There’s something very interesting going on in rock and roll these days- places that you perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily envision as hard rock strongholds are beginning to produce some of the note-worthy and sucessful bands around. Clearly, no longer do media centers like New York or Los Angeles hold the rock scene in a virtual stranglehold. Indeed, if one didn’t know better, they might get the notion that the more out-of-the-way your residence is, the better your chance of big-time sucess may be. Just look at the facts. Slipknot hail from Des Moines, Iowa. Staind come from Springfield, Massachusetts. Limp Bizkit call Jacksonville, Flordia home. But when it come to out-of-the-way places, perhaps no band has to take backseat to the band known as 311. You see, their home is Omaha, Nebraska.
Omaha may just have the distinction of being the least funky place on earth. Sandwiches invariably come on white bread… with mayonnaise. Pastel-colored stretch pants on oversized women and guys decked out in white sox with dress shoes seem all the fashion rage. A “crime wave” consist of two five year olds stealing candy from the neighborhood convenience store. The most exciting subject to every conversation is the latest derring-do of the University of Nebraska “Cornhusker” football program. A hip evening in this Midwestern burb is catching the early dinner special at Red Lobster and maybe- just maybe- sneaking into a 7 o’clock movie.
Things move at a decidedly slower pace in Omaha; nobody’s ever gonna confuse this place with the Big Apple or La La Land. And the folks here like it that way. Make no mistake about it, this is The Heartland- the place where the true Spirit of America comes to the fore day-in and day-out. People smile at you wherever you go, and a constant subject of interest in the weather- this is farm country, after all. As one might expect, the music scene in Omaha isn’t exactly Sunset Strip, consisting primarily of a hew red-neck country bars where, as the locals say, “the beer is cold and the girls are hot.” As far as rock and roll goes, if you look hard enough you may turn up a hip club or two that will play some of the latest hits while the all-white teen-aged audience- dressed for the most part in looks taken straight off the latest MTV video- do their best to appear as with-it as possible.
But before we go any further ragging on Omaha, let it be said that 311 is mor-than happy to call this city of 200,000 inhabitants its home. In fact, vocalist Nick Hexum, drummer Chad Sexton, guitarist Tim Mahoney, bassist P-Nut and vocalist SA Martinez, seen more determined than ever to take their distinctly upbeat, feel-good brand of rap-metal to as many distant corners of the globe as is humanly possible. With the release of hteir latest album, Soundsystem, this unique “heavy hop” unit has begun to realize that they may be primed and ready to place their home toen even moe prominently on the rock and roll map. That’s a concept that can’t help but make these corn-fed homeboys crack ear-to-ear smiles.
“Believe it or not, Omaha’s a cool place,” Hexum said. “I think a lot of what we are as a band and who we are as people comes from where we’re from. When you start a band in a place where there isn’t that great a music scene, tou get a chance to develop your own way, at your own speed. That’s really helpful because you don’t feel that you always have to fit in. You can listen to what you like, dress the way you like and play the way you like. You can’t do that everywhere else. There’s not a lot of pressure on you in Omaha- except people telling you that you should think about getting a real job.”
Over the last six years the members of 311 have not only proven that they do indeed posses real jobs, but they’ve also shown that those jobs will likely make them an even more sucessful act before Y2K reaches its climax. With their latest rlease following hot-on-the-heels of both the groups self-titled 1995 disc, and 1997’s Full Circle, Soundsystem has picked up right where its illustrious predecessors left off. Laying down a wall-to-wall barrage of chunky, funky rhythms- all accented by a healthy dose of heavy-handed riffs- on such tracks as Freeze Time and Large in the Margin, 311 has once again shown that a band doesn’t necessarily need to follow a predictable musical pattern to reach the top of the rock and roll mountain. In fact, it’s a 311’s unpredictability that has clearly made them one of the most intriguing bands of the new millennium.
“We’re not trying to be different… honest,” Sexton said with a laugh. “It’s just us being us. When you have five really good friends hangin’ out and makin’ music, this is the kind of stuff you end up with. We’re a real natural band, we tend to let things flow when we get togethher and jam and then see what develops. We don’t really plan a great deal of what we’re going to do. I think there may be a few more songs on this album that are a real collaboration between all of us. On the last album, we collaborated some, but others we kind of wrote on our own. We still do that, but on this album I think we worked together a bit more.”
While bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit utilized a musical formula somewhat similar to 311’s to reach their current chart topping status, it is clear that this is one unit not designed to ride anyone else’s coattails to the top. With their decidely positive lyrical message enhancing the up-beat rhythms of their songs, 311 has now solidfied their position as a band that figuratively and interally rocks to the beat of their own drummer. Proof of this units fast-growing popularity can be seen not only in their album successes, but also in their concert ticket sales, and in their fast-growing merchandising revenues. In fact, owning a 311 T-shirt has become a Year 2000 statement of purpose, a rock and roll badge of honor that states loudly and proudly that the owner of this garment doesn’t necessarily believe in the rock and roll establishment. (It helps also that the code “311” stands for “indecent exposure” in Omaha police jargon.) Hexum, for one, is as amazed by the band’s ascension up the popular music ladder of success as anyone.
“Yeah, I see all those kids with our T-shirts,” he said. “It seems to really mean a lot to them to wear a shirt with our name. And believe me, it means a lot to is as well! I think those fans look at us and see five guys who really get along, people who are having fun, and making music. They relate to that. I hope they also relate to what we’re sayin’ in our songs, especially since so many of them deal with handling your own problems in a non-violent way. That’s a real important message in these times. It really makes us feel good to know that the music we’re making is not only reaching a lot of people, but that’s it’s having a positive effect on their lives. Knowing that you’re having that kind of impact on fans has got to make you feel real good.”
311 Archive 