What happens when a band finds itself somewhere north of its rebel youth and south of its golden years?
It skips dessert.
That's what the Tempe-born Gin Blossoms are doing on their latest studio album "No Chocolate Cake," due out Sept. 28.
"I love chocolate cake," insists 47-year-old guitarist/songwriter Jesse Valenzuela, whose band will play a show Sunday at the Fox Theatre.
"I think it's a sad statement about being at a certain age. You can't have everything you'd like."
"It's funny because people say 'Is it hard at 47 to be on the road, traveling and playing shows every night?' The answer is no, not really if you don't try to live like you're still 25."
That was about how old Valenzuela and his Gin Blossoms bandmates were when they started out in 1987. From their first major label release in 1992 to their latest, they have always played around with creative titles.
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"No Chocolate Cake" represents something of a state of denial that youth has slipped by, Valenzuela says.
This is the Gin Blossoms' first studio album since their 2006 reunion album "Major Lodge Victory," which came nearly a decade after the band called it quits in 1997 and four years after they reunited.
"No Chocolate Cake" sweetly returns the Gin Blossoms to the melodically roots-y rock sound that helped them sell 30 million albums starting with the debut "New Miserable Experience."
There's a poppy sheen to the new album's first single, "Miss Disarray." "Wave Bye Bye" has a midtempo lament, while Nashville country creeps into the uptempo ballad "I Don't Want to Lose You Now."
But it is tracks like "Goin' to California" and "Dead Or Alive On the 405," which hints to influences from the Beach Boys, that transport longtime fans to the band's early success.
Valenzuela said the album was recorded over a couple years between Phoenix, where lead singer Robin Wilson still lives, and Los Angeles.
"We didn't lock ourselves away. I did a song in my studio in California and I sent it to Robin, who has a studio in Phoenix. He would work on it and send the tracks back and forth," he explained.
The reward for being in "the no chocolate cake" stage of their career is that the pressure to score No. 1 hits on radio and sell a million records has lifted.
"And I don't know that it's a choice anymore, either," Valenzuela says, noting that with today's digital technology, substantial record sales are becoming elusive for all but the biggest-selling artists.
"But the best part of the career is that having spent all those years beating it hard in vans and buses … gave us the opportunity to play music for the rest of our lives.
"You know I gotta be honest with you," he adds. "Where our career is today, I'm loving it. I know that I'm going to tour in the summer, and I know that there's enough shows during the year. It's fun to play them. It doesn't feel stressed and rushed like it did in the harried days of the '90s."
The band will slip in cuts during its Tucson concert, which is a homecoming of sorts. Their Tucson ties go back to their early days.
"The first record we made was in Tucson with Rich Hopkins. … It was recorded somewhere on Grant over by some hog butcher place," Valenzuela recalls.
"It was a big deal getting a Tucson gig. You can imagine the hometown rivalry. Tucson has always had a cache of hipness. It's the Austin, Texas, of Arizona."
If you go
• What: Gin Blossoms in concert.
• When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.
• Tickets: $15 to $70 at www.foxtucsontheatre.org
• Online: Hear cuts off the band's forthcoming CD "No Chocolate Cake" at www.myspace.com/ ginblossoms
