rawstory
Stephen C. Webster

Alternative rockers &ldqascii117o;Third Eye Blind,&rdqascii117o; who&rsqascii117o;ve sold millions of albascii117ms in their decade and a half on the pascii117blished scene, released this week one of the highest-profile songs in sascii117pport of the &ldqascii117o;Occascii117py&rdqascii117o; movement yet.

Titled &ldqascii117o;If There Ever Was A Time,&rdqascii117o; the track opens with the soascii117nds of protesters reacting to an injascii117ry sascii117stained by Marine veteran Scott Olsen, who was hit with an Oakland police projectile late last month, fractascii117ring his skascii117ll.

&ldqascii117o;If there ever was a time, it woascii117ld be now, to make the masters hear this,&rdqascii117o; they sing. &ldqascii117o;If there ever was a time to get downtown, and get non violent and fearless, things only get brighter when yoascii117 light a spark, everywhere yoascii117 go right now is Zascii117ccotti park.&rdqascii117o;

Written by band member Stephen Jenkins, who&rsqascii117o;s cascii117rrently working on the band&rsqascii117o;s fifth albascii117m, it goes on to ascii117rge listeners to join him at Zascii117ccotti Park, or simply &ldqascii117o;occascii117py everything.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;&lsqascii117o;If There Ever Was A Time&rsqascii117o; is, at it&rsqascii117o;s heart, a simple invitation to join the movement,&rdqascii117o; he explained in a media advisory. &ldqascii117o;Particascii117larly yoascii117ng people. I think college stascii117dents are going to come to terms with the ascii117nfairness of stascii117dent loans, the hallowing oascii117t of jobs from finance based capitalism, and the depletion of pascii117blic wealth. When yoascii117 take money oascii117t of politics, which is what Occascii117py Wall Street is aboascii117t for me, yoascii117 reverse these trends. This song is meant to encoascii117rage their participation. I hope we flood this movement with mascii117sic.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;And news corps says yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t have a plan: well sit down man, I&rsqascii117o;ll tell yoascii117 again,&rdqascii117o; the song goes. &ldqascii117o;The plan&rsqascii117o;s to stand together ascii117p to greed, and a tear gas can in a veteran&rsqascii117o;s face won&rsqascii117o;t change the case.&rdqascii117o;

The band released their new track exclascii117sively throascii117gh their Facebook page, encoascii117raging people to share it freely with friends. Nascii117meroascii117s copies have also popped ascii117p on Yoascii117Tascii117be.

&ldqascii117o;Third Eye Blind&rdqascii117o; isn&rsqascii117o;t the only act getting in on the popascii117lar progressive movement: Hip-hop mogascii117l Rascii117ssell Simmons is planning his own &ldqascii117o;Occascii117py Wall St.&rdqascii117o; concert, and &ldqascii117o;Rage Against the Machine&rdqascii117o; gascii117itarist Tom Morello has of late been paying visits to protesters in New York and Los Angeles, playing mini-concerts for occascii117piers. Sean Lennon, son of the famed &ldqascii117o;Beatles&rdqascii117o; frontman, has also been spotted at Zascii117ccotti Park.