The Third Mind Ft. Dave Alvin, Jesse Sykes, Mark Karan, Victor Krummenacher, Michael Jerome
“We had a crazy idea and were looking for musicians who perhaps didn’t think it was so insane”. – Dave Alvin
The Third Mind Starting four years ago as a wishful music fantasy, The Third Mind, a super group deemed “Californian Psychedelic Rockers” by Doom Charts, has now become a powerful and thrilling sonic reality. With two studio albums now available, The Third Mind’s debut live performance at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023 in San Francisco and a short tour following, concert goers are calling this live show a must-see. Called folk-rock, blues, jazz, post-punk, and freeform psychedelia with dark, moody yet hopeful and beautiful sonic landscapes, the “neo-psychedelic” (Press Democrat) band used their decades of experience, playing both traditional and non-traditional music to mesmerize the fans. The brainchild of Grammy award-winning songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin and veteran alternative music bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, Eyelids), The Third Mind's recordings also feature Jesse Sykes from her critically acclaimed group, Jesse Sykes and The Sweeter Hereafter, drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra, John Cale), guitarist David Immerglück (Counting Crows, Monks of Doom, Camper Van Beethoven), and legendary LA musician, Willie Aron on Keys. The Third Mind will present their forthcoming live psychedelic improv performances with the addition of guitarist Mark Karan (Bob Weir's Ratdog, Phil Lesh, Delaney Bramlett) subbing for Immerglück.
"When we debuted live at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, I felt like I’d come home. I’m excited to be playing in The Third Mind’s live touring line-up.” - Mark Karan (Bob Weir's Ratdog, Phil Lesh, Delaney Bramlett).
“The Third Mind might scoff at calling themselves a jam band, but their mind-expanding set in Portland made it clear that they may just be the coolest jam band out there right now whether they like it or not.” - Glide Magazine
“I was ecstatic at their show at Moe’s Alley and I wish I could see it again.” – Brad Kava (Good Times Editor)
“Pretty Damn Unforgettable” , “Consider my Third Mind officially blown." – MusicFestNews (of the show at The Troubadour, 2023)
“By breaking out of their comfort zone, The Third Mind has created music that offers up a kaleidoscope of aural colors. Fresh and wildly extemporaneous, no song is played the same way twice.” – Coachella Valley Weekly
with Dave Alvin and Victor Krummenacher
I had a crazy idea and was looking for musicians who perhaps didn’t think it was so insane. Many years ago I’d been reading John Szwed’s excellent biography of Miles Davis, “So What”, and was fascinated by his thorough descriptions of how Mr. Davis and his producer, Teo Macero, created some of his classic electric albums like Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson. Basically, Miles would gather great musicians in a studio, pick a key and a groove and then record everything live over several days. Then he and Mr. Macero would edit and shape these improvisations into compositions. Having never recorded like that, I had a fantasy to try it someday if the fates ever allowed.
One night after a gig in San Francisco, a decade or more later, I mentioned this fantasy to Victor Krummenacher. I’d known the always musically adventurous Mr. Krummenacher for a couple of decades (since he was a young buck bassist in Camper Van Beethoven) and hoped he would understand. – Dave Alvin
It was an accident, really. But at some point long ago, somewhere in San Francisco, we were joking, (at least I thought we were). Dave said he’d been offered a standing gig in a club there,like one Monday a month. And that if I was game, he’d call me and we’d put together a set. …And we had to play Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’”….Dave had covered Garcia’s “Loser,” and I spent a few years playing it with Cracker, so I wasn’t sure if it was a joke. Musicians are poker players and storytellers anyway,and we’re all, at best, unreliable narrators.
I left Dave that night thinking, “Yeah, I could play some Grateful Dead with Alvin…”But I was probably drunk, maybe high, maybe both… I think it was during a kind of weird part of my life when this conversation occurred, and in the blur of the evening I was slightly confused if it really happened at all.
That said, in 2018, I wound up back in southern California. I ran into Dave somewhere in LA and he asked what I was up to. I said I was going off to a free improv gig, and Dave said, “yeah, we should get together and improv sometime.” I think that part is accurate, although maybe it’s not?
So I thought, OK, well fuck it. I’m calling the best players I know for this kind of thing.I’m calling Immy (David Immergluck), who I’ve been in bands with for 30 years. The guy who scared John Hiatt with a delay pedal. The guy who tries to sneakin Michael Karoli licks into Counting Crows gigs. The guy who I’ve recorded a 15-minute one note song with in Monks of Doom. The guy who’s been trying to sell me on the Grateful Dead live ’77 tour since 1986… – Victor Krummenacher
Turns out, Victor not only understood but quickly suggested a way of paying for a few days of recording, but then he also recommended guitar whiz David Immergluckas the other guitarist. I was familiar with David from his many years with John Hiatt,Cracker and other artists, and thought the two of us playing together would be educational for me as well as some loud fun. David and I came from different musical worlds and play entirely different guitar styles but making some noise with David, along with Victor,sounded good to me.
