Rage will play at the Mumia Abu-Jamal benefit concert along with Beastie Boys, and Bad Religion in Rutherford, New Jersey. Here's the information:

RATM with Beastie Boys & Bad Religion
Thursday, January 28 7pm 1999
Continental Airlines Arena
Tickets on sale Thurs. Jan. 14 at 6pm for $30.
TicketMaster Outlets, Roseland Box Office, & Charge-By-Phone

Perhaps we'll see some new material off the new album? If anyone goes to this, try and bootleg it, and email me. Thanks. Also, the concert is apparently getting some attention by people. Some people are protesting it, calling in radio stations advertising the concert and spreading anti-Mumia propaganda. It was mentioned on Howard Stern's show, and he spewed some bigotry about how Mumia should have been executed a "long time ago"...click here for the Refuse and Resist! press release concerning the benefit concert.

Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello comments, "Mumia's trial was a gross miscarriage of justice.� Just unbelievable.� 'Highlights' included prosecutorial misconduct, intimidation of witnesses by the police, suppression of evidence of Mumia's innocence, a jury illegally purged of African Americans, a hostile racist judge and a prosecution who argued for the death penalty based on Abu-Jamal's political beliefs!� Mumia is an outspoken revolutionary, a hero to millions around the world and we will not allow his voice to be silenced.� We join with Amnesty International in demanding a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.� This is no ordinary show.� We are playing for a man's life."

"No Shelter" has been nominated for a Grammy in the "Heavy Metal" category. The awards air on February 23rd. I think. I don't care.

February 2nd is approaching quickly. Still no word on an album name, or anything along those lines. No promotional information, either. Let's hope they come through...otherwise, more waiting.

The Deftones will do a song on the to-be-released Bad Brains tribute. Rumors are that they will cover Right Bridgade. The tribute, tentatively slated for a fall, 1999 release on Century Media, also is expected to include tracks from 311, Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha, Moby, Vision of Disorder, and Snapcase. No Doubt, who have covered Bad Brains in the past, originally expressed interest in contributing a track, but their status on the tribute is currently unclear. Other bands who have been approached include the Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins.

A group of music and spoken word artists led by Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha, Black Star's Taleb Kweli "Slam" screenwriter Saul Williams have been tapped to contribute to a benefit album for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Other confirmed participants for the album, entitled "Unbound" and due out in mid-March, include Organized Konfusion's Pharaoh Monch, Dilated Peoples and the Poor Righteous Teachers.

Proceeds from the record will be used for legal defense for Abu-Jamal, who has been on a Pennsylvania Death Row for 17 years for the 1981 slaying of a police officer.

An as-yet-untitled posse cut will be recorded for "Unbound" next weekend in New York City, featuring verses from Pharcyde's Tre, Peace from the Freestyle Fellowship, Aceyalone and Mumia's daughter -- under the rap moniker Goldii Loks.

Common, Ras Kass and a few of the Roots may also pitch in for the track, and other previously-released MCs interested in getting in on the song are urged to send an e-mail to [email protected].

The ensemble effort may end up being as long as 10 minutes, but plans call for an edited version to be released to radio as a single in January.

Source: MTV news

Chuck D says that Rage will be on the last cut of their new album, "There's A Poison Going On", coming out in '99. This was found on the "Enemy Board" on Public Enemy Website.

Also, Tom Morello is appearing in the new Star Trek movie, "Insurrection". It's a tiny role, and he will hardly be recognizable (he's in an alien costume, in the background during a "bar" scene.) Nonetheless, he appears in it. Good news for him - being a sci-fi fan.

In the January issue of Alternative Press, there's an article about the 25 most anticipated album releases of 1999. Rage was listed as number 1. Among others, where deftones, Limp Bizkit, and the like. Read the entire article here. Pictures forth- coming. Transcribed Kevin Dole.

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, along with Alice in Chains' vocalist Layne Staley, Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Porno For Pyros bassist Martyn Lenoble, and keyboardist/producer Matt Serletic (Matchbox 20) - under the assumed name of "Class of '99" were the first group of musicians ever to recieve permission from former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters to record a cover of the 1980 anthem "Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2" off the album "The Wall". The song will appear on "The Faculty" soundtrack.

The soundtrack will be released December 22nd, with the film being released December 25th.

Zack and KRS-1, and the Last Emperor have released a video for the song "C.I.A. (Criminals in Action)" which appeared on the "Lyricist's Lounge" complimation CD(s). It debuted on 120 minutes on MTV last week. Should provide us all with lots of fun visual excitement.

