Transistor (311 album)

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Transistor
Transistor cover
Studio album by 311
Released August 5, 1997
Recorded February - April 1997, at NRG Studios in Los Angeles, California
Genre Loco punk, Rap metal
Length 67:59
Label Capricorn Records
Producer(s) 311
Scotch Ralston
Professional reviews
311 chronology
311
(1995)		 Transistor
(1997)		 Live
(1998)


Transistor is the fourth studio album by 311. It was released on August 5, 1997. The album was certified Platinum, having sold over 1 million copies.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  • "Transistor Intro" (Music: ???) - 1:36
    • Hidden in the pre-gap of the first song
  1. "Transistor" (Music: Sexton; Lyrics: Hexum/Martinez) - 3:02
  2. "Prisoner" (Hexum; Hexum/Martinez) - 2:50
  3. "Galaxy" (Sexton; Martinez) - 2:52
  4. "Beautiful Disaster" (Hexum) - 4:01
  5. "Inner Light Spectrum" (Sexton/Martinez; Martinez) - 3:41
  6. "Electricity" (Hexum) - 2:34
  7. "What Was I Thinking" (Hexum) - 2:38
  8. "Jupiter" (Sexton; Hexum/Martinez) - 2:45
  9. "Use of Time" (Hexum) - 4:23
  10. "The Continuous Life" (Sexton; Martinez) - 3:30
  11. "No Control" (Hexum; Hexum/Martinez) - 3:09
  12. "Running" (Mahoney; Martinez) - 3:42
  13. "Color" (Sexton) - 1:53
  14. "Light Years" (Hexum) - 2:27
  15. "Creature Feature" (Wills; Martinez) - 2:38
  16. "Tune In" (Sexton; Martinez) - 2:19
  17. "Rub a Dub" (Hexum) - 2:41
  18. "Starshines" (Sexton; Hexum/Martinez) - 2:36
  19. "Strangers" (Hexum) - 2:40
  20. "Borders" (Sexton; Martinez) - 2:45
  21. "Stealing Happy Hours" (Hexum) - 5:49
  • "Enter Space"

[edit] B-Sides & Outtakes

  • "Grifter" (Hexum) - 2:53 (Leaked in 2005)
  • "Old Funk" (??) - 2:43 (Available via 311' website) [1]
  • "Space Funk" (??) - 2:35 (Available via 311's website)
  • "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" (Strummer) - 3:52 (Appears on Burning London: The Clash Tribute Album)

[edit] Unreleased

  • "Clone Me"
  • "Earth People"
  • "Everything"
  • "MTA"
  • "The Quickening"
  • "To the Future"
  • "Writer's Block Party"

[edit] Demos

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1997 The Billboard 200 4

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1997 "Transistor" Modern Rock Tracks 14
1997 "Transistor" Mainstream Rock Tracks 31
1997 "Beautiful Disaster" Modern Rock Tracks 21
1998 "Prisoner" Modern Rock Tracks 21

[edit] Miscellanea

  • "Beautiful Disaster", "Prisoner", and "Transistor" were released as singles.
  • "Transistor" was originally intended to be a double-album, but was condensed to 21 tracks on one CD.
  • "Electricity" was originally called "Fuck the KKK". This further explains Nick Hexum's lyric "this song started as a rant against haters, but that'd be giving into the instigators".
  • Outtakes from this album are "Earth People", "Clone Me", "MTA", "Grifters", "The Quickening", "Everything", "Writer's Block Party", "Space Funk", "Old Funk", "To The Future" and "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais".
  • There is a secret track before the first song, "Transistor". Play track 1, then hold down the 'back' button on your CD player. You will be rewinding the track into negative digits. Rewind until -1:43, then release the button, and let the track play. When performed correctly, you will hear the studio version of an instrumental commonly used as an opener to 311's live concerts during this era. The track is now known as the "Transistor Intro".
  • Until the release of From Chaos, "Transistor" had the acclaim of having mentioned the name of every 311 album in its lyrics. ("Music critics, music critics," "from these grassroots we can breathe anywhere," "renegade sound system, 311, "You're a transistor")
  • "Old Funk" and "Space Funk" are both downloadable at 311's official website.
  • Producer Scott Ralston can be heard saying "There is just no denying it, that was it" at the end of "Galaxy."
  • "Stealing Happy Hours" contains the lyric "You make me feel like Hank Chinaski, In war all the time war war all the time." This is referring to Charles Bukowski's alter ego Hank Chinaski; also paying homage to Bukowski's War All the Time: Poems 1981-1984.
  • A recording of actual recordings from outer space can be heard after the end of the album's final track.
  • "Creature Feature" was written at a time when S.A. Martinez was contemplating breaking up with his then girlfriend.
  • Nick Hexum has described "Use of Time" as a song "about being depressed" while "Stealing Happy Hours" is "about having fun."
  • Additional Percussion was done by Eric Bobo from Cypress Hill on "Running", "Strangers" and "Stealing Happy Hours"
  • At the 1:39 mark of the track "Light Years", you can hear Wanda Coleman saying "When you comin' down?"


311
Nick Hexum | SA Martinez | Tim Mahoney | P-Nut | Chad Sexton
Discography
Studio albums: Dammit! | Unity | Hydroponic | Music | Grassroots | 311 | Transistor | Soundsystem | From Chaos | Evolver | Don't Tread on Me
Live and Compilation albums: Downstairs EP | Omaha Sessions | Live! | Greatest Hits '93-'03
Singles: Freak Out | Do You Right | Feels So Good | Homebrew | Lucky | 8:16 A.M. | Don't Stay Home | Down | All Mixed Up | Transistor | Prisoner | Beautiful Disaster | Come Original | Flowing | Large in the Margin | You Wouldn't Believe | I'll Be Here Awhile | Amber | Creatures (For a While) | Beyond the Gray Sky | Love Song | First Straw | Don't Tread on Me | Speak Easy | Frolic Room
VHS/DVD: Enlarged to Show Detail | Enlarged to Show Detail 2 | 311 Day: Live in New Orleans
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