311 - Grassroots
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Free Music Notes for Grassroots
Free Music Review: Good Lord, Yes...
Hit: 5 Stars
Listening to GRASSROOTS today, I'm still overwhelmed by the variety of styles on this record. When it came out in 1994, it sounded like nothing else on the pop music radar. Here was a hard rock band that was equally comfortable playing reggae, latin-tinged ballads, "jam band" rock, rap and even a little jazz. Unlike many other versatile groups of the time (Phish, Dave Matthews) 311 rocked harder and very often melded these various styles into one seamless track. It's this type of musical alchemy that propelled 311 to their status as one of the top live bands in the U.S., while at the same time confusing lame critics (Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly) who were incapable of accepting a sound so utterly original.The laugh is squarely on the critics now. 311 have been together for almost 15 years now, and they're as big as they've ever been. Yet GRASSROOTS remains their masterpiece; 45 minutes of essential 311 music.
01. Homebrew 10/10 - The perfect opening salvo with a killer Led Zep guitar riff and lyrics inspired by an acid trip.
02. Lucky 7/10 - Weakest track on the CD. Still salvaged by its percussive groove and funny lyrics.
03. Nutsymtom 9/10 - Heavy intro groove, breaks into a Santana-like jam for the second half with a killer Tim Mahoney guitar solo.
04. 8:16 am 9/10 - Very pretty mellow rocker. Exactly the type of song you wouldn't expect from this sort of band and a great example of their genre-smashing greatness.
05. Omaha Stylee 9/10 - Awesome rap-flavored track is a shoutout to their home town.
06. Applied Science 8/10 - Nice groove, killer Chad Sexton drum solo.
07. Taiyed 8/10 - Another good change-of-pace track. SA handles all the lyrics himself while Nick Hexum sits in on second guitar. Another wicked Tim Mahoney solo (the CD in general is totally loaded with his genius lead guitar work.)
08. Silver 8/10 - One of the heaviest cuts on the disc. Yet another killer groove and more astute lyrics from Hexum.
09. Grassroots 9.5/10 - Title track does a fantastic job of combining 311's many styles into a whole greater than the some of its parts. Total 311 synergy.
10. Salsa 8/10 - Another propulsive headbanger with some great lyrics from SA; "the girl who gave you her sex I heard was homeless..." Priceless!
11. Lose 9/10 - Out of nowhere, a great Caribbean flavored jazz ballad with Hexum coming across like a male Billie Holiday. Guarenteed to impress even the biggest 311 hata.
12. Six 9/10 - Sinewy riff establishes a menacing groove that relents on the ska-infected chorus. The ending on this one is incredible.
13. Offbeat Bare-Ass 9.5/10 - This album is loaded with bad-ass guitar riffs, but this one may take the cake. Lyrics here about being horrassed by the cops for having a Dead sticker on your tour bus are insightful and have a keen sensitivity beyond the grasp of most "alternative rockers".
14. 1-2-3 10/10 - This beautiful slow jam seals the deal for GRASSROOTS as the best 311 album of all time.
Overall, this is an album that-- despite limited commercial success upon its release-- has grown in reputation to be one of the bona-fide classics of the genre. Highly recommended to all fans of great rock music.
Free Music Review: 311's got grassroots!
Hit: 5 Stars
Wow... This CD is one of the best CDs that I have EVER heard. I have an all-star collection of CDs, where I like every song, and this is in it. So far, I have From Chaos-311, Blood Sugar Sex Magik-Red Hot Chili Peppers(Who i'm also addicted to), and Soundsystem-311.My fave 311 CDs in order are:
1.Grassroots
2.Soundsystem
3.From Chaos
4. Evolver
5.Tie between Music and Self Titled(The Blue Album)
6.Transistor
When I got this CD, I only liked Homebrew,Lucky,8:16AM,Taiyed, and Six.But I started listening to Applied Science, and got hooked. Then I got hooked to Salsa, Silver,and all the other hard rockers.