Rolling Stone, November 12, 1998 Pg 72

Tom Morello
Rage Against the Machine Guitarist

President Clinton recently committed an immoral and illegal act and lied about it to the American people: He bombed Afghanistan and Sudan, a clear violation of international law. He killed innocent civilians in both countries. There is very little evidence that they were making chemical weapons in the plant that was bombed in Sudan. His cowardly attacks momentarily deflected attention from his personal woes.

If Clinton deceived us about putting his hand down someone's pants, the media want to know every sweaty little detail. But if he deceived us about bombing Third world nations, then that's not a story worth paying attention to. The scandal is also a great opportunity to block campaign-finance reform, avoid raising the minimum wage, ignore the farm crisis and allow the banking industry to throw off regulations that have been in place since the Depression. Sex is a wonderful thing.

The American people and the media are so used to presidents committing air-strikes against brown-skinned people that it's no longer newsworthy. But he gets a few stains on an intern's dress and it turns the country upside down. Of course, Clinton is an unscrupulous liar; that's one of the prerequisites for being president of the United States. That people act surprised is the only thing that's surprising.

This further reinforces a trend that began with Nixon, where everyone knows and assumes that the president is always lying. The fact that there is such turmoil over an issue of his private life and there is no outrage when he commits heinous acts against Iraq or Cuba that kill innocent children - it's shameful."

From MTV news...

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has written a letter to President Clinton, requesting executive clemency for imprisoned Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who has been in jail since 1975 for charges stemming from the death of two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Morello wrote the letter at the behest of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, an organization determined to free Peltier on the grounds that he was denied a fair trial and access to government documents that have could been used in his defense.

Representatives for Peltier originally filed a motion for Executive Clemency in 1993, but President Clinton has yet to review the case, even though such decisions are usually made within six months to a year after receiving such a request. Peltier's Defense Committee hopes to have him out of prison in time for Christmas, and have set December 19 as the first day of a planned civil disobedience campaign that will be staged to help free the activist.

Click here to see the actual letter.

According to a representative at Epic Records, Rage Against The Machine is still together and currently in the studio working on a new album. The disc is tentatively set for a Feb. 2, 1999, release.

Rage Against The Machine's last album, "Evil Empire," debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 for the week ending May 4, 1996. The disc spent 74 weeks on the list and was certified double-platinum (2,000,000 units shipped) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The group's most recent entry on any Billboard chart was with the track "No Shelter." The song, which was from the "Godzilla" soundtrack, peaked at No. 33 on Modern Rock Tracks for the week of Aug. 22 and spent two months on that chart.

Sonic Net has this to offer:

Political rockers Rage Against the Machine are in a Los Angeles studio, preparing to begin work on the follow-up to their 1996 studio album, Evil Empire, according to a representative at their label, Epic Records. The still-untitled album does not yet have a release date, and a producer has not yet been announced.

And Rolling Stone says that Rage is finishing up the album, and it will probably be released early next year. I guess the entire November 3rd idea has proved to be false. Ha. Here's Tom's musings: "It isn't a picinc all the time, But we're still friends, and we're making the best music of our careers." The band is currently in Los Angeles recording it's third album, working with Brendan O'Brien, who produced 1996's Evil Empire. THE AS YET UNTITLED ALBUM IS DUE EARLY NEXT YEAR. "We're maturing and part of that is accepting the parameters of your personal relationships," says Morello. "it was a learning process we had to go through." Despite the bands new maturity, Morello says, the new album continues it's Rap-Metal assault. "You can hear the rage on this record that is Rage Against the Machine," he says. "And I've got a whole new cachet of guitar squeaks and squonks to unleash on the unsuspecting."

In the Rawkus.com page it's reported that there will be a video for "C.I.A." & that it will hit TVs "soon"; and that Zack, KRS-One & Last Emperor will be on it. Also; there will be a "C.I.A" CD single released later this year (for those people who wouldn't buy the 2CD set for one Zack song) that will have brand new remixes of the song.

Also, Billboard magazine has posted that the new Rage Against the Machine album is schedule to be released November 3rd. They aren't sure, either though. No word on the title yet. None of this is confirmed from Epic or Sony. This is all I know...we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

According to J. Moreno, Tom Morello will be remixing some tracks on the new Cypress Hill record, "Cypress Hill IV". When it's going to be released I don't know.

Not really noteworthy news, but the Epic/Sony homevideo of the live footage of Rage Against the Machine is being released on DVD format in October.

No Shelter has been released on MTV, the Box, and VH1. Here's the more than complete run-down: (thanks to Milutin )

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - NO SHELTER VIDEO.

It has a 1920s setting.� Starts off with two men, Vanzette and Sacco in
electric chairs.� A priest is paying them their last respects.
The band is playing in a room.� A gentleman in a white hat supervises
everyone, lets call him Overseer.� He is watching over men that are
working on an assembly line.� Watching over the women who are filing and
stamping papers.� He is even watching Rage perform.
Gold comes out of a pipe while they work.

