Gin Blossoms headline B.B. King's

Gin Blossoms headline B.B. King's

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT/AP

Dave King of Flogging Molly, who will perform at Roseland

They’ve sold millions of records, scored fistfuls of hits and, along the way, crafted albums of rare form and substance.

Yet the perception persists of the Gin Blossoms as a singles-centric band from a long-gone era. The most clueless even mistake them for other alt-pop bands that broke through in the ’90s.

“It amuses me when people come to our shows and shout at us to play ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’” says singer Robin Wilson, referring to the sole hit by a forgotten band of the Clinton era, Deep Blue Sea.

Other times, Wilson says he is mistaken for Bob Dylan’s son, Jakob, who had hits with the Wallflowers back in the Gin Blossoms’ day. True, Wilson’s band did enjoy their greatest commercial success two decades ago, wracking up multiplatinum albums like “New Miserable Experience” and “Congratulations I’m Sorry.”

But those albums were not just commercial flukes tied to the trends of the day. Their songs contain such troubling emotion, and showed such sterling songcraft, they present the Gin Blossoms as perhaps the most underrated band of that era. Beyond that, the guys have put out two other strong CDs in recent years and they continue to tour. They play B.B. King’s tonight.

The band’s lack of a media profile has not helped their cause â€" though that absence also baffles. They’ve got a back-story of drama and tragedy, something that should make them media darlings.

Right before they completed their note-perfect masterpiece â€" 1992’s “New Miserable Experience” â€" they felt compelled to fire their main songwriter, Doug Hopkins, over his ruinous drinking habit and erratic behavior. Right as the songs he wrote, like “Hey Jealousy,” were riding the charts, the guitarist killed himself.

“Doug’s death was the most difficult thing any of us went through,” Wilson says. “There wasn’t a single thing about it that wasn’t ugly.”

Hopkins’ death left the other band members both bereft and furious. “I’m still angry at him,” Wilson says.

Much like Syd Barrett’s connection to Pink Floyd, Hopkins continued to have a role in the band’s music, decades after he left. They used more songs by him on their follow-up to the four-million-selling “Miserable,” and even employed a pet phrase of his for the title of their 2006 album “Major Lodge Victory.” At every show, they perform his old songs.

Right after Hopkins’ death, the other guys had the daunting task of having to concoct equally strong songs of their own. “The most pressure you can possibly be under as a band signed to a major label is when you lose your main songwriter,” Wilson says. “But Jesse (Valenzuela) and I knew we were good writers and we knew that we could continue.”

Soon they proved they had the chops to retain the balance of dark and light elements that became the Gin Blossoms’ calling card. The surface of their songs couldn’t be brighter, marked by Wilson’s boyish vocals and the kind of buff pop melodies that suggest a gleaming mix of R.E.M. and the Replacements. Yet the band’s lyrics often deal with drinking, co-dependence and despondency. The members’ own dark sides led to a break-up in 1997. “We could have used counseling,” Wilson says now.