Third Eye Blind Plans Rockin' Eve, Rockin' Year

December 27 -- The "merely" platinum sales of Third Eye Blind's sophomore album, Blue, may be a bit of a comedown after the 3 million-selling success of its 1997 debut, but frontman Stephen Jenkins says the quartet is shrugging it off as a vagary of the marketplace.

"I think there's been this sort of metal-rap trend, and our band has never been part of a trend," Jenkins says. "It wasn't something we could participate in, and we didn't."

That said, the outspoken singer is brimming with confidence over the group's plans for the near future — which include an appearance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve Sunday night on ABC. "We'll be making an EP and the third album, doing a bunch of recording this year," he says. "I feel like we're poised to do the best work we've ever done. The feeling of the band is so good; everything is so healthy now. And we feel like music is changing towards us. We feel the axis of the world tilting in our direction again."

The EP is the long-expected independent release that's being financed by 3eb's label, Elektra, in exchange for taking the vocals off the controversial Blue track "Slow Motion." The song's lyrics tell of a youth shooting the son of his teacher.

Jenkins says recording for that will probably take place in February but that the group still isn't sure what else will be on it.

Also on the horizon is a documentary about Third Eye Blind on the road by filmmaker Sophie Constantino; "It's about the rhythm of touring and sort of lets people into the feeling of being in a rock band."

Jenkins, of course, will also be on the big screen in April in Rock Star, the Judas Priest-inspired film that stars Mark Wahlberg as a singer in a heavy metal tribute band who gets a chance to sing with the real group. "I play his arch nemesis," Jenkins reports. "I'm in a rival band. It was a ball." But he, like others, isn't so sure about the new title, switched from Metal God after the studio couldn't come to terms with former Priest singer Rob Halford, who holds the copyright to that name. I like Metal God better," Jenkins says, "but the marketing department says Rock Star is better. I can't believe that, but what can I do, right?"