And let’s get Michael Jerome, who cut his teeth with John Cale, and Richard Thompson, and Charlie Musselwhite, and makes me look like a fucking amateur.
And Dave said, “hey, let’s get Jesse Sykes. Jesse sings like Sandy Denny meets Grace Slick.”
When Victor then informed me that the extraordinary drummer Michael Jerome,whom I’d known since he joined Richard Thompson’s band many years before,was interested in participating in these exploratory sessions, I knew that no matter what happened in the studio, the groove would be rock solid. Looking to add a distinct vocal element to these sessions, we reached out to the unique and wise singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes to come sing with us. She sweetly and enthusiastically agreed to join in the project despite the fact that we weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen.
Maybe it was all a fever dream, but it wasn’t… it was real. We walked into the studio,and I (sweating from the brow and hoping it would work) said let’s start with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s “East West” (because Mike Bloomfield is an easy mark to hit… yeah, sure haha)…..
We knew we had to get from Point A to Point Z somehow on each track but we’d have to cut our own pathway to get there. Using the Miles Davis technique, there were no rehearsals or written musical arrangements. Just decide on a key, start recording and see what happens. During the sessions we simply sat in a circle and looked and listened closely to each other as we made everything up live on the spot. We chose songs/compositions primarily identified with the 1960s underground scene as a tribute to the open-minded music of that period as well as to the fearless musicians like Alice Coltrane, Michael Bloomfield,Fred Neil and Roky Erickson who helped create the sounds of that era.
And it worked. Alice Coltrane, Fred Neil, Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” (with an arrangement lifted from the Grateful Dead), “East/West,” the late, great Roky Erickson and a song we just wrote in an afternoon in the studio. It’s old music. Maybe.
Maybe we’re a little older too. But the music doesn’t sound old. And it’s not an illusion. And I think that’s testimony to the players. They were all on their game. For this accident. I think one or two were even a little high while we were doing it. And it’s good! It’s really good. Maybe I was high when the idea came up…maybe… but I’m glad I followed it through.
So this is my fantasy recording session finally come to fruition.Is it commercial? Will it get played on the radio? Does the world want or need an album like this now? Hell if I know but here it is anyway.
Dave Alvin, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and self-described “barroom guitarist," is widely considered to be one of the pivotal founders of the current Americana music scene. A fourth generation Californian, Dave Alvin grew up in Downey, California as the local landscape quickly evolved from orange groves and dairy farms to tract homes and freeways.
Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R+B band The Blasters, with his brother Phil in 1979, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Dave Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Combining elements of blues, folk, R+B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, Alvin says that his songs are "just like California. A big, messy melting pot."
Dave Alvin's songs have been recorded by a who's who of contemporary roots artists from Los Lobos, Little Milton, Robert Earl Keen, Marshal Crenshaw and Joe Ely to Dwight Yoakam, James McMurtry, Buckwheat Zydeco, Alejandro Escovedo and X. His songs have also been featured in many movies and television shows including Justified, The Sopranos, True Blood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Crybaby, Miss Congeniality and From Dusk To Dawn.
Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, at its core, is the result of the enduring musical alchemy between singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher, which began in Seattle, Washington in 2001.
Blending folk, blues, country, orchestral pop and various psychedelic stylings, their sound culminates in what Sykes describes as “spectral folk rock”. Known for her dusky, otherworldly vocals and lyrics that touch on the metaphysical; she was once described by MAGNET, as being, "less like a performer and more like a sage" and "whether the sonic setting is one of doomy distortion or fragile finger picking, Sykes remains a truly unique vocalist whose dusky voice is capable of imparting a transcendent, almost spiritual quality to almost any tune it touches." The New York Times has described their sound as “spellbound music, rapt in fatalism and sorrow” and Rolling Stone called them “utterly transfixing.”
The band has released four critically acclaimed albums; three on Barsuk Records (USA) Reckless Burning (2002), Oh, My Girl (2005) and Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul (2007), while their fourth album Marble Son (2011) was released through Thirty Tigers in Nashville, on their own US imprint (Station Grey). All records were also released in Europe on the highly regarded French label, Fargo (now defunct) and Marble Son was also released in Japan on Daymare Recordings.
