Video Of The Week: Audioslave

Well, mentioning this song in last week's post about Soundgarden and Chris Cornell kind of put me in a bind, in terms of having to showcase Audioslave's best song - the one that doesn't fall into the Pearl Jam-imitation tropes so much as just tries to give a good rock show.

In theory, Audioslave was the perfect mix: musicians who had been in the game-changing band Rage Against The Machine, a mix of rap and hard rock that tackled issues of race and politics, whose riffs were reminiscent of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with some N.W.A. attitude thrown in to add fuel to the fire; and the frontman from Soundgarden, a hard rock machine whose riffs were inspired by those of Sabbath and Zeppelin, with some Beatles sensibility thrown in for good rock measure.

In practice, though, the Rage musicians may have wanted to kick back and make "normal rock albums" for a while, but since becoming friends with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and witnessing his rise to stardom, Cornell's traded away his wailing high-pitched classic rocker's voice for a Vedder-like smoother baritone that seems more like copycat than homage for the slower numbers, which really drags Audioslave's otherwise-decent output from the best it could have been (say, a Stone Temple Pilots level) to something barely more palatable than Candlebox, Creed, Bush and the like.

When they went rocking, though, such as on Cochise, seen here, they showed they could be a fine guitar-driven unit:

The video, featuring a shit-ton of fireworks, was directed by Mark Romanek, a leader in the art form, the director with the most Grammys to his name (3), as well as over 20 MTV Video Awards. He's directed clips for the likes of The The (Sweet Bird Of Truth), En Vogue (You Don't Have To Worry, Free Your Mind), De La Soul (Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)), Keith Richards (Wicked As It Seems), Teenage Fanclub (What You Do To Me), K.D. Lang (Constant Craving), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way, Is There Any Love In Your Heart), Madonna (Rain, Bedtime Story), David Bowie (Jump They Say, Black Tie White Noise), Iggy Pop (Beside You), Nine Inch Nails (Closer, The Perfect Drug), R.E.M. (Strange Currencies), Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson (Scream), Sonic Youth (Little Trouble Girl), Eels (Novocaine For The Soul), Weezer (El Scorcho), Beck (Devil's Haircut), Fiona Apple (Criminal), Macy Gray (I Try), Mick Jagger (God Gave Me Everything), No Doubt (Hella Good), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Can't Stop), Jay-Z (99 Problems, Picasso Baby), U2 (Invisible), Taylor Swift (Shake It Off), Beyoncé (Sandcastles), and Justin Timberlake (Can't Stop The Feeling), but his biggest contribution to the art form will forever remain his sober ad somber direction for Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's heart-wrenching Hurt.

He also directed the terrific features One Hour Photo (2002, starring Robin Williams) and 2010's Never Let Me Go, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield.

Video Of The Week: Rage Against The Machine

It may have been too long since I last featured Rage Against The Machine, so I thought I could show them from yet another single from their 1999 masterpiece The Battle Of Los Angeles, this time with Guerilla Radio, directed by Honey (the husband-and-wife directing duo of Laura Kelly and Nicholas Brooks:

It's a parody of the early-to-mid 1990s Gap ads directed by Pedro Romhanyi where people would dance around in the brand's clothing in a white backdrop while the "hip" music of the day (among which punk band Rancid) ran in the background. Instead, RATM use the video to criticize the garment industry.

Video Of The Week: Rage Against The Machine

I was walking and talking with a friend who's younger than me this week, and for some reason the conversation came to Rage Against The Machine. I was certain that their impact had been so huge, so grandiose, that everyone under the age of 40 would instantly know who they were, from Wake Up playing at the end of The Matrix to the perfect-for-high-schooolers end of Killing In The Name with its ending of more than twenty repetitions of the phrase ''Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me''.

Alas, no. Even folks who claim to have ''listened to subversive music'' in their teens can live their lives Rage-free.

And so, as a favor for all those lost souls, I decided to feature them once more, and while I did juggle with the idea of featuring Killing In The Name, in the end, I opted for the Michael Moore-directed Sleep Now In The Fire, chronicling the day where RATM closed the New York Stock Exchange ten minutes early and in which, during a parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, they display facts about wealth and income inequality.

It gets both Rage's and Moore's main messages across, but it also gives Moore the chance to go outside his now-inevitable documentary film-making and go back to just plain storytelling, and the cheesy green screen effects in front of which the band pretends to croon act like his follow-up to Canadian Bacon.

There are a variety of tones use in the less-than-four-minute video, and it's rich in meaning and Truth.

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 (Past) Week: Rage Against The Machine

Yes, it was done before, for the Testify video. Same era, different record (the Godzilla soundtrack).

I find especially amusing that Rage Against The Machine would diss Godzilla - comparing it with a cheap culture that takes over all the others - with a song on its own soundtrack... even if it is censored in this version...

Godzilla pure motherfuckin' filler
Get your eyes off the real killer

Americanize, Americanize, view the world from American eyes...

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.

Video Of The Week: Rage Against The Machine

If there was one legend I missed out on seeing play live, it's Bob Dylan, but I don't regret it: from watching videos, he's pretty stale, live, nowadays and his words are inaudible.

If there was a band I regret never seeing live, it's got to be Rage Against The Machine. I think they've only come to Montréal once, twice at the most, and I missed out.

I'm a huge fan of their mix of rap and rock, with political lyrics and Zeppelin/Sabbath-type guitar riffs blended with Tom Morello's use of his axe as a turntable with distortion and a rhythm section worthy of being named among the best of all time, they were a perfect band.

As the years went on, their songs had less anthemic choruses and less lyrics overall, cutting the number of verses nearly in half, but the songs were still better: better written, groovier, heavier, more pleasing to the ear, catchier... and a whole lot more involved, politically. Michael Moore - who appears in this one - started directing their videos, and they started attacking both American parties, Republicans for being the Machine they're Raging against, and Democrats for being exactly the same, with the same talking points (as evidenced in this video particularly) and backers, working for the same bankers and arms companies.

From 2000 to 2007, the band didn't exist as such: singer Zack De La Rocha went underground under the One Day As A Lion moniker, while the other three members were making millions of dollars sounding just like Pearl Jam with Chris Cornell in Audioslave. When Cornell proved to be too much of a douchgebag to handle (and at least one album too late), Audioslave was terminated and RATM resumed playing concerts, but they have yet  to release any material (new or old) confirming their re-emergence. And they've yet to come back to Montréal.

I'll admit I dreamed of opening for Audioslave, and impressing them so much I'd be invited for a 2-or-3-song encore singing Rage songs with them. Instead, on their final tour, they started singing old Rage and Soundgarden songs themselves. Not as cool.