[1] GENERAL RAGE INFORMATION

[1-1]

What is Rage Against the Machine? Rage Against the Machine is a band who formed in 1991 in Los Angeles whose stated purpose, in the words of lyricist/vocalist Zack de la Rocha is: "...[to] bridge the gap between entertainment and activism; first and foremost, that's our goal." Rage Against the Machine would not exist were it not for their political awareness and activism, and it is an integral part of the band. . Their first private performance was at a friend of Tim's living room party, and they decided they had something. They took their name from the title of Zack's previous band's unreleased second album. They played a few shows, and were almost immediately contacted by several labels. However, they all seemed to think the politics were a gimmick, and Rage didn't bother with them. Their earliest demos were recorded "before ever playing live" and were for sale at their shows, and they made and sold about 5000 copies. They signed with Epic after a short time, and their self-titled debut album on Epic (a division of Sony) was released in November, 1992 (see C-2). They toured in support of various bands and gained more and more recognition; their debut album went platinum; the rest is history.

[1-4] What about friendships/collaborations?

[1-4-1] Tool Brad and Tom played "Calling Dr. Love" on the KISS tribute album with Maynard James Keenan (Tool) and Billy Gould (Faith No More). They called themselves Shandi's Addiction. Maynard does the "I've got no patience now..." interlude on RATM's "Know Your Enemy." Tom Morello is thanked on Tool's "Opiate" EP, and Tool is thanked on Rage's debut album. Tom and Adam Jones, the guitarist from Tool, went to high school together in Libertyville, IL and played in a garage band called Electric Sheep (with Adam on bass). The only true collaboration between members of both bands occurred in 1993, where they cut at least one demo of an untitled song. It was to be included on the "Judgement Night" soundtrack, but the bands couldn't work out the song to either of their satisfaction and called it quits before creating a final mix. Someone released the unfinished song via the internet and it can be found in various places online. The second half of the song's music was worked, in large part, into the song "New Millenium Homes," found on BOLA. The best Tool homepage: http://toolshed.down.net/

[1-4-2] Public Enemy Chuck D, PE's "lead man," and the band are good friends. He has come onstage at many Rage shows, to rap and to speak and hang out. He also interviewed Zack, Tom, and Tim for Rip magazine. Musical collaborations are always rumored. Rage has also partially covered the Public Enemy song "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos". The Public Enemy homepage: http://www.public-enemy.com

[1-4-3] Stephen Perkins Stephen Perkins, the drummer for Porno for Pyros played "trashcan percussion" in the interlude to "Know Your Enemy" with Maynard James Keenan from Tool, and also played with Zack, Tom and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers during the Radio Free L.A. broadcast and with Tom on the Pink Floyd cover on the "Small Soldiers" soundtrack.

[1-4-4] Wu-Tang Clan Zack is a huge Wu fan and listened to them all through the 1996 tour, so they asked the enormous rap group to join them on their 1997 summer tour. On several occasions, they collaborated on stage. The RZA and Rage's version of "My Country 'tis of Thee" as performed on an early date in the tour was completely spontaneous, and they did it from time to time. The Wu withdrew from the tour about halfway through, citing "internal conflicts."

[1-4-5] Snoop Dogg Tom, Tim and Brad redid Snoop's song "Snoop Bounce" in the studio, for the Snoop single (not album) "Tha Doggfather." It is entitled "Snoop Bounce (rock and roll remix)." Released December 1997.

[1-5] Isn't being on Epic hypocritical? I believe Tom says it best: "A lot of labels contacted us, and lots of them just didn't seem to understand what we wanted to do. They kept talking about the message of the music as a gimmick. They were interested in us just because there was a buzz... They saw us as the latest local rock band to be hyped. But Epic agreed to everything we asked--and they've followed through... we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control. When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart."

[1-6] How can I contact Rage? Rage Against the Machine PO Box 2052 Los Angeles, CA 900069 email: RAGEemail@aol.com http://www.ratm.com/ See Section [8-*] for more information.

[1-7] Are Rage communists, or what? Being that the band is composed of four different individuals with their own independent thoughts and beliefs, this is a question that is impossible to answer in the way that it usually is asked. Tom, however, provides a quick answer for himself, saying he is "a socialist. I believe people should have meaningful control over their society, which we don't have. And there should be democracy in the workplace, as well as in politics."

[1-8] What does Rage have against sampling? They don't have anything against sampling in the least. It is commonly thought that because of the disclaimer in the liner notes that they somehow disapprove of it. Not true. They are simply proud of the fact that they can create those sounds without the use of machinery aside from their instruments. Note that the disclaimer changed slightly following the first album.

