Gin Blossoms: Robin Wilson (vocals); Jesse Valenzuela (guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Scott Johnson (guitar, background vocals); Bill Leen (bass); Phillip Rhodes (drums).
Additional personnel: Doug Hopkins (guitar); Robbie Turner (pedal steel guitar); C.J. Chenier (accordion); Robert Becker (piano).
Recorded at Ardent Studios, Memphis, Tennesee.
This deluxe edition includes the complete album on disc one along with a second disc featuring various EP tracks, live versions, and outtakes not included on the original release.
Gin Blossoms: Robin Wilson (vocals, acoustic guitar); Jesse Valenzuela (acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, background vocals); Doug Hopkins, Scott Johnson (guitar); Bill Leen (bass); Phillip Rhodes (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Robbie Turner (pedal steel); C.J. Chenler (accordion);
Robert Becker (piano).
Producers: Gin Blossoms, John Hampton.
Compilation producers: Mike Ragogna, Rich Hopkins.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: William Henry Monk (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Robin Wilson (vocals, acoustic guitar); Doug Hopkins , Scott A. Johnson (guitar); C.J. Chenier (accordion); Robert Becker (piano); Phillip Rhodes (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Eric Westfall; John Hampton.
Recording information: AB Recorders, Phoenix, AZ (05/1989-10/1993); Ardent Studios, Memphis, TN (05/1989-10/1993); Solana Beach, CA (05/1989-10/1993); Whipping Post Studio, Tuscon, AZ (05/1989-10/1993).
This album stands as a sad memorial to Doug Hopkins' ability to craft winning songs out of the abject misery of his own life. Hopkins had been thrown out of the band he formed before NEW MISERABLE EXPERIENCE was released, and by the time "Hey Jealousy" and "Found About You", two of his most engaging and self-deprecatory songs, had broken the band in America, he had taken his own life in a fit of depression. The album is not entirely about Hopkins (Jesse Valenzuela's "Mrs Rita" and Robin Wilson's "Allison Road" are also strong contenders), but it is his songs that remain longest in the memory.
The Gin Blossoms were one of the more truly damned rock & roll bands to grace the pop charts in the early 1990s. The group was founded and spiritually led by singer-guitarist Doug Hopkins, who also wrote the band's best songs; by the time New Miserable Experience marked the band's major-label debut, however, Hopkins had been kicked out (his bandmates had apparently tired of dealing with his alcoholism). Hopkins killed himself shorly after the album's release, and the band subsequently enjoyed the biggest hit of its career with "'Til I Hear It From You" (which, perversely, never appeared on a Gin Blossoms album, but only on the Empire Records soundtrack). The band dropped from sight not long after.
New Miserable Experience remains the best and most representative document of the group's existence, a tight and lean collection of brilliant, edgy pop music. "Hey Jealousy" and "Until I Fall Away" are the two songs that leave the deepest impression -- and, appropriately, both became major radio hits -- but the crunchy melodicism and lyrical desperation of "Hold Me Down" also leaves an impression. Two dilettantish genre pieces -- "Cajun Song" and a country weeper called "Cheatin'" (as in "you can't call it cheatin' 'cause she reminds me of you") -- provide the program's two low points, but even those aren't completely without charm. [Released in 2002, a deluxe edition of the album featured an entire disc of bonus material, including live tracks and songs from the band's 1991 EP.] ~ Rick Anderson
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