There's a crisis spreading through our youth faster than a clip on YouTube, that, if not checked and stomped out, threatens to destroy many lives, or at least make for a lot of uninteresting kids. That threat? Boring taste in music, created by a lack of variety.
Fortunately, our friends in 311, Omaha, Neb.’s own reggae/ska/hip-hop rockers, are doing their part to spread the gospel of their internationally inspired brand of music.
“You’re lucky if you live near a reggae station,” guitarist Tim Mahoney says. “They’re pretty rare. You just can’t turn on the radio and hear it. Young people aren’t familiar with it that much, so it’s good to see them get educated about it. It’s all ages, all races. Some sort of everybody likes reggae.”
The band, whose hits include “All Mixed Up,” “Down,” “Come Original” and a cover of The Cure’s “Love Song for the 50 First Dates” soundtrack, has a unique method of education — their Unity Tour, which carries on their tradition of summer traveling with bands with their own unique take on reggae and other related forms of music. The tour comes to the Tweeter Center, in Mansfield, Mass., next Sunday, with 311, Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu, and the legendary English Beat, featuring co-founder Dave Wakeling.
“Last year it was The Wailers and Pepper, with a nice reggae vibe. We’re huge reggae fans. The year before that Papa Roach,” Mahoney says. “We all like Matisyahu, and thought he’d be a good combination for the summer, so we reached out to him and he was into it. [And] we’re looking forward to the English Beat. [311 singer] Nick [Hexum] is friends with Dave Wakeling. The whole night is gonna be good for people to come and hang out all night if they want.”
Mahoney’s sure that if fans check out what’s being offered, they will indeed show up for the whole show, and not just wait for the headliners.
“It’s nice to mix it up. We’re all big reggae fans, and for the summertime it’s nice to put it out there, with some bands on the same [wavelength],” he says.
UNITY IS ONE OF REGGAE’S core themes, and for decades the genre has been a remarkable base for umpteen stylistic hybrids with rock, jazz and punk, inspiring Madness, the English Beat, UB40, No Doubt and, of course, 311.
“I found out about reggae in junior high school. [Rastafarian punk band] Bad Brains was one of my favorite bands, and it wasn’t until I started to get into them that I thought reggae was really cool,” Mahoney says. “They were these black guys playing hard-core punk.”
“The philosophy behind the reggae was that the artists were about good energy and dealt with heavy issues, mostly about positivity, getting past some barriers and the power of positive thinking,” Mahoney says.
The band recently enjoyed a trip to Jamaica, the reggae motherland, for a show on March 11 (“3/11!” Mahoney says)
“I forget what town we were in, but we played in a club there. They have a cliff you can jump off into the water,” he says. “We had a really good time. The drive from the airport was 45 minutes and the whole time they played nothing but Bob Marley in the van. It’s the national music there. Awesome.”
The crowd at the club were mostly vacationing Americans, but “the local stage hands were tripping out. They had never really seen rock music, and got a kick out of it,” Mahoney says. “It was pretty laid-back show. It was cool hanging out with the Jamaicans. I can’t wait to go back.”
The Jamaican stage crew, who seemed to know what they liked no matter what it was called, are evidence of Mahoney’s belief that music is, at the end, just music, and that “influences come from everywhere,” which has enriched 311’s music.
“We really don’t mind anyone labeling us. That never bothers us. I can only speak for myself, but no one is really thinking about that too much,” he says. “Everybody in the band likes a wide variety of music. I grew up listening to old Van Halen and Led Zeppelin and I love Willie Nelson. My girlfriend’s from Miami so I’m listening to a lot of salsa music.”
THIS PAST SPRING, a whole new group of people got an education in 311 — American Idol fans, via the relatively adventurous musical tastes of Seattle’s Blake Lewis. The band was contacted by the show’s producers for permission to let Lewis sing its “All Mixed Up.” Mahoney says they agreed without realizing how much mileage they’d get from it.
“We didn’t know [Lewis] was such a big 311 fan. He really kicked (butt) on ‘All Mixed Up,’ ” he says. “After he sang, the judges said they didn’t know who we were, and he said, ‘They’re my favorite band. They’re great.’ It was the best publicity ever.”
And after that, 311, in turn, became big Blake Lewis fans — “Nick went a couple of times to the tapings of the show and hung out with [Lewis] and made friends with him,” Mahoney reports, adding that the diminutive beat-boxer also covered their version of “Love Song.”
“That was cool too. We were rooting for him. We knew another guy, Brandon [Rogers], who used to sing for Christina Aguilera, but he got voted off early,” he says. “Blake brings a little more current, modern hip-hop influence to the show. It’s nice how it worked out. He didn’t win, but either way, he’s going to have a good career. Hopefully we can get him out to one of these shows.”
Mahoney sort of sheepishly admits that he and other members of the 311 crew became followers not just of Blake Lewis but of American Idol, which is not the most rock-star pastime.
“Early on I didn’t really follow it, but it was so funny. Me and our studio manager Jason, and Chad [Sexton], our drummer, were out there every Tuesday night watching,” he says. “We were like, ‘Dudes, we’re watching American Idol. What happened to us?’ ”
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