[1-9] What is the significance of the red star? Rage Against the Machine uses the imagery of a red, five-pointed star frequently in their merchandise, artwork, equipment, and even on their clothes. A red star has been used through history and to the current day to signify solidarity with leftist activism and movements. The flag used by the Zapatista movement, for instance, is "a black flag and a red star..."

[1-10] I heard on the radio... Put no stock in news and rumors you hear over the radio unless its coming from the mouth of a band member. Deejays love to sound important by spreading rumors. Don't listen to them, listen to the band and press releases.

[1-11] Rage should go to China/Cuba/(other "communist" country)! Tom Morello says this best: "I am enormously proud to be an American. I would say that the things that our corporate-controlled government has done at best are shameful and at worst genocidal--but there's an incredible and a permanent culture of resistance in this country that I'm very proud to be a part of. It's not the tradition of slave-owning founding fathers, it's the tradition of the Frederick Douglasses, the Underground Railroads, the Chief Josephs, the Joe Hills, and the Huey P. Newtons. There's so much to be proud of when you're American that's hidden from you. The incredible courage and bravery of the union organizers in the late 1800's and early 1900's--that's amazing. People get tricked into going overseas and fighting Uncle Sam's Wall Street wars, but these are people who knew what they were fighting for here at home. I think that that's so much more courageous and brave."

[1-12] What was Radio Free LA? RFLA was a project Tom put together and hosted to bring politics to the forefront of commercial radio, at least for a little while. It was made available free to any radio station interested in carrying it, and was funded by Sony. It featured interviews with VERY prominent world figures, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noam Chomsky, and Subcommandante Marcos. Between the political talk was music; Zack, Tom, Stephen Perkins and Flea collaborated to redo all the songs off Evil Empire in their own unique style. Beck performed and spoke, and a series of hilarious "edited" presidential speeches were aired. Also, several young activists spoke on behalf of youth rights and for the garment workers union; Michael Moore put forth some of his own brand of political humor as well. It lasted a little over 2 hours, and was cut off in some areas because of this. Tom hopes to put together another show in the future. http://www.radiofreela.com/

[1-13] Is that WWF theme a Rage song? NO! Rage has absolutely nothing to do with it.

[1-14] What happened with...

[1-14-1] The naked performance At the 1993 Lollapalooza (see [1-3]) stop in Philadelphia, they got up on stage naked with PMRC (one letter per person) painted across their chests, electrical tape on their mouths and with the guitars feeding back for fourteen minutes and just stood there in protest. They played a free show a few days later to make up for not performing their music. The PMRC is the Parents Musical Resource Council, a group founded by Tipper Gore, that promotes music censorship through stickers and ratings on albums and other such means (see [2-1-2-1]). For those of you who just have to know, yes they were completely naked. Tom wasn't even wearing his hat. It was broad daylight; the audience got quite an eyeful. You can find pictures around if you really must see for yourself.

[1-14-2] Saturday Night Live This is more than you ever wanted to know about the incident, from Rock Out Censorship's official statement, by Kenny Moore. I have altered it slightly, as the call to action in the official statement isn't really necessary three years later. On April 10th, 1996 Rage was scheduled to perform two songs on the NBC comedy variety show "Saturday Night Live." The show was hosted that night by ex-Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax...by making our own statement." To make that statement, RATM hung two upside-down American flags from their amps. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", SNL and NBC sent stagehands in to pull the flags down. The inverted flags, says Morello, represented "our contention that American democracy is inverted when what passes for democracy is an electoral choice between two representatives of the privileged class. America's freedom of expression is inverted when you're free to say anything you want to say until it upsets a corporate sponsor. Finally, this was our way of expressing our opinion of the show's host, Steve Forbes." RATM first attempted to hang the flags during a pre-telecast rehearsal on Thursday, SNL's producers "demanded that we take the flags down," says Morello. "They said the sponsors would be upset, and that because Steve Forbes was on, they had to run a 'tighter' show." SNL also told the band it would mute objectionable lyrics in "Bullet In The Head" (which was supposed to be RATM's second song). SNL even insisted that the song be bleeped in the studio because Forbes had friends and family there. On show night, following the first performance, and the flags being torn down, RATM were approached by SNL and NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, RATM bassist Tim Bob reportedly stormed Forbes' dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down flags. "SNL censored Rage, period. They could not have sucked up to the billionaire more," said Morello. "The thing that's ironic is SNL is supposedly this cutting edge show, but they proved they're bootlickers to their corporate masters when it comes down to it. They're cowards. It should come to no surprise that GE, which owns NBC, would find 'Bullet' particularly offensive. GE is a major manufacturer of US planes used to commit war crimes in the Gulf War, and bombs from those jets destroyed hydroelectric dams which killed thousands of civilians in Iraq." Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."

