Rage Against The Machine To Play Protest Gig During Democratic National Convention

(swiped from MTVNews)

Agit-rockers already announced Minneapolis show during the Republican gathering.

This year at least, Rage Against the Machine are bipartisan bomb-throwers. The agit-rockers, who are already playing a show in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention in September, have just announced another gig during the Democratic National Convention in Denver at the end of this month.

The "Tent State Music Festival to End the War" will take place August 27 at the Denver Coliseum and feature sets by Rage, the Flobots, the Coup, State Radio and former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, whose proto-punk band famously performed against the wishes of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley during the violent protests outside the 1968 DNC gathering. The band went home without their instruments, but they did have bloody battle scars from brawls with police.

Rage also know a thing or two about getting shut down at the DNC, as their 2000 set during the party's gathering in Los Angeles erupted in chaos when police rushed in and used tear gas to disperse the crowd. This year's all-ages show will begin at 11 a.m., and tickets are free to those who sign up for the lottery by presenting a valid ID at the Tent State University location in Denver between August 24 and August 26. Winners will be notified by e-mail on August 26.

The Denver protest event is being put on in conjunction with the Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tent State University, a group that works to help young people "take back their campuses and their communities." Tent State plans to erect a "sea of tents" in City Park, Denver, during the DNC and create an "alternative university, teaching tactics and strategies necessary to force an end to this war." Among the guests on tap during the protest are third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

During the protest, Tent State will also host a series of other shows as part of the first Tent State Music Festival, featuring sets by longtime social critic and ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, as well as the Coup, Michelle Shocked, Jill Sobule and some "special guests" during an event they are billing as "4 Days of Love & Action."

The logo for the protest, as well as the slogan, are meant to evoke the iconic poster for the legendary 1969 Woodstock Festival, which promised "3 Days of Peace and Music" and featured a white bird sitting on the neck of a guitar. The Tent State festival, in contrast, features an electric guitar being held aloft by a fist.

The organization has several days' worth of creative protests planned, including the Funky Snake Marches that will wind through downtown to protest the war in Iraq, daily morning gatherings that the group says will "turn downtown into one massive reminder to the delegates and the public of what war looks like" and the erection of mock checkpoints around Denver on August 26 to "mimic the experiences we force on people in Iraq, Palestine and on the U.S./Mexico border."

Other acts scheduled to perform during the Tent State festival include: Melissa Ivey, Blue Scholars, Son of Nun, God-des and She, 8" Betsy, David Rovics, Rachel Bagby, Common Market, Apex Vibe, P Nuckle, Fulcrum, Kombat, DJ Russh and the Flash Mob.
The latest Rage show is part of a growing musical roster for both conventions, which also includes a just-announced Grammy Foundation-sponsored gig featuring Daughtry, Everclear and the Flobots during the DNC; a Service Employees International Union-sponsored show by Rage guitarist Tom Morello, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco and Steve Earle during the Republican Convention; and various other local concerts in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area during the gathering.
MTV News and the Street Team '08 citizen journalists will be on the ground at both conventions, sorting through speeches, streamers and ceremony to find the information you need to choose the next president.

Rage Against The Machine To Rock Republican National Convention

Band will play Minneapolis, while Republican gathering happens across the river in St. Paul, Minnesota.

(swiped from MTVNews)

It's a safe bet that few of the attendees of the upcoming Republican National Convention (September 1-4) in St. Paul, Minnesota, will take a break from the expected coronation of Senator John McCain as the party's presidential hopeful to attend a certain show taking place across the river in Minneapolis.

Mainly because the headliners are Rage Against the Machine, who, according to Minneapolis' Star Tribune, will bring their incendiary politics and anthems of violent revolution to the Target Center September 3. Coming off a fierce performance at last weekend's Lollapalooza -- during which singer Zack de la Rocha was forced to stop the show three times to ask the crowd to stop crushing fans near the front of the stage -- the band will likely be plugging in and offering a less-than-favorable view of conservative politics.

De la Rocha recently called for President Bush to be "tried for being a war criminal," and during the band's Lolla set, he raged against the last eight years of Republican rule and even had a word of warning for "Brother Obama," referring to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama.

