THIRD PARTY

Third Party was a trio fronted by Joe Condiracci, who once claimed his mission was to "build a bridge" between Jon Bon Jovi and Genocide's Bobby Ebz, both of whom came from Condiracci's hometown of Sayerville, NJ. I don't see the Ebz influence even remotely, and I doubt any of his following did either. Coming clean in a 1987 interview, Condiracci said "I came from a very pop background — I can't help that." And what's wrong with that? New Brunswick needed some pop influence by the mid-1980s, when the scene was shifting to a less kind and gentle vibe. But Third Party wasn't power pop; the guitars had enough distortion and the drums enough kick to include them in the post-punk, hard-rocking territory occupied by the Blisters and Hip Shy (whose bassist, Mark Francione, joined Third Party after Hip Shy's breakup). The music also conjured up NJ heroes Dramarama, though Condiracci tended towards a Bono-tinged emotionalism suggesting he saw Third Party moving beyond Indie. But despite airplay on various local stations (their "Fade To Grey" was included on the WRSU compilation Mental Floss), success didn't come soon enough. So Condiracci went solo for twenty-plus years, reforming Third Party in 2007 as a four-piece. They sounded heavier, but remained pretty far north of Bobby Ebz.

The first two flyers are as classically primitive as hand-made gets, promoting gigs at two of New Jersey's legendary clubs. The other was for the not-even-remotely-legendary Clubhouse in Plainfield. Good times.

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