It's a tribute to just how trendy the hybridazation of pop has become that a band like 311 can draw on as many as four or five genres at once and comes away sounding exactly the way you expect a commercial alternative rock band to sound in an age of one world, one music, one record collection.
They hit the stage rapping to heavy guitars last night at the Coca-Cola Star Lake Ampitheatre, treating the crowd of 9,849 to a block of "Hive", "Freak Out", and "Misdirected Hostility".
It was all Red Hot Chili Peppers without an actual tune to hang a groove on until they dipped into their title track from their latest effort, "Transistor." It's got an odd beat that you can't really dance to (at least, not at first), but the song is a well-deserved hit boasting some of the band's most accessible hooks, from the opening riff to the slow reggae ending.
It's hard to imagine Nick Hexum, a white guy, pick up and Jamacian accent from parents and friends growing up in suburban Nebraska. Still, it was pretty effective for putting the newer, more reggae-inspired material over. He credits the Clash with having turning him to reggae as a child, and it showed on the two most intriguing cuts they played from the new album, "Light Years" and "Prisoner."
"All Mixed Up", a standout from the band's self-titled breakthrough, built from a Red Hot Chili Peppers funk-guitar groove to a lazy feel-good chorus as a disco ball dropped from the ceiling and splashed the crowd with streams of light. A heavier hit from their last album, "Down," drew the biggest response of the evening.
The set was a mix of hip-hop, metal, disco, funk, and arena rock (on the frum solo anyway). There was even a point at which the guitarist, Timothy J. Mahoney, appeared to be channeling Jerry Gacria. There wasn't a whole lotta soloing going on, though Mahoney and Hexum did combine for a cool-twin guitar lead on another reggae-cut from the new one, "Beautiful Disaster."
Hexum didn't really have much to say, but when he talked, he knew just how to whip the crowd into a frenzy, inviting them all to jump up to the beat together.
De La Soul, appearently one of the few acts in rap to care if you understand more than a handful of words at a concert, opened the show with a set that took the 311 crowd on a pyschedelic trip from the trio's 1989 Top 40 single, "Me, Myself, and I" to their latest album, "Stakes is High."
At times they sang, but mostly they rapped about ego trips, celluar phones, and vibrations.
Thursday, August 28, 1997
Friday, August 22, 1997
Rock Band 311 Now Deals in Big Numbers (Star News)
Want to make a record with 311? Get ready to work.
Platinum-selling quintet likes to do things big. Like cut 30 songs this spring for it's new disk, Transistor. The band considered even more tracks before holding itself to 21, about double the number of songs on the average rock album, and clocking in at 65 minutes.
"We didn't want it to be too long." cracked guitarist Tim Mahoney. "We didn't want the listener to be taxed or feel like they're embarking on a mission."
No fear. Chances are fans will take all the songs they can get.
Recent times have been good for 311: After toiling on a grass roots circuit for five years, the Nebraska-bred band broke through with two sinewy radio singles, Down and All Mixed Up, pushing it's self-titled album to triple-platinum status. High-profile slots on skate and surf Warped Tour and the earth-rock H.O.R.D.E. tours fermented the brew. Now the band - including vocalist Nick Hexum, drummer Chad Sexton, bassist P-Nut, and vocalist-scratcher SA Martinezis - is headlining a tour all on it's own.
Mr. Mahoney said the long, grinding road helped ease a lot of the pressure that accompanies the follow-up to a winner like 311.
"We've developed over the years in a way that so long as we're writing and creating music that's important to us, our fans tend to follow us." He said. "If there was any pressure, it was pressure on ourselves to make a good record. There was no pressure from the recording company to have another Down."
Mr. Mahoney also knows the dangers that lie in rising to the top in the 90's, when information overload can kill a band as quickly as it propels it.
"Nowadays, there's so much more to being a band, with all the big media. You can see bands much more easily, and the focus isn't always 100 percent on the music," he said. "Part of rock 'n' roll is all the stuff that goes with it, but the foundation is music. If you don't have good music, and can't perform live, it's gonna sink."
So Mr. Mahoney flinches at letters from fans who toss up the requisite, knee-jerk "selling out" gibes.
"When people say that, it has nothing to do with the music," he said. "I can understand why they're saying that, but at the same time, we never been about glamour or being a big fancy rock band. As far as role models, we look at bands like Grateful Dead, playing 30 years in from of 20,000 people a night. That's a great thing to shoot for."
Anyhow, it's not like there aren't any benefits to scoring pole position in the rock race.
"It seemed like a natural step to have more mainstream sucess, and it got our foot in the door to radio and MTV," said Mr. Mahoney, "It allowed us to release Transistor as our first single, which is kinda weird for radio programming, with reggae on there at the end and all. If we hadn't had sucess, the radio may not have played a song like this."
Platinum-selling quintet likes to do things big. Like cut 30 songs this spring for it's new disk, Transistor. The band considered even more tracks before holding itself to 21, about double the number of songs on the average rock album, and clocking in at 65 minutes.
"We didn't want it to be too long." cracked guitarist Tim Mahoney. "We didn't want the listener to be taxed or feel like they're embarking on a mission."
No fear. Chances are fans will take all the songs they can get.
Recent times have been good for 311: After toiling on a grass roots circuit for five years, the Nebraska-bred band broke through with two sinewy radio singles, Down and All Mixed Up, pushing it's self-titled album to triple-platinum status. High-profile slots on skate and surf Warped Tour and the earth-rock H.O.R.D.E. tours fermented the brew. Now the band - including vocalist Nick Hexum, drummer Chad Sexton, bassist P-Nut, and vocalist-scratcher SA Martinezis - is headlining a tour all on it's own.
Mr. Mahoney said the long, grinding road helped ease a lot of the pressure that accompanies the follow-up to a winner like 311.
"We've developed over the years in a way that so long as we're writing and creating music that's important to us, our fans tend to follow us." He said. "If there was any pressure, it was pressure on ourselves to make a good record. There was no pressure from the recording company to have another Down."
Mr. Mahoney also knows the dangers that lie in rising to the top in the 90's, when information overload can kill a band as quickly as it propels it.
"Nowadays, there's so much more to being a band, with all the big media. You can see bands much more easily, and the focus isn't always 100 percent on the music," he said. "Part of rock 'n' roll is all the stuff that goes with it, but the foundation is music. If you don't have good music, and can't perform live, it's gonna sink."
So Mr. Mahoney flinches at letters from fans who toss up the requisite, knee-jerk "selling out" gibes.
"When people say that, it has nothing to do with the music," he said. "I can understand why they're saying that, but at the same time, we never been about glamour or being a big fancy rock band. As far as role models, we look at bands like Grateful Dead, playing 30 years in from of 20,000 people a night. That's a great thing to shoot for."
Anyhow, it's not like there aren't any benefits to scoring pole position in the rock race.
"It seemed like a natural step to have more mainstream sucess, and it got our foot in the door to radio and MTV," said Mr. Mahoney, "It allowed us to release Transistor as our first single, which is kinda weird for radio programming, with reggae on there at the end and all. If we hadn't had sucess, the radio may not have played a song like this."
Sunday, August 17, 1997
Thursday, August 14, 1997
Friday, August 1, 1997
Thursday, June 12, 1997
Radio Heads (Rolling Stone)
A makeshift sign near the entrance to the control room of studio "B" at L.A.'s NRG Studios read "Work-Free Drug Zone" this past spring. But judging by the slamming grooves booming from the room's massive speakers, someone was obviously hard at work there.
Those someones were the five members of 311 -- vocalists Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez, guitarist Tim Mahoney, bassist P-Nut and drummer Chad Sexton -- and their trusty, longtime sound engineer, Scott Ralston, who now also serves as co-producer.
The six made 311's fourth album, Transistor, over the course of three months, recording a whopping thirty-five tunes, twenty-one of which appear on the record. Transistor, which will hit stores August 5, clocks in at seventy-four minutes -- the most that can be squeezed onto a single compact disc (it will also be a single cassette and a two-record set). "It had been two years since we recorded," noted P-Nut, explaining that the excitement of being back in the studio led to the wealth of new material.
"Making Transistor was more of a mission than our past records," said Sexton, on the band's last day at the San Fernando Valley studio. "We've been in tunnelvision, working everyday. It's been a lot of work, but we were prepared. We did more than thirty songs in the time allotted to do fourteen songs, so it was work."
The theme of Transistor, as expressed on songs like "Electricity," "Galaxy," "No Control" and the title track, is that we're all connected by common forces, many of them beyond our comprehension.
"The basis of all of our thoughts," says Hexum, "and all of our actions comes down to the exchange of electrical charge. So we're basically saying that we're all transistors of the same force."
Though 311's first two rock-funk-hip-hop-reggae albums were little more than blips on the music industry's radar, the band's self-titled 1995 release sold nearly 3 million copies, powered by frequent radio and MTV play for "Down" and "All Mixed Up." That success paved the way for Transistor, allowing the band, which formed in Omaha, Neb., in 1990, to finally record the album they wanted to make.
"When a band has success like we did with our last album, they've earned the right to call their own shots on their next record," says Hexum. "With some bands, that would be a death sentence, because they'd get self-indulgent ... not having anyone to keep them straight. But I think we have that effect on each other."
The most obvious difference between "Transistor" and the band's previous work is the extensive reggae influence, which S.A. chalks up to their time spent touring Europe last year, when "all we listened to was dub reggae!"
311 kicks off what will be nearly two years of touring the day of their album's release, in San Diego. Days before, they'll warm up by headlining the two-day Melee Festival in Hawaii, where the band's laid-back lifestyle will certainly fit right in.
"We smoked a lot of herb making this record," Sexton says. "I know I just went crazy ... I don't know why."
Chalk it up to the sign.
Those someones were the five members of 311 -- vocalists Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez, guitarist Tim Mahoney, bassist P-Nut and drummer Chad Sexton -- and their trusty, longtime sound engineer, Scott Ralston, who now also serves as co-producer.
The six made 311's fourth album, Transistor, over the course of three months, recording a whopping thirty-five tunes, twenty-one of which appear on the record. Transistor, which will hit stores August 5, clocks in at seventy-four minutes -- the most that can be squeezed onto a single compact disc (it will also be a single cassette and a two-record set). "It had been two years since we recorded," noted P-Nut, explaining that the excitement of being back in the studio led to the wealth of new material.
"Making Transistor was more of a mission than our past records," said Sexton, on the band's last day at the San Fernando Valley studio. "We've been in tunnelvision, working everyday. It's been a lot of work, but we were prepared. We did more than thirty songs in the time allotted to do fourteen songs, so it was work."
The theme of Transistor, as expressed on songs like "Electricity," "Galaxy," "No Control" and the title track, is that we're all connected by common forces, many of them beyond our comprehension.
"The basis of all of our thoughts," says Hexum, "and all of our actions comes down to the exchange of electrical charge. So we're basically saying that we're all transistors of the same force."
Though 311's first two rock-funk-hip-hop-reggae albums were little more than blips on the music industry's radar, the band's self-titled 1995 release sold nearly 3 million copies, powered by frequent radio and MTV play for "Down" and "All Mixed Up." That success paved the way for Transistor, allowing the band, which formed in Omaha, Neb., in 1990, to finally record the album they wanted to make.
"When a band has success like we did with our last album, they've earned the right to call their own shots on their next record," says Hexum. "With some bands, that would be a death sentence, because they'd get self-indulgent ... not having anyone to keep them straight. But I think we have that effect on each other."
The most obvious difference between "Transistor" and the band's previous work is the extensive reggae influence, which S.A. chalks up to their time spent touring Europe last year, when "all we listened to was dub reggae!"
311 kicks off what will be nearly two years of touring the day of their album's release, in San Diego. Days before, they'll warm up by headlining the two-day Melee Festival in Hawaii, where the band's laid-back lifestyle will certainly fit right in.
"We smoked a lot of herb making this record," Sexton says. "I know I just went crazy ... I don't know why."
