Rage Against the Machine

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Rage Against the Machine (also Rage or RATM) was a political rap-metal band formed in 1990, in Orange County, California. The group's personnel (the "Guilty Parties," according to the liner notes of their albums) were:

The group was popular through the 1990s and early 2000s, disbanding in 2001. They were a major influence in the nu metal genre, and were also known for their Marxist politics, which were featured in their music, album artwork, and were frequently mentioned in interviews and by their participation in political protests.

Among other campaigns, the band has rallied for the releases of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and life-long sentenced Leonard Peltier, been vocal supporters of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, performed outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California in protest, and played numerous concerts for various benefits.

The band's musical signatures were de la Rocha's distinctive, rap-influenced vocal style (influenced mostly by Chuck D. of Public Enemy), Commerford's grinding bass, and Morello's experimentation with guitar sounds. Fans particularly admired their powerful live performances. They toured with many other significant bands, including U2 and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Contents

History

The band's founding members were vocalist Zack de la Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello. They owed their name to a song, "Rage Against the Machine", by de la Rocha's former group, Inside Out.

Shortly after forming, Rage recorded twelve songs, and distributed it themselves as cassette tapes. Several record labels expressed interest in the group, which signed with Epic Records. Some critics (such as writers for Melody Maker) criticised the band for voicing loud commitment to left-wing causes whilst being signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Records, at a time when many alternative labels were struggling. Some critics felt that the band's anarchism was insincere.

Tom Morello provided this rebuttal to that criticism:

A lot of labels contacted us, and lots of them just didn't seem to understand what we wanted to do. They kept talking about the message of the music as a gimmick. They were interested in us just because there was a buzz... They saw us as the latest local rock band to be hyped. But Epic agreed to everything we asked--and they've followed through... we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control. When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart.

Their self-titled debut album "Rage Against the Machine" was released in late 1992, and at a Lollapalooza appearance in 1993 in Philadelphia, the band stood still on stage for a full 15 minutes, completely naked, with duct-taped mouths and their guitars feeding back through the amplifiers. The letters "PMRC" were displayed across their chests, in protest against what they considered censorship by the Parents Music Resource Center.

Evil Empire (1996) and The Battle of Los Angeles (1999) followed. Though unfavorably reviewed the Evil Empire album featured "Bulls on Parade", one of their signature songs, which, on April 13, 1996, the band performed on Saturday Night Live, hanging inverted American flags from their amps in protest of Steve Forbes, who was the guest that night. However, the stage crew took the flags off, and cut them down to only one song instead of the normal two. The Battle of Los Angeles received more positive reviews and was generally seen as a return to form.

In 1999, the band's track "Wake Up" was used for the closing credits of the highly influential popular science-fiction movie, The Matrix. Another one of their songs, "Calm Like A Bomb" was featured in the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded.

Renegades (2000) was a collection of covers by bands as diverse as Devo, Cypress Hill, MC5 and others. An album of live and rare material fittingly titled Live & Rare (1997), and a second live album, Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (2003)(CD), several singles, music videos and three live shows, Rage Against the Machine (1997), The Battle of Mexico City (2001), and Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (2003)(DVD). The CD and DVD, both titled Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, were released separately and contain slightly different track lists. The concert was the band's last.

Between the release of The Battle of Los Angeles and the release of Renegades, de la Rocha left the group. In light of his leaving the band, he released the following statement on October 18, 2000:

I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal. I am extremely proud of our work, both as activists and musicians, as well as indebted and grateful to every person who has expressed solidarity and shared this incredible experience with us.

One of Rage Against the Machine's most influential moments came with the filming of a music video for "Sleep Now in the Fire" on January 26th, 2000. Directed by Michael Moore, the video was shot outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street, in New York. The band and Moore clashed with security and police, and the Exchange locked it's doors in the middle of the trading day.[1]

Zack de la Rocha is reportedly working on new material in the hip-hop arena; the remaining members of the band teamed up with ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and formed Audioslave. The first Audioslave single, "Cochise", was released in early November 2002, and the first album followed to mainly positive reviews. While their second album Out of Exile debuted on the #1 position on the billboard charts in 2005.

