When Camper Van Beethoven bassist Victor Krummenacher teamed up with Dave Alvin for the new "supergroup" the Third Mind, he immediately began trying to make sure he had things that felt right for Alvin's voice, as well as for backing vocalist Jesse Sykes for the group's first album, which released Feb. 14.
And among the immediate choices was the late Fred Neil's "Dolphins," whose video — co-created by Krummenacher with animation by Jonathan Segal — is premiering exclusively on Billboard today (Feb. 18).
"'Dolphins' is something I've been playing for a long time," says Krummenacher, who was particularly fond of Tim Buckley's rendition of the song, which he discovered during his period of collaborating with Eugene Chadbourne during the late ’80s and ’90s. "There was a live record that came out that had Buckley] performing 'Dolphins' on it, and I started doing it with Eugene and it's been in my repertoire since then.
“When we were choosing songs I thought it would be something great. Dave was like, 'Who do you want to sing it?' I was like, 'Who do you think I want to sing it?' and his voice really shines on it — and doesn't necessarily sound like anything Dave's ever done. It's one of my favorite tracks I've ever recorded."
Krummenacher considers the Third Mind itself an accident that came out of a mutual desire with Alvin to work together. A conversation about doing a show together in the San Francisco Bay Area turned into a serious plan to "get together and make some noise" in the studio, and Krummenacher recruited multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck (Camper Van Beethoven, Counting Crows, Monks of Doom), drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, the Toadies) and X's DJ Bonebrake to play vibes.
The sessions yielded one original, "Claudia Cardinale," along with covers of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's "East West," Alice Coltrane's "Journey in Satchidananda," the late Roky Erickson's "Reverberation" and Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew."
"There was a lot of synchronicity involved in terms of people being available and wanting to do it," explains Krummenacher, who wanted The Third Mind album to marry improvisation and songcraft. "We didn't overthink it; It was just kind of, 'Let's get together and try it out' and things just seemed to work. I can't say much more about it. I wasn't trying to make a Dave Alvin record at all; I was making a record Dave felt comfortable being a part of."
Krummenacher hopes there will be more of those in the future, too. The Third Mind starts a short West Coast tour on April 6 in San Diego — with Soundgarden and MC5 guitarist Kim Thayil in the lineup — and is eyeing other opportunities for later in the year.
"Those shows will give us a chance to crawl into it and really feel it out," he says. And the bassist is already entertaining the idea of another album for the collective. "If the chemistry is there and it's good, I think we'll consider it an ongoing thing. Everybody's schedule makes it hard to get together all the time, but it's a group of people who are certainly ready should a festival call or something. Time will tell.
"The project will let us know what it wants to do. If there's interest and it's financially workable, then we'll just keep going. For me it's a fun and exciting thing to be part of."
The video for “Dolphins” is below.
The Third Mind Tour Dates
4/6 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
4/7 – Morro Bay, CA @ The Siren
4/8 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
4/10 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
4/11 – Vancouver, BC @ BlueShore at CapU
4/12 – Seatle, WA @ The Crocodile
4/15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
4/16 – Winters, CA @ The Palms Playhouse
4/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadou
