From inception, 311 [ tickets ] has stressed a positive vibe in its music and attitude, right down to the name of the group's summer festival: the Unity Tour, which officially launches June 5 in Santa Barbara, CA.

"Unity is the coolest word," guitarist/vocalist Nick Hexum said from a recent spring headlining stop in Charleston, SC. "It's always been associated with our band. It's an old-school live anthem of ours, it's also the band that [guitarist] Tim [Mahoney], [drummer] Chad [Sexton] and I had before 311, and it became the name of one of our pre-major-label albums. The idea to do the tour was something that I suggested: 'Let's try to brand our own festival.' Even though it's not a full-on festival as of yet, we're definitely taking it in that direction. It gets bigger and bigger each year, and I think we're going to make a leap in 2010 to make it more of a full-day event."

It's not the first time that the Omaha, NE, quintet--Hexum, Mahoney, Sexton, bassist P-Nut, and DJ/vocalist S.A. Martinez--has made a special event out of its gigs. In 2000, they started 311 Day, a bi-annual March 11th event during which the band plays a special extended concert ("in the neighborhood of 65 songs") for loyal fans that make the journey to New Orleans.

"311 Day evolved out of where people used to speculate where our name came from," Hexum explains, "because, at first, we didn't tell everybody that it was the police code for indecent exposure. So some people thought that March 11 must be a special day, and we thought, ‘We should make this into our own holiday.' The first one was in New Orleans kind of by chance, that's where we happened to be playing. Then we realized, 311 Day is going to be something where we're going to play a really long set and make it into a huge event, something people are going to want to travel to, so we thought it was the perfect destination. I don't know a lot of bands that have their own holiday."

On June 2, the group is set to release its ninth studio album, "Uplifter," which was produced by Bob Rock. With his heavy pedigree (Metallica, Motley Crue), you might think the musical focus was pushed in a louder direction. "It evolved that way, but it wasn't pushed. Early on, there was a batch of songs where we thought, 'This is going to be our most heavy album to date.' He loved our reggae stuff, but we found a way to merge the heavy side with the funky reggae side, which I think 'Hey You' does pretty well. I realized after we were done that not a lot of bands can get away with putting this many styles on an album."

The glass-half-full thankfulness has permeated the group's history, and when asked how they stay so positive through the shifting minefield that is the music industry, Hexum answers the question with another question: how could they not?

"We've gotten to do something that we would do anyway as a hobby--for a living--for so many years. There are too many musicians and artists that take it for granted and lose sight of what a privilege it is. I think it's just a choice. Life is a lot more enjoyable when you make a choice to be optimistic. It doesn't mean we don't have bad days and regular problems that anyone else has, but we just choose to focus on the positive."