Forget for a minute that Tom Morello is a very famous musician, and put aside your views on whether or not musicians should use their music as a platform to express political views. Now watch and listen to this interview with Tom Morello at the Occupy Wall Street protests — where he serenaded protestors last week — and as you’re doing so think of him of just one of 300-some-odd million U.S. citizens with an opinion to express, just like everyone else:

I don’t care who the guy in the above video is; his are some of the most well-articulated, smart, and reasoned opinions of the whole “Occupy” campaign I’ve encountered to date. Best of all, Morello does a great job of framing the issue not as Republican vs. Democrat — because it’s really not a partisaned issue at all — but as regular people vs. the entire government/corporation complex, regardless of party lines. Sure, Morello’s history leans very far left, but the “Occupy” movement is gaining steam precisely because it doesn’t recognize political affiliation. Tea Partiers should really be able to back its message too. Sure, certain groups are trying to co-opt the message, but Morello addresses that issue in the above interview too.

Now feel free to once again remember how famous Tom Morello is, how many people he can influence, that the guy’s a pretty fantastic musician and, oh yeah, has a degree in Political Science from Harvard. I’d say this is fairly important, wouldn’t you?

For more on Occupy Wall Street re: metal: check out Valient Himself of Valient Thorr’s thought on the matter in an exclusive MetalSucks guest blog.

-VN

Yesterday word got out that Tom Morello was in New York to perform for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, and now, of course, there is video of that event, which you can check out below. There isn’t really all that much I can say about this, so I’ll just echo Vince’s words from yesterday: “God bless Tom Morello and the rest of the Ragers for never compromising their ideals.”

More after the jump.

Click to read more…

Evil Empire might not’ve had the non-stop song-to-song momentum that its self-titled predecessor did but it still packed one hell of a motherfucking punch. “People of the Sun,” “Bulls on Parade,” “Down Rodeo” and “Without a Face” are all classics in the Rage canon, and the comparatively raw production of Evil Empire gets right up in your face and serves to up the impact. The rhythm section of Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford absolutely pulsates on this one; it’s like you’re standing in the room with them and Zach de la Rocha, who’s as fired up and angry as ever. These songs sound just as important now as they did in 1996.

Funny story: I bought Evil Empire when it came out in ’96 but decided to trade it to a friend a couple of years later for Beastie Boys’ License To Ill because I didn’t like it as much as Rage’s first record. That was silly! I should’ve just bought both. But thanks to the modern wonders of Spotify, I now have it back again: stream it here.

God bless Tom Morello and the rest of the Ragers for never compromising their ideals. Morello has flown to New York City on his own dime to seranade the Occupy Wall Street protestors TODAY at 12 noon. Be there, and RAGE IT UP.

-VN

It will probably not surprise you to learn that I’m a big fan of politically-themed talk shows that are hosted by sarcastic pricks and feature panels of people arguing and often insulting one another. And one of my favorite such shows is HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, which I watch religiously.

And I found this past Friday night’s episode especially fun, because one of the guests was none other than Tom Morello, who was ostensibly on the show to help promote his new solo outing as The Nightwatchman, World Wide Rebel Songs. Now, honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Morello’s post-Rage Against the Machine output, but hearing him talk about the inspiration for this album (I won’t spoil it for you here) did make me wanna give it a second, and more attentive, listen. I know that anyone with political views like Morello’s will be a divisive figure, and I’m sure there are plenty of you who violently disagree with him; sometimes I think he may even be too left for me. But there’s no arguing that he’s not a smart dude with plenty of interesting things to say.

For some reason the episode doesn’t seem to be streaming on the show’s official website, but someone made a shitty rip for YouTube, so you can check out Morello’s part of the show in three sections below. And then praise him/tear into him in our comments section below.

Click to read more…

I’m going to put about as much effort into this introduction as I put into trying to be sensitive to Hinder’s feelings.

We begin today’s cinemetal round-up with “Irresistible Force,” the first new video from Jane’s Addiction since whenever the last time they released a video was. The clip has some stuff going for it — like a lot of mostly-naked beautiful women, and a particularly funny moment, at the :54 second mark, when there’s some not-at-all-subtle vaginal imagery — but for the most part it’s pretty standard stoner stuff. The fact that the song is fairly boring doesn’t help.

Click to read more…

I somehow missed this when The PRP posted it earlier this month, but caught it yesterday on Metal Injection: a video of the first time Rage Against the Machine ever played in front of a public audience. (According to Tom Morello, the band “had done one show previously but that was a living room party,” so I guess it doesn’t count.) It’s not just a clip, either — it’s the whole damned show.

And I think it’s worth watching, not just because it’s a fun look at the earliest days of a now-legendary band — but because the band was okay but not great, and because most of the crowd, clearly, does not give a hoot about them. People routinely just walk on by the stage, with no idea that they’re missing out on a seminal moment in rock history. (Not that it’s their fault; how could they possibly have known?) And I think that’s a valuable thing for young bands to see: EVERYBODY HAS TO START SOMEWHERE. Once upon a time, Rage Against the Machine were just some local band, playing to an audience of three people, just like every other group in the history of ever. Don’t you find that, I dunno, encouraging?

