Michael Franti & Spearhead announced in November last year that they would be opening for the 2010 John Mayer “Battle Studies Tour” in the spring. It was difficult to picture Mayer, known mostly for his colorful love life rather than his guitar compositions, and Franti, known for his fights against political, religious and racial wars, on the same stage.
Franti’s practicing what he preaches. He is closely involved with CARE, an organization trying to educate mainly women and girls in developing countries in quest against poverty. He travels all around the world on CARE missions. One of the last places he visited was East Timor.
A few years ago Michael Franti & Spearhead released their Yell Fire! album, inspired by Franti’s trip to the Middle East war zones including Israel, Baghdad, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip.
But despite the mixed reactions after the announcement of the collaboration, Michael Franti was confident that his music is compatible with Mayer’s and that Michael Franti & Spearhead would connect to Mayer’s audience.
Franti, in whose veins flow all kinds of blood, is equally open to people of all ages, genders or races. And according to the positive reactions of fans after the first concerts of the Battle Studies Tour, he was right. The light, positive music blending hip hop with funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock, turned out to be a perfectly matching opening act for John Mayer’s “Battle Studies.”
Michael Franti & Spearhead gained mainstream recognition last year with the hit single “Say Hey (I Love You)” from their “All Rebel Rockers” album. “Say Hey (I Love You)” turned out to be a gold mine and became double platinum with more than 2 million sold copies sold.
“All Rebel Rockers” was recorded mainly in Jamaica. Franti finds inspiration not only in Jamaica but also in classical albums like Stevie Wonder’s Songs In the Key of Life. But what really makes their sound so unique is the live performance of the band. Something that draws Michael Franti to reggae are the vibes that the band creates when they play together.
Right now Michael Franti & Spearhead are working on their next album.
Cake is an indie-rock band from Sacramento, California that has a devoted fanbase and loyal following for their unique blend of indie, funk, jazz and country music. Fashion Nugget, Cake’s second album, became the album that brought the band into the public eye and gave them their first radio success with the song “The Distance”. After another five albums, a bounty of TV snippets including having written the theme tune to Chuck, and a number of hit singles has made them one of the most popular bands on the Alternative Rock scene.
In 2008 the band removed their studio (Upbeat Studio) from dependence on Sacramento, California’s power grid by installing a system of solar panels. The band subsequently announced that their upcoming studio album will be “recorded using 100% solar energy.”
Although Cake’s music is often classified as alternative rock or indie-rock, it combines elements of multiple musical genres, such as funk, rockabilly, jazz, rap, and country. Cake’s music features droll lyrics rife with word play and syncopation, catchy distorted guitar riffs (courtesy of guitarist Greg Brown until 1998, and bass player Victor Damiani until 1997), prominent use of a Moog, and a solo trumpet (played by Vince DiFiore).
The laconic and rap-like style in which lead vocalist/guitarist John McCrea brings the lyrics is sometimes called sprechgesang.
In the summer of 2002, Cake headlined the Unlimited Sunshine Tour festival among such varied bands as Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, De La Soul, Latin techno fusion band Kinky and bluegrass group The Hackensaw Boys. Cake brought back the tour in 2003 with Cheap Trick, country singer Charlie Louvin, garage rockers The Detroit Cobras and a return performance from The Hackensaw Boys. The tour returned in 2007 with the Brazilian Girls on the East Coast dates, return of The Detroit Cobras for the West Coast dates, and Oakley Hall, Agent Ribbons and King City for all the shows.
In June 2008, lead singer John McCrea told music publication REVUE that he is thinking seriously of quitting touring to become a farmer.
On June 11, 2009, Cake played at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference 2009 bash in San Francisco, California.
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Rage Against the Machine was the genre-spawning debut album by rap-metal band Rage Against The Machine, released November 11, 1992. The songs tend to feature political mantras as rapped vocals. The album peaked at #17 in the UK albums chart, #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and #45 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
The rapped vocals and funk-metal guitars mixed with hard hip-hop/funk beats and grooves were a massive deviation from the traditonal rock/metal of the time, but before long “Nu-Metal” arrived on the scene, making such genre crossovers commonplace.
