In 1970, Chicano photographer George Rodriguez took this black and white picture of a centered framed tag on a white wall in an undefined region of Boyle Heights. All it said was “it's better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb.” Thirty years later it stands as the tangible reason to make an album.
Somewhere on God’s earth there was a studio that could hold the immense creativity that comes from both Rage Against The Machine’s front man, Zach de la Rocha, and former Mars Volta drummer, Jon Theodore. These two inked a deal with Anti-Records. The output a picket sign splashed in red that reads “one day as a lion.”
To bump this politically charged, heart driven 5 song, 20 minute no cat holding tongues set, you need one of those collegiate-inspired, all your pennies saved Radio Shack, monster of all monster, make your ears bleed stereos. High voltage volume is mandatory. This requirement is not to piss off neighbors or to annoy your parents, but you have to drain out the rest of the world to capture the heavy lyrics of de la Rocha and the soul outpouring from Theodore’s drums.
Today, it is rare that the fusion of music and thought produces something worth thinking about or better yet that provokes action. Marvin Gaye sang a good portion of the soundtrack to the chaos of yesterdays, now de la Rocha is screaming. De la Rocha has the loud reputation of his ultimate disapproval of the Bush administration.
To introduce the start of the revolutionized turbulence, de la Rocha tell us that his tongue is “dipped in funk arsenic… burn this illusion.”
Second to the mike is “Ocean View,” where he vocalizes society’s incongruous nature by stating “one held a piece just for the sake of peace.”
Article comments
1 - Myron
great article really invoking