Tuesday, October 24, 1995

THE BUZZ IS GETTING LOUDER IN THE 311 HIVE (Vermont Collegian, 1995)

COMIN' LIKE A NIGHTMARE:
THE BUZZ IS GETTING LOUDER IN THE 311 HIVE

311 will rock your world. While many people in these parts may not realize it, one of the hottest live acts on the planet will be making an exclusive area appearance when L.A.'s 311 (pronounced three-eleven) blow out the walls at Burlington's Memorial Auditorium on Thursday night, the second Memorial show presented by the folks at Club Toast, who brought us the incredible Fugazi show last spring.
Ironically enough, 311's first gig ever was opening a sold out show with Fugazi in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1990, a show that both announced their arrival on the local scene and generated a huge buzz on the band, a buzz that has grown steadily louder with each passing year and is presently a swarming hive that centers around the band's infectious and urgent blend of hard rock and hard rhymes mixed with funk, dancehall reggae and jazz that has been whipping crowds into celebratory moshing frenzies across the country.
Case in point: last year, over 90% of their shows sold out in advance while many others had to be moved to larger venues to accomodate the masses, a tribute to the band's grassroots, word-of-mouth approach and complete devotion to the music via their live shows and their albums, both of which have won them appeal from a wide range of fans, the majority of whom are under 21 and thankful that almost all of 311's shows are all-ages (as is the show Thursday).
This year, sparked by the late-July release of "311" - the definitive 311 statement and easily one of the best albums of the year - the band has taken it to the next level, packin' 'em in at larger venues across the country.
"We're just, you know, slowly stepping everything up," said vocalist and guitarist Nicholas Hexum modestly when I spoke to him over the phone from Columbia, South Carolina, recently while the band was enjoying a rare day off from their relentless touring schedule. "Every time we go out, we play the next step up. We're not a band that's looking to like bust out all at once. We're looking at it, like, slowly build up the following through making good albums and through word-of-mouth and through live shows, and, you know, that's the whole grassroots philosophy right there."
And make some good albums they have, starting with "Music," their powerful and frantic 1993 debut for Capricorn Records that essentially is a best of old 311 tunes from their first three independently-released records and documents the band's goal to take rap and make it more musical. "Music" brought us 311 anthems like the hard-rockin' "Unity," the metallic crunching riffs of "Hydroponic," the funky and melodic "My Stoney Baby," the super hard rockin' and rhymin' "Feels So Good," and the classic melodies and vocal harmonies in "Do You Right."
"Grassroots" - released a year-and-a-half later - on the other hand, was completely written in two months and is more cohesive on the whole, while trying to capture the raw energy of 311's live show at the time. Highlights are the super-heavy opener and single "Homebrew," the super funky rhythms of "Lucky," the jazzy and reggae-flavored "8:16 a.m.," and the 311 anthem "Omaha Stylee," a thickly-grooved raga stomp that combines a thunderous bottom-end riff, courtest of P-Nut's rolling 5-string bass attack and Chad Sexton's tight, offbeat drumming - who together make up one of the best rhythm section's going - Timothy Mahoney's smooth guitar work and vocal trade-offs between Hexum and vocalist/scratch-master SA Martinez.
The song describes an incident that occurred in the summer of 1993, when the band's RV exploded into flames, destroying all of their equipment, the VW van they were towing and most of their personal belongings as they barely escaped with their lives, yet mananged to return to the stage for a performance in Omaha the very next night, solidifying the band's commitment to one another and to their music as well as giving birth to a new life-affirming perspective that runs through "Grassroots."
The evolution of the 311 sound, however, did not really all come together until the release of "311," by far their best offering yet and proof positive that the band has solidified its distinctly unique and powerful sound that blends the metallic crunching of guitars with power-funk bass lines, tight, popping drum rhythms, dancehall groove and the powerful vocal team of Hexum and Martinez - one of the best around - who can both rhyme hard as well as sing and harmonize beautifully, displaying a versatility that is seldom heard in today's musical world.
