Today’s On This Date in History took about 7 hours to process, believe it or not.

Melanie Clarin (Donner Party, SF Seals, Harm farm, Yard Sale etc) was very kind in loaning me Donner Party’s VHS tapes back in the late 90s. Since there was no good way to digitize video back then, I lined the VCR into a miniDV camcorder so I could at least stop the generation loss of a VHS dub. I eventually authored it to a DVD years later.

If you are unaware of Donner Party, they were one of the jewels of the late 80s San Francisco “alternative before it had the name” scene. I absolutely love the band and Sam/Melanie’s harmonies. Sam Coomes moved to the pacific northwest after the band dissolved and started a number of bands (including Heatmiser with Elliott Smith) and is currently leads the band Quasi. Unfortunately, the board mix on this is not great so seek out their released material for a better representation.

Speaking of released material, it looks like the 1st Donner Party LP (Cryptovision Records) was reissued with bonus demo tracks recently. I need to get me one of those. Someone please let me know when they appear in the US.

Recorded by: ? (The venue maybe?)
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Consumer VCR line in to MiniDV camcorder