11/6/2022 0 Comments 311 transistor vinyl originalSo all that being said, the remaining 10 tracks are fun and I cant wait to rock out this summer to them with the car windows down. Specifically though that tracks 4 (Revelation of the Year), 6 (The Great Divide), 11 (First Dimension) and 13 (Existential Hero) were very predictable tracks and should have been left out for a tighter record, just my opinion. Now don’t get me wrong, they are making music for the fans and you can count me in that group, I will have this cd in my player for months but this is not new territory, it really is the same old same old. There are some great tracks on here but its really all been done before. Told my brother this album was like a less creative but more proficient Transistor/Soundsystem. The brand, it appears, is on a mission to beat the band. But this latest studio work is less than the sum of its parts. Few of 311’s peers can match their instrumental ability and stamina onstage. The ballads “Friday Afternoon” and “Sand Dollars” sound like castaways searching for radio rescue, and the studio gimmickry reaches new heights on “Existential Hero,” when the group samples itself by distorting a snippet from one of its oldest songs.ģ11 Day celebrates staying true to the fans, but what’s missing from Stereolithic is soul. Producer Scotch Ralston’s return from a 15-year absence yields little sign of his fingerprints here. Stereolithic offers few redeeming songs: “Simple True” and the closer, “Tranquility,” are sweet standouts that shatter the monotony, and the sudden tempo turns and style swings of “Showdown” capture the kind of momentum 311 once delivered on entire albums. Sales haven’t stopped, but that doesn’t mean eclecticism has kept up. It was 311’s first album to break Billboard’s top ten, and the first of seven straight releases to claim that territory. One exception: Transistor, from 1997, was a 21-song behemoth, a masterpiece that explored themes like evolution and reincarnation, embraced psychedelia, and even contained a recording of outer space. Since then, their riff-driven funk-metal and reggae-pop flair has never strayed far from the blueprint. While the Chilis fixated on sex and Rage skewered social injustice, 311 floated somewhere in between. Starting with their 1993 debut, Music, the pair traded rhymes and verses that advocated unity and smoking weed. Martinez were the first co-frontmen to share singing and rapping duties. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine may have been the first rock bands to incorporate rap, but 311’s Hexum and S.A. Worse, the song contains this line: “We’re breaking away from the past/reaching a new plane at last.” Take the recycled formula of “The Great Divide”: tough guitar intro/Hexum rap/harmonizing chorus/Martinez rap/repeat. Much of the album is dull familiarity, a retread rife with expected song structures, indulgent effects, and silly studio chatter. That’s why Stereolithic suffers: nothing here suggests a break from those record-contract shackles. 311 transistor vinyl original free#But while free from corporate constraints, this effort plays like a haphazard collection of outtakes. You get the feeling the guys spitballed titles until they got one that could reveal a subliminal 3-1-1 on the cover art: STER3OL1TH1C. Frontman Nick Hexum has lately made much of their recent independence from “corrupt” and “incompetent” record labels, while praising his group’s prevailing “eclectic-ness.” Such self-hype reflects the go-get-’em earnestness of veterans going it alone for the first time. The timing of Stereolithic, out today on 311 Records, was a calculated marketing move from the inside. Today, some 25 years after forming, 311 seems to value brand over band. The shows boast a setlist spanning 60-plus songs, can run as long as five hours, and always feature a stunning drum solo involving all five band members. The first event happened in 2000, in pre-Katrina New Orleans, and has since returned every two years, with few exceptions. 311 has spent months promoting its first proper album since 2009, rallying the base with email blasts, even setting a March 11th release date to coincide with the concert tradition known as 311 Day.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |