Rage Against the Machine's next album could come out as soon as November. Which is exceptional in itself, since there is generally a three- or four-year stretch between Rage's records; The Battle of Los Angeles was released in October
of last year.
How will the L.A. agit/aggro rap rockers accomplish this?: One disc in the as-yet-unnamed package will feature the recording of an entire show at San Francisco's Fillmore, and the other will be studio renditions of cover tunes recorded with rap/rock midwife/producer Rick Rubin in San Francisco.
Rage guitarist Tom Morello told Launch.com about the artists being covered: "We're covering everything from Eric B. & Rakim ["Microphone Fiend"] to EPMD ["I'll House You"] to Dylan ["Maggie's Farm"] to Devo ["Beautiful World"] to the Stooges." (The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man" should be included as well.) "And there's maybe even a Rush lick thrown in there, the MC5's 'Kick Out the Jams,' and Minor Threat as well. It's a pretty diverse set of songs that we're Rage Against the Machine-izing."
Specifically, what that means is that the band keeps each song's lyrics and basic song structure, but everything else is up for grabs. "I consider all of the cover songs we're doing basically new Rage songs," says Morello. "It's completely different music, completely original Rage Against the Machine music with the lyrics of 'Maggie's Farm' or the Rolling Stones' 'Street Fighting Man' set to a brand-new tune."
Morello elaborated in this vein to Allstar.com: "In the same way that Bruce Springsteen's 'Ghost of Tom Joad' was a cover, yet you would never mistake it for the original," referring to Rage's most famous cover version to date. "That's basically what we are doing with these."
VH1.com wonders what Dylan's "Maggie Farm" will sound like after undergoing "Rage Against the Machine-izing." To wit:
"I ain't...YEAH!!...going to...COME ON!!...work on...HEY!!...Maggie's farm...COME ON, COME ON!!... no more."
Presumably, before the album is released, the Rhyme & Reason tour, featuring Rage and the Beastie Boys, will be rescheduled once Mike D. is mended from his injuries stemming from his bicycle accident two weeks ago.
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