In the late ’80s, Gin Blossoms started to grow a huge following as the #1 local music draw in Phoenix and certainly were the hometown heroes of their favorite hang, Tempe, Arizona. Gin Blossoms indelible jangle-pop sound was evolving during radio’s diverse mix of hair bands and grunge music superstars like Nirvana. After the Phoenix New Times chose them as the city’s best rock band, they qualified to play at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin Texas in 1989. That same year, College Music Journal dubbed them the “Best Unsigned Band in America” and added an invitation to perform on MTV’s New Music Awards in New York City. Taking their name from a caption on a W.C. Fields photo, Gin Blossoms signed a record deal with A&M and recorded their first EP “Up And Crumbling” in 1991. But, it was not until their breakout record “New Miserable Experience” in 1992 that their rise to fame began. “New Miserable Experience” kept the band on the charts for almost 3 years with singles “Hey Jealousy,” “Allison Road,” “Until I Fall Away,” “Mrs Rita,” and “Found Out About You.”

The album took the airwaves by siege and held MTV hostage with multi-cross-over hits in 4 different radio formats. It was this record that rocketed the band into the mainstream going on to sell over 5 million copies making the band a 90’s radio mainstay. In 1995, Robin Wilson, Jesse Valenzuela and veteran composer Marshall Crenshaw wrote the band’s 4th of 9 soundtrack inclusions; “Til I Hear It From You.” The smash hit was released as a Gin Blossoms single and it appeared on the platinum soundtrack for the film Empire Records. 1996 saw the final record of the decade for Gin Blossoms “Congratulations I’m Sorry.” The album brought two more hits; “Follow You Down” which spent ten weeks in the Top Ten and “As Long As It Matters” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Duo or Group. The album rocketed into Billboard’s Top 10 and a year of touring helped push the record past 1,500,000 in sales. In five years, the band released two EPs, two LPs and over 12 singles that fuel today’s record sales to over 10 million. In 1997, while at peak success and after numerous appearances on late night TV such as The Late Show With David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Saturday Night Live, The Grammys and endless touring, the group disbanded and began a four-year hiatus. Since 2001, they have performed over 120 shows a year.

Toad the Wet Sprocket is still making new music and touring with the same spirit of unwavering independence that started it all over three decades ago. The band is thankful for the continued help and enthusiastic support of their fans, which helped spur the release of All You Want and also serves as inspiration for the band to not only tour and play live, but to continue to make new original music together. They continue to support their most recent release, Starting Now (2021), as well as their previous album New Constellation (2013), and EP The Architect of Ruin (2015).

Toad the Wet Sprocket shares the kind of musical chemistry that can only come from meeting in high school and writing, recording, and touring on albums over time. After Bread & Circus, they followed with Pale in 1990, fear in ’91, Dulcinea in 1994, and Coil in 1997, as well as some compilations along the way. While most will still feel the comforting familiarity of the Billboard-charting hits, “Walk on the Ocean,” “All I Want,” “Something’s Always Wrong,” and “Fall Down,” fans will also be well familiar with tracks with lyrics that resonate for so many life milestones like “The Moment,” “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted,” and “Transient Whales” and so many more.

Vertical Horizon was founded in the early 1990s, but it was seven years before lead singer Matt Scannell’s songs became the radio hits that brought the popular grassroots band to national attention. Vertical Horizon released three albums independently (There and Back Again, Running on Ice, and Live Stages) and toured extensively before signing with RCA Records in 1998. In 1999, they released their breakout album, Everything You Want, which went on to sell more than two million copies. The second single off the CD, the title track “Everything You Want,” captured the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Top 40 charts, and became Billboard’s Most Played Single of 2000. Having carved out a page in the annals of music history the band garnered further radio attention with “You’re a God” (#4 on Billboard’s Adult Chart) and “Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning).” In 2005, “Best I Ever Had” became a top 20 country hit for country star Gary Allan.

Their follow-up album, Go, was released in 2003 and solidified the band as a no-nonsense pop-rock entity. Eventually, the band took a hiatus to pursue individual interests. In 2007, feeling the time was right to start working on a new album, Matt began composing the songs, which would eventually become Burning the Days. The album was released in 2009 on Vertical Horizon’s own label, Outfall Records. One of the songs, “Even Now,” was co-written by Scannell with his close friend Neil Peart, the much-heralded drummer from Rush. Peart played drums on that song as well as two other tracks on the record. Burning the Days was critically acclaimed and produced two Hot AC radio singles, “Save Me from Myself” and “The Lucky One.” In 2013, Vertical Horizon released Echos From the Underground, named after a lyric from the song “Evermore.”

In addition to writing and producing songs for Vertical Horizon, Matt has spent the past few years writing songs with and for other artists. In 2010, he wrote “Wish You Were Here” for the band Hey Monday, featuring lead singer Cassadee Pope, who went on to win season 3 of NBC’s hit show The Voice. In 2012, Scannell teamed up with Daniel Powter to write “Come Back Home,” which was used to promote NBC’s “Chicago Fire.” Scannell and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Richard Marx collaborate often and sometimes play acoustic duo shows together. They co-wrote Marx’s 2012 AC hit “When You Loved Me,” which reached number 15 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

In February 2018, Vertical Horizon released their latest album, The Lost Mile.