The Third Mind is a supergroup you’ve never heard of. You may not recognize the members’ names: Dave Alvin on guitar and vocals, David Immerglück on guitar and keyboards, Victor Krummenacher on bass, Michael Jerome on drums, and Jesse Sykes on guitar and vocals; but the sheer number of hits they’ve been responsible for over the decades is immense, including from such well known bands as Camper van Beethoven, Cracker, Better Than Ezra, X, The Blasters, The Toadies, The Knitters, and Counting Crows. (Alvin even wrote the hit “Long White Cadillac,” from Dwight Yoakam’s album Just Lookin’ for a Hit, which has a special place in my Oklahoma-bred heart). Please don’t expect anything like that here — The Third Mind does not produce intentional Top 40 radio hits, from any genre.

(With so much history here, and the many connections they come from, research for this review sent me down myriad rabbit holes and tangential explorations that resulted in “A ha!” moments, and I’d like to apologize up front for all the parenthetical realizations to follow.)

This is 60s/70s acid-rock psychedelia at its finest. If you like guitar noodling and long jam-band solos, somewhere between the Dead and Pink Floyd, then you’ll want to pick up their self-titled debut immediately. The amount of talent on the album is clear. Aside from one original song, the lovely (but short) instrumental “Claudia Cardinale,” the album is full of fantastic covers of songs I was previously unfamiliar with:

“Journey in Satchidananda,” by Alice Coltrane, 1971.
“The Dolphins” by Fred Neil, 1966 (also performed by Tim Buckley in 1973)
"Morning Dew" by Bonnie Dobson, 1962 (made famous by The Grateful Dead and recently covered by The National on the massive 2016 Grateful Dead tribute album Day of the Dead), and lovingly sung on this album by Sykes
“East West” by Paul Butterfield and his Blues Band, 1966 (The Third Mind version is fantastic, and long, at 16:28. Apparently the vinyl version of the album has two additional takes, at 17:03 and 14:04 minutes long, respectively. That’s 47+ minutes of record dedicated to a single song, not that I’m keeping track)
“Reverberation” by The 13th Floor Elevators, 1966

I was first drawn to them due to Jesse Sykes’ involvement. I’ve had a musical crush on Sykes since around 2004, when she released her debut album with her band The Sweet Hereafter. She released three albums with them, the last came out in 2011 (go back and check them all out if you haven’t before). Aside from guest appearances on a few songs, I hadn’t heard much from her since then. Needless to say, I was excited to hear The Third Mind solely because I knew it meant more Jesse Sykes.

Listening to the album was particularly bittersweet throughout the year. I had tickets to see The Third Mind at the Crocodile on April 12, but of course that show got canceled, along with all of the shows from Spring 2020, on. I hope once the pandemic passes that The Third Mind is still able to pull things together to make up the tour, but a lot can change in a year’s + time. Meanwhile, I’ll keep listening to the album and hoping.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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