San Francisco, CA · alt-rock · power-pop

Third Eye Blind

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Semi-charmed alt-rock perfection — a greatest-hits set with no skips, doot-doot-doots at maximum participation, Jenkins still selling every word.

Third Eye Blind formed in San Francisco in 1993, built around singer and songwriter Stephan Jenkins. Before the band, Jenkins had recorded as one half of the rap duo Puck and Natty, landing a track on the Beverly Hills, 90210 soundtrack and writing an early version of what would become 'Semi-Charmed Life'. He spent several years recruiting a workable lineup before pairing with guitarist Kevin Cadogan to sign with Elektra Records in 1996.

Their self-titled 1997 debut produced a run of singles, 'Semi-Charmed Life', 'How's It Going to Be', 'Jumper' and 'Graduate', combining bright power-pop arrangements with lyrics about addiction, suicide and drift, a contrast that became the band's signature. Three of those songs reached the Billboard Hot 100's top ten, and the album has since been certified platinum six times over.

Blue followed in 1999 with 'Never Let You Go', which reached the Hot 100's top twenty. Shortly after its release, Cadogan was let go from the band under circumstances the group has never fully explained, the first of many lineup changes to come.

Jenkins has remained the constant member through it all, releasing Out of the Vein in 2003 and Ursa Major in 2009 with guitarist Tony Fredianelli, who also departed soon after. For a stretch only Jenkins and drummer Brad Hargreaves remained from the original lineup, with long gaps opening up between albums.

A more settled lineup formed in the mid-2010s around guitarist Kryz Reid, bassist Alex LeCavalier and keyboardist Alex Kopp, later replaced by Colin Creev, and output picked up: Dopamine in 2015, the EPs We Are Drugs and Thanks for Everything, then Screamer in 2019 and Our Bande Apart in 2021. Live sets still lean on the first two records.

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alt-rockpower-pop