ListenUp.01: Third Eye Blind
01. i ♥ 3eb
Third Eye Blind has been my longest musical love affair. I remember wandering aimlessly around The Water Tower in Chicago on one of those days my parents had accompanied me to the vast world beyond the dingy hotel room I was forced to stay in while they worked at the convention. On the back of one of the floors, there was this very un-glamorous music shop. I went in and distinctly remembered looking at the Roswell soundtrack (mostly because I love the Roswell High book series, something that I also got into during my many visits to Chicago) before moving on to a more lucrative section in the shop. I riffled around for some bands I had heard on the radio recently, but I got that frustrated feeling - you know the one. The one where you look at the CD and you remember the one song you've heard, or the two, and somehow feel instinctively that the album is going to be filled with repetitive crap.
I finally settled on Third Eye Blind's first (and at the time, only) album. It was their self-titled debut and a few of the songs had been decent, even great singles. I paid the balding man at the counter and left. As soon as I got back to the hotel room, I started listening on my discman.
Since then, this has been the CD and - more importantly - the band I can't live without. That album I bought in Chicago was the CD I put in my car the first time I was able to drive alone when I got my license. It was the CD I played in the car on the way home after I lost my virginity.
02. ℞ for awesomesauce
Musical style is obviously the most important reason why these boys are tops in my book. Stephen Jenkins' (lead vocals) signature is this lovely falsetto he tends to do. The music itself can be touching ("Motorcycle Drive By"), dirty ("1,000 Julys" is a good example for some sexual innuendo, "Slow Motion" for it's realism) and explosive ("Wounded"). The subject matter can be anything from rape to the best day of one's life. The lyrics are witty (I read dead Russian authors volumes at a time/I write everything down except what's on my mind) and intelligent but what really makes them extraordinary to me is the way everything comes together. They just reek of this schizophrenic joy I sometimes feel, and speaking as someone who gets into that strange mood a lot, they nail the recreation of that in their music. Each song is DIFFERENT, especially on the first two albums (3eb and Blue), something I fear I can't say for a lot of other bands out there. I feel it when he sings about sadness and I want to scream when he gets excited. That's really good music, people.
They have three albums currently:
- 3eb: Fantastic CD. I tend to skip the songs that were singles, because the others are amazingly brilliant and not over-played. Start with this one.
- Blue: Took me a few listens to get used to. This is also a brilliant CD which, I feel, has more energy than the first album while still keeping their feel. They use more effects in this album - which is to say, it's not just their instruments anymore. This may have been because of a change up in guitar players in the band (the creatively amazing Kevin Cadogan left for unknown reasons). Great mixing, either way.
- Out of the Vein: This is a so-so album. Stephen Jenkins had a very bad, public break up with Charlize Theron (who supposedly stepped all over his heart) and I think it shows in this. A lot of the songs seem to actually be about her. There are some great songs on this, but there are also some mediocre ones.
03. ♫ listen up ♫
Motorcycle Drive By. Download. Lyrics. One of those songs that manages to be energetically sad/introspective.
And say the world, it doesn't fit with you
I don't believe you, you're so serene
Careening through the universe
Your axis on a tilt. You're guiltless and free
I hope you take a piece of me with you
God of Wine. Download. Lyrics. I generally am not a fan of slower songs, but this one is great. At the end it manages to pick up a bit, but still remains nice and mellow.
The god of wine comes crashing through
The headlights of a car that
That took you farther than you thought
You'd ever wanna go
We can't get back again
You can't get back again
An Ode To Maybe. Download. Lyrics. Fucking fun.
I needed this more than I knew
And I let you down and I said I'm sorry
But the light, it falls on my castle walls
And my basketballs pelt me with bricks in my dreams
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