According to a Spin magazine interview with de la Rocha, he has recorded several tracks with various artists, among them Reprazent and DJ Shadow. In 2003 a song called "March of Death" that he recorded with DJ Shadow was released in protest of the war on Iraq. As of September 2005, de la Rocha's solo debut album is scheduled to be released on December 31, 2005.

In September 2004, de la Rocha released a song called "We Want It All" produced by Trent Reznor on the Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 soundtrack. Tom Morello, credited as "The Nightwatchman," also contributed a song, "No One Left," to the soundtrack.

Trivia

  • Their band name is parodied in the game 'The Sims 2' (2004), where a lamp is named "Rave Against The Machine".
  • The band is also parodied in the T.V. show Undergrads when "Reg Against the Machine" plays at a school rally.
  • The name of the band is also parodied by Australian group TISM, who entitled their 1996 album "Machines Against The Rage".
  • "No samples, keyboards or synthesizers used in the making of this recording" appears in the credits of their first album, while this is replaced by "All sounds made by guitar, bass, drums, and vocals" in the credits of all subsequent albums, DVDs, etc.
  • Their rendition of Street Fighting Man is the theme song of the highly acclaimed talk radio program The Opie and Anthony Show
  • Their name is also parodied by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine

Their name is parodied by American band OPM track Rage against the Coke Machine

  • Their name is parodied by the Japanese band No-ism, which named one of their tracks "Rage Against Rage Against The Machine".
  • Former WWE stable, D-Generation X, used a theme song that was intended to sound like the band Rage Against the Machine.

Stone Cold Steve Austin's recognisable Glass Shatters song (the first mix) was heavily based around one of Rage Against The Machine's songs.

Discography

Singles

Note: "Killing in the Name" is featured on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack

  • "Bombtrack", 1993
  • "Know Your Enemy", 1993
  • "Bullet in the Head", 1993
  • "Freedom", 1994
  • "Bulls on Parade", 1995
  • "Tire Me", 1996
  • "People of the Sun", 1996
  • "Down Rodeo", 1996
  • "No Shelter", 1998

Note: This song is from the Godzilla (1998 film) soundtrack

Note: "Guerrilla Radio" is featured on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 soundtrack

  • "Sleep Now in the Fire", 2000
  • "Testify", 2000

Note: The videos for both "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Testify" were directed by documentor Michael Moore

  • "Calm Like a Bomb", 2000
  • "The Ghost of Tom Joad", 2001
  • "Renegades of Funk", 2002
  • "How I Could Just Kill a Man", 2002

DVDs

  • Rage Against the Machine 1997- This DVD contains footage of concerts in Irvine, CA, at the Rock Am Ring Festival 1996, and at the Pink Pop Festival 1994. It also features music videos for five Rage songs from their first two albums. The DVD also contains a poem by Zack de la Rocha (Memory of the Dead) and a cover song, "The Ghost of Tom Joad".
  • Revolution USA 1999- This unauthorized DVD contians the biographies of the band members and interviews with Tom Morello and music journalists, but does not contain any live video clips.
  • The Battle of Mexico City 2000- Because of their support of the Zapatista Movement and de la Rocha's Mexican heritage, Rage Against the Machine had a strong fan base in Mexico. This concert was Rage's first in Mexico, and the connection between the band and the fans is apparent. This DVD contains songs from Rage's first three albums and a cover, "Zapata's Blood".
  • Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium 2003- This DVD is the last recorded performance of Rage in the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA on September 13, 2000. The 13th track on the DVD contains the bands cover of the Cypress Hill song "How Could I Just Kill A Man" (which also appears on the band's cover album "Renegades") and features long-time friend B-Real of Cypress Hill as a guest on the performance. The DVD also contains the videos to the songs "Bombtrack" and "How I Could Just Kill A Man", footage from the band's free Democratic National Convention concert on August 14th, 2000, as well as two bonus concert performances of "People of the Sun" and "Know Your Enemy".

External links

Rage Against the Machine
Tim Commerford | Tom Morello | Zack de la Rocha | Brad Wilk
Albums
Rage Against the Machine | Evil Empire | Live & Rare | The Battle of Los Angeles | Renegades | Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
Videos and DVDs
Rage Against the Machine | The Battle of Mexico City | Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Rage_Against_the_Machine.html"


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