Original Thought (Baltimore Sun)

"Come original, you got to come original/All entertainers, come original," sings 311's Nick Hexum on the song "Come Original." Despite the awkward grammar, there's no mistaking Hexum's meaning - there's no value to be had in trend-chasing or imitation. If you want your work to matter, you need to do something distinctive.
To their credit, the members of Hexum's band, 311, have done just that with "Soundsystem" (Capricorn). Even as other bands are cashing in on the rap/rock fusion that 311 helped pioneer, the band's new album moves beyond the obvious variations to deliver something unique.
"Come Original," for instance, does just that, mixing a lilting, dance-hall vocal with hip-hop rhythms and crunchy guitar for the A-section, then shifts to a more aggressive pulse based on slap-bass and turntable scratching for the rap-style B-section. That alone is more musical variety than most bands manage, but 311 shifts gears yet again on the song's bridge, laying down an angular metal riff that seems to soar over the pulsing bass and drums.
Thanks to the lyric, "Come Original" may be the most obvious example of 311's eclectic approach, but it's hardly an isolated example. From the easy, Caribbean-inflected flow of "Strong All Along" to the punchy, muscular groove of "Large in the Margin," 311 offers a wide array of stylistic ideas here. But even when the sources are obvious, what the band does with its influences is neither pat nor predictable.
Indeed, if there's any common thread to these songs, it's the way the group balances rhythmic fluidity with textural intensity. In other words, no matter how much 311 wants to punish your speakers, the band never wants to interrupt your groove. So even though there's a fair amount of guitar shred in songs such as "Freeze Time" or "Can't Fade Me," 311 never detours into straight-out thrash, preferring instead to keep the music at a nice, funky simmer.
Wanting to "come original" doesn't mean the band doesn't occasionally pay overt tribute to its musical muses. Even though "Life's Not a Race" uses no congas or timbales, it's hard to mistake the influence Santana exerts over the track, from Tim Mahoney's sweetly searing lead (very much in the Carlos Santana vein) to the "Black Magic Woman"-style breakdown at the song's end.
But even when 311 wears its sources on its sleeve, the band never seems to be slavishly imitating the artists it admires. These guys would rather "come original," and that's the best reason to discover their "Soundsystem."