The album offers insights into the band and what they are all about in the their trademark straightforwardness and honesty in "Jackolantern's Weather," with the lines "I always say what I feel and that is a promise/Nothing in life is above being honest." Other highlights include the crunching metallic guitar wall of sound and combination of spoken and sung lyrics in the opening "Down"; the chunky guitar riffs and tight, offbeat drums (as well as the Vermont reference) of "Random"; the super funky and bouncy "All Mixed Up"; the super heavy and hard rhymin' "Hive" with its telling statement about their live show: "It ain't nothin' but a party everybody get loose"; the light and bouncy ska riddims mixed with hard changes in "Purpose"; the super-rockin' "Loco"; the instant classic "Don't Stay Home" - the first single - which is about the need to enjoy life to the fullest while we still can; the following "DLMD" (Don't Let Me Down), an "ode to a beat up girl" that deals with issues like depression; and the bouncy ska funk of "Sweet," about the pleasures of life on earth.
"We had always had the plan of like, whatever we're talkin' about around the recording of the album, is like what comes out in the title," said Hexum of the album. "Like when we recorded "Music," we were takin' rap and making it more musical and more melodic, and so that's why we called that that; and then on "Grassroots," there was kind of like some conflict with the label - they wanted us to come out with some fuckin' radio-friendly poppy hit that could get us over, and we said 'Fuck you, we're not doin' that,' and we said 'we're gonna run our shit through grassroots means,' and so we called our album that to just state for the record what we're up for."
"We had always said a long, long time ago," continued Hexum, "that when we feel like we have just made the quintessential 311 statement - when we're in our total prime (all the members of the band are around 25 years old, while P-Nut is only 21) and when we feel really satisfied with what we've done - that we're gonna call it "311." We felt real good about it, and we said" 'Look, you know, this is what we do, and if people don't like this album, then they don't like 311. This is 311.' So that's why we called it that."
Though Hexum said that it still combines the basic ingredients that 311 throws into their musical brew, "we've just gotten more focused on what we like to hear, and I think on this new album, we don't take as many left turns musically. More of the songs have a similar groove through the entire song" as opposed to the first two albums where "we'll just snap straight from a fucking heavy groove into a reggae groove, like, instantly, and that might have been a little harder for people to comprehend."
A major reason why "311" sounds so good is because of producer Ron Saint Germain, whose production credits include albums for Bad Brains and Living Colour as well as mixing for Soundgarden and Tool. Another reason is that it was recorded at Sound City Studio in Van Nuys which sports a client list that includes Nirvana ("Nevermind"), Rage Against the Machine, and the new Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Regarding their involvement with the legendary producer, Hexum said that "it was like a dream - he's just a great guy as well as he's done every single style of music there is, you know? It was a real pleasure working with him, and I think we might do some more of that in the future."
And while the video for "Don't Stay Home" has recently been put in the regular rotation on MTV, it has taken awhile for 311 to break into the mainstream - due in part to the uniqueness of their sound and/or ignorance on the part of some programmers - its not something that 311 worries about or even really thinks about at all, choosing instead to focus entirely on makin' music and bringin' it straight to people all over the country.
"To me, its like, we've come so far without any real hits," said Hexum, "that it almost doesn't have that much of an effect, because whether we're on the radio or not, we're gonna be playin' to pretty good sized audiences. I just try and focus on things that I can control, which are, you know, putting on a great live show and good albums, and beyond that, its out of my hands. I like to call us the no-hit wonders because its like, the amount of people we get at our shows is amazing considering that we don't have any fuckin' Top 40 hits or anything, so I'm really stoked to see it."
Hexum added that 311 "definitely set out to do something that's a little more difficult because when you're combining reggae and rap and rock styles all into one song, its like there's no format for that. But we definitely wouldn't consider changing our style just to fit into the radio, and that's, you know, the most important thing to us. We're definitely down for the funk and shit that really makes us happy."
One theme that can be found both in the lyrics and music of 311, as well as in the artwork on the CD, is the band's interest in the possibility of life beyond Earth. "If you consider the number of stars that are in the sky," said Hexum, "to think that our star is the only one that can sustain life is very egotistical and ridiculous."
He also mentioned that it is something that he has been singing about since their first album, like in "Hydroponic," where he sings about "spacial physics - the relations between, like, how everything is getting infinitely smaller and infinitely larger" with the form of our solar system, "with the sun being the nucleus and the planets being the orbitals, the electrons - is exactly like that of an atom. We've just always sort of been into, you know, trying to grasp things like that into what our tiny little role is in this, you know, cosmic huge universe. And its pretty mind-boggling."
