As cool as Tom Morello is, Boots Riley just ain’t no Zack De La Rocha, you know? At least they’re actually playing the riffs, rather than just copy and pasting. And there’s a sorta creative little bridge in this version… But somehow, it lacks the punch of M.I.A.’s version, let alone anything by Morello’s most famous project, let alone Straight To Hell.

This track will be on a new Street Sweeper EP entitled Ghetto Blaster, due out August 10th. More details here.

And speaking of M.I.A., her new album /\/\/\Y/\ is now streaming in its entirety over on her shitty MySpace page.

Rage Against The Machine frontman and spitfire political activist Zack De La Rocha is leading several fellow high-profile musicians in a boycott of Arizona in the form of The Sound Strike.

Standing with him in the boycott are Rage side projects One Day As A Lion and Street Sweeper Social Club, as well as Sonic Youth, Massive Attack, Serj Tankian, Kanye West, Conor Oberst, Cypress Hill, Cafe Tacuba, Tenacious D, Rise Against and several others. Oscar winning filmmaker and activist Michael Moore has signed on as well.

A press release written by De La Rocha on The Sound Strike’s website says the law “must be stopped:”

Fans of our music, our stories, our films and our words can be pulled over and harassed every day because they are brown or black, or for the way they speak, or for the music they listen to. People who are poor like some of us used to be could be forced to live in a constant state of fear while just doing what they can to find work and survive. This law opens the door for them to be shaked down, or even worse, detained and deported while just trying to travel home from school, from home to work, or when they just roll out with their friends.

Some of us grew up dealing with racial profiling, but this law (SB 1070) takes it to a whole new low. If other states follow the direction of the Arizona government, we could be headed towards a pre-civil rights era reality. This unjust law was set into motion by the same Arizona government that refused to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. day as a national holiday.

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, they arrested her. As a result, people got together and said we are not going to ride the bus until they change the law. It was this courageous action that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. What if we got together, signed a collective letter saying, “we’re not going to ride the bus,” saying we are not going to comply. We are not going to play in Arizona. We are going to boycott Arizona?!

Guitar legend Joe Satriani recounted his own Italian-American grandparents’ experiences with persecution during World War II, after being approached to join the boycott by Tom Morello and subsequently contacted De La Rocha. “It’s a tough issue,” he says, “because I understand, if you live down there in one of those border town, you feel like you’re under siege. But I think more brain power has to go into the solution to this. SB 1070 just doesn’t have enough in it to make it a good law. In the last 15 years the erosion of rights of American citizens has put us close to a police state. We teeter back and forth; that’s what you have to be vigilant about. You can’t just jump on something like this and stop thinking about better ways to solve problems.”

The Sound Strike also has a petition for fans to sign, which implores the President to take action to stop the law to “ensure the safety of targeted minorities.”

To learn more and join the movement, head to TheSoundStrike.net.

Anyone showing up after 4pm or so would never have known the Monster Energy side stage existed at all, but while it lasted it provided a mildly-appealing alternative to the main stage fare. After Midnight Project started off the festival with passion, but to mixed results from the early-arrival crowd. Electro-rockers Sonny didn’t fare nearly as well, losing roughly half the audience two songs in, but reliably solid showings by both Aesop Rock and Atmosphere set the Monster Stage off right.

If Street Sweeper Social Club’s Epicenter set was any indication, audience patience for this one-trick pony is wearing thin. The pseudo-revolutionary pulse of their afro-funk grit never really got off the ground, despite energetic showings from both frontman Boots Riley and legendary guitarist Tom Morello. It would be a little too easy to blame the crowd, which was brimming with castaways from the next season of So You Think You’re Inbred – their lackluster performance was less for missing enthusiasm than for possessing any real fire.

Wolfmother arrived like the bastard children of Led Zeppelin and The Darkness, singing about angels and unicorns while reminding the masses how popular a band can get with a little help from Guitar Hero and one really catchy, really fucking annoying song. I’m referring, of course, to their hit Woman, the entire reason any of us know they exist, which they won’t ever outlive and certainly won’t ever eclipse. Frizzed-out frontman Andrew Stockdale has his own gravitational field, it seems, given the squealing from attendant females, but we’ll see how far that carries them on their upcoming next album, Cosmic Egg (a winner title if I’ve ever heard one). The guy’s got passion, I’ll give him that much.

