in the 90s I can't imagine being a kid growing up in today's world political
correctness has infected everything and they just don't make music or movies
like they used to and the late 90s were a weird time in rock music. Grunge and
alternative rock was on his way out it and it
was replaced by this weird mishmash of post grunge groups like Bush, Better than
Ezra, Days of the New and more poppy commercial rock like Goo Goo Dolls Third
Eye Blind and Sugar Ray and then you had new metal. Now when I think of the more
memorable parts of my childhood I think of some of the great teenage comedies
including can't hardly wait and American Pie and the common bond between these
two movies was the rock band Third Eye Blind who had music featured in both
films. Now Third Eye Blind was huge in the late nineties and had some big
singles, but whatever happened to those guys. Nw to say that Third Eye Blind had
overnight success would not be true. Bandleader and singer Stephan Jenkins
fine-tuned his craft in the Bay Area during the early to mid 90s before the
band found huge success in 1997 with their self-titled debut album and the band
would be formed four years prior by the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and
Kevin Cadogan in San Francisco and Jenkins influences were pretty eclectic
including parliament-funkadelic to Joy Division to Cat Stevens and
during his time in college Jenkins would be diagnosed with chronic fatigue
syndrome, which took away a lot of his youthful energy for several years but
once he recovered from that condition Jenkins turned his attention back to
music. But with no label he along with Cadogan would record a demo of songs
with other local musicians but the problem was that the demo didn't really
fit in with what was popular on rock radio at the time, but it would be luck
that truly helped the band out a close friend of the band became their manager
and they met engineers David Gleason and Erick Dodd who agreed to work with the
group on their songs. And at one point Gleeson even helped the
band sneak into George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch way they recorded some songs It
would be Third Eye Blind demos of how's it going to be and slow motion that
caught the attention of recording labels including Dave Massey of Epic Records
who would meet with the band and by the end of that meeting
Stephen Jenkins had secured an opening slot for Oasis who were playing San
Francisco that same week Jenkins would reflect on that meeting saying I think he
liked my directness he wasn't threatened by it the same way some people were. Now
the opening slot for Oasis was a dream come true
Third Eye Blind had become used to playing for dozens of people, but they
were now plaintiff thousands of people opening for one of the world's biggest
rock bands. And following the opening slot for Oasis, a bidding war ensued from
record labels and the band would end up signing with Elektra Records and it
would prove to be one of the biggest deals for any unsigned bands at that
point in time now. From the moment Third Eye Blind hit they were inescapable. the
band's debut album would produce three huge singles with Semi-Charmed Life
Jumper and How's it Going To Be in addition to two other well-known songs
from the band's catalogue including Graduate and Losing a whole year Now
those songs would be played to death on radio and television even to this day
and the band at the end of the day would sell six million copies of their debut
album just in the US alone and they also got a highly coveted guest spot on
Saturday Night Live. Now what separated Third Eye Blind from their peers was
that they were singing about some pretty dark stuff. It would probably help that
from end Stephan Jenkins was obsessed with Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground
and their debut album was filled with lyrics about drug addiction, abuse and
suicide as exemplified in the song Semi Charmed Life and Jumper but these tracks
were packaged with catchy hooks and up-tempo feel and poppy choruses and the
lyrical matter did little to dissuade radio stations from not playing their
tunes now 1999 was a big year for the band as they released their sophomore
effort blue and it was the same year that a new teenage comedy named American
Pie would license Semi-Charmed Life adding some extra legs to an already huge hit
and the previous year another teenage comedy named Can't Hardly Wait
also license a song Graduate. Now the band's sophomore record blue
didn't sell as well as their debut record, but by 2003 the album sold about
1.5 million copies and produced top 40 hit Never Let You Go and Deep Inside of
You which would peak in number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts now during the
promotional cycle for blue the band also underwent some turbulent times resulting
in the departure of founding member and guitarist Kevin Cadogan in 2000
following a concert. Now Cadogan had an important part in writing some of the
band's biggest hits and Cadogan believed the band was an equal partnership and
would turn around and sue the group claiming wrongful termination and
claiming that his royalties were being withheld once he departed the group. His
case would eventually be settled in 2002 Now following the promotional cycle for
blue the band took some time off as Stephan Jenkins dealt with his mother's
breast cancer diagnosis and the band played a few benefit shows. By 2002 the
band started to work on their third record with Out Of The Vein. The album
initially charted well on the Billboard charts peaking at number 12 but soon
lost steam and failed to match the success of their past works and the
problem was that the album didn't really have any successful singles and only
made one music video for the single Blinded but also hampering the band was
record label problems. It was around this time that the album was being released
that Elektra Records had merged with Atlantic and the band seemed to get lost
in the shuffle. Frontman Stephan Jenkins looked back at this point in the band's
career saying our record company ceased to exist in the month the record was
released Elektra Records imploded Now by 2007 the album would sell about half a
million copies and following the underwhelming performance out of the
vein the band was dropped from their label. Now the band was eager to start
working on a follow-up album but Jenkins was suffering from writer's block, so
of tide over fans they would release a greatest hits compilation in 2006 and
the band once again hit the road and it was during that time longtime
bassist - Ryan Salazar left the group Abe Millett of the group in violet road
joined Third Eye Blind as Salazar his replacement but he wasn't added as a
permanent member in case Salazar decided to rejoin and in 2008 the band released
a digital EP titled Red Star that barely made an impact
but it would be the following year that the band released their first
full-length studio album in six years with Ursa Major on their own label Mega
Collider Records now the album would be the highest charting record of the Bands
career peaking at number three on the Billboard charts and the song Can You
Take Me would also appear in Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock has downloadable content
the album received generally favorable reviews although the record saw a sharp
drop to number 45 on the album charts in his second week out and the been once
again hit trouble in 2011 when longtime guitarist Tony Fredianelli was
abruptly fired from the group he would turn around and sue the group and from
end Steven Jenkins for eight million dollars claiming he'd been denied
songwriting credits and other benefits he alleged he was owed. He would have his
day in court and a California jury awarded the guitarist almost four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus songwriting royalties and it was during
2010 that the band looked at their follow-up record to Ursa Major titled
Ursa Minor that would have contained leftover tracks from the Ursa Major
sessions but the record never ended up seeing a release. Rather than save the
material for a future record the band focused on writing material from scratch
and in 2012 the band did release a free downloadable song to support the Occupy
Wall Street movement called If There Ever Was A Time. In 2015 the band
released another full-length studio record named Dopamine and Dopamine would
peak at number 13 on the Billboard album charts and over the past several years
the band has released several more EPS and most recently released their 2019
albums Scream along with touring that does it for today's video guys thanks
for watching be sure to LIKE button and subscribe let me know what your thoughts
are on Third Eye Blind and what your memories are of their first record back
in 1997 thanks for watching guys have a good one
and if you guys have suggestions for future stories let me know in the
comments section below take care