Raging For The Machine

By now I guess you've heard: Mitt Romney's choice for VP, Paul Ryan, cites Rage Against The Machine as one of his favourite bands. And the band's guitarist and chief militant, Tom Morello, has a few choice word for him via Rolling Stone:

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved The Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine. (...)

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions. (...)

Many activists around the world, including organizers of the global occupy movement, were radicalized by Rage Against the Machine and work tirelessly for a more humane and just planet. Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.

He even ends with humour:

My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier.  Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That's one possibility. But I'm not betting on it.

I'm so glad to see he hasn't lost his spunk.

Video Of The Week: Outernational

Again, a repeat artist in this feature: Outernational, once more featuring Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot).

This time, for their flagship song, We Are All Illegals / Todos Somos Illegales, where they asked fans to send in footage of them singing, miming or acting out to the song's lyrics, a concept Cake has also explored of late but makes for fun, entertaining and cheap film making. And that's good for everybody, and helps level the playing field.

Video Of The Week: Outernational

While the streets of Montréal are taken by storm daily and nightly by protesters, 6 months or so after the winter break of the Occupy movements worldwide, it's good to take a step back and realize there are still some forces of change happening elsewhere, and New York's Outernational are definitely one of them.

I picked this song because it was produced by Tom Morello, but also because it doesn't let its strong message get into the way of their groove, a mix of hard rock, funk, balladry and something resembling slow ska (à la GrimSkunk) that reminds me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers before they went soft and repetitive. It's therefore fitting Peppers' drummer Chad Smith makes an appearance on their record... All of this, by an absolutely indie band who are doing it by their own means.

And although they have very little in common, I still have to put them in the same category as Soul Coughing as bands I really enjoy listening to, whose sounds and words resonate with me, but don't listen to enough.

While I'm Into Politics... Here's Music

I must admit this is perhaps the best musical performance I've seen in years.



I'm not a fan of Bruce Springsteen's. I usually find his ''band'' recordings to be muddy, murky, hard-to-differentiate-one-note-from-another, but in this Irish-style angst-ridden ditty that sounds like something Joe Strummer could have written for The Pogues - mixing the rage and immediacy of The Clash's  London Calling with the styling and grit of the Celtic band's Rum, Sodomy & The Lash - The Boss turns it up to 11 with the help of his E-Street Band and Tom Morello for Jimmy Fallon's show.

He's passionate, involved, brutally honest, and wrote a fucking amazing song. We're barely in March, and this is probably the song of the year for me, and this is the performance of the past 5 years.

Tom Morello Speaks Out

These past couple of years, one of the musical projects that have resonated in my heart as much as in my ears is The Nightwatchman, Tom Morello's solo project after years as lead guitarist of seminal band Rage Against The Machine and the Pearl Jam-sounding side project Audioslave with Chris Cornell.

If anything, The Nightwatchman makes up for Audioslave's lackluster last 2 records, including one which I hold responsible for the end of my purchasing CDs on a regular basis.

In an interview with Gibson Guitars' website, he talks about the origin of his Nightwatchman project, as well as the early 90s' then-emerging rock scene (with a few choice quotes about Pearl Jam's influence in later music) and the five records that influenced him the most - two of which would maybe make my own list, but I'd take Public Enemy's Fear Of A Black Planet over It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.