I recently finished up digitizing Steve Rogers’ collection of Hi8 master videotapes. Steve was based in Stockton and played in the band Surrogate Brains. He moved to Southern Cal in the 1990s, at about the same time that I moved to Whittier.
Steve worked for American Recordings in the mid-1990s, which gave him some pretty amazing opportunities to access bands that don’t typically allow video; one stage-shot video in particular blew me away. You’ll see his stuff being posted over the next few months, along with my stuff, Craig Babb’s PNW stuff and more.
Anyway, here is the first one. All of Steve’s masters are on very high quality Hi8 ME tapes. They produce better quality video than Hi8 MP as a general rule, but the only problem with ME’s is they are not very durable. I can’t play back some of my ME’s anymore- they are shot. Luckily, Steve’s all played back with much issue… except for this tape. You’ll see some lines and a couple quick dropouts.
Crown Heights released one album on American Recordings: More Pricks than Kicks in 1996, then dissolved apparently.

Recorded by: Steve Rogers
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Sony DCR-TRV340 firewire into WinDV
Upscale/denoise in Adobe Premier/Neat Video