Men in white suits and black gas masks working on chemicals.� Give a
white helmet(has a monitor on it) to a teen, who is just wearing jeans. 
It has a monitor on it, which shows his eyes.� The guys in the suits are
working on the helmet while it's on the teen.

9 boxes, first have 9 black bodies(workers as well) attached to them,
with the empty box being their head.� Then it changes to having no
bodies but just heads in the boxes.� Then there is city bill board with
a picture of a noose and below it: ...JUSTICE MATTERS!

A board meeting with corporate men talking about the helmet.� Teen is
lead in by Overseer to show the corporate men how it works.� The monitor
is now shows his mouth and he is smiling.� The company's name is Intec.

One of the workers is wiped at the factory.

Helmet works and corporate guys shake hands, their happy.� Teen looks to
Overseer, teen seems worried.

Vanzette and Sacco are executed and teen is taken to a location(by van)
and Overseer kills him.

Through out the video, their are many bill boards.� Words in caps are
what was said and words in brackets were the picture.

Starts off with an advertisement in a sub way:
MUMIA ABU JAMAL'S CELL IS THIS END
(an empty cell)
...JUSTICE DOES MATTER!

A bill board in the city:
THE CRATER AT HIROSHIMA WOULD STRETCH...
(atomic bomb mushroom)
FROM HERE...
zooms out to the other end of the city
...TO HERE
...HISTORY DOES MATTER!


A bill board on a building
BABIES BORN INTO POVERTY IN THE U.S. EACH YEAR WOULD FILL THIS
BUILDING...
(child's face with super imposed dollar bills on it)
...INEQUALITY DOES MATTER!

A bill board on a building
LAND STOLEN FROM MEXICO EQUALS 5 STATES
(darken area of US map, covering from California to Texas)
IMPERIALISM MATTERS!

Gavin Rattmann has come across, from an anonymous source, a track performed by Rage, and the band Tool recorded around 1995. Hear it in Real Audio by clicking here! It has no title, but the sound of the two bands collaborating is something fantastic. Good to see the two finally having proof of a common bond.

Also, Tom Morello has told Kerrang! magazine that the release date for the album is set for November 3rd. Hopefully he means this year...

From mtv.com's news archives...

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha, Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra, Indigo Girl Amy Ray, X's Exene Cervenka, and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and Sweet 75 will be among the artists and activists participating in a college lecture tour this fall.

Actor Woody Harrelson and MTV VJ Kennedy will also be on board for the Spitfire tour, which plans to visit college campuses this fall for a six-stop run with Novoselic as moderator. Tour organizers are hoping to launch the tour in mid-October, and so far have solidified one date at the University of Florida on October 27.

The musicians, actors, and activists have agreed to speak at one or more of the tour's six dates, with four speakers turning up at each date. Each speaker will be given 15 minutes to speak freely followed by a one-hour question and answer session.

Admission will be free to college students.

In thenewest issue of "KERRANG!" magazine they have an interview with Tom Morello; The [thing] that stands out the most, is that Tom is quoted as saying he's thinking about releasing his own Solo Album; but he says he'll do it after the next Rage album. He says that Rage right now is the main, most important thing. He points out that he's constantly creating new sounds and always has stuff available to put out; and talks about his frustration at Rage being a group that takes long to put out an album. The Rage/Wu-Tang collaboration rumor and also the one about Rza producing the new album is also put to rest as he says laughing; "...We only talked about working on ONE track together, but that was before the tour; I haven't heard from them since they left...". There's also the same talk about Tom working with the Prodigy's Liam Howlett on a couple of tracks but when or where is not mentioned; but maybe those'll be on Tom's potential solo album. No info on anything about the new Rage album other than it's in the works.

In the new "GUITAR WORLD" magazine, they've got a few things with Rage. They have a Cover that is just like The Beatle's; "Sgt. Peppers..." but instead of pop culture characters, in it they have their greatest guitarists of all time; of course Tom Morello is in it. Inside the Mag they also have their Top 100 Guitar Solos of all time; "Stairway to Heaven" is No.1 (no shit huh?); but the lead "DJ scratching" break of "Bulls On Parade" is No. 23 and "Killin in the Name" is No.89. They also have an Article with Joe Perry of Aerosmith in which they ask him to make his "Dream Tape" of his favorite songs; he included "Killing in the Name" in it and said this about the record it's on; "I don't go anywhere with out this record because it rocks and has got so much funk on it...I've seen them play live a couple of times, and they really put it across-they make you believe...they put on a seething show. if they'd been around in 1968 they'd have caused a lot of riots".

...direct from J.