[1-14-3] The Gorge Rage was scheduled to perform at The Gorge, a George, Washington concert venue on September 13, 1997, but Grant County Sheriff William Weister filed a complaint with the courts trying to block the performance. Court documents refer to the group as "militant, radical and anti-establishment" and mention their allegedly "violent and anti-law enforcement" themes. The banning attempt was struck down, and the concert went on with a quadrupled police presence. Rage started the night with "Fuck Tha Police," and Zack spoke from the stage: "There ain't nothing more frightening than a pig with political aspirations. We take it as an insult that he calls us violent because everybody knows the police are out of control."

[1-14-4] The Guess Protest On December 13th, 1997, Tom Morello and 32 other protesters were arrested outside the Santa Monica Place Mall. They were taking part in a demonstration against clothes manufacturer Guess?, which has a reputation for being a notorious labor-abuser. The demonstration was organized by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. The protesters left an approved demonstration area and blocked the entrance to the mall, and were taken into custody. They received misdemeanor citations and were released.

[1-14-5] Continental Arena Mumia benefit Taken in part from "Revolutionary Worker," January 31st, 1999: On January 28th, 1999 Rage put on a concert to raise money for the defense fund of Mumia Abu-Jamal, much like was done in Washington D.C. in 1995. The Beastie Boys and Bad Religion were scheduled to open, and it was to be held in New Jersey, just outside of New York City. Radio shock-jock Howard Stern caught wind of the controversy and started ranting on-air about this "concert for a cop-killer" that was being advertised on his radio station. In the days following, a tsunami wave of crude threats against the concert hit the airwaves from reactionary tabloid columnists, the Fraternal Order of Police, the New Jersey state troopers, numerous politicians and even the NJ Governor herself, Christine Todd Whitman. Tom Morello, along with Mumia's lead attorney Leonard Weinglass, appeared on Stern's show in the following days to debate Maureen Faulkner, the widow of the cop who Mumia is accused of killing, and Hugh Burns from the Philadelphia DA's office. It was actually 2 against 4, counting Stern and his sidekick Robin ("We're a pro-cop show!"). Faulkner, who was to turn up in the days following on TV tabloid shows like "Extra" and "Hard Copy," performed in the role of both weeping-widow and rabid political operative. The Philly DA simply lied with abandon. Tom was later quoted in the New York Times: "It's not the first time that Rage Against the Machine has opened up a can of worms by standing up for what we believed in. We've had the Ku Klux Klan protest our shows, but I didn't expect this from the Governor of New Jersey's office." The politicians and cops called for cancelling the concert, but they ran up against a recent court ruling involving this very same venue and rocker Marilyn Manson. Manson had won on the grounds that it was a First Amendment violation to ban their concert in this public venue. When the authorities couldn't shut down the concert, the NJ Governor called on people to refuse to attend, and Ticketmaster made the unprecedented move of offering customers their money back. Two days later, the media reported that 2000 people had demanded their money back, but all those tickets were quickly snapped up again. As the concert was taking place, Rage themselves had been instructed by arena management that they would not be allowed to distribute any literature, either inside or outside the venue. The band's management brought in 20,000 copies of their leaflet anyhow - which listed 10 things to do about Mumia's case and reprinted "Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?" from the Refuse & Resist! Resource Guide. They fought and won the right to have the flyer on tables staffed by International Concerned Friends & Family of Mumia, Amnesty International and other support groups. Arena security would not allow any buttons or any political literature to be sold. Zack de la Rocha, the lead singer of Rage, put the authorities' threats into perspective at the press conference. A reporter asked, "In doing a benefit like this, does it make you a marked band in terms of law enforcement?" He answered, "I found it very surprising that the attorney general and the governor of NJ would denounce musicians who are doing a benefit for someone we consider an innocent man. To me, it rung of them trying to create a climate in which they would try to scare kids from coming to the show and getting the information. The case against Mumia that they're presenting is so thin that now they have to come after the musicians, they're coming after radio stations who play those musicians."

[1-15] What awards or nominations have they earned? Grammy Awards, 1997: Nominated, Best Hard Rock Band Won, Best Metal Performance - Tire me Grammy Awards, 1998: Nominated, Best Hard Rock Performance - People of the Sun Grammy Awards, 1999: Nominated, Best Metal Performance - No Shelter