However resistant you might be to radio-friendly pop, Tempe, Arizona's Gin Blossoms have a way of pushing their hooks past your defenses. Point-blank, you've heard bands do this type of thing before: polished mid-tempo rock chestnuts driven by straight-ahead beats and filled to the gills with vocal melodies and grainy guitars. But you haven't necessarily heard it with this much spice. The Gin Blossoms seem to approach their work more like craftsmen than calculating opportunists looking to score big radio hits. There's something disarming about their tunes, which sound slick but honest.

The Gin Blossoms perform with Troyka, John Akers, The Taint, Small Town, Raise The Roof, and That 80s Hair Band on Saturday, July 26, as part of the Ten Ugly Men Festival in Genesee Valley Park. Event starts at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $30-$100. For more info call 263-7942.