January 18, 2013
Gin Blossoms to Headline BillingTree RockBlock 2013
Phoenix, Ariz. - January 18, 2013
- - BillingTree®
RockBlock™ returns to Scottsdale Thursday, March 21. This
year's show brings headlining act and home town favorites Gin
Blossoms to the stage for a high energy, limited seat fundraising
engagement, to benefit The Arizona Republic's "Season For
Sharing".
The Venue Scottsdale in Old Town
Scottsdale at 7117 East 3rd Avenue takes over as the new
location for this annual charity rock festival, presented by
Phoenix-based BillingTree. R Entertainment is again producing
this high profile community event. Plus, fans get the satisfaction
of knowing 100% of ALL ticket monies (the entire $25 ticket amount)
goes to local Valley charities through the "Season For Sharing"
annual fundraising drive.
"This is our fourth BillingTree
RockBlock and second year raising funds in support of Season For
Sharing," said Dan Willis Co-founder of Phoenix based BillingTree.
"The BillingTree RockBlock event continues to evolve, landing us at
a more intimate host location this year, The Venue
Scottsdale, where we are fortunate to have one of
Arizona's all time chart topping bands, the Gin Blossoms
performing. At BillingTree, our RockBlock slogan is 'We Give
a Jam' emphasizing our commitment to giving back and serving the
community -a vital component to our corporate culture."
BIG TICKET VALUES: General
admission is $25 and doors will open at 7:00 p.m. Tickets on
sale now at: http://www.protixonline.com/event-details?id=1444
SHOW DETAILS: Info available at http://www.MyBillingTree.com/RockBlock, on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/billingtree, plus up to the minute news on Twitter
@BTRockBlock
PARKING: Parking can be
accessed between Scottsdale Rd and N. Goldwater Blvd. and from
Indian School Road to the South.
About BillingTree - The proven leader in on-demand payment
processing, BillingTree empowers customers with competitive
advantage through a simplification of the billing and receivables
process. By delivering the most innovative technology while making
it as easy and inexpensive as possible to accept payments,
BillingTree has revolutionized the payments landscape. Our
software-as-a-service (SaaS) model delivers industry-leading
payment solutions, proven integration, and point-and-click
simplicity. BillingTree's focus on innovation has allowed us to
help more than 1,800 customers eliminate manual processes and
automate their payment cycles. BillingTree - Growth is our
Business. For more information, visit www.mybillingtree.com or call 877.4.BILLTREE.
About Season For Sharing -
Season for Sharing is The
Arizona Republic and 12 News annual holiday fundraising drive.
Through an eight-week news, editorial, direct mail and ad campaign,
readers and viewers are encouraged to donate to Season for Sharing
to help health and human service agencies in Arizona. Donations are
matched through the Gannett Foundation and 100% of donations, plus
the match, are distributed to local agencies that help at-risk
children and families, improve educational skills, help
domestic-violence victims and serve the elderly.
Visit http://www.azcentral.com/season/index.html
About Gin Blossoms: In the
late 80's Gin Blossoms started to grow a huge following as the #1
local music draw in Phoenix and certainly were the hometown heros
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 4 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 sound track inclusions; "Til I Hear It From You." The
smash hit was released as a Gin Blossoms single and it appeared on
the platinum sound track 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. "It was pretty
cool to lose a Grammy to the Beatles. Who else would you want to
lose out to", says Jesse. The album rocketed into Billboard's Top
Ten and a year of touring helped push the record past 1,500,000 in
sales. In 5 years, the band released 2 EPs, two LPs and over 12
singles that fueled record sales to over 7 million. Their blend of
Pop & Rock, now known as Jangle-Pop, became a musical force
that helped define the sound of 90's radio.
Their most recent album, 2010's
"No Chocolate Cake", landed the Gin's back on the singles chart
again with "Miss Disarray" and the album shot straight to # 1 on
Amazon, hitting Billboard's top 200 at # 73 and the Indie chart at
#14.