BLIND MELON

Blind Melon assembled in California, with members hailing from Indiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. The band's self-titled debut album, produced by Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam), contained 13 songs spanning a wide sonic palate. The aggressive dual-lead guitars and shouted vocals of "Soak The Skin" and "Tones of Home" evoked heavy metal and classic rock; "Time's" spacious bridge and ambient, winding outro shared commonalities with Grateful Dead-style improvisational music; while heavily acoustic songs "Change" and "No Rain" hinted at pop and folk influences. The album sold poorly until the No Rain single became a smash success, along with a popular video which featured the "Bee Girl" (played by Heather DeLoach). n 1994, the band began recording their second album, Soup, in New Orleans with producer Andy Wallace. The album was released in 1995, and predominantly featured shorter songs with a more conventional "alternative rock" approach. The lyrics to "St. Andrew's Fall" referenced a suicide jump, while "New Life" discussed the forthcoming birth of a child. In 1995, Blind Melon also contributed a version of the song "Out On The Tiles" to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin, as well as a promotional CD with a cover of the School House Rock song "Three is a Magic Number." Sadly Shannon Hoon passed away on October 21, 1995 in New Orleans. The remaining members released Nico (named for Hoon's daughter, only 13 weeks old when her father died) in 1996, with the profits going to a program that helps musicians with drug and alcohol addiction. Nico contained unreleased songs from the Soup recording sessions, as well as other songs often recorded with only partial instrumentation. The closing track, "Letters from a Porcupine", was recorded as a telephone message left by Hoon on a bandmate's answering machine. Nico included covers of Steppenwolf and John Lennon songs. In 2002, Capitol Records released a Classic Masters CD showcasing twelve Blind Melon songs. Thanks to stronger than expected sales, the band released The Best of Blind Melon in 2005, a CD+DVD package that features Blind Melon performing live from a September 1995 concert in Chicago. On December 15, 2006, a tribute album to Blind Melon was released by Yakmusic in New Zealand featuring bands from all over the world. In April 2006, Capitol Records released the Live At The Palace CD that was re-released in the fall (October 17, 2006) with a new package.

On September 15, 2006, it was announced that Blind Melon has reunited with a new lead singer, Travis Warren of Rain Fur Rent. Further information is on Blind Melon's site and this article.

On Thursday, November 9, 2006, three new Blind Melon songs were released. The titles are: "Make a Difference", "For My Friends", and "Harmful Belly." In August of 2007, the band released another song titled "Wishing Well" which can be accessed on the band's MySpace site. Later another new song titled "Sometimes" was put up for a brief period, quickly replaced with two new songs, "Right Set of Eyes" and "Hypnotized".

On Sunday, October 7, 2007, Blind Melon performed their first show in 12 years in Providence, Rhode Island. The new Blind Melon album should be available in January.