The Cranberries

The Cranberries live in Montreal, 2012 via Wikimedia

The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland, in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler.

The band classified itself as an alternative rock group, but they incorporated aspects of indie pop, post-punk, folk-rock, and pop-rock into their sound.

In mid-1989, brothers Mike, 16, and Noel Hogan, 18, formed a band called Cranberry Saw Us (a pun on cranberry sauce) with drummer Fergal Lawler, 18, and singer Niall Quinn. Quinn left in 1990 and the three continued as an instrumental band until 18-year-old Dolores O'Riordan answered their ad for a female singer.

As the band moved on to new material from Noel Hogan and O'Riordan, playing gigs and signing a major label deal, the name was changed to The Cranberries. 

The Cranberries' fame went international fame with their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, with the 1994 hit singles include "Linger" and "Dreams." Five of the band's albums reached the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and eight of their singles reached the Top 20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

There was a 25th-anniversary reissue of The Cranberries’ debut album that had sold over 5,000,000 copies in the US and over 600,000 in the UK. The album has been remastered at Abbey Road (under the supervision of the band’s Noel Hogan) and is now available on vinyl. They were one of the biggest bands of the 90s.

The group broke up but returned to the stage in 2012 with a new single "Tomorrow." The reunion was short-lived. O'Riordan started legal proceedings against Noel Hogan in October 2013 and the case was struck out in July 2015 and the cause was not divulged.

But the band did get together again. Unfortunately, on 15 January 2018, O'Riordan died unexpectedly in London. She had recently arrived there for a studio mixing session on her D.A.R.K. album and to discuss the upcoming album of the band with record label BMG. It was ruled that she had drowned in her hotel room's bathtub due to sedation by alcohol poisoning.

Official band website cranberries.com

Gin Blossoms

Gin Blossoms is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Arizona. Their first major-label album in 1992 was New Miserable Experience. The first single was "Hey Jealousy" which was a Top 25 hit and went gold. The album went quadruple platinum with four other singles from it also charting.

Their name, Gin Blossoms, is also in lower case "gin blossoms" a skin condition. Rosacea is a condition that causes "blossoms" (burst blood capillaries) on the face particularly the nose from drinking too much alcohol. In the late 1800s, gin was a popular alcoholic drink amongst heavy drinkers because it was cheap. 

It is said that the band saw a photo of film comedian W.C. Fields in Kenneth Anger's infamous (and often inaccurate) Hollywood Babylon. That photo has the caption "W.C. Fields with gin blossoms."

The band's follow-up album is Congratulations I'm Sorry (1996) which went platinum and the single "As Long as It Matters" was nominated for a Grammy Award. 

Gin Blossoms broke up in 1997 but reunited after a number of member changes in 2001. Major Lodge Victory (2006), No Chocolate Cake (2010), and Mixed Reality in 2018 are their latest albums.

Gin Blossoms has been described as an alternative rock band and jangle pop and very much a road band. They are labeled as being part of the "Mill Avenue sound", or "southwestern sound", and are compared to other Arizona bands such as The Sidewinders, The Refreshments, The Meat Puppets, and Dead Hot Workshop.

Official band website  ginblossoms.net

Mad as a March Hare

The March Hare as illustrated by John Tenniel

March has arrived. In my neighborhood, it "came in like a lamb" so it supposedly it will go "out like a lion." Another proverb attached to this month is "Mad as a March hare."

I connect the phrase to Lewis Carroll's Alice stories but its usage predates his books.

This British English phrase has been connected to a kind of "spring fever" craziness and also Love being "in the air." It appeared in John Heywood's collection of proverbs published in 1546. 

In the excellent book, The Annotated Alice (my favorite edition), it is explained that it was a popular (and somewhat accurate) belief about rabbits/hares' behavior at the beginning of their breeding season. In Britain, it starts in February or March and runs until September. In the early days of that breeding season, males are "mad" and overly enthusiastic about getting on with things. Females sometimes have to repel those unwanted suitors with their forelegs. Apparently, this observation was once believed (incorrectly) to be two males fighting for breeding dominance.

The March Hare that Alice meets in Wonderland is sometimes confused with the Mad Hatter hare. The March Hare is called "Haigha" in Through the Looking-Glass and he is most remembered, especially from film versions, as part of tea party scene in Carroll's 1865 classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice, knowing that it is not the month of March, thinks that perhaps "The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad – at least not so mad as it was in March."

The Mad Hatter is a friend of the March Hare. 

Alice, March Hare & Mad Hatter at the tea party

I like Sir John Tenniel's illustrations best. He shows the hare with some straw on his head, which was a common way to depict madness in Victorian times.

The March Hare later appears at the trial for the Knave of Hearts. His final appearance is as "Haigha." Lewis Carroll says the name is pronounced to rhyme with "mayor", which would make it "hare." Haigha is the personal messenger to the White King in Through the Looking-Glass and oddly Alice doesn't seem to recognize him as being the March Hare from his earlier appearance in her dream.

That can happen when you go through a looking glass or down a rabbit hole into Wonderland.