The ever-political, musically ferocious Rage Against The Machine.
The Los Angeles, Californian band formed in 1991 and consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. Rage have been described as "fiercely polemical music, which brewed sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, social inequality, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash."
Their music is amazing, but what's so great about Rage is how much they care, and stick their neck out to talk about the issues nobody else wants to talk about. Heck they filmed "Sleep Now In The Fire" at the New York Stock Exchange and forced it to close its doors during trading hours - for the first time ever! Imagine doing that here? I'm sure Charles Stanley and Rowan Dartington and all the other stock brokerages wouldn't be able to stand in their way!
And I also award a load of awesome points for the fact that they arranged the free show in London after "Killing In The Name Of" beat the X Factor to number one!
Photo: StephenMcleod (Flickr)