The Ten O'Clock Scholars were the next band to be formed by Hopkins, which once again included Bill Leen and Jim Swafford and new band mates Randy Sanders and David McKay. The band initially started out in Phoenix, just playing for fun. However, Doug suddenly took for L.A with Brian Smith to get a recording contract. The pair spent their time in L.A doing very little than partying and having a good time.

A few weeks later when Doug returned to Tempe, without much to show for the trip to L.A, he found the Ten O'Clock Scholars had dissolved, with David McKay and Randy Sanders having had moved to Portland, Oregon. David and Randy had tried to continue the band in the pacific northwest, but were unable to match the lineup they had in Phoenix, nor Doug's song writing ability. David made a call to Phoenix and before long Doug, Bill and Jim all moved to Portland to get the band rolling again.

The newly formed Ten O'Clock Scholars held onto the Hopkins' penned tunes Angels Tonight and Dream With You from Algebra Ranch. Both songs were performed on the TV show Night Zoo in which Doug did a short interview between the songs. A local pizza store owner also put up cash for the band to go into the studio and record both Angels Tonight and Dream With You, although the demo recording was never released.

The Ten O'Clock Scholars saw the basis of what was to become the Gin Blossoms grow further from Algebra Ranch. In addition to Angels Tonight and Dream With You, they performed the same covers that the early Gin Blossoms did, as well as Hopkin's originals "And" and "Blue Eyes Bleeding". ("Blue Eyes Bleeding" was later demoed by the Gin Blossoms). Apparently it was around this time that Doug began working on "Hey Jealousy", and "Found Out About You".

A combination of a mediocre public response in the pacific northwest and a longing for home prompted Doug to move back to Phoenix in late 1986, signaling the end of the Ten O'Clock Scholars, but with a clear idea of the direction and sound that he wanted his next band to have.

"...this song we're going to play now is a song you'll probably never hear again, Doug Hopkins wrote this for a group called the Ten O'Clock Scholars, which included Jim Swafford and Bill Leen. Jim Swafford formally of the Feedbags. And they all moved up to Portland for awhile, had a band up there. They came back to town, the Feedbags got started and they always hung onto this song. This is called Blame It On The Sky."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

The only known recording of Blame It On The Sky is believed to be of the Feedbags, not the Ten O'Clock Scholars.

Blue Eyes Bleeding was written by Doug when he was in the Ten O'Clock Scholars, and later recorded in a demo session by the Gin Blossoms, but for a long time never released. It's a twelve bar blue-ish type of song, carried greatly by Bill's running bass lines.

During their attempts to record New Miserable Experience, the Gin Blossoms demoed this song in 1990. The whole recording sessions were deemed a disaster, and were completely scrapped. During the second recording sessions in 1992 at Ardent Studios, the band recorded this song again, for the album. The song never made the final cut, and remained unreleased. However, this New Miserable Experience session outtake eventually appeared on the New Miserable Experience Deluxe Edition release of 2002, being officially released for the first time, 17 years after it's original incarnation in the Ten O'Clock Scholars.

It's the first officially released Hopkins track since My Guardian Angel in 1998, and the first Gin Blossoms song with Doug released since New Miserable Experience in 1992. It's similarly the only song with Doug performing on guitar to be officially released since New Miserable Experience.