A committed political and social activis, Zack has been profoundly affected by the Occupy movement in recent months, and the courageous protests taking place across the globe – in the face of outright tyranny. These events have inspired Zack to write the below poem to express his feelings and support.

“This poem is dedicated to the Occupy movement whose courage is changing the world. Stay Strong. We are winning.” – Zack de la Rocha

The beginning spills through city veins

Into the arteries

And under powers poison clouds

We move like the shadows

Through the alley ways

Through nightmares bought and sold as dreams

Through barren factories

Through boarded schools

Through rotting fields

Through the burning doors of the past

Through imaginations exploding

To break the curfews in our minds

Our actions awaken dreams of actions multiplied

A restless fury

Once buried like burning embers

Left alone to smolder

But together stacked under the walls of a dying order

All sparks are counted

Calloused hands raised in silence

Over the bonfire of hope unincorporated

It’s flame restores tomorrows meaning

Across the graveyards of hollow promises

As gold dipped vultures pick at what is left of our denial

And the youngest among us

Stare at us stoned like eyes determined

And say

Death for us may come early

Cause dignity has no price

At the corner of now and nowhere

Anywhere

Everywhere

Tomorrow is calling

Tomorrow is calling

Do not be afraid

Early in the interview, Trent told the mandatory backstory on how he and his musical partner Atticus Ross got together with director David Fincher to score the film The Social Network and how rewarding the experience was, citing that it was a “natural step forward” in his career, creating a musical atmosphere that has nothing to do with himself. After that, he took the opportunity to announce that he is, in fact, scoring David Fincher’s next film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, set for release this December. For this soundtrack, Reznor explained, he took a different approach, focusing mostly on performances and an organic feel – more specifically, “nothing would be programmed” and we’ll get to hear “his limited skills at stringed instruments.” We can definitely expect to see this record in 2011.

As for the deluxe edition of The Fragile, a project that was mentioned over a year ago and has been left somewhat in the dark, Mr. Reznor finally revealed the plan behind it: Alan Moulder, who originally produced the record, is in charge of restoring the original multitracks of the album for a surround mix rerelease of it, sometime this year. Trent expanded on how The Fragile has aged in a somewhat unusual manner, since, at the time of its release, “it felt like no one liked the album,” but now “it feels like it’s everyone’s favorite.” He also said that he feels that it could’ve been better received if it were released as two separate records (citing Radiohead’s move for Kid A / Amnesiac), and even considered rerecording bits of songs for the rerelease, but ultimately decided against it.

The NIN frontman also had the chance to discuss How To Destroy Angels, his group with Mariqueen Maandig (his wife) and Atticus Ross. Trent confirmed that their full-length album is on its way, much more “beat and rhythm-oriented” than TSN’s score, and that it will sound very different from the EP they released last year. About that first release of the group, he added that he’s “proud of it, but it feels like the first things we’ve done,” and that it was merely “the results of a couple of months of experimentation and tinkering.” From the sounds of it, the LP will be much more fleshed out.

The end of Nine Inch Nails as a live act was discussed as well. First, Trent joked that before the band’s Wave Goodbye tour, he got a call from Gene Simmons advising him to “just say it’s your last tour, that always keeps the fans coming,” in addition to having “played Head Like A Hole enough times.” But on a more serious note, he said: “Will I tour again? Certainly. Will Nine Inch Nails play shows again? I’m not saying it’s out of the question…” though he was quick to point out “there is no tour booked.”

When the mic was passed on to the crowd, a few obscure questions from the black-clad fanatics were expected, but we’re kind of glad they came up. For one, Trent was asked about the songs he recorded with Zack De La Rocha after Rage Against The Machine’s initial demise. Trent sighed, looked at the camera and said “Zack, are you watching?”, later explaining that the material the duo worked on “was in the middle of ‘I can’t do this, it sounds too much like Rage / I can’t do that, it doesn’t sound enough like what they expect me to do,’” furthermore adding that there are a few good tracks lying around, but they’ll likely never see the light of day.