1. Homebrew. an energetic classic. 10/10
2.Lucky. sweet ska-ish chorus. 10/10
3. Nutsymptom. Really energetic, with a cool slap bass line about 1/2way through, then turns to a jam thats kinda like Santana.Sweeeet... 10/10
4. 8:16 AM. A chill-out, cruise in your car song. The beginning is actually kinda jazzy, then gets funky. And the ending is kinda like the one in Homebrew. 10/10
5. Omaha Stylee. Cool 45 sec intro by SA mixing sounds and stuff. Then turns into an alterna-rocker with a cool ska chorus. Has a cool ending. 10/10
6. Applied Science. Aaahhhh... Perfect. The guitars are awesome. Chad (the drummer) has a solo about 1/2way through,and it lasts about 45 sec(not long enough).Then goes back to the original part. 10/10
7. Taiyed. Another chill-out song like 8:16AM. Its only SA in this song.this song is good, but really, they could have made it better. Like adding Nick's rapping and some singing. Oh well. 10/10
8. Silver. An awesome guitar riff that can get stuck in your head. Before the guitars come in, you hear Nick say "Bobby, you be quiet out there." (??? Don't ask)This songs lyrics are anti-racist, so there's proof to all those people who believe in the stupid 311/KKK rumor. 9/10 (wow! It's not 10!)
9. Grassroots. The song on here that took me until a few weeks ago to get addicted. Cool mix of reggae and rock, or as I call, rockae. 10/10
10. Salsa. My least favorite song on the album, and I still love it. A cool reggaeish background comes up every now and then, and I love it. Kinda short, though. 8.5/10
11. Lose. Pure laid-back reggae. Sweet. 10/10
12. Six. Has cool guitars and a ska chorus, then a cool grunge-ish jam near the end. 9/10
13. Offbeat Bare As. A cool song. I love the part when it's Nick rapping with just the drums in the background. 9.5/10
14. 1,2,3. Another classic reggaeish song to finish off the CD. 10/10
Get this CD! You will LOVE it!!!!!!!!!
Also check out the bands Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cake, Sublime, and Linkin Park.
Free Music Review: ____ 5 Stars
Grassroots is the second best 311 album. Music had a bunch of energy, but this one is a ________ groove machine. Almost every song on here has a killer riff, drum beat, a killer bassline, and rapping, and all of those are varied, tons of thought. Top it off with Ska choruses, percussion instruments, jazzy guitar solos, SA'awesome sound effects here and there, ambience, and a heavy dose of carribean flavor.This is perhaps their most solid album. So many awesome tracks. There isn't any worthy singles on Grassroots, but they had plenty of hits later anyway. This album took a bit to get used to, but I can turn this on and listen without any problem. The hardest rocking song, Silver, just blasts a hard groove right out the ________ door. On the other end of the spectrum, 1,2,3 is a carribean reggae jazz etc. song that ends the album in an awesome way, contrasting _____ the bull_____ on Music. This just shows how 311 just introcudes variety in their albums.
I seriously can't say I don't like one song, all the songs are great. There's plentyt of highlights in this one. The title track combines 4 different 311 styles into one track (funky 311 rocker, mellow sound effect jam, jazzy segment, and a carribean groove). Taiyed is really short, but the funky guitar and jazzy solo make the whole song easy, clear, and to the point. Nutsymptom is just flat out awesome. Lose is as beautiful as Paradise. There's plenty of other awesome songs, but like the dude above me, I don't want to spoil all of it for you. Just remember this is the album that sealed the deal for me as a 311 fan for life (the first album I got, 311, made me more intrigued).
On top of this, it's amazing how 311 was just another band. During the release of this album, 311's fanbase was spreading, on the fact that they were building an indescribable relationship between the listeners. It makes 311 a band that you can turn on and feel like they are speaking directly to you and they do it for themselves and their fans.
limp bizkit and korn can't touch this, limp bizkit (the editorial reviewer is a retard) is a ______ little wannabe band compared to 311, and 311 probally cringe when their band is compared to those morons. If you want to say limp _______ is in the vein of 311, you might as well _________ tell me the world is flat. Fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, and Fishbone will be intrigued by this, and people who find 311's later material a little turgid might want to try out the older stuff. If you don't like 311, get the ____ off this page.
