Do you ever sit alone in your room and wonder whatever happened to Third Eye Blind? NO? Well, why not? They've definitely lost more than "a whole year" since virtually disappearing from the rock scene.
They were a terrific band of the late 90's that delivered well-crafted pop rock that struck a chord with tons of fans everywhere with their self-titled debut album (available in both red and... what is that tan? gold?). Lead singer Stephan Jenkins (a former boyfriend of actress Charlize Theron) could surely sing a catchy tune ("Graduate", "Jumper", "How's It Going To Be", and the ubiquitous-at-the-time "Semi-Charmed Life").
The follow-up album, "Blue", was even better for my taste, though not as commercially successful as the first despite strong singles ("Never Let You Go", "Deep Inside of You"). Their lyrics were never shy about being overtly sexual in suggestion and that was amplified here ("Ooh when you come it's like a thousand Julys").
"Out of the Vein" is the forgotten album to non-fans. It came out in 2003 to virtually no applause, had few singles, and sold far fewer copies than the last. They toured heavily for it at smaller venues to be able to better interact with the fans (that and they probably couldn't fill the largest spaces any longer). The appearance of a collection of hits a few years ago seemed to be the band's death knell. Few groups recover from the exile of being out of the public eye, only to resurface name-wise with a "greatest hits" money-grabber album.
In my research here I learned that the band's original guitarist left after the second album and in recent years, the original bassist has not been actively playing with the band. Charlize Theron and Jenkins split long ago and there are songs on the third album explicity written by him about their relationship. He's been otherwise out of sight since that time.
So what now? A view of the band's wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Eye_Blind) says that there's a brand new album, "Ursa Major", on the way later this year. We shall see. The band's primary website (www.3eb.com) seems grossly out of date. I'm still a fan and hope that they do resurface and put out some good tunes again. Those who had forgotten about the band and their songs probably needed this as a reminder, just as the band itself will need a reminder that they still have fans out there if/when they do return.
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