311 & The Offspring Pay Tribute to Each Others Music

July 23, 2018

Want to hear The Offspring cover 311’s “Down”? How about 311 covering The Offspring’s “Self Esteem”? The bromance between these two groups is palpable as they embark on their Never Ending Summer Unity Tour spanning from July 25th – Sept 9th, 2018.

First, they were pulled over by Super Troopers in a hilarious skit courtesy of Funny Or Die, but now 311 & The Offspring are covering each others music! Just going by their social media hype leading up to this tour, it’s as if they’ve already begun the slumber party resulting in a recording session yielding covers of each-others music.

In 1994, the Offspring released their iconic record, Smash. On that record happened to be a timeless song we still sing-a-long to in “Self Esteem.” A year later, 311 drops their infamous self-titled, blue album and equally impacted listeners when the albums leading single, “Down,” first debuted.

More than 20 years later and these two iconic bands are not only hitting the road together, but they’re covering each others most popular song, respectively. A limited edition 7″ vinyl release of “Self Esteem” and “Down” will each be available exclusively on each of the bands website with only 1,000 numbered copies. While the idea of a band-bromance slumber party recording session sounds pretty amazing leading up to this tour, the Offspring actually recorded at their home base studio in Huntington Beach, CA while 311 recorded at their own studio in North Hollywood, CA.

311’s Nick Hexum is quoted as saying: “‘Self Esteem’ is my favorite Offspring song. It’s a great melody, and the lyrics really tell a story. I like when a singer is vulnerable and doesn’t try to act all cool. We’ve all been in relationships we know we shouldn’t be in, so most people can relate. Our first version was more reggae, but we realized that it needed to rock-like the original. We revved it up to be rocking riffs with reggae rhythms. I guess we ‘311-ized’ it. It was a lot of fun. SA kicked ass on this one. The vocal requires a lot of range and he really belted it out. We had to work hard to live up to Offspring’s killer cover of ‘Down’! I love the way they re-imagined it. It kicks ass! I’m glad they really took liberties instead of being faithful to the original roadmap. I love the punk parts and hearing Dexter do SA’s raps. Nice job dudes!”

In response to Nick Hexum’s take on “Self Esteem,” The Offspring guitarist Noodles added, “Wow! Way cool! The guitars sound great and that bass is certainly in your face. I think what ultimately makes this version great is the way Nick and SA split the vocals and play off of each other. SA taking the high parts while Nick slides in effortlessly beneath him is a perfect example of how harmonies are supposed to work. Nailed it!”

In regards to their cover of “Down,” Noodles continues: “We’ve always been big fans of the song ‘Down.’ Parts of the song sound really heavy and almost dark, but it also has a very uplifting message. We knew we’d never be able to groove it the way 311 does so we tried to punk it up a little. We tried to do a Ramones-like version to serve as a companion piece to the Clash-iness of theirs. I don’t know if we did it justice but it sure was fun to play and sing.”

It’s not hard to find, but here’s a link to 311’s cover HERE and The Offspring’s cover HERE–Enjoy!

Watch: The Offspring – “Down” (311 Cover)