature blend of melody, mystery and poignancy that Gin Blossoms fans have come to love -- from the band’s breakthrough album, New Miserable Experience through to its powerful follow-up Congratulations…I’m Sorry and such enduring and memorable songs as “Hey Jealousy,” “Allison Road,” “Follow You Down” and “Til I Hear It From You.” Since Robin Wilson, guitarists Jesse Valenzuela and Scott Johnson and bassist Bill Leen reunited as the Gin Blossoms in 2002, the idea of recording new songs was something the group thought about but didn’t want to force. “I wanted it to happen organically,” Valenzuela says. “And it did.”
Successful tour dates demonstrated that the many fans who cherished New Miserable Experience (which has sold more than four million copies in the U.S.) and Congratulations…I’m Sorry (which has sold more than a million) were still eager to hear more from the band. So were their younger brothers and sisters. “I didn’t even know if we could get back together,” Leen says. “I didn’t know we’d have a fan base. I think it helped that our songs never left the radio.”
Truly, on the radio it was as if the Gin Blossoms had never left, even as all the band’s members moved on to other projects. And getting back together proved satisfying. “A lot of fans came up to us and said, ‘I loved you guys for so long, and I was so bummed when you broke up and I never got to hear you play. I’m so glad you’re back,’” Johnson says. “That was gratifying. Now I respond by saying, ‘You’re going to hear us a lot more!”
To record Major Lodge Victory, the band members began working in their native state of Arizona, but ended up returning to Ardent Studios in Memphis, where they had made their previous two albums. “It felt like we were going home,” Wilson says. Drummer Scott Kusmirek, who had played with the band for a time after it reunited, joined the group in the studio. The irresistibly catchy “Learning the Hard Way,” which Valenzuela wrote is “a classic Gin Blossoms song,” Wilson says, evoking the band’s Tempe, Arizona club roots.
Valenzuela also wrote the soaring ballad “Someday Soon.” Wilson brought in the energetic rocker “Come On Hard,” while the two men collaborated on “The End of the World,” with its lush choruses and Beatles-style harmonies.
The fact is that very little on Major Lodge Victory will surprise fans, except in the way that great pop music always surprises listeners – by taking familiar elements and making them sound thrillingly new. “I felt it was important to stick to what we do best,” says Johnson. “We’ve changed, obviously. We’re a bit older. In the past, we were young and naïve, and, instead of dealing with our problems, we made the classic stupid move and broke up.
“Now we don’t take it for granted,” he continues. “I’m very proud of the Gin Blossoms and our sound and our style of rock & roll. I’m excited about bringing that to the world again.”
Vote for Our Page on My RockinProfile!
Tour Map & Widgets!
Gin Blossoms Widgets!
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Support the Gin Blossoms by adding our fan widget (either the narrow or wide one...or both!) to your personal
site, blog, Facebook or MySpace page. The widget contains all of our
tour dates so you, and everyone that views your page, will never miss
another show.
If you want to ask Robin and/or Scotty a question, all you have to do is submit your question (only one question per session) to gin.blossoms2005@gmail.com (FYI the band does not read messages sent there) with your name or nickname/alias. The Q&As will be posted in a blog section titled "Q&A with Robin & Scotty" on a a monthly basis. So if you have a question for them start emailing! *Disclaimer: some questions may be answered and some may not so please do not be offended if your question has not been answered...I hope you guys can understand. Thanks!
Booking Inquiry & PR Information
Booking Contacts
You may contact either
Doug Merrick (Management)
Cumberland Talent Agency
Fairview, TN 37062
(615) 799-5534
infomusic@aol.com
or
John Geminez & Steve Hauser
William Morris Agency
1600 Division Street
Suite 300
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 963-3000
PR Contact
Renee Pfefer
On Tour PR
P (914) 273-0007
F (914) 273-6165
Renee@ontourpr.com
Promote the MySpace Page!
Promote our MySpace page...
By adding the MySpace Page to your "Top 8 Friends."
By adding one of the songs on the player to your MySpace page. Simply click "add" next to whatever song you want and it will automatically show up on your page.
If you post on any message boards, put www.myspace.com/ginblossoms as your signature.
You may also copy and paste the following html code onto your MySpace profile, homepage/personal website, and/or blog!
If you have any GBs show and fan pictures and would like to share it here on MySpace, feel free to send them to gin.blossoms2005@gmail.com (just an FYI: the band does not read messages sent there).
Don't send show pics pre-2006. When posting show pics in specific-dated blog entries, it will not let me backtrack to 2005, 2004 and 2003. Tried getting MySpace to add those years again, but nada.
In the email, please state the date and place of the show (if you can't remember either one, don't worry I'll try to figure it out). If they're from two shows that were in one place over two days (for example the Suncoast Hotel & Casino shows on 5/20/06 and 5/21/06), if you can, please state which pictures were from which show. It's easier to organize, etc. Only show pictures get credited not fan pictures.
Make sure each picture/file is less than 1.5 mb If you do NOT follow this, your pictures will not be uploaded.
Please DO NOT email links to your photo albums. Trying to get pictures that way can be disorganized and confusing on my part so PLEASE email them as attachments. If you can, please do it in ONE email. Thanks
Please make a note of it in the email how you would like to be credited (MySpace page/alias or name, etc.).
Some pictures MAY NOT be uploaded if they're too dark to view, I apologize ahead of time, but everyone's monitor settings are different and am just trying to accomodate everyone's viewing. PLEASE do not make them the size of thumbnails when sending them since I will make the pictures into thumbnails when I upload them into the image hosting server I use. And some may not be uploaded just because....I hope you guys can understand, thanks!
And last but not least, please be aware the pictures will be in:
Thumbnails because of bandwidth.
To gain easy access to the blog picture entries, go to the blog entry titled "Links to the GBs Show Pictures."
*This page is best viewed in Mozilla/Firefox and the blog entries are best viewed as individual entries..meaning don't click "View All Blog Entries"
