Reconsider Everything
Out of those of you who read this from time to time, I don’t really know how many of you are aware how much I sincerely love the music that the band 311 creates.
Many people disregard and discredit them because their sound can flip flop between an abrasive affront of heavy guitar and aggressive lyrics to a soft laid back reggae and poppy sound.
They are a band that has taken reggae, some punk, rock, and firm meaningful rap, and molded it into a heartfelt sound that, to the members of 311, is doing much more than creating music. They are trying to move people to caring, move people to act on their life, to live according to actions, not mere thoughts and self-righteous ideological hypocrisy. They not only make music embodying what they believe in, but they embody a pure action that takes a thought, a pure, selfless thought and molds it into sounds and words than in my opinion can bring great change.
I am sure many of you who are my closer friends realize how much eastern philosophies such as Taoism and Buddhism have influenced my life, but I don’t think many people realize how the music of 311 truly impacts, creates, and affirms many of the same beliefs many people would attribute to eastern philosophies.
This is a band I have been listening to for 10 years now, and I am still sitting down some nights to read the lyrics to their songs, listening to how the beats of the drum, riffs of the guitar, and swinging lyrics bring life to the emotion that they try to aptly grasp.
There is a lot about 311 that is really hard for people to enjoy, and well I guess there is a lot about 311 that doesn’t mesh with what people enjoy in general.
But it wasn’t really their music that first drew me in at all. It was a pathetic attempt of mine to fit into my social group in 7th grade. Having bought a 311 shirt in a head shop with my grandmother during one summer simply because the back of the shirt had an alien head on it, I wore it to school on the first morning of school. Darek Holmes, a kid I for some reason thought to be really cool came up to me and was like, “Whoaa man, you like 311? They are awesome,” he said with the surfer-boy language he had all his life, but he was born and raised in Pa.
“Yeah man, they are awesome. I really like ‘em” I said back, stuttering and feigning confidence.
“That’s awesome man,” he said calmly, and walked away.
I later figured out they were a band, and promptly bought their self-titled blue album that weekend, and began listening to it while I would lift weights every night in my room. At this time in my life I had no musical taste, so I totally bought what other people really liked, and what sorta struck a tone with me. So, for a good 3 years after I finally got a cd player for Christmas, I bought Marilyn Manson, Seven Mary Three, Alanis Morisette, and 311. I listened to this all very loud for months on end, several hours a night, and slowly I began to realize I knew every word on the album of 311, and I really loved how their music made me lift weights to a rhythm, and I ended up working harder on them, most of the time singing while lifting.
So, the next summer, I bought another cd, 311’s first premier album from a five years before their self-titled album, Music, and that lasted me throughout the next couple years. It was so so different, working mainly heavy rock into smooth smooth reggae. Some of their songs made the perfect fusion of all of the members’ talents, and this slowly molded into what I had already grown to enjoy in their self-titled album.
I drove around the last couple of years of high school listening to a mixture of hard punk like Anti-Flag and Bigwig, emo-shit like Dashboard, always returning to 311 alone in my car during the many hours I spent alone dealing with the teenage angst BS that we all go through in various forms.
When I went to college, I quickly downloaded all of the other 311 albums that I was too cheap to buy, and I continued to learn all their songs, singing them alone in my room, bouncing around and always loving them.
College years were formative for me, and 311 was always there, their lyrics ringing deep within me, in all stages of my life. No matter where I was, one of their songs would truly speak to me, pushing me forward, expecting me to remain positive and to do something with my life, and that to feel sad or get upset about all of the BS in the world is a waste of time. I didn’t always succeed, but their music always pushed me forward.
There were many personal and social moments throughout college that included 311. And finally, senior year, one fall night after running around in moonlit corn fields behind Bucknell, I found myself at a 311 concert at Bucknell, dancing my heart out, feeling the most free and full of jubilation in a social setting as I have ever felt. Amongst a crowd of several hundred Bucknell students, crowding into lines, facing the large well-lit stage, and bobbing to the music rather oddly, I found my best friends in the back of the crowd in a circle, dancing like I have always felt like dancing inside, freeing the feelings 311 always made me feel. And there in the faces of all of my friends we screamed and sang the lyrics to each other as we danced around, holding on to each other as we danced in a rage. We walked home that night sweat dripping from our hair and all of our clothing, looking into each others’ smiling faces, understanding a little more about how each of us ticks inside - to the teachings that 311’s music has taught us.
---
If any of you care to look into more 311. Here are some songs that are really awesome. Some of them take some work to get into. But the words are right on.
** - denotes my favorite songs.
Music-
Do You Right, Hydroponic**, Freak Out**, Paradise, Welcome**
Grassroots-
I am still searching this album for a jewel. I am not sure there is one.
311-
All Mixed Up, Loco, Misdirected Hostility, Random**,
Don’t Tread On Me -
Solar Flare**, Frolic Room, Speak Easy, Thank Your Lucky Stars,
Evolver -
Beyond the Gray Sky**, Crack the Code, Reconsider Everything, Seems Uncertain, Still Dreaming**
From Chaos -
Amber, You Get Worked,
Sound System -
Come Original, Eons, Evolution,
Transistor -
Borders, Inner Light Spectrum, The Continuous Life**
---
Many people disregard and discredit them because their sound can flip flop between an abrasive affront of heavy guitar and aggressive lyrics to a soft laid back reggae and poppy sound.
