AMSTERDAM - "McDonald's. We need to find the McDonald's," 311 singer Nick Hexum says, gazing up at un unintelligible street sign.
It is the beginning of a beautifully mild July day in Amsterdam and Hexum and his bandmates have just pulled into town with food on their minds. And with the minds in question being American minds whose bodies are finding it hard to live on $15 a day per diem, the automatic solution to the problem is, of course, a visit to the red and yellow land that Ronald built.
"There it is," a determined Hexum says, spying the Golden Arches and making a beeline for them. "Let's eat."
Ten minutes later, Hexum, drummer Chad Sexton, rapper mixmaster Doug "S.A." Martinez and Trevor Cole, the band's guitar and "good vibe" tech, are hapily munching on Royales with cheese and discussing the previous evening's show in a small Holland town an hour north of Amsterdam. For most of its month-long, 16-show European tour, the Omaha natives in 311 have played the role of opener for Shootz (SHOO'teez) Groove, a rap funk-metal outfit of Brooklyn, N.Y. One notable exceptionwas the Glastonbury Festival on June 24, which took place in the English town of the same name near London and featured the likes of Plant and Page, Soul Asylum, Stone Roses, Offspring and Spearhead on three stages during three days. While 311 played at 10:30 a.m. slot on the second day, it was nonetheless good exposure for the band and hey hope, a sign of things to come.
It is the prospect of things to come that have infused the 311 camp with a tempered excitement and a cautious optimism as band members look toward the future. More to the point, things are looking up and the band is feeling good again after hitting what could be termed a low point in its career little more than a year ago.
First off there is Europe. Hexum, Sexton, Martinez, guitarist Tim Mahoney and bassist P-Nut landed in Great Britain on June 20 and by July 7, when they are scheduled to fly back to the U.S., will have traversed parts of Germany, Holland, France, England, and Scotland. It is for most of the members of 311 their first trip overseas and they are enjoying the mostly positive reaction of European fans (and some backpacking Americans) to their music, as well as taking some sights.
Second, and perhaps more important, is the release of 311, the band's self titled third effort for Capricorn Records. After a few bad experiences recording the last 311 record, Grassroots, the band sat down for two months this time around and did nothing but wrote songs. Twenty one of them, in fact. Then it went out and got "the ballsiest roducer" it could, Hexum says, recorded those songs live in a real studio and has come up with what band members call "the definitive 311 record." Hence its name.
And finally, none involved can think of anything else they'd rather be doing for a living than traveling the country, or the world as the case may be, and playing music.
"I just listened to the (new) record again last night," Hexum says later as he strides up the stairs of the band's double decker tour bus, "and God...it's so good."
Those in the band and crew who happen to be standing around nod their heads in agreement. After navigating Amsterdam's "silent but deadly" street cars, as the band calls them, Hexum and his fellow Big Mac lovers, bellies full, are back at the combination hostel/bar/coffeeshop/restaurant where they will play that night with the Shootz Groove. Those not on the bus are spread throughout the compound, playing chess or connect-4 in the coffeeshop or lounging on the pation in the warm Dutch sunshine. The day is theirs to kill and, as anyone who's been to Amsterdam can testify, it is a good town in which to kill a day.
"It just keeps getting more comfortable," Hexum says in his typical calm, confident, semi-aloof manner. "Bigger buses, nicer hotels... things like that. We're getting more people to shows and amking more money."
But just over a year ago, life didn't look quite rosey.
During the writing and recording of Grassroots, the band was letf mostly to its own devices after personal problems affecting producer Eddy Offord worsened and he was unavailable to help much with production. Coupled with Offord's absence was the fact that Grassroots was written as it was recorded at the bands house in L.A. and not in a real studio. As a result, hexum said,, the record sounds a bit more experimental and less cohesive than Music, 311's major label debut. "Right now I would say Grassroots is our weakest record because of all the stuff going on at the time and not being recorded in a studio," Hexum says.
"But if you take all that into account, it really sounds pretty good."
Learning from earlier mistakes, 311 did things differently this time. And taking time off to focus on writing songs was just the first step. Next the band enlisted the guidance and experience of producer Ron St. Germain, who has worked with a slew of other harder edged alternative bands, something Offord has not done, Hexum says.
"Eddy was from another generation," Hexum says. "We didn't grow up listening to YES and those kinds of bands. We grew up listening to Bad Brains and bands like that."
St. Germain, who coincidentally produced Bad Brains' I Against I, proved to be a major asset, Hexum says. The new record was recorded live in the studio with fewer overdubs than on previous efforts in order to capture the band's live energy, he says. All 21 songs were put down on tape, however the band whittled the number of songs on the record to 14 after a secret ballot.
The results of their toils appears to live up to 311's considerable talents. Most of the 14 songs on 311 clock in between three and four minutes. They are focused on cohesive and bear more in common with Music than Grassroots. While Sexton's drumming, Mahoney's deft riff and P-Nut's funky bass sound stellar as usual, perhaps the most pleasent surprise is that Hexum and Martinez both sing on more than a few. In fact, not just sing, but harmonize together in a way that has been threatening to come to the forefront of 311's music since Martinez joined the band.
The reason for cutting the number of songs on the record, Hexum says, is simple.
"Everything we've ever recorded has been released," he says, explaining that the band thought it would be nice to have some unreleased songs to put on the b-sides of singles. Other options for the seven castaways, which Hexum describes as "a little more experimental," are compilations and movie soundtracks. In fact, one of the songs will appear on the soundtrack to the new National Lampoon movie, "Senior Trip," while another will be featured on the Musicians Against Racism and Sexism (M.A.R.S.) compilation.
311 takes the stage about 9:30 that evening, just as the crowd is begining to filter in. Martinez and the band's drum tech Yeti (also an Omaha native), just make it back from a trip to Western Union in the nick of time. They both seem a bit rattled after a wild cab ride in which the slightly crazed Dutch driver told them to "hold on to your stomaches."
Hexum and Martinez lead the charge as the band kicks into "Freak Out," from Music. And charge they do. These guys, Martinez in particular, never stop moving. Mahoney, proudly showing off his pierced nipples and ahoulder to arm tattoos, alternately bangs his head up and down or closes his eyes to the sky, lost behind his stringy hair. P-Nut, on the other side of the stage, holds his base like a weapon as he struts around like a rooster, giving the crwd a looksee at his body art, including the Aleister Crowley quote, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," located on the outside of his lower left leg. And of course, Sexton, the drummer, the forgotten man in the back, who with an intense scowl of concentration is worrying about whether he's going too fast or too slow as he powers the band along.
Throughout the tour, 311 has been playing, with minor nightly changes, more or less the ame 45 minute set, heavily laden with songs from Music. Usually opening with "Freak Out" and closing with "Fuck the Bullshit," the set also features "Feels So Good," a killer, funked-out version of "Nix Hex," "Lucky" and "Off-beat Bare Ass" from Grassroots, and "Down" and "Jack O'Lanterns Weather," two of the best new songs, among others. The evening's set comes off without a hitch and flows beautifully, to the delight of the audience, a few of whom call for an encore.
Though small compared to the number of people the band draws in many areas of the United States, the crowds in Europe seem to be taking to it, as evidenced by a show in Berlin on June 30 at which approximately 80 people (it was a small club, to be fair) were up and groovin' to the five guys from Nebraska. One vocal fan kept calling for "Unity," and being good Midwestern boys, they oblige him. But the band agrees that the show in Paris on July 5 was the best reaction it's had so far, with one fan even yelling "Slinky Girl," a song from the band's self-released first record, Unity.
According to Hexum, "Recording is cake. This (touring) is the hard part." For a major portion of the year, the band members seperate lives are combined into one while they're on the road, sleeping, eating and hanging out mostly with each other. Hexum likened the experience to being in the army where all one's needs are taken care of and all one has to do is go out every day and perform the task that keeps the whole machine running.
But instead of handing their lives over to a drill instructor as a new recruit might, 311 hands its lives over to manager Adam Raspler. At age 24, Raspler is the man who gets things done for the band. He is constantly running around making phone calls, coordinating interviews, schmoozing record company reps, handing out passes to get into the club, passes to eat and generally making sure that everything runs according to schedule. Raspler originally worked as an assistant to 311's former manager, but when the band realized Raspler was doing all the work, they fired his boss and welcomed him into what has become known as the "311 brotherhood."
Plastered onto the sides of the bands equipment cases, as well as on shirts, are emblems emblazoned with those very words: 311 Brotherhood. Apparently, there exists in California a clothing company by the name of "Local 311." When the company heard of the band, it sent over some of its wares with "311 Brotherhood" on them and the phrase seems to have stuck.
"They were cool shirts, and well...(the phrase) kinda fit," Mahoney says, with a shrug of his shoulders.
The band refers to it as paying their dues. It is four days later at a club in North London, a show 311 was supposed to headline but was bumped down to the opening slot (and a 35--minute set) by the club's management. To make things worse, it isn't allowed a sound check. Consequently, the show suffers as the sound is horribly muddled, and the crowd is not impressed. but such is life and the band takes it in stride.
"We're just paying our dues," Mahoney says later, hoping such hassles will fall by he wayside when and if his band hits the big time.
With only a few more dates to play on this side of the Atlantic, the band is becoming less excited about being in Europe and is eagerly looking forward to its upcoming American tour, where the largest crowds (Atlanta, New York, Los Angles) will number in the thousands instead of the tens as they frequently have in Europe. After 311 lands in New York City on July 7, it will shoot a video (with a $70,000 buget) for one of the new songs, then immediately embark upon a tour that is expected to last for approximately six months.
For now 311 is optimistic about its future and plans on aggressively getting the word out about itself and packing more people into shows.
"We're never going to be a hit-oriented band. But so may cool people would like us that haven't heard us," Hexum says with a note of frustration. "If you have a crowd of people, 20 people have never heard of us and one person loves us."
But beyond all the hassles-the comunal living, unreliable club owners, monotonous interviews with clueless journalists and too many Big Macs-there is the music, always the music. And that is, of course, what keeps them doing it.
"It's fun to play and get people dancing," Hexum says. "Everybody has to have a job and this is a great job."
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