Rage Against The Machine

1991–1992: Early years

In 1991, guitarist Tom Morello left his band, Lock Up, looking to start another band. He was
in a club in LA where Zack de la Rocha was freestyle rapping. Morello was impressed, people
said, by De la Rocha's lyric books, and asked him to be a rapper in a band. Morello drafted
drummer Brad Wilk of Greta, who had previously auditioned for Lock Up, while De la Rocha
convinced his childhood friend Tim Commerford to join as bassist. The newly christened
Rage Against the Machine named themselves after a song De la Rocha had written for his
former popular underground hardcore punk band, Inside Out (also to be the title of the
unrecorded Inside Out full-length album). Kent McClard, with whom Inside Out were
associated, had coined the phrase in a 1989 article in his zine No Answers.

Shortly after forming, they gave their first public performance in Orange County, California,
where a friend of Commerford's was holding a house party. The blueprint for the group's
major-label debut album, demo tape Rage Against the Machine, was laid on a twelve-song
self-released cassette, the cover image of which was the stock-market with a triple match
taped to the inlay card. Not all 12 songs made it onto the final album—two were eventually
included as B-sides, with the remaining three songs never seeing an official release. Several
record labels expressed interest, and the band eventually signed with Epic Records. Morello
said, "Epic agreed to everything we asked—and they've followed through.... We never saw an
ideological conflict as long as we maintained creative control."

1992–2000: Mainstream success

The band's debut album, Rage Against the Machine, reached triple platinum status, driven by
heavy radio play of the song "Killing in the Name", a heavy, driving track featuring only eight
lines of lyrics. The "F**k You" version, which contains 17 iterations of the word f**k, was
once played on the BBC Radio 1 Top 40 singles show. The album's cover featured Malcolm
Browne's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist
monk, burning himself to death in Saigon in 1963 in protest of the murder of Buddhists by the
US-backed Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm's regime. To promote the album, the band went on
tour, playing at Lollapalooza 1993 and as support for Suicidal Tendencies in Europe.

After their debut album, the band appeared on the soundtrack for the film Higher Learning
with the song "Year of tha Boomerang". An early version of "Tire Me" also appeared during
the movie. Subsequently, they re-recorded the song "Darkness" from their original demo for
the soundtrack of The Crow and also "No Shelter" appeared on the Godzilla soundtrack.

Despite rumors of a break up for several years, Rage Against the Machine's second album,
Evil Empire, entered Billboard's Top 200 chart at number one in 1996, and subsequently rose
to triple platinum status. The song "Bulls on Parade" was performed on Saturday Night Live
in April 1996. Their planned two-song performance was cut to one song when the band
attempted to hang inverted US flags from their amplifiers ("a sign of distress or great
danger"), a protest against having Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes as guest
host on the program that night.
In 1997, the band opened for U2 on their PopMart Tour, for which all Rage's profits went to
support social organizations. including U.N.I.T.E., Women Alive and the Zapatista Front for
National Liberation. Rage subsequently began an abortive headlining US tour with special
guests Wu-Tang Clan. Police in several jurisdictions unsuccessfully attempted to have the
concerts cancelled, citing amongst other reasons, the bands' "violent and anti-law enforcement
philosophies." Wu-Tang Clan were eventually removed from the line-up and replaced with
The Roots. On the Japan leg of their tour promoting Evil Empire, a bootleg album composed
of the band's B-side recordings titled Live & Rare was released by Sony Records. A live
video, also titled Rage Against the Machine, was released later the same year.

In 1999 Rage Against the Machine played at the infamous Woodstock '99 concert. The
following release, The Battle of Los Angeles also debuted at number one in 1999, selling
450,000 copies the first week and then going double-platinum. That same year the song
"Wake Up" was featured on the soundtrack of the film The Matrix. The track "Calm Like a
Bomb" was later featured in the film's sequel, 2003s The Matrix Reloaded. In 2000, the band
planned to support the Beastie Boys on the "Rhyme and Reason" tour; however, the tour was
canceled when Beastie Boys drummer Mike D suffered a serious injury.

2000–2006: Break-up and subsequent projects

On October 18, 2000, De la Rocha released a statement announcing his departure from the
band. He said, "I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making
process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us
collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political
ideal." The band's final studio album, Renegades, released shortly after the band's dissolution,
was a collection of covers of artists as diverse as Devo, Cypress Hill, MC5, The Rolling
Stones, and Bob Dylan. Renegades achieved platinum status a month later. The following
year saw the release of another live video, The Battle of Mexico City, and 2003 saw the
release of a live album titled Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, an edited recording of
the band's final two concerts on September 12 and 13, 2000 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
in Los Angeles. It was accompanied by an expanded DVD release of the last show, and also
included the previously unreleased music video for "Bombtrack".

Wilk, Commerford and Morello performing with Chris Cornell as Audioslave at the Montreux
Jazz Festival in 2005.

