Remembering Rage

Combine the militant, radical poetry of Zach De La Rocha and the distortred musical stylings of Tom Morello, add some funky bass lines from Timm Comerford, and ice it with hip hop influenced drum grooves blasting from Brad Wilk's set. The sum of this musical equation is one of the most influential, politically driven, in your face bands of all time: Rage Against the Machine.

Drawing main stream success at lollapalooza in 1993, Rage Against the Machine has released three of the most angry, leftist ranting, corporate america hating, blow up washinton D.C. Albums of all time: Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire, and the Battle of Los Angeles. Fueled by the matrix soundtrack the band is the closest thing to a counter culture inspiring lifestyle since the late 60's and early 70's.

The band's militant lyrics, were often backed by protest, ensuing in a usual press debacle. In the year 2000, the band shot their Sleep Now in the Fire music video across the street from the NY Stock Exchange inviting fans to join them. 300 people showed up in support and post video shoot, rushed the doors of the NYSE mid trading day, succesfully shutting it down. Later that year, bassist, Timm Cromerford climbed up a fake Palm Tree in the middle of the MTV Music awards in response to Limp Bizkits completely BS win of video of the year with the song “Break Stuff”. RATM then played a free show outside the Democratic National Convention in protest of the two party system, where riots ensued and many were arrested. Subsequently, the band played in Minnesota outside the Republican National Convention where they were, at first, barred from physically playing by the police on the grounds that they had no permit. Of course, there was a permit and the band ended up playing Bulls On Parade and Killing in the Name acapella through use of megaphones. See Video:

Rage Against the Machine said whatever they pleased, caused a plethora of trouble, and inspired the masses not to blindly accept U.S. Culture in its entirety. Although I do not agree with the totality of their political views, I do love them as a band. Breaking up was a shame after problems between the band and de la Rocha over decision making and political ideals were too much to overlook. The bands last album was a compliation of covers called Renegades which shortly thereafter reached platinum status.

Two key songs from the band, amid their plethora of hits are Wake Up off the matrix soundtrack on the their self titled album and Roll Right from Evil Empire.

As a side note, Tom, Timm and Brad added Vocalist Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and created the super group Audio Slave. Super groups are never that sucessful and Audioslave was no exception. Although they did have some success, the band was about 1/8^th as good as RATM. My hope is that the band can settle their differences, rejoining for World Tour in the near future. A free concert was promised for 2010 in the UK.