In 2004 the band was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, which brought to them a new found national audience. They have traveled extensively in the US and Europe and have had the pleasure of touring with: Sunn O))), Black Mountain, Earth, Sparklehorse (rip), Bright Eyes, Iron And Wine, Marissa Nadler, Laura Veirs, J. Tillman, The Sadies, The Knitters, Jason Isbell, and many more. They have shared the stage with acts on opposite ends of a vast spectrum of genres, ranging from Sunno))), Boris, Nicolai Dunger, Giant Sand, Calexico, Coco Rosie all the way to Steve Earle, Justin Townes Earle, Martha Wainright, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch.
Sykes is also known for her diverse collaborations--most notably for co-writing and singing cult classic "The Sinking Belle" on the monolithic album "Altar" (Southern Lord), a joint project with art metal bands Sunn O))) and Boris (Japan). Pitchfork called The Sinking Belle the albums "centerpiece and masterpiece," and Sykes claims the inspiration for the lyrics came from Joan Didion's, The Year Of Magical Thinking, which she'd been reading during the writing process. Wandscher and (bassist) Bill Herzog also appear on this recording and the three have performed with the ensemble on a number of occasions, including the headlining performance at the prestigious “All Tomorrows Parties” music festival in Monticello, NY in 2010 (curated by film maker Jim Jarmusch). Sykes also collaborated on the musical score (composed by Steven O’Malley of Sunn O))) for “Eternal Idol” (Shelter Press, Paris, 2015), a performance art piece written, choreographed, and directed by the acclaimed French artist, Giselle Vienne. In 2008, Sykes and Wandscher composed the music for the Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (soundtrack self-released 2008). Syke's (also a visual artist) photographic work has been featured in Vice magazine.
The two took on full production duties for “Marble Son” (2011) which moved the band progressively into its own unique genre, allowing Wandscher to explore heavier tones and more complex song structures, further blurring the lines between the avant-garde and the timeless. Spin magazine called Marble Son “a sprawling psyche rock vision” and the UK's Line Of Best Fit called it; "a triumph... in a word".
Prior to his work with Jesse Sykes, Phil Wandscher help co-found the influential alt- country band Whiskeytown with Ryan Adams, in which he appears on the groups first three records, co-writing some of the bands most beloved songs, most notably songs on Stranger's Almanac, which many say was also arguably the band's most beloved album. Wandscher too, appears on singer- songwriter, Marissa Nadler’s acclaimed album “July” and has in recent years, recorded and toured with Jon Langford, the leader of the legendary Mekons. Other album guest appearances include; Rocky Votolato, Nada Surf and Death Cab For Cutie.
In 2019 Sykes appeared on guitarist and Grammy winning songwriter Dave Alvin's release of a project called the The Third Mind, on Yep Roc Records, alongside members of Camper Van Beethoven, Counting Crows and Richard Thompson's band. A national tour had been booked, but due to Covid hitting, all shows were cancelled and the music was never performed live. They have since released another record, and some touring did prevail.
Sykes and Wandscher, alongside newer and older Sweet Hereafter members (and many new guests,) have finished working on what will be their 5th record, but due to some personal difficulties, no release date has been set.
They just completed a string of both US and European dates supporting Sunn O)) and upon return look forward to more shows in the coming months.
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter were fortunate to have worked under the guidance of notable producers; Tucker Martine, Martin Feveyear, Mell Dettmer, Randall Dunn, Johnny Sangster and most recently Seattle's Robb Davidson.
Past and sometimes present members have included Bill Herzog (bass), also of (Earth and Joel R.L. Phelps), Eric Eagle (drums), Anne Marie Ruljancich (viola), Kevin Warner (drums), Jason Merculief (drums) and Rebecca Young (bass).
Mark Karan is best known for performing with the extended Grateful Dead family. For the last twelve years, he has anchored the lead guitar slot in Bob Weir & RatDog, playing hundreds of shows to thousands of fans year-round. Before crossing over into the land of the Dead, Mark worked his guitar and vocal voodoo for the likes of Dave Mason, Delaney Bramlett, the Rembrandts, Paul Carrack, Huey Lewis, Jesse Colin Young and Sophie B. Hawkins.
Mark also tours with an array of amazing musicians in his own “Mark Karan’s Buds”, where his soulful blues-based vocal stylings and inspired guitar work meld with the remarkably creative and responsive playing of his friends in a passionate delivery of the psychedelicized sounds of Americana. This is where rock meets R&B and country and mixes with the soul of New Orleans… with healthy portions of reggae, folk, funk and whatever else the muse might bring. In addition to his originals, as well as those of songwriter friends, Mark covers a range of eclectic songs from Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “You Can Stay (But the Noize Must Go)” and Peter Tosh’s “Don’t Look Back”, to the Kinks’ “Lazin’ on a Sunny Afternoon” or Joe Jackson’s “Fools in Love” — his unique musical taste and song choices are the hallmark of these shows, and always crowd pleasers for his nationwide, loyal fanbase.
