Four Times to Rage Against the Machine in 07'

That is right, Rage Against the Machine has officially announced that playing live is not just a one and done deal. Rage has announced three more dates on top of Coachella in 07'. Two of which are in their hometown of California and the other in New York at Randall's Island slated for July 28th. According to the band the reason they added three more dates was due to the fact that tickets for Coachella sold out extremely fast and the absurdly high price that scalpers are selling tickets for. The three extra shows are also festivals but not quite like Coachella, the festival they have been added to is called Rock the Bells which is a hip hop festival, the other group slated to play in the Rock the Bells festival is the Wu-Tang Clan. Organizer of the festival Chang Weisberg has stated that "Rage will do four shows and just four in 2007." The comment is a bit of a disappointment for those hoping for a world tour this year but it could be worse, he could have said that Rage will do just four shows final shows and that is it.

All I know is that I will be seeing Rage on July 28th, 2007 at New York's Randall's Island. I don't care if I go by myself or if I pay $500 for a ticket, I will be making it to this show! Ever since the moment I saw Rage's live DVD "The Battle of Mexico City" I knew that I had to see them. It is most definitely the greatest live DVD I have ever seen, I have never seen a band with so much energy and with such great control on stage. Between Tom Morello's incredible guitar tricks, giant leaps into the air and Zach De La Rocha's infectious dancing on stage they put on the most electrifying live show I have ever witnessed. The anticipation is killing me, I cannot wait to see Rage in person for the first time.

Generation Xm of Sirius Radio

Huge news coming from the radio front, and not terrestrial radio, this news is coming from the ever powerful satellite radio machines Sirius and XM. Sirius and XM have announced that they are merging together and each company will control half of the combined company. Clearly from a musical and business aspect this is huge, and it will close questions for many but also creates questions. What I mean by that is finally people can make a decision in which satellite provider to get because there is no longer the division in programming, but on the other hand from a business aspect will this be allowed to happen? This does seem to resemble a monopoly.

Let’s begin with the more positive aspect of bringing together two radio powerhouses to create one incredible listening experience. As a fan of music I was ecstatic to hear this news, my Dad is a Sirius subscriber and I take advantage of it by listening online all the time. One thing that always upset me about Sirius was the fact that XM had Bob Dylan. Now the worries are gone, soon I can listen to Dylan and two minutes later turn on Howard Stern, and if I’m not feeling like Howard Stern I can go over to XM’s Opie and Anthony. Now with music and talk radio aside, with this merger listeners will be able to listen to every major sport from the NFL to the MLB, no longer are Sirius listeners restricted to just the NFL, NHL, Nascar, and NBA (along with a few other lesser known sports.) One question which has arisen is will subscription fees be boosted? As of now there is no definitive answer but I personally doubt there will be an increase in subscription fees.

Now comes the more confusing topic and that is: Is this merger a monopoly? Now as a music fan I am so happy to see this but on the other hand I am an advocate of government intervention in the economy. While I doubt that this merger will be shot down there is the possibility looming in the air. Especially when considering just a few years ago Direct TV and DISH Network tried to merge and they were unable to do so because it was seen as a monopoly.

Things will certainly become clearer as time passes but as of now I am in favor of this merger. As long as these two companies don’t abuse their power as the sole owner of the satellite airwaves than I think this could be one of the best things to happen to radio.

My Musical Journey: Part II (Fallen Angel)

By listening to Floyd I decided that I had been holding myself back over all these years in fear of being scrutinized for the music I listened to. Who would have known that it would be the “cool” to listen to Floyd just a few years later?

Anyway, I decided my musical horizons needed to expand further than Floyd and I sought out to find other great classic rock bands. The first two bands other than Floyd I stumbled across were Led Zeppelin and The Doors, both of which I fell in love with. The Doors especially captured my attention, Jim Morrison and his conceptual and mysterious lyrics created this burning infatuation in me. I became obsessed with Jim Morrison; I bought Jim Morrison biographies, posters, even blankets. I was starting to love music on an even deeper level; I loved everything it stood for and every detail in its history. I wanted to learn everything I could about every band I listened to, listening just wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to know why the music they created sounded like it did, what each song meant, the music in the context of the times, and anything else I could possibly know.