After the group's breakup, Morello, Wilk, and Commerford teamed up with former
Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell to form a new band, Audioslave, after briefly searching for
a vocalist to replace De La Rocha. The first Audioslave single, "Cochise", was released in
early November 2002, and the debut album, Audioslave, followed to mainly positive reviews.
Their second album Out of Exile debuted at the number one position on the Billboard charts
in 2005. The band released a third album named Revelations on September 5, 2006. The band
vowed to have a "one-album-per-year" schedule, until the departure of Chris Cornell on
February 15, 2007.
Morello began his own solo career in 2003, playing political acoustic folk music at open-mic
nights and various clubs under the alias The Nightwatchman. He first participated in Billy
Bragg's Tell Us the Truth tour with no plans to record, but later recorded a song for Songs and
Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11, "No One Left". In February 2007, he announced a solo
album, entitled One Man Revolution, which was released in April 2007. Morello followed up
his first studio album with "The Fabled City" which was released on September 30, 2008.
During the latter of his career as The Nightwatchman, Morello joined up with Boots Riley and
formed the rap rock group Street Sweeper Social Club, which released its debut self-titled
album in June 2009.

Meanwhile, De la Rocha had been working on a solo album collaboration with DJ Shadow,
Company Flow, and The Roots' Questlove, but dropped the project in favor of working with
Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. Recording was completed, but the album will probably never
be released. A collaboration between De la Rocha and DJ Shadow, the song "March of Death"
was released for free over the World Wide Web in 2003 in protest against the imminent
invasion of Iraq, and the 2004 soundtrack Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11
included one of the collaborations with Reznor, "We Want It All". In late 2005, De la Rocha
was seen singing and playing the jarana huasteca with Son Jarocho band Son de Madera on
multiple occasions. Rage Against the Machine was ranked 33rd on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists
of Hard Rock list in 2005.

Members of the band had been offered large sums of money to reunite for concerts and tours,
and had turned the offers down. Rumors of bad blood between De la Rocha and the other
former band members subsequently circulated, but Commerford said that he and De la Rocha
saw each other often and went surfing together, while Morello said he and De la Rocha
communicated by phone, and had met up at a September 15, 2005 protest in support of the
South Central Farm.

2007–2008: Reunion and tours

Main article: Rage Against the Machine Reunion Tour

Rumors that Rage Against the Machine could reunite at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts
Festival were circulating in mid-January 2007, and were confirmed on January 22. The band
was confirmed to be headlining the final day of Coachella 2007. The reunion was described
by Morello as primarily being a vehicle to voice the band's opposition to the "right-wing
purgatory" the United States has "slid into" under the George W. Bush administration since
RATM's dissolution. Though the performance was initially thought to be a one-off, this
turned out not to be the case.

On April 14, 2007, Morello and De la Rocha reunited onstage early to perform a brief
acoustic set at a Coalition of Immokalee Workers rally in downtown Chicago. Morello
described the event as "very exciting for everybody in the room, myself included." This was
followed by the scheduled Coachella performance on Sunday, April 29 where the band staged
a much anticipated performance in front of an EZLN backdrop to the largest crowds of the
festival.

Rage Against the Machine continued to tour in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and
Japan, and also played a series of shows in Europe in Summer 2008 including Rock am Ring
and Rock im Park, Pinkpop Festival, T in the Park in Scotland, the Hultsfred Festival in
 Sweden, the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England and the Oxegen Festival in Ireland. The
band also performed on August 2, 2008, in Chicago as one of the headliners (Radiohead,
Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails being the other three) for the 2008 Lollapalooza Music
Festival. When asked in May 2007 if the band were planning on writing a new album,
Morello replied:

“There are no plans to do that... That's a whole other ball of wax right there. Writing
and recording albums is a whole different thing than getting back on the bike (laughs),
you know, and playing these songs. But I think that the one thing about the Rage
catalog is that to me none of it feels dated. You know, it doesn't feel at all like a
nostalgia show. It feels like these are songs that were born and bred to be played now.”
  — Tom Morello, Blabbermouth.net, May 1, 2007

Morello declined to comment about the possibility of a new album when interviewed by MTV
News in April 2008. In July 2008, it was revealed that De la Rocha had begun a new project
called One Day as a Lion with drummer Jon Theodore formerly of The Mars Volta, with an
eponymous EP released on July 22, 2008.

In August 2008, De la Rocha revealed his take on the possibility of new material:

“We’re going to keep playing shows – we have a couple of big ones happening in front
of both conventions. As far as us recording music in the future, I don’t know where we
all fit with that. We’ve all embraced each other’s projects and support them, and that’s
great.”
  — Zack de la Rocha, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2008

In September 2008, Rage performed at the Target Center in Minneapolis during the
Republican National Convention. The previous day, the attempted to play a surprise set at a
free anti-RNC concert at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, but were prevented from doing so
by the police. Instead, de la Rocha and Morello rapped and sang through a megaphone.

