‘Soup’ Du Jour Blind Melon Hopes Second Album And A New Tour Will Prove Its Success With ‘No Rain’ And ‘Bee Girl’ Was No Fluke

It’s been almost three years since the multiformat success of “No Rain” and the “Bee Girl” mascot helped bring Blind Melon’s self-titled Capitol Records debut to multiplatinum success.

With this week’s release of the band’s second album, “Soup,” on vinyl, cassette, CD and a limited-edition Digipak, the label is hoping to prove that Blind Melon’s success at radio has been more than just a fluke.

“‘No Rain’ was a phenomenon,” says Denise Skinner, vice president of marketing and operations at Capitol, of the song that became a No. 1 Modern Rock Tracks and Album Rock Tracks hit in the fall of 1993. The videoclip was practically omnipresent on MTV and other video outlets, to the point that the actress who played the “Bee Girl” even began to give interviews.

“At the end of the day, it borderlined on overexposure,” says Skinner. “To be quite honest, I’m not quite sure that’s what we want this time for Blind Melon, as much as keeping the music real and credible. Not that ‘No Rain’ wasn’t - it was just too much exposure.”

Like “Blind Melon,” which peaked at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 a year after its September 1992 release, Capitol expects to be working “Soup” for the next two years and to release up to five singles from the 14-song album.

The first single, “Galaxie,” came out in July along with a video. This week, “Galaxie” is No. 14 on Billboard’s modern rock tracks chart.

Even before the single was released, a 10-inch with demo versions of the album tracks “St. Andrew’s Fall,” “Wilt,” and “2x4” and the album cut of “Galaxie,” was shipped to college radio programmers in late June.

Another special item is the Digipak version of “Soup,” which will include a 16-page booklet resembling a menu, to tie in with the “Soup” theme. Approximately 20,000 units of the limited-edition package will be available at retail.

While “Galaxie” may not have the immediate hook that “No Rain” had on first listen, it still delivers the band’s engaging sense of melody.

“There’s not an obvious first single,” says Skinner, “but there wasn’t on the first one either. Blind Melon is not a singles band.”

Skinner says the label is considering “2x4,” “Walk,” “Toes Across The Floor,” and “Skinned” as possible future singles from “Soup.”

Rogers Stevens, guitarist in the group, which also features Shannon Hoon (vocals), Glen Graham (drums), Brad Smith (bass and backing vocals), and Christopher Thorn (guitars), says he’s much happier with “Soup” than he was with the band’s debut. He also isn’t too concerned with matching the first album’s success.

“The pressure has been placed on other people (rather) than us,” says Stevens. “We can only do what we do. We can’t write (pop) hit singles. Those aspirations are nice to have, but if it doesn’t sell, or if we don’t write another hit song, we’ll get over it.

“I like every song on this album. I can’t say that about the first record,” he continues. “The first record was the first 13 songs we wrote when we got together, and obviously we’ve been through a lot since then. So we had this huge array of experiences to draw from musically and personally. To me, it sounds like we just got better at (crafting) our particular sound.”

Stevens says it took the band nearly three years to get back in the studio, for a variety of reasons.

One problem was finding the right producer - Andy Wallace - and matching his schedule with the band’s.

Another difficulty was “sobering everyone up and getting them there,” according to Stevens. Band member Shannon Hoon has had encounters with the law, including a drunk and disorderly charge while recording “Soup” in New Orleans.

Both the band and the label are anxious to get Blind Melon back on tour.

“My feeling is that after watching them tour and grow, these guys will be around for a long time,” says Skinner. “They toured their little butts off on the first record, and it all paid off.”

The group will initially tour Europe in August and September, then head to the U.S. for dates late in September.

Also later this summer, Blind Melon will get some exposure via Atlantic Records’ “Schoolhouse Rock” compilation, due Sept. 5. The album also features acts such as Stone Temple Pilots and A Tribe Called Quest, and the bands perform renditions of Saturday-morning ABC-TV educational children’s songs such as “Conjunction Junction,” “I’m Just A Bill,” and “The Preamble.” Blind Melon’s track is “Three Is A Magic Number.”