Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk. They draw inspiration from early heavy metal instrumentation, as well as rap acts such as Afrika Bambaataa,[1] Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and Dutch crossover band Urban Dance Squad.[2] Rage Against the Machine is best known for its leftist political views, which are expressed in many of its songs. As of 2010, they have sold over 16 million records worldwide.[3]
In 1992, the band released its self-titled debut album, which became a commercial and critical success, leading to a slot in the 1993 Lollapalooza festival, and is often cited to be one of the greatest and most influential rock albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The band did not release a follow-up record until 1996, with Evil Empire. The band's third album, The Battle of Los Angeles, followed in 1999. In 2003, the album was ranked number 426 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. During their initial nine-year run, they became one of the most popular and influential bands in music history, according to music journalist Colin Devenish.[4] They were also ranked No. 33 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The band had a large influence on the nu metal genre which emerged during the mid to late 1990s.
In 2000, the band released the cover album Renegades. The same year, Rage Against the Machine disbanded after de la Rocha unexpectedly quit the group. Following the breakup, de la Rocha started a low-key solo career in One Day as a Lion, while the rest of the band formed the rock supergroup Audioslave with Chris Cornell, then-former front-man of Soundgarden, which disbanded in 2007. That April, Rage Against the Machine was renewed and performed together for the first time in seven years at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. They have continued to perform at many live venues and festivals around the world since 2007, but currently do not have plans to record any new material.[5]
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).[6] Kent McClard, with whom Inside Out were associated, had coined a 1989 article in his zine No Answers.[7]
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.[8] 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 a[n] [ideological] conflict as long as we maintained creative control.
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 album's cover featured Malcolm Browne's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Thich Quang Duc, 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 Ngo Dinh Diem's regime. The album was produced by Garth Richardson. To promote the album, the band went on tour, playing at Lollapalooza 1993 and as support for Suicidal Tendencies in Europe.[citation needed] In 2003, the album was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
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, while "No Shelter" appeared on the Godzilla soundtrack.[citation needed]
Despite rumors of a breakup 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.[11] 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"),[12] a protest against having Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes as guest host on the program that night.[12]
In 1997, the band opened for U2 on their PopMart Tour, for which all of Rage's profits went to support social organizations.[13] including U.N.I.T.E., Women Alive and the Zapatista Front for National Liberation.[14] 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."[15][16] 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.[citation needed]
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 in the first week and then going double-platinum.[1] 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, 2003's The Matrix Reloaded. In 2000, the band planned to support the Beastie Boys on the "Rhyme and Reason" tour; however, the tour was cancelled when Beastie Boys drummer Mike D suffered a serious injury.
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