Rage Against The Machine Returns… and they Still Don’t Like George Bush
After a 7-year hiatus, the original members of Rage Against the Machine re-formed at the Coachella festival in California this weekend.
In what has to be seen as a stunning development, Zach de la Rocha and Tom Morrello still don’t like U.S. President George W. Bush. There’s a fucking surprise, now isn’t it?
You won’t find a lot of nuance in their music or their politics. Rage has always been a political band and there’s no reason for them to shy away from that now. It’s great that they have something to say, but I guess it’s just starting to get a little — I don’t know — the noise has become monochromatic, but thanks for clearing things up, Zach. We don’t have to worry about new political ideas infiltrating Rage’s music. The same can probably be said of musical ideas should they reform.
What I find alarming is this quote from an attendee at the weekend performance.
“They changed my life. They made me a liberal,” said Rafael Ramon, 25.
Brilliant. The story says that fuckin’ guy is a history teacher. I suppose it’s too much to hope that he’s teaching his students to think for themselves. I’m a Fanboy. I believe in the power of music to influence and transform and inspire, but I want to explode when I hear someone make a statement suggesting they checked their brain at the door.
Noel Gallagher was right:
Please don’t put your life in the hands
of a rock and roll band
We’ll throw it all away.”
Filed under: Like I Need A Hole in My Head
i can understand that sentiment. however, why do people not go ballistic in the reverse situation? as when somebody flys the flag onstage and insists that we “support our troops”?
p.s. i really love Rage…only have one disc though, the one with Bulls On Parade. i honestly have no idea what that guy’s yellin’ about…just like the snotty guitar.
Allow me to add balance (RATM just happens to be in the news today)… Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” is drivel and I wish we could stop playing it.
Honestly, I’ve heard more of the “anti-Bush” from the stage and screen than the other but you’re right to bring it up — and I’m not going ballistic about Rage, really. At least in their case, they’ve always been this and they’re not arriving at the party because it’s the cool thing to do.
I find RATM’s music to be monotonous. Sure, Morello can make amazing sounds on his guitar, but the music fails to move me.
well, the music is just one of those things. i’m very much moved by all manner of punk and sixties garage rock. it must be my history of playing in garage bands.
I would agree that I’d like to see Rage possibly have something different to say with their music. But if that was the case, they shouldn’t call it RATM… they should call it Audioslave or something.
Of course, there’s a 17-year-old Sahm in the back of my head hoping they get back in the studio and craft out some new tunes. If they don’t, then Rage only came back to cash in on the whole reunion trend.
I guess I feel about them a lot like you do Alice, Saleski, in that I don’t get an emotional connection to the music. Even though I know they have big ambitions, it all comes across like sound and fury signifying nothing. Zach’s vocals don’t do it for me and Morello’s wizardry gets repetitive to me after awhile. They’re passionate, but the music doesn’t feel passionate to me.
Audioslave is another of those things that was good in theory, less in the execution.
Unsurprisingly I love the angst and bite of RATM, specifically the self-titled debut, and they were doing the whole oppositional-politics thing years before “I hate George Bush” became a trendy slogan.
But surely if that history teacher is a liberal part of the package would be teaching a free-thinking philosophy (if such a thing is able to be taught), attempting to not dogmatise ideological positions and imposing them on young minds? Well, that’s my view of the liberal stance, obviously it has more stigmatised connotations in the US (read: media) sphere.
Must say, though, RATM didn’t change my life, I was listening to them years before I’d ever heard of Marx, it was probably more a case of “oh they said fuck, that rules!”
You’re absolutely right, Sir Fleming, that this type of outspokenness has always been apart of what RATM is. It’s not something they’ve done for trend’s sake.