RATM

I don't remember what precisely triggered my most recent plummet back into 90's era music, but now that i've re-found this i have a few things to say about it. First of all, i think the argument can be made that Rage Against the Machine was the greatest rock band of the 90's without me sounding like i haven't got any brains. True, all Rolling Stone will ever talk about until the earth is sucked into a stellar-mass black hole is how great Nirvana was, how important Kurt Cobain's flannel shirt funk was to the writing process of such inspirational hits as "Scentless Apprentice" and whatnot, but really, looking back- Can you dig up a more listenable rock track from 15 years ago than this? Or, more important a question, can you handle how much ass this kicks?


Rage Against The Machine No Shelter Music via Noolmusic.com

If you wanted to break it down scientifically, you could analyze this song's current relevance primarily as a result of its restraint from soon-to-be-dated technology that sounds terrible 15 years after its recording, (see: all 80's music) but mostly i hand it to the bass work of timmy-c and the most confusing, angry-nonetheless-presumably-intelligent rapper ever. I wont even touch on Tom Morello, since i already spent the 90's treating him like the Maharashi. The breakdown at 3:00 minutes is bed-wetting good, and the fact that the song can get any heavier at 3:50 than it was at 3:30 makes me wonder how i ever learned to read.


Just think of the context we're dealing with here, with the 1990's as a decade in general. Rage Against the Machine playing in the same era as The Backstreet Boys is sort of like imagining Tiger Woods playing an 18-hole deathmatch against someone like Jon Lovitz. What i mean is, you know who comes out on top. Subway would find a new spokesman. To my credit, i do actually recall asking my dad if i could go see RATM at their protest concert outside the Democratic National Convention in LA in 2000. Why my father would prevent a 16 year old boy from his certain first hint of enlightenment (and probably arrest) at a massive firetorch rally in downtown Los Angeles is totally beyond me, and a conflict that likely threatens to plague our relationship until an unnecessarily large Christmas present is bestowed upon me.