Alice in Chains took to the stage to a maniacally enthusiastic crowd that didn’t give a moment’s hesitation to embracing new lead vocalist William Duvall, who left little room for doubt as to whether he deserves the spot vacated by Layne Staley nearly a decade ago. Opening with Rain When I Die, the band tore through a set heavy on the classics, with a few new jams thrown in. The heaving bodies went berzerk for Dam That River, Man In The Box and Rooster, which featured the biggest heartfelt singalong of the day, as well as Check My Brain, which drew a surprising level of enthusiasm. Duvall walked the fine line between tribute and parody as he wailed his way through the hits, aided of course by Jerry Cantrell’s inimitable harmonies. The set was inarguably a triumph – even for the Layne-loyal skeptics.

After an hour and change of a surprisingly rocking, hits-heavy set by Linkin Park, the band filed offstage so vocalist Chester Bennington could introduce his new side project, Dead By Sunrise. Imagine Orgy (you remember, that shitty tweaker band that covered Blue Monday about a decade ago) getting together with, well, the singer from Linkin Park. It’s a fucking nightmare collaboration and in the name of everything sacred in rock music I urge you not to buy into the hype this uninspiring new band is brewing on overtime.

Tool took the stage at 9:30, clearing the crowd’s collective palette of all that weird bullshit in the first surging notes of their opener, Jambi. It was as if a collective switch was thrown in the audience at the very first riff – thousands of listless bodies with aching feet suddenly came to life as one throbbing, roaring mass – and remained that way for their entire 90-minute set. Frontman Maynard James Keenan, supported by crutches after an accident while harvesting grapes (“God kicked me right in the balls,” mused Keenan), used his supports as vocal punctuation throughout the set, jabbing them at the sky, playing air guitar, sniping off members of the audience, etc.

Tearing through a dream setlist that included a manic Rosetta Stoned segueing into an utterly epic version of Flood, which gave way to the geographically-appropriate Ænima (“Nothing personal,” Keenan told the crowd before the song began), Tool left little question as to why they’re regarded with wonderment by their industry peers. The entire crowd seemed to know every word of the spiraling Lateralus, a nine-and-a-half minute song that received minimal radio play. After closing the show with a pounding singalong version of Vicarious, the ever-appropriate ode to mass masochistic/voyeuristic obsession, the band remained onstage for roughly three minutes, waving goodbye to the lingering crowd. It’s the last scheduled show of the year for Tool, who are said to be in the early stages of writing the follow-up to 10,000 Days.

Sure as hell beats CrüeFest.

When it was announced that his brand new band, Street Sweeper Social Club would be unveiled on Nine Inch Nails’ farewell tour with Jane’s Addiction, the news- and teaser single- were generally very well received. When the full-length album was released last week, with no advances or leaks available prior, I purchased it immediately.

Now it’s time to pick it apart and try and dance around the fact that despite how cool Morello and frontman Boots Riley are, and despite how truly badass that minigun boombox graphic is, the Street Sweeper album is a far cry from Evil Empire.

By the way, has anyone noticed that with those glasses, Boots Riley is a dead ringer for Robert Downey Jr.’s Lincoln Osiris in Tropic Thunder? Dude.

The album opens with Fight! Smash! Win!, the aforementioned teaser single. When it appeared online, it brought promise. The formula seemed to pick up where Rage Against The Machine left off, and Boots Riley of The Coup is known for the sort of lyrical ammunition that made Zack De La Rocha such a formidable weapon. The track is a bit cliché, a slow pitch right down the center of the plate for the target audience, but that’s to be expected of an introductory cut.

The Oath and Clap For The Killers are the other two of three tracks that were available prior to the album’s release; both featured on Trent Reznor’s NIN/JA tour sampler made available as a free download. Killers was the superior of the two, thanks largely to the song’s originality and Riley’s wavy flow. The former unfortunately seems to be trying a little too hard to be a battle cry, and it comes off as trite at times, wearing thin by the time that it gets to the not very commanding “alright, motherfuckers!”