Even 311's music can take on an other-worldly quality at times, as if the phat guitar riffs are somehow heading up to space in the hopes of communication. "Yeah, we get into ambient, sort of, trippy effects and shit like that," said Hexum, "and other times, we'll just be straight-up raw, no effects, just hard-rockin' guitars, balls-out shit. But, you know, we like to dabble all over the place."
When pressed to explain the concept of the "Hive," which is also the name of their fan club, Hexum acknowledged that it did, to some extent, refer to the ever-growing legion of fans with "the nucleus of it being our band," adding that "we just made a commitment to really all work together to, you know, get our music out to a larger group of people. You know, the hive does include the people that come to our shows, the people who write articles about us, like yourself. I mean, its just like everybody that's down with the 311 positivity sort of vibe."
This positive outlook on life and music is one of the major things that distinguishes 311 from many of the more angst-ridden bands that have been enjoying significant success over the past few years, and Hexum - who grew up listening to Bob Marley, among other things - acknowledged that "the whole reggae ethic has definitely influenced us. It definitely comes from that."
Other influences that Hexum cited were old school rap like Run DMC as well as California bands like the Chili Peppers and X, among others, and just about anything else they could get their hands on in the crossroads that is Omaha. "We're just grabbin' from all over the place," he said. "People would assume that, you know, we were not exposed to much in Nebraska, but there surprisingly is a cool punk scene there, there's reggae bands, you know, and you can get rap records or anything else in Nebraska."
Hexum also acknowledged that the Bad Brains were "a huge influence," which is why there was no doubt which song they wanted to cover for NORML's "Hempilation" CD, they chose to tribute HR, the troubled lead singer of Bad Brains, who in 1991 recorded "Who's Got the Herb?" with his solo group Human Rights.
"We're really happy with how that turned out, and its a tribute to someone who really was a big influence," said Hexum, "and, you know, its unfortunate he has so many personal problems - you know, getting arrested and everything else - but it doesn't taint the music."
Regarding their interest and involvement in the project as well as the issue of legalization, Hexum said that "its just, we're being honest about what we do for fun, and its definitely a safer thing to do than getting drunk. I mean, its pretty ridiculous that its illegal, but ... I think that people are slowly, kind of, figuring that out. Its just too much of a waste of taxpayers' money to go after stoners. Its just a waste."
Several years ago, after 311 had conquered the very nurturing Omaha pond, they headed out to the musical ocean that is L.A. to see if they could swim, and within a couple of months got signed by Capricorn, just in the nick of time. "When we moved to L.A., there was a couple of months where shit was real tight, and so we were just like 'please sign us now,' and it happened just in the right time before we were flat broke. So it actually worked out really nicely."
Regarding Omaha, Hexum said that "it was a great place for us to develop our talent and get used to rockin' crowds and develop our songwriting and everything like that, and it was a very nurturing crowd, there was a lot of enthusiastic audiences there, but we really felt like we had gone as far as we could. We didn't need to move to L.A., but we just kind of wanted to, to totally immerse ourselves in music and try and conquer a larger pond."
Since then, 311 has either been in the studio or else touring "pretty much non-stop," said Hexum. "I think we finally have earned a little relaxation time," which they will take in February and March of next year, after they complete a five-six week tour opening for Lenny Kravitz.
"I've been havin' a fuckin' blast out here, but at the same time, I miss having a kitchen and a car, and, like, a bedroom, and shit like that that a lot of people probably take for granted. But I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade it for anything."
As far as the music goes, Hexum said that he didn't really forsee any major changes in the future. "I think we'll always just really be focused on keeping the music melodic and having, you know, singing being a big element. To me, if its all rhythmic and no melody, it doesn't have the classic lasting power that, you know, a great song, a great melody has, so we'll just keep blending the both."
And as far as dealing with the success and growth that is certainly imminent for 311, its not something that they're really afraid of, said Hexum. "We'll keep approaching everything the exact same way. We're always gonna be about the music and about putting on a good live show and just being ourselves. You know, we're not gonna be a big glamour band or any of that bullshit. Its like, the more people that come to our shows, the better, and we're gonna keep the exact same approach."

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