LONG LIVE
10/10
Free Music Review: If it wasn't overlooked, it'd be classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Prior to flirting with mainstream success and regular rotation on MTV, the Omaha-born, Los Angeles-based "funk-rock-rappers" known as 311 worked in relative anonymity. It was a carefree time for the band, having achieved modest financial success without yet having been victimized by commercialization. And during this time, in the sunny havens of Southern California, "Grassroots" was born.Lyrically and musically, "Grassroots" reveals 311 at their sharpest. Everything they touched struck just the right notes (figuratively and literally, haha). It's easy to want to classify 311's style and say that added a reggae element to the swagger and funk honed to perfection by the Chilis, but on "Grassroots," the band really hits you from all angles. "Taiyed" is a rather unlikely combination of freestyle jamming guitars with "white boy rapping," and yet 311 pulls it off almost effortlessly. "Omaha Stylee" starts out with scratching and a heavy hip-hop beat to it, but by the end, you're engaged in listening to a raging guitar riff and live drums.
Take a gander through the sleeve notes and you'll see that the drummer, the lead guitarist, and both vocalists all were involved in the music writing process. Thus, it's clear before even listening that the album is a relative mixing pot of the inspirations and aspirations of each of the band members. Between equal parts hip-hop, alternative, funk, punk, reggae, and progressive rock, there isn't a lot of ground left uncovered. Appropriately enough, 311's forthcoming endeavors all derive themselves from their "Grassroots," but none of their other albums were ever as completely captivating as Grassroots.
Perhaps the only downside of working on "Grassroots" in relative anonymity, from the fans' aspect of things, is that the band wasn't well equipped financially enough to really solidify the production value and quality recording of their recent releases. If your system is hi-fi, you'll certainly be frustrated at the shortcomings in the recording. But the frustration of the recording only exists because of amazing quality of the record, which owes itself to the mindset of the band members at the time, which comes back to the financial situation they were in. It almost adds to the charm of the album, I think.
There isn't a day that goes by that I can't pop in "Grassroots" and become totally engulfed in nostalgia and all that good stuff. This is, without a doubt, 311's finest album and one of my two or three favorite albums of the last decade.
Free Music Review: 311 has Grass Roots. This album is amazing
Hit: 5 Stars
AHHHHH the sweeet sound of 311's best album Grassroots. When the boys of 311 came out with this album in 1994 they really hit the jackpot. This cd is such a great album to party to, to chill to or do whatever. It's very polished for a sophomore album too. Includes classics like Omaha Stylee, Homebrew, Lose and 1,2,3. here's a track by track analysis:
1.Homebrew (5/5) one of the best on the cd. great melodic opener!!
2.Lucky (4/5)almost as good as homebrew
3.Nutsymptom (5/5)A great song jsut doesn't do as much for me as the prior two songs. a real headbanger and like the weird intro b4 it breaks rite into SAs rapping. The ridiculous Mahoney guitar solo makes this song
4.8:16AM (5/5)Wow a layed back chilling masterpiece
5.Omaha Stylee (5/5) My sec fav song on the cd. long intro breaks into rocking melodic beat
6.Applied Science (5/5) great beginning...mosh pit masterpiece..then a long but awesome drum solo followed by more rockin guitar and vocals
7.Taiyed (5/5) i love the sound of the guitar in this song. great for chilling
8.Silver (4/5) hard rocker..will get beginning riff stuck in your head for hours
9.Grassroots (5/5) awesome song complete with a rockin beat and reggae beat
10.Salsa (4/5) good song
11.Lose (5/5) i love this song. i was obsessed with the nice laid back beat forever before i moved on the other songs. jsut an excellent tune.
12.Six (5/5) aweomse melodic song. one of the best this album has to offer
13.Offbeat Bare-ass (5/5) hardest song on the album. AWESOME. one of my favorite 311 songs
14.1,2,3 (5/5) MY fav on the cd. 311 def saved the best for last in this case. Trippy chilling song with positive lyrics. great way to end a night of partying.
This is one of 311 best albums if not their best. This is also a great cd to get anyone into 311