Ro Ro

Ro Ro

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Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire

Note:  The past 3 days have been freakishly hectic and I haven't had time to sit down and pen proper entries for albums I've listened to on April 18, 17, 16.   The weekend is looking pretty unforgiving - due largely in part to having family over for the extended weekend.

April 16

Work is mounting around me and my only escape is to fill my headphones with loud music to escape the non-stop-chatter around me.   I'm freakishly good in dealing with distractions and I owe a great deal of that to working in a newsroom for nearly a year.  An office place will never be as loud or as chaotic as a newsroom, so I can plug along with the best of them.

I'm however working against some of the toughest deadlines I have ever encountered in my professional career and I can almost feel the legs beneath me give in.   The tension is unbearable at times and selecting things to listen to during the work day is also very difficult.

I've elected to turn to Rage Against the Machines - Evil Empire for help.  An album that I always associate to my freshmen year in college.  The album had dropped right before I graduated high-school and I listened to it a lot over the summer before moving to Detroit.  In my opinion its the best album that the band had ever released.

The sound on the record feels a lot like I do on the inside...  a tightly wound spring that is ready to snap.   I vividly recall spending a lot of time pouring over Zack De La Rocha's lyrics over the summer of 96.  Every song on the record spoke to me in ways that I had never felt before.

Which has been something really difficult for me to still come to terms with because - my draw to RATM is the collective sound of the band.   A hybrid mix of funk and innovative/angular guitar work by Tom Morello.  

If you take the the vocal tracks away from "People of the Sun" and play it back as an instrumental track...  it has all the makings of a riot hymn.   

When I settled down long enough to hear the lyrics, I felt an energy inside that I have only experienced with the Clash, Fugazi and Black Flag.  Not an aggressive energy, but a genuine calling to become an activist and engage locally in some capacity.

I've been thinking a lot about my disconnect from RATM this afternoon. I recall internally being at odds with the band being on a major label and their creative output being suspiciously absent during 8 years while Bush was in office...  I've never quite buried that hatchet.  

It's dark now in Dachau and I'm screamin' from within
'Cause I'm still locked in tha doctrines of tha right
Enslaved by Dogma, ya talk about my birthright
Yet at every turn I'm runnin' into Hells gates
So I grip the cannon like Fanon and pass tha shells to my classmates

Year of the Boomerang, RATM

Stand out Tracks:

Artists: Rage Against the Machine
Album: Evil Empire
Producer: Brendan O'Brien
Label: Epic
Recorded: Cole Rehearsal Studios, Kiss Music Studios

Built to Spill - Ancient Melodies of the Future

Sunny Day Real Estate - How It Feels To Be Something On