Raging in the streets:Rage Against the Machine is back just in time...

Rage Against the Machine is back just in time, with a newfound creative and political confidence, Alexander Billet explains.
November 7, 2008

WHEN RAGE Against the Machine played their first show in seven years at last April's Coachella Festival, it invoked the wrath of none other than Ann Coulter. Within days of their comeback, the archconservative pundit was on Fox News denouncing comments made by front man Zack de la Rocha as "violent" and "hate speech," before labeling the group "irrelevant." Though it may be easy to chalk the segment up to Murdoch-fueled bluster, it also showed that Rage was doing something right.

In an era where bands reunite merely to cash in on empty nostalgia (for example, Smashing Pumpkins), Rage Against the Machine have returned as their rabble-rousing selves. The past year and a half have seen them put action behind words much as they did before their breakup in 2000. They have spoken out for immigrant rights, publicly allied themselves with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and most recently played shows for protesters at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

The band has rediscovered creative and political confidence that fits these tumultuous times perfectly. This fall has also seen the group's two most politically outspoken members release material from their own projects. Guitarist Tom Morello has released a second album under his acoustic alter ego, the Nightwatchman, and De la Rocha has released One Day as a Lion, his collaboration with former Mars Volta drummer John Theodore. If music tells us something about the time we live in, then Rage's ability to find roots today signifies a shift that this country hasn't seen in a long time.


http://socialistworker.org/2008/11/07/raging-in-the-streets