Gin Blossoms to Headline BillingTree RockBlock 2013 -- Show Returns to Scottsdale on March 21

PHOENIX, Jan. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- 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".

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110202/LA40379LOGO)

The Venue Scottsdale in Old Town Scottsdale at 7117 East 3^rd 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/View_Event.asp?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 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 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.

SOURCE BillingTree