From Chaos

He's got a head full of ideas that you wouldn't believe.

Hi Son,

I’m polishing off a Liquid Death - Peanut Butter Cup water as I write this to you today. One of the first things I wrote you was about the band 311. I told you how gullible I was to believe some kids who were saying the band was about white supremacy (3-11, 11th letter of the alphabet is ‘K’). I got through that knowing how wronged I was and was open again to 311 when I was in high school. Now I wasn’t listening to much new alternative rock from 1996-2000. I was immersing myself in the Beatles and a lot of other stuff from the 60s and 70s for most of that time. So when I finished my freshman year of college, I heard there was a new record of theirs coming out. I figured, why not? It’s been a long while since I’ve heard them put out anything. So I went to Best Buy or Circuit City, something like that and picked up their second studio album, “From Chaos.”

When I first listened to the album, I skipped around on it a lot. At the time I bought the CD they had just released their first single “You Wouldn’t Believe.” It has a really catchy opening riff and is a fairly upbeat 311-sounding track. It was track #3 on the CD, so when I put it into my Discman and played it in my Grand Prix, I immediately skipped to it. The next song I would skip to was track #5, the title track “From Chaos.” It began with the song’s chorus right out of the gate and then went into S.A. doing uptempo rapping. It was another catchy tune. Then I skipped to Track #7 called “Champagne.” It was a very laid back and stripped down song (for 311), where even S.A. ends up singing the bridge. I rarely ever hear S.A. sing vocals on a 311 song. It’s a beautiful song. Next song I skipped to was Track #10, “Amber.” Same type of vibe from “Champagne,” it was much more romantic. “Amber is the color of your energy.” Such a beautiful line that was easy to hum to. The last track I would consume was the closer, “I’ll Be Here Awhile.” Another laid back song with does have acoustic guitar in it. The song is fairly reggae and is a nice way to close out the record. I would listen to their second studio album a lot that summer, mainly just skipping around those songs.

The summer of the first year that your mom and me starting dating, she had scored a couple of tickets to the annual day music festival hosted by “96.5 the Buzz.” It was held at Sandstone Amphitheater (I don’t know what in the hell it’s called now, the venue keeps changing depending on what company owns it). The event was called “Beach Ball 2” and was headlined by 311. I was mainly interested in hearing Dashboard Confessional that day, but it was a rough performance for them given Chris Carraba feeling under the weather. So I thought cool! I get to see 311 perform a lot of good stuff from their “Self-Titled“ and “From Chaos” records. I even heard there was a record recently released called “Don’t Tread On Me.” I hadn’t really heard anything on that yet. So as it started to become dusk, the band began taking the stage. Pretty much all of the seating filled up at this point in anticipation.

I do want to quickly point out that your mother couldn’t go to the event. Something came up fairly last minute (I believe a wedding) and she was actually cool enough to give me the tickets and not make me go to the wedding with her. So I took one of my best friends from college and we went with a handful of people we used to hang out with in Maryville, MO. As far as the show goes, I can’t remember what the set list was exactly. I don’t remember what they opened with or closed with. Throughout the set list they played songs that weren’t off of “Self Titled,” “From Chaos” or “Don’t Tread On Me.” Everyone else was singing along to them. Did I miss something?? They then announced that they were going to play one of their earliest songs, “Homebrew.” Wait a second…that wasn’t off of “Self Titled.” Was it a single or EP that I hadn’t heard of. Why does so many people know the lyrics?!?! Then it hit me. “From Chaos” wasn’t their second studio album. Also more importantly, "Self Titled” wasn’t their first studio album. So your rube of a father had found out afterward that “Self Titled” was their third studio album and “From Chaos” was their sixth. Yeah. That’s how sheltered I made myself from Alternative Music until I was 24 in 2006.

Their mainstream success didn’t come until “Self Titled” so there’s a bit of grace there from not knowing there were two before it. However, to miss on both “Transistor” and “Soundsystem” was pretty damn embarrassing. So just as I did several times before, I took to eBay and bought used copies of “Transistor” and “Soundsystem.” I also found out there was another studio album before “Don’t Tread on Me!” It’s insanity, because I had heard the single (“Creatures (For a While)”) off of their seventh studio album, “Evolver.” I had a lot of catching up to do. I got a copy of “Evolver” and “Don’t Tread on Me.” I then burned a CD from taking various tracks off of their third-seventh studio albums and played it repeatedly later on that year. To keep a long story short, I loved catching up on what I missed. I also learned a lot more about their origin and the makeup of the band, which developed a lot of respect from me to them. Their first seven studio albums (I’ve heard the first two since streaming) are very good. The band is honestly one of my go-to’s in the summer months. That’s party why I am writing about them in August.

Now back to “From Chaos.” Up until my revelation, I mainly only listened to half of the album as I explained earlier. I’ve listened to it several times in it’s entirety and it’s a decent album. Nothing to gush over. The song “Amber” ended up becoming a huge hit for them. It really is a beautiful song. “You Wouldn’t Believe” has help up really well over the years. I can tell you that most of the reason why I skipped around the album when I first owned it was because of the opening riffs of a lot of the tracks. A couple of them are quite brutal when I hear them. The first being “I Told Myself.” The opening and first 30 seconds or so is almost like nails on a chalkboard. When I finally got past that part and listened to the rest of the song, it’s actually a quite decent song. The chorus is really upbeat and S.A.’s rapping throughout is good. It’s just getting past the beginning! The second one being “Hostile Apostle.” It just has such a depressing and whiny beginning to it. As if Armageddon is about to take place. The rest of the song is all right. Again the first 30 seconds, I wish I could just skip that each time.

I’m really not going to go much more in depth of “From Chaos.” The first two tracks are quite good in “You Get Worked” and “Sick Tight.” I actually really enjoy it when Nick starts off the song singing “head rush!” My favorite song off of the album is “Champagne.” I honestly think it’s the most beautiful song I’ve heard them produce. The meaning of the song itself has been rumored to be about Nicole Scherzinger, who Nick was dating at that time. When I listen to the lyrics, it sounds like a couple who are really struggling to stay together. The main reason being that the woman in the relationship is more concerned about chasing her dreams than staying in her relationship.

“Champagne, California on the brain
She’s got an appetite for no refrains
Just verses, she curses as blood vessels burst in defiance
She made an alliance to the dark side of Hollywood”

The entire song is just very smooth. Like I mentioned before, S.A. sings the bridge of the song. He does a fantastic job. The beginning of the bridge always gets me.

“I know loving me isn’t easy
I’m home and next thing I’m leaving
But when I look at you it’s like praying with my eyes”

It’s an incredibly conflicting song that I usually will seek out if I’m listening to a compilation playlist of 311’s.

To really sum up the entirety of this admission to you. I think there’s one line from “You Wouldn’t Believe” which describes my knowledge of 311 before seeing them live that summer night in 2006. Your dad had a “head full of ideas that you wouldn’t believe.” Looking back at that 20 years ago, I really can’t believe I was so naive of 311’s work.

Love,

Dad

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