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The members of 311 have left behind the rap/rock fusion of their early career to focus on a more melodic rock sound on their latest two albums, including the most recent “Don’t Tread on Me.” MYRIAN SANTOS
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| 311 changes gears with melody groove
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| By Alan Sculley, For the Tribune |
| September 4, 2006 |
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With 15 years as a group under their belts, 311 is a veteran band by any definition. But vocalist/DJ SA Martinez sounded more like a musician just getting his first taste of success when he was asked about the band as it exists today. |
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“I really think our writing has just, it’s really growing, and I think it’s something that is only going to get better,” Martinez says. “I really think our best records are yet to come. I’m really liking the direction that we’re heading in.”
It’s one that’s taking 311 more toward a grooving melodic rock sound and away from the rap-rock hybrid of the group’s early albums. Martinez acknowledges that the move hasn’t been embraced by all 311 fans.
“I know some of our fans think we’re becoming too melodic or we’re not doing enough rap or whatever,” he says. “But honestly we’re just doing what’s in our hearts and what wants to come out. I think that really makes us who we are.”
In Martinez’s view, 311 reached a stylistic crossroads before making the 2001 CD, “From Chaos.”
By that time, the band had seen their commercial fortunes level off a bit.
“I think we were at a crossroads there where we were trying to recapture some of what we were known for early on, and then on the other side of that record we let ourselves go a little more,” Martinez says. “Some of the songs toward the end of that record were some of the best songs we’ve ever written, ‘Amber,’ ‘Uncalm,’ ‘I’ll Be Here Awhile.’ We really just started to say this is really kind of what we want to do, as opposed to let’s recapture our youth. Let’s embrace the melodies and the things we really want to sing.”
With 2003’s “Evolver,” 311 embraced melodic rock even more, and that trend continues with their latest disc, “Don’t Tread on Me,” one of the band’s strongest and most focused CDs.
The reggae element that was featured on “From Chaos” once again figures strongly in several songs, including the laid-back “Speak Easy,” the harder-edged “Frolic Room” and the title track (which reached number two on Billboard’s Hot Modern Rock chart).
With 311 coming off what Martinez feels are the band’s two best albums, he’s not only confident about the quality of the current live show, but the future of 311.
“I think this really just gives us more life, even down the road,” he says. “It deepens our catalog to the point where these songs, I think, are really going to grow on our fans and are just going to be fun to play live. And I think it just points us in the right direction.”
311
With: Pepper and The Wailers When: 7 p.m. Thursday Where: Mesa Amphitheatre, 201 N. Center St. How much: $35 Information: (480) 644-2560 or www.mesaamp.com |
| Contact Alan Sculley by telephone at (480) 898-6500. |
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