pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

musically more interesting than most bands of their ilk

A bar so low it's digging a rut into the floor.

this is how you doot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0uxnnzY-n0

xp It rare I’m aligned w/unperson, but yeah lol

when i was in 10th grade i would just play the third eye blind s/t and built to spill's perfect from now on on a constant loop

admittedly 3eb is what happens when a very smart and good-sounding rock band is fronted by the worst coffee shop-ass self-stylized beatnik poet you've ever met (even though i think his lyrics have been consistently very good and funny on every record), and this fact makes his desperate grabs for indie rock cred in interviews over the years super pathetic and pretentious. but on record it actually works that way for me, it could sit next to matchbox twenty (uuuuughhhhh) on the airwaves but it had the depth and dynamics of pretty much all the indie i listened to at the time

If people enjoy the music of Third Eye Blind good for them i guess. But that piece is ott enough that big chunks of come off like the 90s pop-rock version Patrick Bateman on Huey Lewis: "Sure, crystal meth will lift you up — but Cadogan’s dulcet strumming is a steadier kind of high... [swirls snifter of Jones Cola] ...Even deeper cuts like 'The Background' spin every instrumental into wispy wonders."

i disagree with this piece's thesis about kevin cadogan. he was good but out of the vein, the first record they made without him, isn't noticeably worse than the s/t or blue. jenkins is the band unfortunately, and there's such a consistency in sound between records that imo you wouldn't notice the band had almost been entirely replaced unless you already had this information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAta5RbJayw

the string slide that opens this song is my favorite sound in all of music

Who gets credit for that long gtr/instrumental break in “Jumper”? I always really liked that

maybe i'm overstating that jenkins "is the band," but he's the common denominator. get deep enough into the weeds of 3eb legal stuff and you will become aware of xeb, a sort-of-tribute band made up of ex-3eb band members, and they sound just terrible

"jumper" is credited solely to jenkins, cadogan probably played the guitar line, who knows beyond that

If I need mid 90s pop rock sound I reach for bands like Poole but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a whole 3EB album either.

I read about XEB last nite, had no idea…

third eye blind had their fifteen minutes. fuck off and don't come back.

I spent this entire revive wondering why no one was mentioning the band's famous singer, before realizing I was mixing up Maroon 5 and 3EB

proper insult, that. well done.

Maroon 5/Matchbox 20/3EB poll time

Millennial critics really picked some of the most absolute dogshit popular music of the late 90s to critically rehabilitate

They're like newborn ducklings who mistakenly imprinted on a dog.

Like if you would have told 17 year old me in 1997 that Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain, Blink 182, Sarah MacLachlan and Third Eye Blind would one day be the "good" music and Prodigy, Wyclef Jean, Moby, Tool and Soul Coughing would be the lame bullshit, I would have looked at you like you were absolutely crazy

joke's on you. moby, tool, and soul coughing were always lame bullshit.

here we are
going up our backsides

the stuff about cadogan literally could have been c/p'd from a contemporary issue of guitar world, for whatever reason it was considered a big deal that a GIT type of dude would be in one of the many nakedly careerist "alternative" bands of that micro-era. i have never been able to figure out what he's doing that is supposed to be so interesting except that he's clearly better than any of the guys playing in, like, fuel or tonic, which is not a high bar.

He’d trained with instrumental rock legend Joe Satriani from a young age, then left the world of classical guitar for the local ska and punk scene as a teen.

Wait, did he actually study classical guitar? Because afaik that's not what Satriani has ever played or taught.

Third Eye Blind opening for Oasis is the double bill that lasts for 1000 years of purgatory.

If you had told me in 1997 that you can see into the future of music, I would’ve asked: “Ten years from now, will Puffy and Mase still be on top?”

I really liked "Never Let You Go" when it came out. Tried to get into the rest of the album but in the end it didn't really stick.

Maroon 5/Matchbox 20/3EB poll time

so trivially 3EB, i have no particular love for them but "semi-charmed life" still blows away everything the other two have ever done

joke's on you. moby, tool, and soul coughing were always lame bullshit.

Yeah, my eyes were crossing going over and over that post in search anything remotely good. I mean, Prodigy were momentarily diverting...but that's all they ever were.

I mean, Korn, Hootie & the Blowfish, the Spice Girls, Hanson, Shania Twain, and late-period Rolling Stones albums made Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the 90s list in 1999.

Some real pot-kettle black shit:

how much did they pay you https://t.co/a98GGdhPeN

— nigh eve6 (@Eve6) January 23, 2022

unperson, what once-cool bands from the late-90s do you think are not cool today?

I have no idea how to even frame a response to that. What do you mean by "cool", and cool to whom? I mean, the bands from the 90s that I still listen to today are, like, Fushitsusha and Unsane and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Monster Magnet. Are any of those bands "cool"? Were they ever?

JSBX are super underrated now

I would sooner listen to Cake than anyone in Whiney's list aside from a couple of Wyclef songs and some Prodigy.

I came up with one: Underworld. Underworld are no longer cool. The rot set in when they released the live album (which is good!). Nothing after that has been great, and that Barbara album suuuuucked.

JSBX and Boss Hog had a mini media tour a couple of years ago, doing the rounds at places like KEXP and it was really cool to see them (the bands and Jon+Christina) still together and doing well.

JSBX are super underrated now

All the stuff collected on the Year One compilation (which was originally spread across the self-titled, Crypt Style, and A Reverse Willie Horton) is fantastic. The next couple of albums were really good, too, but they kinda fizzled after Orange.

When will we get a Better Than Ezra reevaluation

I know a pair of Toad The Wet Sprocket superfans, they've flown across the country to see them several times.

mid to late 90s was pretty abysmal for rock music and i have no issue writing off the whole scene at this point.

xpost- ttws fans are definitely committed for the long haul. it's weirdly endearing.

the Toadies have a very small and very committed cult fanbase

JSBX live was so much fun

Seeing JSBX live was among my favorite concert experiences of the 90s

Now I Got Worry tour

Russel Simins is an absolute monster on the drums

I saw Pussy Galore on their last tour in 1989, and then saw JSBX in maybe 1992, either just before or just after Extra Width came out. Both shows were great, but I think I'd probably have to give the edge to PG. Plus, Dial M for Motherfucker is one of the greatest albums of the 80s, so... now there's a record I'd like to see some Gen Z writer grapple with.

Bauer and Simins with Tom Waits (doing "Make It Rain") was the best Letterman performance I've seen.

I have no idea how to even frame a response to that. What do you mean by "cool", and cool to whom? I mean, the bands from the 90s that I still listen to today are, like, Fushitsusha and Unsane and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Monster Magnet. Are any of those bands "cool"? Were they ever?

JSBX had a little baby re-appreciation when they did that album for Mom + Pop in 2015