The Rise and Fall of 311

Nick Hexum, Doug “SA” Martinez, Tim Mahoney, Chad Sexton, P-Nut. 311 was the first band I ever cared about enough that I knew all the members’ names. The alt-rockers from Omaha blasted into the ‘90s with an uncanny ability to cross and fuse musical styles that came to shape the next 10 years of alt-rock – but no one was ever as good at mixing reggae, rap, rock, funk, punk, jazz, and latin influences to create such a unique sound. The first time I heard their third major label album, the self-titled 311, was on my sister Summer’s stereo, and I was hooked.

The song "Six", from Grassroots.
I quickly acquired my own copy of the album, and over the next few years I purchased the rest of their then-released discography. By the end of 10th grade, I could sing along to every single track on their first four major label albums, Music, Grassroots, 311, and Transistor. I managed to get my hands on a pirated copy of one of their early independently released albums, Unity, and their collection of early material, Omaha Sessions. Then came Soundsystem and something had changed. Something about the music was unsettling and in some way didn’t feel like the 311 I’d come to love.

Over the course of the next 10 years more albums followed – From Chaos, Evolver, Don’t Tread on Me, and Uplifter, and I like each one less than the last. The music had become softer, less edgy. The band that had, for me at least, defined the high-energy alternative rock of the ‘90s was starting to sound tired.

311 had always used their lyrics to promote a message of peace, love, and unity; like modern hippies with electric guitars and distortion pedals. Their sounds was usually pressing and heavy, occasionally lighter, slower, or more jovial, but always unique in its pan-generic hodge-podge of greatness. One of the things that made those early albums so great was that they were aggressive – heavy guitars and sharp drums accompanied the fast rapping and oft-distorted, angsty vocals that defined 311’s early high-energy sound.

The lyrics covered various topics such as anger, peace, standing up to authority, living in harmony, drug use, sex, the importance of respecting others, and farting in your bandmate’s face. Part of what made the music so damned interesting was the dichotomy of the aggressive sound with the peace-promoting lyrics. But with each new album after Transistor, the guitars became lighter, the rapped vocals began to disappear, and the diversity of influences shrank. Their most recent outings, Don’t Tread on Me and Uplifter can accurately be described as reggae-rock. 311 became the kind of music that frat bros listen to at the beach; no more room for mosh pits or headbanging. Even their lyrics became uninteresting, focusing more on sappy love songs and harmless platitudes about the peaceful feeling of being drunk. Snooze.

"Golden Sunlight" from Uplifter. What is this crap?


What happened? I don’t know if they saw all the money Jack Johnson et al were making and sold out, they just got older, or all the years of pot use made them incapable of being aggressive. Whatever it was, I wish 311 would find something to get mad about.