| What
is it with me and song titles? Here is another Rage Against the
Machine title attached to my artwork (the other being Voice
of the Voiceless). I always kinda liked this one, and,
yes, it does feel like a cousin to Voiceless, even they
were made at different times of the year.
For
those who don't know (and why not?), Rage Against the Machine was
a band from the 1990s that fuzed rock and rap years before it became
its own sub-genre. Back then, the only examples of rap-rock were
joint ventures, like Run DMC with Aerosmith ("Walk This Way"),
and Public Enemy with Anthrax ("Bring Da Noise"). Rage
found its style in the fiercely political lyrics of Zack De La Rocha
and the brilliantly innovative pseudo-turntable guitars of Tom Morello.
He's the true child of Jimi's pyrotechnic guitar playing.
The
band made only three studio albums, and one "garage days"
album of covers, before splitting up due to tensions in the band.
Each album was better than the last, with the third, "The Battle
of Los Angelos," being the best. This really isn't music that
you can dance to, but there is such a ferocity and passion that
you can't help but notice. And that tension was just a molotov cocktail
in your hands; fiery explosive in an age of timid, cowardly pop
tarts desperate for their 15 minutes of fame.
Thank
goodness we've matured beyond the level of high school kids, eh?
Oh,
wait, my "American Idol" audition is coming up. Gotta
go. |