According to RATM manager Brigitte Wright, the group has plans to begin recording the follow-up to 1996's Evil Empire sometime next month. She says the band has been writing and recording demos for the new album since early May, around the time Rage recorded "No Shelter" for the Godzilla soundtrack.

In other Rage-related news, drummer Brad Wilk has been busy writing material with former 7 Year Bitch vocalist Selene Vigil. The duo will likely form a side-project and record an album after Rage finish in the studio.

From the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico:

Zack de la Rocha from the band Rage Against the Machine arrived in Chiapas on yesterday to do a week-long visit in order observe human rights conditions in Chiapas. Zack, along with several journalists and labor and community organizers from Los Angeles will visit Acteal, refugee camps and El Bosque in order to get testimonies from the Indigenous communities about the current human rights situation and escalating violence.

Zack plans to do a series of interviews and updates from Chiapas with MTV, Time Magazine, and other major print, tv and radio media. Zack has been an strong supporter of the Zapatistas since the uprising in 1994. He has already made two previous visits to Chiapas to attend the peace talks and visit Zapatista communities.

Wow, this is interesting, from mtv.com:

On Wednesday, Rage Against The Machine was in Beverly Hills of all places to join satirist Harry Shearer and others honored by the Liberty Hills Foundation, which awards grants to grassroots groups that tackle social problems in Los Angeles.

The Foundation, which describes itself as, "committed to building a society based on a more just distribution of wealth and privilege" honored Rage while in Beverly Hills (which boasts one of the highest concentrations of wealth and privilege on the planet), prompting the group's frontman Zack de la Rocha to recall a not so similar honor.

"We were at the Grammys a couple of years ago receiving an award for a song that most of the people in the room had never heard, and I remember leaving the stage carrying this little golden plated statue and feeling a little disgusted and empty," the singer told the audience as he accepted the Foundation's honor. "But to be here at home among friends who share a common vision and a common commitment to building a movement that challenges the system of exploitation and human suffering, and being recognized for our contributions to this process is very very fulfilling and something that we take great pride in."

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Zack hooked up with Spitfire lecture series, more - 6/8/98

From muzic.com:

No one would argue that Rage Against Machine's Zach De la Rocha tends to overdo it. He's simultaneously recording a solo album, and the forthcoming Rage Against Machine record, but somehow he's also found time to act as the spiritual guide for the first-ever Spitfire tour, a star-studded stew of musicians, actors, and activists speaking out on global affairs. De la Rocha got involved because he and Jason Farrell -- a promoter from Salt Lake City, and one of the singer's best friends from high school -- were hashing around the idea of putting together of group of outspoken entertainment types who wouldn't mind speaking their minds about issues that concerned them on a kind of Lollapalooza lecture tour. Once they had outlined their plan, they brought it to Sarah Haines of On Board Entertainment in San Francisco, who had worked on the first Board-Aid five years before, and was involved in the most recent (and most successful) melding of music and action sports this past winter, featuring acts like the Fugees' Wycliffe Jean, the Offspring, the Specials, and the Royal Crown Review. While Farrell and Haines are doing most of the legwork, De la Rocha has provided a sounding board for them, and has approached some of the stars that are on their wish list of performers.

"When we wanted to get in touch with Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls, Zach knew her and approached her for us." Haines told us. "He's helped us get to people we couldn't get to on our own -- since of course he had their home phone numbers. Some of those luminaries are people like Ani De Franco, Chuck D., Bonnie Raitt, and Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Dickie Barrett, and filmmaker Michael Moore -- who have all expressed interest in signing on for a tour of duty with Spitfire, who will begin their talk fest the last week of August, winding up five weeks later. So far, the Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra has confirmed to appear on at least some of the dates, along with MTV's bespectacled Kennedy, medical marijuana pioneer Todd McCormick -- and possibly his good friend Woody Harrelson, who bailed him out of jail when he was arrested for growing those medicinal plants in his Los Angeles home. X singer and poetess Exene Cervenka has also graciously given her time -- and if all goes well, we'll see the aforementioned De la Rocha on at least some of the dates. Last but certainly not least, Nirvana / Sweet 75 bassist Krist Novoselic is also confirmed to act as moderator for the proceedings.

A solo album? Hm...also, I guess Rage has started recorded the third record, which is definately good news. I'm gonna try to find out who this guy from Salt Lake is, and maybe get more info...

Other:

• RATM does NOT sing that WWF song! 7-98
• "No Shelter" and "Come with Me" on Godzilla Soundtrack - 6-98
• Zack and KRS-1 appearing on "Lyricists Lounge" together - 4/98
• Tom Morello teams up with Flea, Henry Rollins, and Bone - 4/15/98
• Rage on Godzilla Soundtrack - 3/20/98

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