Spin Docs’ Third Album Could Decide Fate Of Band

It’s a strange predicament. The Spin Doctors sold 2 million copies of their last album, yet were seen as failures.

That’s because their prior disc, “Pocketful of Kryptonite,” sold 6 million copies on the heels of video-driven hit singles “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “Two Princes.” It built unrealistic expectations that caused a backlash against the band, which worsened because of infighting with the group’s guitarist, who has since left.

“We lived a fantasy with the first record and a nightmare with the second,” says Spin Doctors singer Chris Barron. “And now this third one will decide.”

The third, “You’ve Got To Believe in Something,” is out Tuesday. It’s the litmus test to see if this New York band, which hit the big time ahead of peer-group New Yorkers Blues Traveler and Joan Osborne, will stay in the major leagues or go bust.

It’s indeed a better album than the last; less indulgent and less silly. The lyrics are straighter, more personal. The just-released first single, “She Used To Be Mine,” stems from Barron’s breakup with his girlfriend. The band’s sound has not changed - it still has a grass-roots, guitar-based funkiness, bolstered by the seamless addition of new guitarist Andrew Krizan, who used to tour with Jimi Hendrix bassist Noel Redding. Still, the album may not have the hits that the first one did. And it’s safe to say that if you didn’t like the Spin Doctors then, you’re not going to like them now.

Regardless, the band realizes how close it came to being a rock footnote. “The band almost broke up, but we made the decision to continue,” says Barron, 28, who owns up to a lackluster effort on the last disc, “Turn It Upside Down.”

“We were very fat and lazy from ‘Kryptonite.’ We were under the illusion that all we had to do was make another record and it would sell,” says Barron. “But we were also going through hell with our guitarist (Eric Schenkman). I remember at the Woodstock Festival, we were really in an aggravated state of annoyance with each other. We always had a conflict-driven creativity, but in the end it just ground things to a halt.”

Enter, too, new producer Danny Kortchmar, who had worked with James Taylor, Don Henley, Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan. “He really pushed us,” says Barron. “He especially pushed me to write better lyrics.”

The Spin Doctors are now “a newer, streamlined version - we’re the latest model, man,” says Barron, who has even cut his hair to shed the “neo-hippie” label that dogged the band. “I actually used to have my hair this way as a kid, then I grew it out,” he adds. “But these are new days, new ways.”

To back the new record, the band plans “to play everywhere,” says Barron. First up will be some radio-sponsored gigs, then more touring as the Doctors try to recapture their spin.

For further sustenance, Barron cites a meeting with Keith Richards when the Spin Doctors opened some shows for the Rolling Stones. Barron hung with Richards and Ronnie Wood in the tuning room (“though all I saw being tuned was some vodka and OJ”) and commented on how happy Richards seemed. “Why else would you do this, man?” Richards said. As Barron recalls, “I knew right then that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.”