Expert: Kelly Walter - 4/6/2005

Question
Kelly,

This question has two parts. First, do you know of any websites that offer free 311 downloads, specifically the early independant albums (I own everything that has been mass produced). Second, is there anyway to tell if a product on ebay is original merchandise or a bootleg. There are several appealing items for sale as we speak. Thanks for your time.  

Answer
I know that 311.com offers a lot of extra songs in their AUDIO section, like remixes, an audio clip of their intro and some B sides to Transistor, Soundsystem and From Chaos.  Go to www.311.com and wait for the main page to upload...Click MEDIA then AUDIO for that page.

As for the audio for pre-Capricorn release, I suggest buying Omaha Sessions.  It offers a lot of songs from their pre-Capricorn releases.  I don't know of any website that offers these.  Every fan website that has ever offered them is no longer fuctioning.  Another way you can try to get the audio is by signing up for the Bulletin Board on 311's website and make a topic asking people for the audio...People in the fan forum may have what you are looking for, and its a quite busy bulletin board, so a lot of people would see your request.

The only way to tell if a CD is bootleg is to see if it has the right cover, and to make sure the CD is not a CD-R.  You can also email their management @ prasp311@aol.com or Pnuts mom @ joan8904@aol.com.  They should be able to look at the item or at least pass the email on for someone to let you know if its bootleg or not.  Peter Raspler (management) usually knows, so you can contact him.

I hope I've helped.

--Post question:

I'd like to thank you for the rating and I apologize if I could not help you more.  There really aren't any websites that offer pre-Capricorn releases on MP3.  If there are any, they are brand new.  I tried searching on Google for you as well, and I didn't find anything.

As for the information on finding out whether a CD is real or fake, the best you can do is contact management.  Otherwise, the only other way to tell is by the CD booklets and whether the CD is a CD-R or not.  Which is hard to do when you are looking at the item on Ebay.

In the future, if you have any questions about specific items on Ebay, feel free to come back here and give me the link.  I should be able to find out fast whether its real or not.

Sorry if I could not be of more help--