Third Eye Blind

Released: 08.18.2009

Talk about a blast from the past! My last post was about Better Than Ezra, and this one deals with the latest release of Third Eye Blind (3EB). Can you believe that? Is this 1996 or 2009? Both of these bands peaked during this period, except 3EB was riding the wave of their first release, self-titled Third Eye Blind, which spawned plenty of hits for them for three years. Their next album didn’t fare as well, but then problems started happening with the lineup and they seemed to have disappeared. Ursa Major was released Aug 18th and has all of the elements that keep 3EB as one of my favorite bands – a unique singing style with a great range, heavy guitar, heavy bass (mixed like a rock band!), dynamics, and excellent, excellent backups!

I consider myself a musician and normally am not critical of lyrics, because I tend to listen to them as an instrument so I don’t really know what lead singers are saying and don’t normally care. Normally, I listen for how the voice relates to the other instruments and whether or not they sing on key. However, vocals and lyrics are a big part of this band. They have the ability to sound so sweet lyrically, but they may have a raunchy message that may slip past you. For example, “One in Ten” sounds sweet, but, to me, it sounds like he is trying to convert a lesbian: “What’s the difference, when it goes down. If its girl or if its guy, just close your eyes. Can’t you just close your eyes?” Stephan Jenkins is a very clever writer. Do I think he will be compared to Dylan any time soon? Well, no, but he sure cracks me up! He describes what it must feel like to be involved in an airplane crash in “Water Landing”. He writes from a woman’s perspective when he asks why a man can’t be as reliable as a Waterpik shower massager in “Why Can’t You Be”. Stephan has a creative wit to him that definitely requires a listen.

I was worried when I found out that Kevin Cadogan was no longer the guitarist since 3EB has such a great guitar sound and he co-wrote many of the hits. However, this CD does not disappoint. It showcases that Stephan is more than just the singer/lyricist because 3EB does not skip a beat. From beginning to end, this is a great CD. I could not find a single track that I didn’t like or like something about it. It either rocked or cracked me up. The old fans will welcome them back, but it is such a great CD that it will add new fans immediately. Be sure to grab this one quick.

Better Than Ezra Live

Live 07.31.2009

“Join us tomorrow for lunch with Better Than Ezra!”

What??!?! They’re here? They must have a new CD out!

It turns out they do. Paper Empire was released on May 12th, and Better Than Ezra (BTE) was doing a live acoustic show at Sherlock’s on July 31st. BTE has been one of my favs since they started up for various reasons. They have that college feel and great live shows. How many rock bands can inter-mingle Al Green and Salt & Pepa into their original lyrics? During my heyday as a music store manager, I had seen and met the band on numerous occasions and was very impressed by their professionalism and down-to-earthiness (is that a word?). As a matter of fact, I try to emulate a lot of what Kevin Griffin does with a crowd in a live setting. Yes, I am aware that he has multiple albums to his credit, and I…don’t.


Being that it was a Friday lunch hour, the crowd was different…much older. I’m not sure if it’s because they were in their “work clothes”, or just that I’m older, but it was packed people in their mid to late 30’s (my age bracket)! I was pretty impressed that BTE could still draw the crowd for an afternoon show without any recent airplay in San Antonio. It was standing room only, so I moved stage left to wait for the show to start. Just then, I noticed that someone stood next to me and said, “Hey, what’s up?” Without even looking, I said, “How’s it going?” then I realized that it was Kevin Griffin. I wanted to say, “What up Kevin? Remember me? It’s JJ…1996…Corpus Christi…remember?” Instead I settled for:

“Where’s the show tonight?”

He said, “No show…we’re driving through and we were asked to make a stop to do this [acoustic show].”

I said, “Really? San Antonio?”

He said, “Yeah! I really like San Antonio. I lived her for a while during Hurricane Katrina.”

For those that don’t know, he is a resident of New Orleans. I have to admit; I was a little pissed. He was living in San Antonio and not once did he call me to form a band or to at least jam! I guess we’re not that close. While we were chatting (I was looking up) I noticed mad wrinkles on homeboy's face. He was old, too! Just then, a couple of hot Gen X’ers came by and whisked him away for various cell phone photo ops. I guess he's not THAT old.

The show was brief, but again…it was free. They were up there for approximately 30 minutes and did acoustic renditions of “Good”, “Desperately Wanting”, “King of New Orleans”, “Juicy” with a verse of Lady GAGAs “Poker Face” thrown in there and “Absolutely Still” from the latest CD. It was good to see them and turned out to be a great lunch hour (maybe a bit longer with the wait), but the excellent show made my decision to get their latest CD.

Paper Empire is great and for any one that was a fan of Friction, Baby - you won’t be disappointed!