THE THIRD MIND – Right Now! (2025, LP/CD, Yep Roc Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Yep Roc Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition

Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition

Release Date: 19 Sep 2025 

Some records aren’t made, they just happen. Like hallucinations, you can hear… “Right Now!” by The Third Mind, doesn’t arrive so much as it unfolds, moment by moment, pulse by pulse, untamed and uninvited. Born over just four days in the heat-soaked haze of Los Angeles, this is music without a map: unscripted, unrehearsed, and egoless.

The Third Mind might wear the “supergroup” label – Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin (The Blasters), bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker), drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, John Cale), guitarist David Immergluck (Counting Crows, John Hiatt), and singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes – but there are no rock star poses here. What binds them isn’t legacy, it’s surrender. They plug in, they let go, and something happens. Something else.

On “Right Now!”, Sykes leads the vocal charge, casting spells through songs that transcend time – Elizabeth Cotten’s “Shake Sugaree”, Pharoah Sanders’ cosmic gospel “The Creator Has A Master Plan”, the ghost blues of Otis Rush, the electric folk of The Youngbloods – all reimagined in lucid, lysergic technicolor. Dave Alvin joins Sykes on the desert-lit “Reno, Nevada”, while their original “Before We Said Goodbye” flickers like a candle in the ruins of memory.

“Right Now!” kicks off with “Shake Sugaree” (written by Elizabeth Cotten), a gentle opening invocation. Jesse Sykes’ voice drips like warm honey, intimate and disarming, as the band eases into a soft, hypnotic space. What begins as a folk lullaby slowly shape-shifts and by the midpoint, you’re deep in Haight-Ashbury territory, barefoot in a smoky room, watching candle wax melt in reverse. It’s a slow-burn transformation, unfolding into a late-night West Coast jam, rooted in tradition but tripping toward somewhere otherworldly… “Pretty Polly” (traditional, adapted by Judy Collins & Michael Sahl) is a ghost song, reimagined with a reverent hand and an open mind. This isn’t a murder ballad anymore… The pace is hypnotic, laced with a creeping tension and ethereal drift. Jesse’s vocals are a portal; close your eyes, and you’re in another timeline. Alvin’s guitar doesn’t just solo—it hallucinates, stretching time with every echo-drenched bend. Somewhere between dream and nightmare, “Pretty Polly” becomes a dark, shining jewel of the record! Now, we’re getting to the album’s emotional core, with “Before We Said Goodbye”. This original track (written by Jesse Sykes & Dave Alvin) floats like a letter never sent, wrapped in bittersweet nostalgia. Jesse sings like someone remembering love through smoke and static, tender, aching, and real. The melody is slow and melancholic, yet catchy in its sadness, while the guitar solo feels like it’s been dipped in sunlight, crying and glowing all at once. A devastatingly beautiful pause in the album’s cosmic journey… The Third Mind take Fariña’s jazzy folk classic “Reno, Nevada” (written by Richard Fariña) and inject it with straight-shot adrenaline. A sharp, concise rocker that trades subtlety for energy without losing the original’s soul. Jesse and Dave share vocal duties on this fresh breath of desert wind… “Reap What You Sow” (written by Michael Bloomfield & Nick Gravenites) was originally recorded by Otis Rush in 1969, this version doesn’t try to overpower the blues, it understands it. Jesse Sykes gives a stunning reinterpretation of the vocal, turning the masculine anguish of the original into something equally pained but utterly feminine in tone. The band respects the sadness, stays inside it, and then opens it wide with a mind-melting electric guitar section (this track is included only on the CD version). “Darkness, Darkness” (written by Jesse Colin Young) isn’t just a cover, it’s an incantation. While the intro might nod to Robert Plant’s haunting take, The Third Mind quickly steers the track into more volatile, electrically charged territory. The arrangement swells into a psychedelic storm, shimmering guitars, haunting vocals, and waves of emotion crash into each other until it all fades into the void. Literally, the fade-out is the only misstep here, cutting short a trip that felt like it could’ve gone forever… The album comes to an end with “The Creator Has A Master Plan” (written by Pharoah Sanders & Leon Thomas). Taming a cosmic free-jazz epic is no small feat, BUT The Third Mind approach it with respect, not restraint. Where Sanders’ original was 20 minutes of spiritual catharsis via saxophone chaos, this reinterpretation channels the same energy through lucid guitar work. It’s less of a breakdown and more of a communion, offering clarity without compromise. The central melody is honored, the electric guitar soars in place of the sax, and the result is transcendence – not imitation… In conclusion, “Right Now!” is a collective descent into soundscapes that were never scripted, only summoned. These performances breathe, stretch, shimmer, and dissolve, unconcerned with past or future. There is only the present. Only the now. Let it take you. Without control. Without maps. Without ego… As they say: The Third Mind is waiting… And the trip begins… Right Now! (TimeLord Michalis)

Tracklist (CD version)

Listen / Buy through THE THIRD MIND Bandcamp

Visit THE THIRD MIND Official Web

Alternatively, get it via YEP ROC RECORDS Store