In December 2008, Tom Morello revealed that Rage Against the Machine shows in 2009 were
a possibility, although plans for the band to record a new studio album were very unlikely.
When asked by Billboard.com whether they planned to head to the studio in 2009, Morello
stated that: "we've had a wonderful year and a half of playing shows, and I don't see any
reason to not play more shows. The thing is there's only so many hours in the musical day,
and mine are very occupied right now." Morello elaborated that The Nightwatchman is now
"my principal musical focus, as I see it, for the remainder of my life. From the earliest days of
playing open mic nights at coffee houses, it was apparent to me that this music was as
important to me as any music I've ever been involved in. It really encapsulates everything I
want to do as an artist." He repeated this point in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

However, After the "Rage Factor" celebratory show in Finsbury Park on June 6, 2010, after
the campaign to get Killing in the Name to Christmas Number 1, Zack de la Rocha stated that
it was a "genuine possibility". Stating that they may use the momentum from the campaign to
get back into the studio and write a follow up record to 2000s Renegades after 10 years. When
talking to NME, Zack de la Rocha said: "I think it's a genuine possibility, We have to get our
heads around what we’re going to do towards the end of the year and finish up on some other
projects and we’ll take it from there."

2009-2010: Killing in the Name campaign and subsequent European

tour
In December 2009, a campaign was launched on Facebook by Jon and Tracy Morter, from
South Woodham Ferrers, which generated nationwide publicity and took the track "Killing in
the Name" to the coveted Christmas Number One slot in the UK Singles Chart, which had
been dominated for four consecutive years from 2005 by winners from the popular TV show
The X Factor. Before the chart was announced on December 20, 2009 the Facebook group
membership stood at over 950,000, and was acknowledged (and supported) by Tom Morello,
Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Muse, Fightstar, NME, John Lydon, Bill Bailey, Lenny Henry,
BBC Radio 1, Hadouken!, The Prodigy, Stereophonics, BBC Radio 5 Live, and even the 2004
X Factor winner Steve Brookstein, amongst numerous others. On the morning of December
17, Rage Against the Machine played a slightly censored version of "Killing in the Name"
live on Radio 5 Live, but four repeats of 'F**k you I won't do what you tell me' were aired
before the song was pulled. During the interview before the song they reiterated their support
for the campaign and their intentions to support charity with the proceeds. The campaign was
ultimately successful, and "Killing in the Name" became the number-one single in the UK for
Christmas 2009. Rage's Zack de la Rocha spoke to BBC1 upon hearing the news, stating that:

"We're very very ecstatic and excited about the song reaching the number one spot. We want
to thank everyone that participated in this incredible, organic, grass-roots campaign. It says
more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this
very sterile pop monopoly. When young people decide to take action they can make what's
seemingly impossible, possible."

The band also set a new record, achieving the biggest download sales total in a first week ever
in the UK charts. De la Rocha also promised the band would perform a free concert in the UK
sometime in 2010 to celebrate the achievement. True to their word, the band announced that
they would be performing a free concert at Finsbury Park, London on June 6, 2010. The
concert, dubbed "The Rage Factor", gave away all the tickets by free photo registration to
prevent touting over the weekend of the February 13–14, followed by an online lottery on
February 17. This proved to be overwhelmingly popular, with many users facing connection
issues. The tickets were all allocated by 13:30 that same day. After allowing ticket holders to
vote for who they wanted to be the support acts for "The Rage Factor", it was announced that
Gogol Bordello, Gallows and Roots Manuva would support Rage Against the Machine at this
concert.

In addition to the free gig at Finsbury Park, the band headlined European festivals in June
2010 including the Download Festival at Donington Park, England, Rock am Ring and Rock
im Park in Germany and Rock in Rio Madrid in Spain. They also performed in Ireland on
June 8 and The Netherlands on June 9. Zack de la Rocha has stated that it is a definite
possibility that the band will record a new album, the first time since 2000's Renegades
Morter has confirmed this, stating the discussions he and the band had backstage before the
Finsbury Park gig saying the band did write new material, but they had no motivation to
release them until now. De la Rocha mentioned the very strong reaction from the Download
Festival 2010 audience as an incentive for releasing new material. In addition, the band
returned to Los Angeles on July 23, 2010 for their first US show in two years and their first
hometown show in 10 years. The concert benefited Arizona organizations that are fighting the
SB1070 immigration law. On the night of the show, a spokesperson announced to the crowd
that ticket sales—all of which are non-profit to the bands—had raised $300,000. The band has
been confirmed to do a short South American tour in October, performing at venues such as
the SWU Festival in Brazil, the Maquinaria Festival in Chile, and Pepsi Music Festival in
Argentina. It was the first time the band played on that continent.

2011-present: Possible New Album

During an interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera in October 2010, Rage frontman
Zack de la Rocha allegedly confirmed that a new album is in the works, with a possibility of a
2011 release. De la Rocha is reported as saying, “We are all bigger and more mature and we
do not fall into the problems we faced 10 or 15 years ago. This is different and we project a
lot: we are working on a new album due out next year, perhaps summer for the northern
hemisphere."

Sources: www.ratm.com, www.wikipedia.com, www.youtube.com, www.myspace.com/ratm