Trent mentioned, among other responses, that NIN “still owe Interscope a greatest hits bullshit of some sort,” that he’s plowing through footage of the band’s final tour for a release and that he initially saw Twitter as a great way to get feedback from his fans, but that a few “clearly unstable” people ruined the fun. Finally, the last person to come to the microphone made the two “obligatory” questions that somehow manage to pop into almost every fan Q&A with Mr. Reznor: firstly, if he would ever work with Marilyn Manson again, to which he hastily responded “yes, I’m open to whatever;” and secondly, whether or not the Tapeworm project (a collaboration between him, Maynard James Keenan & others) would ever come out, to which he gave the same, usual answer: “No.” In Trent’s opinion, Tapeworm never sounded quite good enough, as he was “spinning my own wheels at the time,” and whatever was usable from those sessions ended up taken by Maynard’s project A Perfect Circle.

Trent then returned to the Manson question, stating that his former protege “is a talented person” and that “we’ve had our problems, but I’m an adult now… I wear suits,” with a priceless smirk on his face.

Now, it just so happens that we’ve got an international staff, like Captain Planet. So we consulted Fernando Scoczynski Filho to figure out what, if anything, was lost (or fabricated) in translation.

Here is the key quote, in Spanish:

La banda se volvió a juntar en 2007, ¿cómo ha sido esta segunda vida?

Muy buena, estamos todos más grandes y maduros y ya no caemos en los problemas que nos enfrentaban hace 10 o 15 años. Esto es distinto y lo proyectamos mucho: estamos trabajando en un nuevo álbum que saldrá el próximo año, quizás para el verano del hemisferio norte.

The English translation goes like this:

The band reunited in 2007, how’s the second life so far?

Very good, we’re all more mature and we don’t have the same sort of trouble we did 10 or 15 years ago. This is different, and we’re preparing a lot of stuff: we’re working on a new album that’ll be out next year, maybe in the summer in the US.

However, Fernando points out that in the same interview, Zack promises a “four hour-long show” in Chile, when they actually played for less than two as usual. He suspects that the quotes were likely tampered with by the interviewer, something that we all know happens often.

So while we’re happy to bring you a more accurate translation of the quote, and will surely keep our ears to the ground for further news, take this one with a major, major grain of salt.

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.

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)

“The United States was created by immigrants,” Fairey writes,”and now our country needs immigration reform. All the proceeds from these posters go to creating materials for the May Day marches and donations for immigration reform organizations. Thanks for supporting human rights!”

This series of prints designed by Shepard Fairey and Ernesto Yerena originated from photographs taken during the historic 2006 May Day march. All proceeds from sales of the posters go to creating materials for the May Day marches and donations for immigration reform organizations.

Zack had this to say on the cause: “There is nothing criminal about a family’s search for dignified work and housing. There is nothing illegal about the need to alleviate hunger and find peace and security for people in their communities, or find adequate health care. In my mind these are rights that are universal, transnational, and non negotiable. Displaced by corporate globalization and war, the more than 12 million undocumented workers within the US in search of those rights are not only denied the fruits of their labor, but are beaten away from the tree of enormous wealth and services that their sweat has watered for generations.”

“No amount of hate filled rhetoric,  unlawful racist detentions, or tear gas can mask these essential truths that were made so clear by the millions workers themselves. People whose courage in the face of repression, and the potential loss of jobs, continue to pour out from the shadows and into the streets. Not only to heroically defend their rights and dignity, but have also revitalized the historical relevance of May Day, in which migrant workers of years past fought and died for the rights of all workers as they helped established the eight hour work day.”

Find out more and help out here. Screenprint Editions will go on sale today (April 30th) at Noon.

The throbbing body-rock cymbal ride of first single Wild International is immediate, indisputable evidence that Theodore and De La Rocha are a formidable unit with a specific vision of lo-fi revolution. The official video hit just a few hours ago.

It’s a bare-bones performance piece between the two musicians, but the passion shines through in ways a cinematic narrative couldn’t manage without distortion. Zack spits his caustic funk over a circular, buzzing air-raid bassline, and while the shades of Public Enemy are a welcome element, the song rides a promising but pretty safe middleground, giving fans of both musicians good reason to get the blood flowing. When I first heard it, I remember thinking that it would translate better live, in physical performance. Looks like I was right.

