Universal Pulse
311 Records/ATO Records
Universal Pulse—311’s tenth studio
release—is rife
with their signature
tasty-waves-and-a-cool-buzz vibe. The
Omaha, Nebraska,
bunch acknowledges that much of their success
and fan base has been built off years of relentless
touring, so word is they took to their Hive
Studio looking to create stage-ready songs.With producer Bob Rock onboard again—he also worked on ’09’s Uplifter—Universal Pulse’s guitar parts are larger and thicker than life, with articulate crunch, and they even tastefully dip into arena-rock mode during guitarist Tim Mahoney’s harmonized solos in “Rock On.” Mahoney’s gritty, ska-rock riffing on “Time Bomb” and “Wild Nights” creates the familiar head-bobbin’- and-hypnotic vibes that go so well with the good-time rhymes of Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez. The album’s first single, “Sunset in July,” has Mahoney going back to his bag of riff tricks and conjuring a snake-charmer-style intro that hearkens to Transistor’s “Beautiful Disaster.” Its super-simple, groovin’ rhythm and sing-along chorus are classic 311. While the album doesn’t boast any true ballads—something they’ve excelled at on previous recordings—“Trouble” starts with P-Nut laying down a creeping bass line that’s countered by an intoxicatingly barebones distorted guitar riff that carries the song toward upstroke-driven euphoria. And “Count Me In” is a fun-loving jam that has Mahoney using his trusted Mu-Tron III for bubbly tones à la From Chaos’s “Amber.” And the funky arcade-game-like “And a Ways to Go” is driven by a galloping, envelope-filter-treated bass line.
While Universal Pulse has only eight songs, it’s more of the same tasty 311 cocktail—a shot of reggae, a shot of rock, and a garnish of funk—that’s perfect for summertime chillin’, coastline cruisin’, or afternoon grillin’.
Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
Wong Notes is presented by DistroKid.
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