Answer Song: "Semi-Charmed Life" was written as one to Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".Alternative Rock: One of the most famous examples of this from the 1990s.
Needless to say, as two of its former guitarists sued the band for similar reasons, many feel that Jenkins (who gets most of the credit for writing the songs) might be something of a Small Name, Big Ego. Sadly, after Ursa Major was released, Tony Fredianelli, the guitarist who replaced Cadogan, left and sued the band for denying him credit and royalties that were owed to him. The EP's mild success was a sign of things to come for the band, as their next album, Ursa Major, was a miniature comeback for them.
In 2008, they finally released the politically charged Red Star EP, consisting of three of the songs off of their next album. The band then went five years without releasing any new material (a Greatest Hits Album was released in the interim). Partly because their record label was being purchased by a bigger record label at the time, Out of the Vein sold less than half the number of copies that Blue did. While one might be inclined to think that this album was all about drugs (given that the band was famous for "Semi-Charmed Life"), this self-described New Sound Album mostly contained one Break-Up Song after another that dealt with the end of Jenkins' relationship with Charlize Theron. Cadogan sued, of course, and the debacle ended with a settlement in 2002. What's worse, soon after the album was released, guitarist Kevin Cadogan (who co-wrote most of the songs with singer Stephan Jenkins) was suddenly fired, replaced, and allegedly denied royalties for the work he helped create. While the darker and more experimental Blue sold quite a few copies, its success couldn't be compared to their first album's and it met with a far colder reception from critics. Not content with being a one-album band, Third Eye Blind followed up their success with Blue in 2000. The band catapulted to fame on the back of the album's two big-hit singles: "Semi-Charmed Life", a wildly upbeat and catchy song about a man suffering from a crystal meth addiction, and the powerful anti-suicide ballad "Jumper". Their story begins with the release of their Self-Titled Album in 1997. Third Eye Blind is an Alternative Rock band that emerged during the late 1990s (though, as the article says, "Alternative Rock" certainly wasn't the "alternative" at the time).