My Sunday Song – “Cochise” by Audioslave

For My Sunday Song #332, we are going to discuss the song “Cochise” by Audioslave which includes lead singer Chris Cornell and the reason we are here. The song was the band’s first single off their debut album from 2002. The band consists of Chris Cornell and the musical styles of the band Rage Against the Machine including Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk. Since Rage broke up, they band stayed together and brought in Chris to form a new band. The song went to #2 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart and #2 in the UK on their Rock & Metal Chart where it sold over 200,000 copies.

The song titles is “Cochise” and what the heck is a “Cochise”? Well, I’ll tell you. Cochise was an Apache Indian Chief and he was a badass. He was brutal, yet fearless and resolute. He didn’t let anything stop him and was full of rate and fury which is what Tom felt the music was that way and thus the name of the single. However, “Cochise” doesn’t appear anywhere in the song and is not about him in any way.

The song is about people that waste their life away doing nothing. They need to look in the mirror, wake up and get moving with their life. Chris had mentioned that the song was inspired by himself looking in the mirror and thinking that same thing. I look at it like Chris is out there rocking the world, having so many great adventures while that guy in the mirror is doing drugs, drinking or whatever else to destroy his life. It is like there are two people and if he doesn’t wake up and get both lives in order, the end won’t end well. And we know how that sadly ended.

The song has this tribal drum beat feel, while Tom is doing crazy things on his guitar and Tim on his bass. After about 50 seconds of this growing intensity, that wicked Morello riff comes crashing in. And what a riff it is. Chris sounds great, attacking the lyrics with that same intensity. Plus that scream towards the end is perfection. Tom’s playing throughout is worth the price of admission alone. A great, heavy ass track that let us know Audioslave was for real!!

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in January?

You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple!

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Miley Cyrus ‘Plastic Hearts’ – her rock album…maybe

 Never Heard Before – The Beach Boys – ‘Pet Sounds’ I know, shameful, but I’ve never played it beginning to end even though I know some songs.

Not My Normal Genre – John Coltrane – ‘A Love Supreme’

  From My Collection – Rage Against the Machine – ‘Renegades’

  From My Collection – The B-52’s – ‘Cosmic Thing’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in January, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

October Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

I realized I have been making a lot of purchases and yet not everything makes its way on to the site.  I figured I would do a wrap up each month of all my purchasing I have made even if they made it on the site during the month or even might make it on to the site down the road.

And this month started out with a bang!  A brand new record store opened up in Charlotte, NC called Noble Records.  They opened on October 5th which was a Saturday and because of that I got their bright and early.  Not grand opening 10am early, but I got there before 11am.  I had to take my daughter to her tutoring class at 10 and family comes first…then vinyl…sorry then God, then vinyl!!  Okay, maybe more order is skewed, but you get it.

I found two album I have been wanting and I had to grab them as I don’t seem them that often and one was a first pressing (not the RAGE album).

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Rage Against the Machine ‘Renegades’ and The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East (1st pressing pink label)

I then found two more albums one I for some reason didn’t have in my collection as it is one of the most popular albums of the 70’s and the other is a 12″ Single from Stryper just in time for Christmas.

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Meat Loaf ‘Bat of out Hell’ and Styper’s single “Reason for the Season”

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My Sunday Song – “Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against the Machine

For My Sunday Song #57, I am going with “Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against the Machine.  The song was released on election day in 2000 and with George W. Bush winning I am sure RATM had a lot more to “Rage” about.  The song is off their ‘Renegades’ album and was produced by the great Rick Rubin.

What I never knew, or had just forgotten, was the song was actually a Cover of a song performed by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force and released back in 1983.  These two songs really sound nothing alike and Rage has turned into a funked up metal song that fits my taste nicely.  Not only is it a cover, Rage has included a percussion piece of the song “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band.

I had never really listened to Rage Against the Machine as the late 90’s were not a great time for me so had overlooked them.  It was playing Guitar Hero or some video game where the song was featured and I was like…WOW!!…how have I missed this song.  Ever since then I have been a fan of the band. Tom Morello just absolutely slays it on the guitar and he is one of the best out there. The sounds and riffs he does are so his own style there is no mistaking when he is on lead guitar.

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Brendan O’Brien – Producer Extraordinaire #2

After I wrote on one of my favorite music producers “Mutt” Lange, I started thinking of other producers I tend to gravitate towards and the first one that popped into my head was Brendan O’Brien.

The 1990’s

Brendan was very busy in the ’90’s during the Grunge & Alternative movement and worked with so many of the top bands of that era.  He worked with Stone Temple Pilots throughout the ’90’s on their albums ‘Core ‘(1992), ‘Purple’ (1994), ‘Tiny Music’ (1996) and even ‘No.4’ (1999).  The relationship continued into the 2000’s with his work on their fifth album ‘Shangri-La Dee Da’ (2001).

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