-AR

If memory serves, the Spawn movie which came out in 1997 was pretty terrible, but we did get one great thing out of it: the soundtrack. It was pretty much like the Judgment Night soundtrack, only instead of combining metal bands with rap acts, it teamed up metal bands with electronica acts. And every song on it was innovative and amazing.

No, I’m totally kidding. The soundtrack sucked almost as bad as the movie.

Click to read more…

Amongst the older musicians on Warped Tour, dissing the traveling festival’s main constituency of tight-pants-wearing, hair-swooping, girly-man emo kids has kind of become like going fishing in a stocked kiddie pond; super easy but still lots of fun and irresistible. Every Time I Die’s Andy Williams and Dillinger Escape Plan’s Liam Wilson had plenty to say on the matter when I chatted with them about beards last month, and the latest rock vet — who makes those two look like kids themselves — to chime in is Tom Morello, whose band Street Sweeper Social Club played a couple of the tour’s California dates.

Elise at Reign in Blonde, who brought this video to my attention, makes a good point that most kids at Warped probably have no idea that the guy up on stage making funky sounds with his guitar has another, more popular band that’s sold tens of millions of records worldwide. But Morello seems to take it in stride, and though he fires a few shots at Warped’s primary attendees he recognizes the value of playing to a new crowd. Skip to the 1:00 mark for the Morello clip.

-VN

Oh, never mind, it’s not an ad for Target. It’s a Cypress Hill video. Huh. Go figure.

I don’t know whether or not Morello co-wrote this song, “Rise Up,” but it sounds more like Rage Against the Machine than anything I’ve heard anyone do in years. And that includes the legions of RATM imitators. And, one way or the other, this is wwwwaaayyyy better than the cover of “Paradise City” the Cypress Hill dudes did with Slash.

Also, to answer your question, Cypress Hill, I can get pretty high. You?

-AR

If you weren’t already excited for Iron Man 2, this oughta do the trick: our friends at Metal Insider report that Tom Morello has revealed via Twitter that none other than Tom Morello is working on the score for the film in conjunction with composer John Debney (who also did the music for director Jon Favreau’s Elf, Sin City, and a whole lotta other crap). They replace Ramin Djawadi, whose score for the original Iron Man was one of the least memorable things about that flick. (MI also points out that Morello played guitar on Djawadi’s score, and had a cameo as one of the terrorists Tony Stark offs in the cave scene. There’s something kinda ironic about that, given Morello’s political views, and the fact that the portrayal of said terrorists was cartoonish to be the point of being borderline racist, but I guess that’s a different conversation for a different time.)

This is in addition to the already-announced utilization of AC/DC on the IM2 soundtrack, as well as Lamb of God’s contribution of a new song to the movie tie-in video game. If there’s gonna be a more metal-friendly mainstream movie this year, I don’t know what it is.

Here’s the new trailer for Iron Man 2, which makes it look like it’s gonna kick all kinds of ass:

-AR

I didn’t buy Guitar Hero: Van Halen because it was a continuation of VH’s ongoing efforts to try and make people forget that Michael Anthony was ever in the band – never mind that Fatty Ding Dongs Van Halen wasn’t even born yet when the band’s best albums were made. That being said, I think modern Metallica is pretty lame, too, and I enjoyed their edition of GH. And I’d be totally down for a Megadeth version of the game, even if, once again, there would be some question of which ‘Deth line-up was portrayed (I assume it would be the current one… is Mustaine cool enough to let Marty Friedman, Dave Ellefson, Nick Menza, et. al. be unlockables?).

And I may get my wish! Metal Insider reports that Mustaine is now gloating about taking meetings with the makers of GH for a Megadeth-themed version of the game… or possibly something more. Via Megadeth.com:

Click to read more…

The good thing about being Rolling Stone is that even though you haven’t been relevant in twenty years, there’s some prestige attached to your name, so you can get famous people whose publicists don’t know any better to do shit for you. The glorified glossy toilet paper’s latest coup is getting a bunch of celebs to list their favorite albums and songs of the decade.

I imagine this will cause a million times more arguing than the lists published by any magazine or website staff, because if frail egos collapse under the weight of differing opinions from writers and other “experts,” than I can only imagine how people will react to finding out that Kirk Hammett likes Sinéad O’Connor more than Meshuggah.

Check out some of the lists from Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Tom Morello after the jump.

Click to read more…

So we read on Metal Insider, who read on Drowned In Sound, who read on nme.com, that Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello used to be a stripper. Seriously. Says Morello:

When I graduated from Harvard and moved to Hollywood, I was unemployable. I was literally starving, so I had to work menial labour and, at one point, I even worked as an exotic dancer. ‘Brick House’ [by The Commodores] was my jam! I did bachelorette parties and I’d go down to my boxer shorts. Would I go further? All I can say is thank god it was in the time before YouTube! You could make decent money doing that job – people do what they have to do.