Throughout the years I have explored numerous classic rock and modern bands but none struck me like Floyd and very few bands were able to produce that rich abstract sound that Floyd created. Later on in High School a member of the track team introduced me to King Crimson and he told me that I really needed to listen to “In the Court of the Crimson King.” Right after track practice I went right home and downloaded the album, and it was incredible, this was exactly what I was looking for, they were just like Floyd, long compositions, songs that took me on a journey, they had that amazing mixture of rock and free jazz, the album was just so powerful and moving. This is when I learned the splendor of progressive rock. I snatched up every album I could by bands like Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Genesis, and even the modern band Tool (who I listened to but with less appreciation.) Progressive Rock immediately became my favorite genre of music and that is where I stand to this day. Maybe my musical journey will continue to follow me into different genres but for the past few years it has been fairly stagnant, which necessarily isn’t a bad thing. You can never have too much time spent appreciating the complexities of the greatest music ever made.

My Musical Journey: Part I (Wish You Were Here)

In this post I’m just basically going to go over how I came to “love” music. I feel like I may have written about this topic before but for some reason it is something I feel would be a pretty good post just in case I haven’t. So I guess lets start from the beginning.

Growing up I always loved music, I received my first cassette (my parents took a little while to adapt to CD’s) when I was around eight or so and this cassette just happened to be Aerosmith’s “Big Ones.” At around the age of eleven I received my first boombox and the first two CD’s I got were Bon Jovi “These Days” and Queens “Greatest Hits.” During Middle School I drifted away from listening to classic rock mainly because “It wasn’t cool.” I listened to a lot of Bush, Nirvana, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, and Nu-Metal bands like Korn. Many of the bands I liked then I still love today, however none of that music was able to truly drag me in, and because of that, music was never a big passion of mine until freshmen year of High School.

During my freshmen year of High School my parents left a copy of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” sitting on the couch and in pure curiosity I decided to pick it up and give it a listen. First was “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” which I skipped right past because it was just too slow and dull for my taste, I decided to go right into the title track and from beginning to end I was immediately captured, I had never listened to a song that had such an affect on me. I was completely struck by how powerful it was and in all honesty I probably had that song on repeat for two straight hours. Each listen never got old, every time the song came to a close I was in awe of its majesty and prowess.

When going to sleep that night I decided to give the album a listen to from begging to end but I just wasn’t able to get past that boring intro on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” I just didn’t understand it. I decided to give “Dark Side of the Moon” a listen and I sat there strictly paying attention to every detail in the songs and it just wasn’t doing it for me. A few days later I was on the computer playing some games and decided to leave “Dark Side of the Moon” on in the background and when the CD came to a close without even realizing it I said to myself “What did I just listen to?” I wasn’t even truly listening to the music but for some reason it had this profound affect on me. From there on in I played that CD as if it were the only one I owned and by entering into the world of “Dark Side of the Moon” I was able to finally grasp the “Wish You Were Here” album and all of its beauty.

From that moment on I had found my passion, the one thing in life which mattered to me more than anything…

Best Love Songs for Valentines Day

Well these past few weeks have been crazy for me, I was battling sickness for around a week and missed a lot of school and work which means I had a lot of catching up to do. So keeping with the love theme for Valentines Day I decided to compile a list of my five favorite love songs. This list was much more difficult to make than I first assumed. However, here is the list I compiled:

1. Metallica: "Nothing Else Matters"
"Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way"

2. Eric Clapton: "Wonderful Tonight"
"I feel wonderful
Because I see the love light in your eyes
And the wonder of it all
Is that you just dont realize
How much I love you"

3. Foo Fighters: "Everlong"
"Breathe out
So I can breathe you in
Hold you in"

4. Donovan: "Catch the Wind" (While it may truly be about trying to find love in someone which will never work I can't keep it off the list)
"In the chilly hours and minutes,
Of uncertainty, I want to be,
In the warm hold of your loving mind"

5. The Beatles: "Something"
"Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover"

Does anyone else have any suggestions of new songs or opinions of this list? Also I would like to wish my girlfriend Chelsey a Happy Valentine's Day, I really wish I could be with you.