Chalk it up to the sign.
Friday, January 24, 1997
Artist of the Month (Guitar World, 1997)
Artists Of The Month: P-Nut Of 311
Beak (B)- What's the funniest joke you ever heard?
P-nut: Oh God. I couldn't repeat it, just because my memory's
horrible, but it definitely came from my father. He's one of the
funniest guys I ever met.
B: What's your favorite color?
P: Purple. It's actually the contrast between purple and green.
That's my favorite color. I actually have two.
B: Boxers or briefs?
P: Briefs!
B: If you were stranded on an island, what three things would you
want to have?
P: Um, my truck...um, my girlfriend and my stereo, of course. With a
CD collection, real important thing.
B: What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?
P: Favorite cartoon as a kid... I hate to say it 'cause it's such an
easy answer, but it was Bugs Bunny. Such a classic y'know? Can't go
wrong with it either.
B: What's your favorite kind of weather?
P: My favorite kind of weather is San Francisco weather. I guarantee
that. I love it here. I like the way it rains, I like the way it's
cold. It's too hot in L.A. I'm gonna move north, definitely.
B: Do you have any pets?
P: Yeah, I have a year old South American iguana. That is the
coolest creature I have ever lived with.
B: What is it's name?
P: Her name is Orbit, and she's gonna get five feet long...
B: Wow!
P: And I'm gonna make sure she does it/
B: Do you ever get a jingle stuck in your head?
P: Oh God...
B: If so, like, which one?
P: Man, I've been gettin', and I don't, I don't hate to say it, but it is kind of, it is kind of, whatever, but I always get the No Doubt, the new No Doubt song, God, it's so, it's so catchy that it just stays with me.
B: What's your favorite name?
P: Um... Between my two names? Or my...
B: Any name...
P: My favorite name all together...
B: In the world.
P: Hmm...
B: What's the coolest name you've ever heard?
P: Um, Archibald... is a good name.
B: Can we have Chad's phone number?
P: No.
B: Ok.
P: No, sorry.
B: Ok.
P: I would if I could!
B: That's ok.
P: He'd get mad
Beak (B)- What's the funniest joke you ever heard?
P-nut: Oh God. I couldn't repeat it, just because my memory's
horrible, but it definitely came from my father. He's one of the
funniest guys I ever met.
B: What's your favorite color?
P: Purple. It's actually the contrast between purple and green.
That's my favorite color. I actually have two.
B: Boxers or briefs?
P: Briefs!
B: If you were stranded on an island, what three things would you
want to have?
P: Um, my truck...um, my girlfriend and my stereo, of course. With a
CD collection, real important thing.
B: What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?
P: Favorite cartoon as a kid... I hate to say it 'cause it's such an
easy answer, but it was Bugs Bunny. Such a classic y'know? Can't go
wrong with it either.
B: What's your favorite kind of weather?
P: My favorite kind of weather is San Francisco weather. I guarantee
that. I love it here. I like the way it rains, I like the way it's
cold. It's too hot in L.A. I'm gonna move north, definitely.
B: Do you have any pets?
P: Yeah, I have a year old South American iguana. That is the
coolest creature I have ever lived with.
B: What is it's name?
P: Her name is Orbit, and she's gonna get five feet long...
B: Wow!
P: And I'm gonna make sure she does it/
B: Do you ever get a jingle stuck in your head?
P: Oh God...
B: If so, like, which one?
P: Man, I've been gettin', and I don't, I don't hate to say it, but it is kind of, it is kind of, whatever, but I always get the No Doubt, the new No Doubt song, God, it's so, it's so catchy that it just stays with me.
B: What's your favorite name?
P: Um... Between my two names? Or my...
B: Any name...
P: My favorite name all together...
B: In the world.
P: Hmm...
B: What's the coolest name you've ever heard?
P: Um, Archibald... is a good name.
B: Can we have Chad's phone number?
P: No.
B: Ok.
P: No, sorry.
B: Ok.
P: I would if I could!
B: That's ok.
P: He'd get mad
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