Mark’s debut album, “Walk Through the Fire” was released in 2009 to critical acclaim, and features very special guests Delaney Bramlett, Bill Payne, Mike Finnigan, Pete Sears, John Molo, Hutch Hutchinson, The Persuasions, The Rowan Brothers, and many more. He is in demand as both a studio musician and producer, having produced numerous albums for other artists, and recorded or composed a wide variety of music for film, television, and music libraries. His contributions to TV alone can currently be heard on over 15 networks and internationally in over 25 countries.
Mark has toured the world, rocking the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival, and the Fuji Rock Festival. With “Bob Weir & Ratdog” he has headlined Bonnaroo, Gathering of the Vibes, the New Orleans JazzFest and many other festivals on the homefront. Mark’s played the Ryman Auditorium, San Francisco’s Fillmore, Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and many other legendary musical venues. His TV appearances include Austin City Limits, VH1 Classic’s All Star Jams, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Late Night with Craig Kilborn, Today Show and Regis & Kathy Lee. Mark has also been showcased in live performances and featured interviews on SiriusXM, in addition to commercial and specialty radio nationwide.
Mark has performed live with The Allman Brothers, ALO, Trey Anastasio, Joan Baez, Dickey Betts, Delaney Bramlett, Larry Campbell, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Galactic, Gov’t Mule, Jackie Greene, Levon Helm, Bill Kirchen, Chuck Leavell, Little Feat, moe., New Riders of the Purple Sage, Phil Lesh & Friends, John Popper, String Cheese Incident, Derek Trucks, and many other great players.
2012 saw Mark launch a residency at the newly reopened Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley (CA), where he delivered sold out shows with a variety of local and celebrity musicians, including Huey Lewis, members of Furthur, The Mother Hips, ALO, Primus, Roy Rogers, The Waybacks and more.
Since then in Mark has been launching his new band “Mark Karan’s Buds”, planning the release of several new CDs & touring extensively throughout the year. as well as the psychedelic Bob Dylan-based “Ghosts of Electricity” (featuring Mark, Stu Allen, Robin Sylvester, Mookie Siegel, Greg Anton & Pat Nevens), “the Rock Collection”, a loose, fun group based on the chemistry between Mark, Lebo (ALO), Robin Sylvester & Greg Anton and sitting in frequently w/Phil Lesh.
The floating cast of characters that make up Mark’s “Buds” include Robin Sylvester (Bob Weir & Ratdog), Mookie Siegel (David Nelson band, New Riders of the Purple Sage), Wally Ingram (David Lindley, Steve Kimock, Eric Burdon), Danny Eisenberg (Ryan Adams, Mother Hips), Bobby Vega (Zero, Etta James, Sly Stone), Paul Olguin, John Hanes, Billy Lee Lewis (Roy Rogers’ delta rhythm kings, Tommy Castro) and more…
Recently Mark has also discovered a real connection to his acoustic side and has been performing regularly at a variety of intimate, acoustic “house concerts” to delighted audiences…
More to come… Watch this exciting new chapter in Mark’s career.
Victor Krummenacher is a co-founder of the band Camper Van Beethoven, a longstanding member of Monks of Doom and has released 10 solo albums since 1995. Krummenacher is also part of the collective The Third Mind with Dave Alvin, David Immerglück, Michael Jerome and Jesse Sykes. He currently resides between Riverside, California and Portland, Oregon.
As a recording artist, Krummenacher has been active for more than 35 years and has appeared with numerous projects including Cracker, in McCabe & Mrs. Miller with Alison Faith Levy, with Eugene Chadbourne in Camper Van Chadbourne as well as Two Heads (featuring John Moremen, DJ Bonebrake and Willie Aron), Eyelids, M. Ward, Mushroom, Magnet, and Robi Del Mar.
Krummenacher has pursued a solo career as a singer-songwriter since 1994. His tenth solo album, “Silver Smoke of Dreams,” was released in 2021. A compilation of early material, “If The Devil Gives Me House and Home” and a new collection of songs “Block Out The Sun” will be released in 2024.
Recent projects include the album “A Colossal Waste of Light” by Eyelids, released in March of 2023 on Jealous Butcher, and the sophomore album from The Third Mind, simply entitled “2”, available on October 27, 2023.
He has toured and recorded with countless artists over the years including 5x Grammy Winners Blind Boys of Alabama, John Cale and Richard Thompson. He currently is touring and recording with Better Than Ezra, The Third Mind, Slash and more,