Are Rage fans going to accept this with open arms? It seems that they have, for the most part- but it really doesn’t matter. The reputations of both artists and the quality of their collaboration leave no doubt that One Day As A Lion will find its own audience, if Zack and Jon commit to this fantastic new entity and release some new material.

After years of solo-album rumors, dead-end talks of DJ Shadow / Trent Reznor / ?uestlove collabs and a half-mast Rage reunion, Zack’s finally back, and he’s onto some new shit now. He’s teamed up with Jon Theodore, percussive god and former drummer for The Mars Volta, for a new project that takes both artists in exciting new directions. They call themselves One Day As A Lion.

The duo just signed to hot up-and-comer label Anti. A new, five-song self-titled EP drops on the 22nd. The throbbing body-rock cymbal ride of first single Wild International (which debuted on the band’s MySpace page earlier this week) has already set the fanboy boards ablaze, with reactions falling largely in either the balls-out hysteria or dismissive Rage loyalist categories. But it’s undeniably evident right off that Theodore and De La Rocha are a formidable unit, and they’ve got a specific, lo-fi-revolution vision.

On Wild, Zack spits his funk vitriol over a circular, buzzing air-raid bassline, and while the shades of Public Enemy are a welcome element, the song rides a promising but pretty safe middleground, giving fans of both musicians good reason to get the blood flowing, albeit with one eyebrow cocked.

Ocean View is an immediate attention hijacker, a bouncing cymbal-crash loop that gives way to a stomping rock beat that snuffs out any hesitations the first track induces and doesn’t resemble RATM in the slightest. Zack actually sings in the chorus, and for once in his career it doesn’t sound like monkeys being skinned alive. It’s still a bit hard to wrap your head around the fact that he sounds a bit like a drug-era Perry Farrell, but it’s a bold step that serves the song well.

Last Letter rocks hypnotic, galloping along relentlessly with a saturating, moody atmosphere. There’s an eye-of-the-storm shift around the 2:30 mark, featuring Zack’s venom-soaked delivery:

Your God is dying much younger than Rome
He’s killed so many he can’t go home
Your God’s heart is a tumor, now rotted
Born of a blood that’s never forgotten

Theodore ushers the hurricane back in with a furious breakdown, and yet the song rises further, with De La Rocha screaming This is my last letter to you! over and over.

I thought the album had started over when If You Fear Dying began- the intro sounds like a downtempo twin to the first track- but once the flow started the difference was loud and clear, and the vibe (with a slight Afrika Bambaataa nod) is arresting:

I’m the orange jumpsuit that’s tailor made
I’m flick of the shank that opened your veins
I’m the dusk, I’m the frightening calm
I’m a hole in the pipeline
I’m a roadside bomb

The lyrics radiate a little close for comfort, considering the current state of affairs in our country, and that’s exactly the intention. 

Zack sings again in the chorus, leaning heavy on a reggae style that’s just fuckin mean:

Time is coming
rising like the dawn of a red sun
If you fear dying
then you’re already dead

And then there’s the title track. It opens with a Sunday Bloody Sunday percussion knockoff, but when Zack opens his mouth it becomes clear immediately that this should have been the lead single. It’s a pulsing, militant anti-war anthem that fits nicely alongside Zack’s 2006 one-off track, March Of Death. His flow over the bursts, the squeals and fuzzed-out bassline is second to none, and Chuck D would be proud.

Are Rage fans going to accept this with open arms? Who fucking cares? The music is awesome. There are points that leave you wishing for a fuller sound, but it’s likely just adjustment pangs- and besides, the stripped-down feel is entirely intentional. Either way, the reputations of both artists and the quality of their collaboration leave no doubt that One Day As A Lion will find its own audience.

One Day As A Lion
Anti Records
July 22, 2008

01. Wild International
02. Ocean View
03. Last Letter
04. If You Fear Dying
05. One Day As A Lion