The Chanticleer

Issue date: 9/1/05 Section: Features

311 has traveled a long up hill road to attain the stately status that it has in the music community. They have been ever changing and growing from their first gig, opening for Fugazi in 1990, to their latest album, Don't Tread on Me, that hit stores August 16.

Don't Tread on Me is 311's eighth studio album. After a decade-plus span of jamming, the band still has the same rock-reggae-funk-hop sound that it has always projected. This release marks a maturing and an almost completely perfected melding of the band's most basic sounds.

The first track shares the same title as the album. This is fitting because it sets the tone for the entire CD. The opening stanza, sung by Nick Hexum, says. "Before you're pointing at me/ There is a possibility/ You better turn that thing around/ Nothing's come easily/ So don't you tread on me/ Cuz I will knock you down."

It's as if 311 knew this might be one of their most critically reviewed albums to date. Especially since their last CD release was a premature "greatest hits" album.

Overall, Don't Tread on Me is light, bouncy, and easy on the ears. That is, with one exception, the song Solar Flare, a bass and drum driven number that begs to be played.

When I first listened to the album in its entirety, I couldn't get past this track. I ended up playing it three times before moving on to "Waiting". Don't Tread on Me is an essential album for any 311 fan, defining a large step in 311's evolutionary process toward perfection.

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