Click to read more…

OK, so far it seems like a one-off thing, but how incredibly awesome must it have been for Seattle concertgoers to witness 3/4 of Soundgarden reunited onstage together with Tad Doyle this past Tuesday night? (Thanks to fellow twitterer Mark Carrass for alerting me to this. Social networking fucking rules.) Sure, the (literally) massive grunge veteran doesn’t have the vocal range of Chris Cornell, but watching this sweet video footage of the band playing “Nothing To Say” makes it evident that that’s beside the point. You wont have to dig much deeper on YouTube to catch the clip for “Spoonman” featuring former Cornell cohort Tom Morello on rhythm guitar. Fortunately, no Audioslave songs were performed.

Mr. Cornell could not be reached for comment (I tried!), as he is currently in Chile in support of his latest solo album which nobody seems to like.

-GS

[Gary Suarez feels as if a weight has been lifted. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Guitar Hero III featured Slash and Tom Morello as bosses and pretty much used Slash as the entire basis of the video game’s ad campaign; I guess now it’s Zakk Wylde’s turn, as the Ozzy/Black Label Society axemaster is now being featured in a trailer for Guitar Hero World Tour, which will be released on October 26.

Oddly enough, while there’s a BLS song in the game, Wylde played on neither of the original recordings of the included Ozzy songs, “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley.” I don’t know if they’ll be using re-recorded versions featuring Wylde for the purposes of the game or if they’re just depending on Guitar Hero‘s younger (read: target) audience not know the difference between Wylde and Randy Rhodes.

In any case, here’s the trailer:

As is usually the case with Guitar Hero, there’s a whole lotta metal included in this edition’s “set list,” including three Tool songs and offerings by Metallica, Van Halen, System of a Down, Dream Theater and Lacuna Coil. Should be fun if you like these rhythm games.

-AR

CityPages is reporting that Rage Against the Machine were not allowed to play a show by Minneapolis police, after supposed headliners Anti-Flag finished a show at the Republican National Convention and said, “Stay put; shit’s gonna get crazy.” After the band argued with police and event organizers for 15 minutes, they descended into the crowd. Singer Zach De la Rocha then addressed the crowd with a short anti-war speech, and the band proceeded to lead the protesters in a cappella versions of “Bulls on Parade” and “Killing in the Name Of.” Morello sang the guitar parts and de la Rocha the lyrics, as 2,000+ protesters sang along in unison. Thanks to the wonders of the Internets, we have a fan-filmed video.

Fucking A, I love this band so much right now. Fast-forward to the 2:30 mark for the song.

-VN

[Thanks: Eric H. and Gabexmosh]

[Ed - Correct video is now on, sorry.]

Sure, they made some fucking awesome music (I probably spun their self-titled disc more than any other in the summer of ’92). But what I want to talk about today is how, despite fame, money and age, they’ve remained fiercely political, involved and angry, always sticking to their ideals. The above picture [from Fear and Loathing via MetalSucks reader Eric H.] says it all — RATM on the front lines with 7000 other protesters at the DNC, urging Barack Obama to stick to his anti-war platform. Not only did they schedule a concert in Denver during the DNC; not only does Tom Morello frequently speak out in the press; they protest with everyone else, on the front fucking lines. That is the definition of honesty and keeping it real.

God, I fucking love this band.

-VN

You can listen to it on their MySpace page if you want.

It’s called “The American Dream.” I can’t understand what the singer is saying but if I was a bettin’ man, I’d wager the lyrics aren’t really about rising to the top via good, hard work and due dilligence. Tom Morello must be so proud.

The band also has a new album coming out. I’d tell you more, but I get bored just thinking about it.

I think I’m gonna go take a nap.

-AR

You may or may not have heard in the past week about the fact that the Writer’s Guild of America – the union of writers for film and television – is on strike (you can find excellent ongoing coverage here). The mass media isn’t giving the strike much coverage because, well, the mass media is largely owned by the same conglomerates that the writer’s are striking against. See, the gist of the conflict is this: right now, when you a buy a DVD, the writer of whatever film or tv program is on said DVD gets about four cents, and the writers would like a raise so they make a whopping eight cents on each DVD; furthermore, writers currently aren’t paid when their work is streamed on a network website (usually complete with paid commercials) or downloaded on iTunes, which is to say: they’re not being paid for their work. Of course, GE and Time Warner and Viacom don’t want you to see it that way; they want you to think that the writers are greedy assholes and they want you to be upset that by the end of November, there basically won’t be anything on tv save for re-runs and reality shows (You won’t feel the effect in movie theaters until about 2009, when every shitty script the studios rushed into production to beat the strike is released. Seriously: the last time Hollywood thought there was gonna be a writer’s strike, Fox immediately gave a green light to… the re-make of Planet of the Apes. Chew on that.).

ANYWAY, leave it our favorite heavy metal crusader, Tom Morello, to take a stand for the writers, joining picketers at last week’s rally outside Fox. Video below:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/oQAzNsPLlDk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR