3RDegree began when founder/bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Robert James Pashman met with drummer Rob Durham in December of 1990 with a common love of the progressive rock bands they had grown up with & in hopes of picking up where Pashman’s last band had left off. New guitarist Pat Kliesch was added in the summer of 1991 & the band played its first show that November. Kliesch’s hard driving off-kilter riffs & juxtaposed melodic acoustic writing gelled with Pashman’s soaring hooks within strange meter: all this thrown in with the most capable Durham who reveled in the challenge of holding it all together. This would be the band’s mantra to the present day: create challenging music to play but always with a memorable, singable calling card. The first chapter would be THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE-a 10 song collection which was played all over New Jersey & New York City in rock venues from 1992 through 1995 alongside the much more interesting & refined tracks that would be its epic follow-up. The band would be included on a Todd Rundgren tribute CD & Pashman would moonlight with metal band POWER (featuring Alan Tecchio of Watchtower & Hades) on a tour of Germany & the ViaRock festival in Belgium in ’95.
But one piece of the puzzle would be imperative to getting the band more noticed than ever before: a world-class lead vocalist. George Dobbs, who would be added in the summer of ’95 would be that man. With Dobbs, also a keyboardist & bassist, the band’s live shows would be a much fuller affair & the studio album a much more polished & diverse one. HUMAN INTEREST STORY was released & well received in April of 1996, but frustration with the band’s inabilities to find its market niche & fan base in a pre-internet age would make a January 1997 CBGB’s performance its last. Pashman would go on to work with Spiraling’s Tom Brislin who toured with Yes on their 2001 Symphonic Tour and with Camel at Nearfest 2003.
In December of 2005, the three original members of the band met in a NYC bar with the idea of reforming. Demos were made of new & old songs left on the cutting room floor that the band had always thought were their strongest. Their singer would be found by July & the backing tracks for a new album recorded by October. April of 2007, would see the band playing their first live shows in over ten years at NJ Proghouse. The event & previous night’s acoustic show would be captured in high definition & later released on DVD & double CD as THE REUNION CONCERTS. The internet would also figure largely into 3RDegree redux finding new fans & even re-connecting with the original ones so that by summer 2008 when the band were ready with its studio album NARROW-CASTER, it wouldn’t fall on deaf ears. The Dutch Progressive Rock Page would herald that “it’s not often an album as refreshing as this comes along and we should treasure it when it does”. A new plastic-less “Eco-Wallet” version would be released by year’s end mainly because of advanced sales from Europe. In early 2009, 3RDegree got to writing new material for a hopeful 2010 release, found new drummer Aaron Nobel & were asked to play their first Progressive Rock festival-ProgDay in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that September.
Read more...