— Leave a Comment

Gin Blossoms- Sun Club, Tempe Az. 9/89 Lossless xfer from low gen VHS tape Enhanced Doug Hopkins

First of all, I need to give a huge thank you to postcarder Laura Levy for inviting me over to her home and letting me borrow these extremely rare VHS tapes. It was nice meeting you in real life! Laura was friends with the Gin Blossoms in the early days.
I believe that this is the only video on youtube with founding guitarist and main songwriter of all of those early hits (Hey Jealousy, Found Out About You, etc), Doug Hopkins. If you are unaware of Doug’s story, I recommend that you read the “Jesus of Suburbia” article published by the Detroit Metro times- I will link it in FB comments. In short, Doug wrote the hits but had some trouble in the studio (Alcoholism) when it came time to record the major label debut. Instead of the label helping Doug through these issues with their big money, the label pressures the band to kick him out… and they did, which is part of the reason why they have never released anything that even touches the caliber of the early stuff since.
You can read the detail in the metro times article about the circumstances leading up to his tragic death from suicide on December 5th, 1993.

Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: JVC HRS-9900U- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub
Enhanced (degrain) in Adobe Premiere Elements and Neat Video

Live Concert Video
— Leave a Comment

Gin Blossoms- Mason Jar, Phoenix Az. 5/18/88 Xfer from Master VHS Tape Enhanced Doug Hopkins

Here is another amazing gift from Laura Levy. She let me borrow a couple of tapes when I was up in Seattle back in August. Thanks again, Laura! The Gin Blossoms played a local showcase at The Mason Jar with a couple other band- those will be posted soon.
Unfortunately, the video suffers from distorted audio. Maybe Seneca St. James can tutor me on his anti-distortion skillz in Izotope Rx8. When I try to use Spectral Repair, it just sounds weird… and we still have that Muffs soundboard that could be saved as well.

From Laura:
Gin Blossoms:
Doug Hopkins, Bill Leen, Jesse Venezuela, Chris McCann, Robin Wilson

Fireworks
I Can Sleep
Found out about you
Seven Days
A Little Bit O’Soul
Movin’ on Up
Cajun Song
Sweet Home Alabama Happy Birthday to PJ with Glue
The G Song
Lost Horizons
Run for your Life
Surfin’ Safari

Recorded by: Laura Levy & Dan (the soon to be Blossoms next drummer!)
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: JVC HRS-9900U- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub
Enhanced (denoise) in adobe premiere elements/neat video

Live Concert Video
— Leave a Comment

Del Montes- Long Wong’s on the Mill, Tempe Az. 1988 w/ Gin Blossoms members & Doug Hopkins

This one is going to be long. I’ll let Laura Levy give the detail:
The Del Montes were the “alter ego״ band of the Gin Blossoms, playing covers and originals several night a week in 1988/1989 often at Long Wongs, a long gone and much missed Tempe institution on Mill Ave.
This particular night was “pirate night”, the band members at this point were Doug Hopkins (Otis Del Monte r.i.p) on lead guitar, Bill Leen (Soup Bone Del Monte) on bass, Jesse Valenzuela (Pablo Del Monte), Dan Henzerling (Ishmael Del Monte) on drums and Robin Wilson (Biff Del Monte). I shot this show with a hand held Sony camera that was quite literally purchased from the trunk of a car at a Circle K. The sound is dreadful, but it’s a document of an era. Great moments, silly interludes, friends called up to the stage, and drunken mayhem. Many thanks to Shayne Stacy who encouraged me to share this tape, and spent hours cleaning it up. Laura Levy
Track list below.

Long wongs
“Pirate night”

Ruby ruby
Dead flowers
Angels tonight
Dream with you
Brown eyed girl
I can sleep
Seven days
Pipeline mashup with Munsters Theme
A little bit o’ soul
Movin on up (Jefferson’s Theme)
-Break at 38m-
Lost horizons (Jesse on vocals)
Found out about you
Dead skunk
Cigarette shack
“Chico Del Monte” called up, real name Chico Chism
How long how long blues
Fireworks
-break-
Solitary man – Robin solo
My lonely sad eyes
I can feel so bad (Cajun song)
Wizard of Oz bit – Robin
I think this is supposed to be La Grange?
Jailbreak
Still the night (Bodeans cover)
Something wrong
Something that we can talk about (G song?)
-Break-
Peggy Sue
Space and time song (Robin)
Gloria (Jim Swafford vocals)
Roadrunner
“Elvis” Del Monte (Frank Martinez) Little Sister
Kelli Richards

Recorded by: Laura Levy.. but we are not sure if this is the master tape or a 1st gen
Transfer by Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: JVC HRS-9900U- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub (lossless xfer)
Enhanced in Adobe Premiere Elements and Neat Video. This video was super dark so I had to do some unnatural things to make it visible, hence the “1990s surveillance camera” look

Live Concert Video