I was really hesitant to write about Third Eye Blind because, while I think their first album is one of the best pop alt-rock records of the 90’s (right up there with Weezer’s blue album and Semisonic’s first–the one before the one with “Closing Time”), their second record, Blue, is an execrable pile of unlistenable garbage, and I believe we’re supposed to be nice to our bands here. But really, everyone knows 3eb are perpetually one of rock’s great punchlines, and their image could probably do with some reconsideration and rehabiliation, so let’s talk about that first album anyway.

It had their first big hit, Semi-Charmed Life, which to me has always smacked of mediocrity, but if you don’t know the band you probably know this song at least. Two other minor hits, Jumper and Graduate, I love to death. But the real surprise with this album doesn’t come until the second half, in all the cuts that never made it onto the radio, which is frankly not how it’s supposed to happen with corporate rock whores. But that’s what makes it all the more exciting when you discover it.

The run starts on track 7, Thanks A Lot, and continues for 9 songs including the Japanese bonus track, long enough for an entire album in an earlier era. Like Graduate, Thanks A Lot has some great greasy slidey modern-rock riffage, and just the right teeny-tiny vocal hook. (The mono mix I linked to for many of these tracks don’t do them full justice, but I tried to pick the best sounding versions I could find anyway). Burning Man is a quickie, where the musical earworm is more rhythmic than melodic or harmonic, guitars and drums wending in and out of each other. Good For You will likely sound rather turgid on first listen, but it kicks your chest in on the chorus. They really knew how to wring every last drop of melodrama out of the 90’s soft/loud dynamic with perfectly paired verses and choruses.

To me, things really start to get brilliant with the upbeat and driving London (bad sound on this video though), although I might have written the chorus a little differently as “I wish I had had a girl begging me to follow her to London”. Maybe not as catchy. The next cut though, I Want You, is the undisputed champ of hidden gems on the album. It’s a cornucopia of perfect bass, drum, lead vocal, backup vocal, vocoder (?), and guitar hooks all twisting in around and over each other. Stops me short every time I hear it. The Background is another one that might sound slow and empty at first, but they really reach for the stars with soaring long-form chorus, the most intricate on the album.

Motorcycle Drive By is up next, a requisite acoustic ballad, and it’s a fan favorite on par with I Want You. It’s definitely pretty; love the guitar/cymbal interlude especially. A nice emotional catharsis in the one-off full-power band section as well. God Of Wine finishes off the album proper, similar in structure and mood to Motorcycle, but with more epic sound effects. The Japanese album ends with Tattoo Of The Sun, a rewrite (or prototype) of Semi-Charmed Life that is better in every way.

After all this, I can’t really put my finger on why I (and millions of other people) found the follow-up album Blue such a failure. One thing is the debut has one of the top three or four perfect sound productions in the history of all music ever, and Blue tweaks with this formula just enough around the edges to ruin it. But I also think the material is much weaker in an ineffable way, and singer Stephen Jenkins, whose slight douchebaggery is for many people the prime reason they love to hate on this band, really turns his filter way down. Ccheck out the classic interview–summarized here–between him and Jim DeRogatis in which he claims 3eb is one of the top 3 DIY bands, just below, like, Fugazi.) My best understanding of the lyrics to the song Wounded is something like “Hey girl, I know someone sexually and emotionally abused you in your past, and I’m sensitive to that and stuff and want you to recognize how sensitive I am to it, but the important thing is how your attitude and actions about this are making me feel…after all, I wasn’t the guy who did that, and since I really only interpret everyone else’s behavior at all times as really at bottom being about me, it’s kind of a drag that you’re not happier. Mmmkay? By the way, you look very pretty today. And I wouldn’t mind having sex at some point.”

The ‘Blind, as a 1960’s rock critic might have called them, have had two more records since then (minus founding guitarist and integral songwriter Kevin Cadogan), Out Of The Vein and Ursa Major, but after the epic disappointment of Blue, I never got around to listening to them. A quick scan of the most popular tracks on iTunes (which admittedly negates my entire thesis here) indicates that they’re not a radical departure from the first two albums; it would take some closer inspection to really determine which album they are more like, but my cynical side has me expecting Blue.

They’ve got 50 minutes at the White stage starting at 3:40 pm Saturday, and a glance at some recent setlists shows they are still delving into the hits and deep cuts from the first record. And anyway, don’t take my word for it, as there are still plenty of die-hards who will swear by their entire catalogue. Perhaps you are or will become one of them…

-Kern