Rage Against the Machine

or RATM... or simply just Rage. people tend to get very surprised to find out that my favorite band is Rage Against the Machine. this one time at church, we were naming our favorite band to "break the ice." i was the last one to say, for some reason, and when i said Rage Against the Machine, this guy sitting in across the table straight up said "i thought it would've been like wonder girls or like seven." yeah, go figure. anyway, in today's blog, i will be talking about my favorite band, Rage Against the Machine... no seriously... not seven... not wonder girls.... RATM.

Many people know Rage Against the Machine for their music. some people know them through several video games - guitar hero being one of them (Killing in the Name, Guerrilla Radio, and Bulls on Parade) - some by their lyrics - "fear is your, fear is your, fear is your only god" (Vietnow) - and some through movies - Matrix 1 & 2 (Wake Up, Calm Like a Bomb). i've never actually seen Rage Against the Machine up on the stage live, but i have seen couple of their recorded videos. i think more than anything, the one thing that really really caught my attention was the screams in the songs. Zack de la Rocha is the singer of the band and i still remember the first time hearing the song by Rage Against the Machine. it was during my senior year, and i was playing Final Fantasy 7, my poor attempt to finish the game (and i actually did beat the whole game, of course), everyday after school. i would always fall asleep because it gets really boring after awhile, and all of a sudden i hear this monster sound and i later came to find out that it was "Township Rebellion" in Rage Against the Machine album. shook me off from my chair.

after i was just looking for more songs that had crazy screaming, i came across the lyrics and i found it very... well put, in a rebellious way. in the song "Know Your Enemy", the lyric goes "what? the land of the free? whoever told you that is your enemy." i also fell in love with them when i found that that Rage Against the Machine was only 4-man band!!! 4!! i thought it was like 6 man band since the whole instrumental sounded so... full. that was when everything else failed in front of Rage Against the Machine and i can't really compare them with anything else.

Rage Against the Machine only had 4 albums and they came together in 1991 and separated in 2000. the instruments got together with a new singer to form Audioslave, and Zack left the band wanting to do some other style of music than just funk. recently they got together and did a concert and i heard it was pretty crazy... haha anyway, i will just conclude with their albums and song titles. hope you enjoyed reading this... although i don't even know who will come and read this. :/

1. Rage Against the Machine (1992)

1. Bombtrack  

2. Killing in the Name

3. Take the Power Back

4. Settle for Nothing

5. Bullet in Your Head

6. Know Your Enemy

7. Wake Up

8. Fistful of steel

9. Township Rebellion

10. Freedom

2. Evil Empire (1996)

1. People of the Sun

2. Bulls on Parade

3. Vietnow

4. Revolver

5. Snakecharmer

6. Tire Me

7. Down Rodeo

8. Without a Face

9. Wind Below

10. Roll Right

11. Year of the Boomerang

3. The Battle of Los Angeles (1999)

1. Testify

2. Guerrilla Radio

3. Calm like a Bomb

4. Mic Check

5. Sleep Now in the Fire

6. Born of a Broken Man

7. Born as Ghosts

8. Maria

9. Voice of the Voiceless

10. New Millennium Homes

11. Ashes in the Fall

12. War Within a Breath

13. No Shelter* (bonus track in some countries only)

and finally... 4. Renegades (2000)

1. Microphone Fiend

2. Pistol Grip Pump

3. Kick Out the Jams

4. Renegades of Funk

5. Beautiful World

6. I'm Housin'

7. In My Eyes

8. How I Can Just Kill a Man

9. The Ghost of Tom Joad

10. Down On the Street11. Street Fighting Man

12. Maggie's Farm 

13. Kick Out the Jams* (Live)

14. How I Could Just Kill a Man* (Live)

during the RATM performance at Target Center in 2008

Tony Dungy...

so apparently, there has been a rumor about tony dungy and how he will be joining Obama in the office. hmm... im not so sure if it's just me, but that sounds pretty dumb. haha anyway, im not so sure if i will do a good job, but i really would like to dedicate this blog entry to tony dungy, who made so many things possible for my very favorite team of all, the Indianapolis Colts.

first off, tony dungy came to indianapolis colts from tampa bay buccaneers in early 2002. he was a great coach no matter who says what. look at his record! 85 - 27 during regular season and 7 -6 during playoffs. i know everyone thinks that colts freeze when it comes to playoffs, but i still believe that dungy did a fabulous job coaching in indy rather it was during the regular season or in the playoffs. and the most amazing thing is that Tony Dungy is the ONLY coach who beat all 32 NFL teams. now that's pretty impressive. oh yeah, and don't forget that he is the ONLY african-american coach to ever win the super bowl.

so why is dungy retiring all of a sudden you ask? well, it all happened with one incident. it was 2005 during the 16th season, or more like in the middle of the 15th season, dungy gets the news of his son's death; his first son, james, had committed suicide. dungy misses the week 16 game, which the colts lost, and seriously considers retiring and going back home to take care of his family. but he stays and leads the indianapolis colts to super bowl XLI and they manage to take the victory. dungy continued to coach at indianapolis and now he feels like it's the right time to go back home and spend some more time with his family.

i highly doubt that he will return to NFL as a coach. he will be doing some works; i believe he will definitely work with teenagers, mentoring them, so that such incident that happened to his son will not happen again. and that's when barack obama asked him if he can join him and work with him to lead the teenagers. i think that's a great idea, but we will see what dungy has to say about this.

i think more than a good coach, dungy is a father-figure to a lot of the players and the fans. He is known for his good works, and he is known for his love towards the players. Tony Dungy will not be forgotten in NFL history; he will be remembered, and will be remembered for a long time. i will truly miss seeing tony dungy on the sideline.

tony dungy with his son jordan dungy