Guitar sound
Tom Morello’s guitar technique stays on fairly traditional territory on this album, compared to subsequent albums, tending to be more influenced by funk and metal, as opposed to the more experimental hip-hop-influenced guitar styles Morello strays towards on later Rage albums.
What do magazines know, anyway?
In 2001 the album Rage Against the Machine was named in Q magazine as one of the “50 Heaviest Albums Of All Time” (which is rubbish, as anyone that has heard the wealth of thrash and death metal that is out there would agree). The album is included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. In 2003, the album was ranked #368 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time”.
Turn it up to 11
The album is known for its high production values, which are almost to the strictest audiophile standards. Some audiophile magazines and websites even go as far as using the album — in particular the song “Take the Power Back” — to test amplifiers and speakers.
Tool
One of the songs, “Know Your Enemy”, features Tool / A Perfect Circle vocalist Maynard James Keenan on “additional vocals”. Keenan has occasionally appeared onstage with Rage to perform the song.
Who?
“Acclaimed” BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe named Rage Against the Machine as one of four albums to be added to his list of ‘Masterpieces’, and his personal favourite album, on December 2nd, 2008 (although repeatedly naming the singer as ‘De La Rocker’).
That man’s on fire!
The cover artwork features a famous photo of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, burning himself to death in Saigon in 1963. The monk was protesting President Ngô Đình Diệm’s administration for oppressing the Buddhist religion. The photograph drew international attention and persuaded U.S. President John F. Kennedy to withdraw support of the Ngô Đình Diệm’s government. It was taken by Associated Press correspondent Malcolm Browne; a similar photograph earned the award of World Press Photo of the Year in 1963.
Political Inspiration
Activists such as Provisional IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton are listed in the “Thanks For Inspiration” section. Also thanked were Ian and Alec MacKaye – De La Rocha was “Straight Edge” at the time, though he later took up smoking.
Lyrics
The lyrics for each song were printed in the album booklet with the exception of those for “Killing in the Name”, which were omitted; the booklet reads “2. KILLING IN THE NAME”, skips the lyrics and continues with the next song.
No synths
The statement “no samples, keyboards or synthesizers used in the making of this record” appears at the end of the sleeve notes, and similar statements were made in the band’s subsequent albums. The band also refer to themselves as “Guilty Parties” in the sleeve notes of each album.
Track listing
“Bombtrack” – 4:05
“Killing in the Name” – 5:14
“Take the Power Back” – 5:37
“Settle for Nothing” – 4:48
“Bullet in the Head” – 5:09
“Know Your Enemy” – 4:55
“Wake Up” – 6:04
“Fistful of Steel” – 5:31
“Township Rebellion” – 5:24
“Freedom” – 6:06
Anger Is a Gift bonus disc:
“Darkness” – 3:40
“Year of tha Boomerang” – 4:02
“Freedom” (Remix) – 6:14
“Take the Power Back” (Live) – 6:12
“Guilty Parties”
Rage Against the Machine – Production, Art Direction
Zack de la Rocha – Vocals
Tim Commerford – Bass (credited as “Timmy C.”)
Brad Wilk – Drums
Tom Morello – Guitars
Maynard James Keenan – Additional vocals (“Know Your Enemy”)
Stephen Perkins – Additional percussion (“Know Your Enemy”)
Garth ‘GGGarth’ Richardson – Producer, Engineer
Stan Katayama – Engineer
Craig Doubet – Assistant Engieer
Jeff Sheehan – Assistant Engineer
Bob Ludwig – Mastering
Midas – Mixing / Production
Andy Wallace – Mixing
Steve Sisco – Mixing Assistant
and Nicky Lindeman – Art Direction
Just buy it already.
An inspiring album in so many ways, and not a weak track on the whole album. This album should be a definite purchase for any self-respecting rocker, metaller, nu-metaller, neo-goth, funkster, hip-hopper and/or fan of REAL music.
No synths
forums theme -