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Honestly, I don't recall ever doing a post on Rage Against the Machine, ever, likely I did, as they have long
been a fave with their ultra-serious, ultra-leftist, bordering on hateful (see Tom Norello's support for Shining path) raging rock.......Morello is one of rock's most distinctive guitrists, Zach de la Rocka is a shouter/sloaganeer unmatched in the genre, and Brad Commerford and Y Tim K were at the time argueably rock's best rhythm section......they owned the late 90's with a couple of classics, were in my opinion certainly the best live band of their era, and, somewhat similar to the New York Dolls decades earlier, always felt as though they were destined to implode due to internal issues/tensions.
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I think today I'll give ya the standard issues, and wait for tomorrow for the rare stuff, concerts, et al....there is so much wonderous material in each batch, you may need a day to absorb all this.....in some cacse you don't know, RATM's sound is a tornado of metal, funk, hip hop, ultra-leftist politics.......the politics pretty much "made" the band, but the music? Simply all three "regular" issues (four if you count "Renegades") are essential, and the stuff from the vault is just as excellent.....one of my faves of the 1990's, to be certain.....
OK, in 1994, the released their self-titled debut, the weakest, imo, of the three regular releases.....not that it didn't take the world by storm, with stuff like "Bombtrack", "Bullet in the Head", and "Killing in the Name", no one will every confuse this disc with something from Rod McKuen or something.....I do NOT underrate this album, 3.5 stars easilly.....
However, MUCH better is "Evil Empire"(1996), more snarling but with better songs ("Bulls On Parade", "Down Rodeo" and, especially, the great "Vietnow!".....tremendous album, four stars. Outdoing themselves again, they released their best effort prior top calling it a career, more or less....1999's "The Battle of Los Angeles" was, imo, the best release of that year, and it's RATM's best by a wide margin......this thing just blasts out at you, "Testify", "Calm Like a Bomb", and in particular "Sleep Now in the Fire"(their best effort, imo) sound as fresh and menacing as they did 17 (!!!) years ago.
Also going to include "Renegades" with this batch.....album gained mixed reviews upon release, it's a covers album, with songs selected for their revolutionary impact at the time of release......it's hit or miss to a degree, but when it hits it's mark (Dylan's "Maggie's Farm", "Street Fighting Man", and "I'm Housin"' stqand out, while "Kick Out the Jams", "Down on the Street" and a couple of others come across as not nearly as menacing as the originals.
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LOTS more tomorrow, I said they were a fine live act and you will see that, and there is are a bunch of other
tracks in the vault too......I've got a handful of boots, but should anyone happen to have any others, we'll sure take em and post em!
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE-01 Bombtrack/02 Killing in the Name/03 Take the Power Back/04 Settle For Nothing/05 Bullet in the Head/06 Know Your Enemy/07 Wake Up/08 Fistfull of Steel/09 Township Rebellion/10 Freedom
EVIL EMPIRE-01 People of the Sun/02 Bulls On Parade/03 Vietnow/04 Revolver/05 Snakecharmer/06 Tire Me/07 Down Rodeo/08 Without a Face/09 Wind Below/10 Roll Right/11 Year of tha Boomerang
THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES-01 Testify/02 Guerilla Radio/03 Calm Like a Bomb/04 Mic Check/05 Sleep Now In the Fire/06 Born of a Broken Man/07 Born as Ghosts/08 Maria/09 Voice of the Voiceless/10 New Millenium Homes/11 Ashes in the Fall/12 War Within a Breath
RENGADES-01 Pistol Grip Pump/02 Street Fighting Man/03 Maggie's Farm/04 Beautiful World/ 05 Microphone Fiend/06 I'm Housin'/07 Kick Out the Jams/08 In My Eyes/09 Renegades of Funk/10 How I Could Just Kill a Man/11 Down on the Street/12 The Ghost of Old Tom Joad/13 Kick Out the Jams (live hidden track)/14 How I Could Just Kill a Man (live hidden track)
Next post will be betetr, this is just a warm up for that one......anyone with any material to submit (de la rocka's solo albam? never heard it.....That Nightwatchman project with Chuck D sounds interesting as hell too, unsure if it's out yet though....)look for it tomorrow I hope, and fight the power!
Well, I have a minute or two left, before I gotta go, so why not stay in that 80's power-pop thing I've been mired in for a little bit? This is The Late Show, with their album "Portable Pop", another overlooked CD from that era.......this is a good one, crispy clean power pop, if you've liked the others I've posted, it'll be great by you, I've got a LOT more of this stuff, so we'll see where I go from here, but for now, you would be in error should you not check this one out, it's a good one!
