Tracks 11 and 12 from Out of the Vein (2003)

Track 13 from Ursa Major (2009)

Stephan Jenkins produced an R&B cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" by a group called The Braids that was briefly a chart hit in 1996. Around the same time, Third Eye Blind parlayed a spot opening an Oasis show in San Francisco into a major label bidding war and signed a huge contract with Elektra with full creative freedom. I remember seeing big full page ads for Third Eye Blind's debut album in magazines like Alternative Press before I heard "Semi-Charmed Life," and to be honest, I hated that song the whole time it was inescapable in the summer of '97. I got over that, though, it's a great song, I think it's the "Born To Run" of the '90s. 

Third Eye Blind headlined my college's spring concert in 2005, and I didn't go, but I think I had warmed to the band's hits by that point. And my wife and her brother were big fans of that first album, so I'd hear it on road trips and songs like "Motorcycle Drive By" started to grow on me. More recently, my brother-in-law has been really into Third Eye Blind's cover of Beyonce and Drake's "Mine" that appeared on a 2015 b-side, he even had it on his wedding playlist. 

I remember a very entertaining interview with Gina Arnold where Stephan Jenkins declared "We're not a media-created band like Sleater-Kinney" and "We've driven to New York in a van and played CBGBs," my brother and I would mockingly quote that constantly. Jenkins generally seems like a ridiculous character, and kind of turned into an Axl Rose-style diva lead singer, firing guitarist Kevin Cadogan, who co-wrote more than half of the songs on the first two Third Eye Blind albums. But I think he's pretty talented and those albums are both full of great songs. 

As ubiquitous as the band's debut was, I genuinely barely remember Blue coming out. I never heard the lead single "Anything" on the radio, it didn't have a video, I vaguely remember someone telling me they put out this 2-minute song that was good, and I love that one now. Even the album's big hit, "Never Let You Go," I feel like I only saw the video once or twice at the time. Somehow the album still went platinum, but the band never really recovered their momentum, even if some of their later albums charted higher. Blue is cool, though, I think it's worthy of a Pinkerton-like following, "The Red Summer Sun" has an insane vocal, Jenkins really does kinda turn into Axl Rose in the middle of that one. His dark sense of humor doesn't really come across on "Slow Motion," though, the lyrics on that one are such a bad idea that later editions of the album just have it as an instrumental, which I don't really have a problem with, I never want to hear those lyrics again. 

They never really reached the heights of the first two albums again, but there's some interesting stuff on the later records, including some surprising collaborations. "Self Righteous" is a 6-minute song featuring Kimya Dawson of the Moldy Peaches. "Misfits," which was first developed as a song Jenkins and Fred Durst were working on for Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. Jenkins also became friends with Billy Corgan, who co-wrote "Light It Up." "Weightless" is a good song mostly in 5/4 for my ongoing 5/4 files. And Third Eye Blind's most recent album contains a pretty good cover of Califone's most popular song, "Funeral Singers," which was a surprising choice.