"Now, we know Brother Obama. ... But I tell you what, if he comes to power come November and he doesn't start pulling troops out of Afghanistan, I know a lot of people who are gonna stand up and burn down every office of every Senate."

In addition to the Rage show, the band's guitarist, Tom Morello, will hook up with outspoken singer/songwriter and fellow social activist Steve Earle to perform a show at a union rally on September 1 at St. Paul's Harriet Island.

Rage played a free show at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000 that erupted in chaos when police rushed in and used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd, who they said had gathered unlawfully.

If Saturday night's headlining set at Lollapalooza is any indication, the scene at the Target Center could get very intense. Despite the appearance of chaos and a bit of panic from fans attempting to flee the crush of the crowd, festival spokesperson Shelby Meade told MTV News on Sunday that there were actually fewer medical issues during the Rage set than during Radiohead's headlining gig on Friday night, when more fans were overcome by the intense heat up front. She said most of the medical attention Saturday night was also due to fans overcome by heat and that the ones taken out of the pit on backboards were transported that way as a safety precaution. A medical worker told the Chicago Tribune that no serious injuries were suffered during the Rage set, though an unspecified number of fans were taken to local hospitals with broken bones and were to be released Monday. "It was nothing out of the ordinary for a big show," Charlie Walker, one of the co-owners of Lollapalooza concert promoter C3 Productions told the paper.

Meade also confirmed reports that "about 100" fans without tickets who had been listening to Rage from outside the festival's gates pushed down a fence and rushed the venue, but were quickly turned back by horse-mounted police.

Rage's Zach de la Rocha Starts New Band, Delivers EP/Tom Morello readies new Nightwatchman album

(Swiped from Pitchfork Media)

The name One Day as a Lion might not set off any alarms, but the parties involved should be familiar. The brand new thing from Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha and ex-Royal Trux/Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore will release their self-titled debut EP to the world July 22 from the Anti- label. As you might recall, this project has been in the works for awhile.

Meanwhile, Rage guitar slinger Tom Morello and his Nightwatchman thing have a new disc on the way, too. This one's called The Fabled City, it was produced by Brendan O'Brien, and Serj Tankian of System of a Down and Shooter Jennings both make appearances. It's due September 30 from Epic.

All this outside expression hasn't quelled the mighty Rage these fellas share, which they'll bring to a few lucky festivals throughout the rest of the summer.

One Day as a Lion:

01 Wild International

02 Ocean View

03 Last Letter

04 If You Fear Dying

05 One Day as a Lion

The Fabled City:

01 The Fabled City

02 Whatever It Takes

03 The King of Hell

04 Night Falls

05 The Lights Are on in Spidertown

06 Midnight in the City of Destruction

07 Saint Isabelle

08 Lazarus on Down (ft. Serj Tankian)

09 Gone Like Rain

10 The Iron Wheel (ft. Shooter Jennings)

11 Rise to Power

Rage:

07-10 Lisbon, Portugal - Optimus Alive!08

07-12 Balado, Scotland - T in the Park Festival

07-13 County Kildaire, Ireland - Oxegen Festival

08-02 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

08-20 Paris, France - Rock en Seine Festival

08-22 Reading, England - Reading Festival

08-23 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival

Rage singer De La Rocha wraps first solo album

(swiped from Reuters)

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Rage Against The Machine vocalist Zack De La Rocha has completed his first solo album, a project he has been working on since first leaving the band in 2000.

A source said De La Rocha plays keyboards on the album and that the sound is a hybrid of "Led Zeppelin and Dr. Dre. Some of it has the power you'd expect from him in Rage."

De La Rocha is understood to be unsigned and mulling distribution offers.

Post-Rage, De La Rocha has recorded material with DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and the Roots' ?uestlove, but it is unknown if any of these tracks appear on the finished album. One song with Reznor, "We Want It All," appears on the 2004 compilation "Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11."

Rage Against The Machine reunited in late April to co-headline the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in southern California and has played a handful of gigs since. The lone shows left on the band's itinerary are in late October at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans and the Vegoose festival in Las Vegas.