They are a band that has taken reggae, some punk, rock, and firm meaningful rap, and molded it into a heartfelt sound that, to the members of 311, is doing much more than creating music. They are trying to move people to caring, move people to act on their life, to live according to actions, not mere thoughts and self-righteous ideological hypocrisy. They not only make music embodying what they believe in, but they embody a pure action that takes a thought, a pure, selfless thought and molds it into sounds and words than in my opinion can bring great change.
I am sure many of you who are my closer friends realize how much eastern philosophies such as Taoism and Buddhism have influenced my life, but I don’t think many people realize how the music of 311 truly impacts, creates, and affirms many of the same beliefs many people would attribute to eastern philosophies.
This is a band I have been listening to for 10 years now, and I am still sitting down some nights to read the lyrics to their songs, listening to how the beats of the drum, riffs of the guitar, and swinging lyrics bring life to the emotion that they try to aptly grasp.
There is a lot about 311 that is really hard for people to enjoy, and well I guess there is a lot about 311 that doesn’t mesh with what people enjoy in general.
But it wasn’t really their music that first drew me in at all. It was a pathetic attempt of mine to fit into my social group in 7th grade. Having bought a 311 shirt in a head shop with my grandmother during one summer simply because the back of the shirt had an alien head on it, I wore it to school on the first morning of school. Darek Holmes, a kid I for some reason thought to be really cool came up to me and was like, “Whoaa man, you like 311? They are awesome,” he said with the surfer-boy language he had all his life, but he was born and raised in Pa.
“Yeah man, they are awesome. I really like ‘em” I said back, stuttering and feigning confidence.
“That’s awesome man,” he said calmly, and walked away.
I later figured out they were a band, and promptly bought their self-titled blue album that weekend, and began listening to it while I would lift weights every night in my room. At this time in my life I had no musical taste, so I totally bought what other people really liked, and what sorta struck a tone with me. So, for a good 3 years after I finally got a cd player for Christmas, I bought Marilyn Manson, Seven Mary Three, Alanis Morisette, and 311. I listened to this all very loud for months on end, several hours a night, and slowly I began to realize I knew every word on the album of 311, and I really loved how their music made me lift weights to a rhythm, and I ended up working harder on them, most of the time singing while lifting.
So, the next summer, I bought another cd, 311’s first premier album from a five years before their self-titled album, Music, and that lasted me throughout the next couple years. It was so so different, working mainly heavy rock into smooth smooth reggae. Some of their songs made the perfect fusion of all of the members’ talents, and this slowly molded into what I had already grown to enjoy in their self-titled album.
I drove around the last couple of years of high school listening to a mixture of hard punk like Anti-Flag and Bigwig, emo-shit like Dashboard, always returning to 311 alone in my car during the many hours I spent alone dealing with the teenage angst BS that we all go through in various forms.
When I went to college, I quickly downloaded all of the other 311 albums that I was too cheap to buy, and I continued to learn all their songs, singing them alone in my room, bouncing around and always loving them.
College years were formative for me, and 311 was always there, their lyrics ringing deep within me, in all stages of my life. No matter where I was, one of their songs would truly speak to me, pushing me forward, expecting me to remain positive and to do something with my life, and that to feel sad or get upset about all of the BS in the world is a waste of time. I didn’t always succeed, but their music always pushed me forward.
There were many personal and social moments throughout college that included 311. And finally, senior year, one fall night after running around in moonlit corn fields behind Bucknell, I found myself at a 311 concert at Bucknell, dancing my heart out, feeling the most free and full of jubilation in a social setting as I have ever felt. Amongst a crowd of several hundred Bucknell students, crowding into lines, facing the large well-lit stage, and bobbing to the music rather oddly, I found my best friends in the back of the crowd in a circle, dancing like I have always felt like dancing inside, freeing the feelings 311 always made me feel. And there in the faces of all of my friends we screamed and sang the lyrics to each other as we danced around, holding on to each other as we danced in a rage. We walked home that night sweat dripping from our hair and all of our clothing, looking into each others’ smiling faces, understanding a little more about how each of us ticks inside - to the teachings that 311’s music has taught us.
---
If any of you care to look into more 311. Here are some songs that are really awesome. Some of them take some work to get into. But the words are right on.
** - denotes my favorite songs.
Music-
Do You Right, Hydroponic**, Freak Out**, Paradise, Welcome**
Grassroots-
I am still searching this album for a jewel. I am not sure there is one.
311-
All Mixed Up, Loco, Misdirected Hostility, Random**,
Don’t Tread On Me -
Solar Flare**, Frolic Room, Speak Easy, Thank Your Lucky Stars,
Evolver -
Beyond the Gray Sky**, Crack the Code, Reconsider Everything, Seems Uncertain, Still Dreaming**
From Chaos -
Amber, You Get Worked,
Sound System -
Come Original, Eons, Evolution,
Transistor -
Borders, Inner Light Spectrum, The Continuous Life**
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