Rage Against The Machine
In 1992 I was one of the guitarists in our high school jazz band and we went to San Diego, along with the marching band, for a large regional or national competition. While there, we went to Sea World and did other touristy stuff around town. After one of the competitions, there were a few bands playing a free show at, I believe, SDU.
We had some free time, so we all went down and watched the show. I remember there was a really mellow Grateful Dead-esque band named Jambay, who’s CD I may still own. One of the other bands was Rage Against the Machine. All the members of the rhythm section of the school’s jazz band were metal heads (as shocking as that might seem) and we were all blown away by RATM as Zack de la Rocha screamed “You’ve got a fucking bullet in your head!” and Tom Morello made sounds with his guitar that were other worldly, using only pedals. Their performance was so raw and vibrant…they had the whole crowd getting into the music and the message it carried.
I was sold. I plopped down the last few bucks I had and bought the cassette they had for sell. Even the black and white cassette cover was crazy; xeroxed stock quotes littered the cover as a background, with “RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE” floating above the stock quotes in bold, all caps sans serif font and rotated at an angle . There was an unlit match, that had been hand taped to the cover, as a finishing touch.
According to the bio on the official Rage Against The Machine webpage, the band recorded, produced, and released the 12 track cassette in 1992. A very impressive 5,000 copies of the tape were sold at shows and through their fan club. Most of the tracks on the tape later became the rough sequence of songs for the band’s self-titled, major label release on Epic records. Three songs on the cassette have never been re-released.
I had an entire home’s worth of stuff sitting in storage for almost a decade. Last year I had all that stuff shipped to me from El Paso. A couple of night’s ago I was going through the boxes, looking for a bunch 4-track recordings I made back in my youth, and I stumbled across this:
The tape still played and sounded just like I remember it sounding on that long bus ride back to sunny El Paso. It’s funny to think that now anyone can slap together some drum and bass loops on their computer, sing a few lines, add some effects, and then burn a CD of their work, all with very little overall effort. Knowing that makes me appreciate this tape just a little bit more.
Tags: bullet in your head, cassette, el paso, epic records, jambay, rage against the machine, ratm, san diego, self produced, tom morello, zack de la rocha
April 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hey Nick!
I tried to reply to your recent post about your secret record store but when i click on comments i get a 404
i am dying to know where your secret record store is, can you email and tell me? I promise not to tell anyone!
I was also wondering if you were familiar with Mosso.. so are you?
Take care,
Heather
April 29th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hey Heather,
I fixed the problem with the post you mentioned, it should work now. I’ll email you my secret record store…but I’ll give you a hint if you were to buy some books and wanted them, say half off the normal price, this is the place you’d think of
Isn’t Mosso the place you used to work for??
April 29th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Ahh! I know this store; it is usually located next to a Trader Joes! Have you found jewels at all locations or do you fancy one over the other?
I used to/still kinda do work for Rackspace. Mosso is kinda part of Rackspace but not really, its complicated. I have a Mosso account but haven’t a clue as to what to do with it or how to use it… email me (I can’t find your address) if you would like to tinker! I hear that it is great for web designers who don’t care to maintain a server and easy to divi up for clients and that it is pretty cool.
I have been thinking of making a foot fetish site since I seem to have lots of admirers who find me by googling “nice feet”. Have you ever made such a site?