This lack of teeth is mainly what keeps Boots Riley from being a replacement for De La Rocha, and it’s why the best tracks on the album are the ones where Street Sweeper doesn’t sound like they’re trying to be Rage Against The Machine. Most notable is Promenade (pronounced by Boots like “Lemonade,” either a mistake noone chose to correct, or a play on words suggesting an explosive dance party). The “ooohs” & “aaahs” backing up the chorus are so Chili Peppers-esque, I wonder if it’s not Frusciante himself providing them. And that little deviation from the Rage battle-hop formula, as subtle as it may be, makes a world of difference. It helps to give the track an identity that goes a little way towards making Street Sweeper feel like a real new band rather than a quilt of old scraps of things we’ve seen before:

Another track that aides in this cause is Somewhere In The World It’s Midnight. It starts off repetitive, built around a flimsy lyrical device; Somewhere in the world it’s 3 o’clock… Somewhere in the world it’s 5 o’clock… Somewhere in the world it’s 8 o’clock… Somewhere in the world it’s… You get where it’s all going. But after the first chorus, the music takes a sharp left turn, Riley’s delivery follows, and the song redeems its opening verse.

Ultimately, the album just doesn’t push the envelope enough for us to really get excited. The few good tracks are good enough to listen to over and over, but otherwise most of it gets old disappointingly quick. We love where the band is headed on the outstanding cuts highlighted, we just hope they take it further if and when they deliver a sophomore effort.

Street Sweeper Social Club
June 16th, 2009
Warner Music Group

01. Fight! Smash! Win!
02. 100 Little Curses
03. The Oath
04. The Squeeze
05. Clap For The Killers
06. Somewhere In The World It’s Midnight
07. Shock You Again
08. Good Morning, Mrs. Smith
09. Megablast
10. Promenade
11. Nobody Moves (‘Til We Say Go)

I was aware of the impending release of this album, though not necessarily watching the clock. Yesterday, I was reminded of its availability by an announcement that a 256kbps DRM-Free MP3 version was $4 on Amazon. I clicked the link to purchase it, and was told I’d need to download and install an Amazon “downloader” application I’d never heard of to continue.

I closed the window, and two clicks later, it was downloading in iTunes. I paid more for a more convenient experience, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think my behavior nor my expectations are particularly unusual.

What I mean to illustrate is that it’s the experience that makes or breaks an available means to acquisition- whether it’s illegal or legal, free or not. The most responsible praises of torrent sites and P2P phenomena articulate not their free-ness, but their efficiency and convenience.

I know you- our readers- already know this. But we consider it our duty as certified sons of bitches to needle the industry from over here in the back of the class, every single time they slip up.

Boots sounds like dogshit, but he’s 100% given to the moment, and Trent rocks it hard enough for both of ‘em. The double solo is pretty fucking cool as well, so that can’t hurt.

Whatever the case, the Street Sweeper assault boombox in the back is one of the coolest band logos ever:

P.S. For those of you with heart and a little (or a hell of a lot of) extra cash, Trent’s got a worthwhile cause he’d like you to know about.

Update: There’s been some rather colorful discussion in the comments regarding the quality of the performance, so I thought I’d include a few comparative performances. Enjoy.

MC5, live at Wayne State University’s Tartar Field in Detroit, 1970:

Silverchair

Rage Against The Machine

This isn’t the first time Morello’s played this song with the Boss, but it’s without a doubt the most passionate performance I’ve seen from him- on any song, ever. The solo is utterly phenomenal. Maybe not from a technical point of view (do you really want to try preaching technicalities with the man?), but the raw heart coming through Morello, as Bruce is trying to count his way back in, is untouchable. 

Watch his shit-grinning glee around the 1:00 mark, right before The highway is alive tonight…

When our heroes get to meet their heroes- and play with them onstage in front of us no less- a certain magic tends to unfold. That magic can clearly be seen here.