Gin Blossoms: Suicide, Corporatism, Addiction, Creativity, and the Lessons of Doug Hopkins

Most of the hits from the Gin Blossoms' 1992 breakout album, New Miserable Experience are credited to "D. Hopkins," but the mysterious songwriter isn't mentioned anywhere else in the album notes, or even on the band's website. Joe became fascinated with the forgotten story of Doug Hopkins, the band's co-founder and original songwriter, and delved into the history, scouring decades of old interviews and news articles to piece it together. It's a story of heavy drinking, creative genius, and fraught band relationships, ultimately ending in tragedy.


About the Author
Joe Biel is a self-made autistic publisher and filmmaker who draws origins, inspiration, and methods from punk rock. Biel is the founder and CEO of Microcosm Publishing, Publishers Weekly's #1 fastest growing publisher of 2022. Biel has been featured in Time Magazine, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Art of Autism, Reading Glasses, PBS, Bulletproof Radio, Spectator (Japan), G33K (Korea), and Maximum Rocknroll. Biel is the author of People's Guide to Publishing: Building a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business, Good Trouble: Building a Successful Life & Business on the Spectrum, Manspressions: Decoding Men's Behavior, Make a Zine, The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting, Proud to be Retarded, Bicycle Culture Rising, and more. Biel is the director of five feature films and hundreds of short films, including Aftermass: Bicycling in a Post-Critical Mass Portland, $100 & A T-Shirt, and the Groundswell film series. Biel lives in Portland, Ore. Find out more at joebiel.net