The Band That Made Music a Weapon

A notsobrief documentary about Rage Against the Machine. Produced and written by Matt Beat. Check out @rageagainstthemachineofficial's music here

Related: Prophets of Rage - Topic, @AudioslaveOfficial, @RATMVEVO

My other channel: @iammrbeat

This video is dedicated to Nolan Rogers.

Sources/further reading:

#rage #musicdocumentary #ratm

Los Angeles, California

1991

Two friends who had known each other since the sixth grade, Zack de la Rocha and Tim Commerford, meet a drummer named Jon Knox. Knox told them that his old bandmate, Tom Morello, was looking to start a new band after their old band, Lock Up, had broken up. Morello invited de la Rocha and Commerford, as well as a drummer named Brad Wilk, for a jam session. De la Rocha and Commerford actually used to be in a band together back in junior high, but other than that, the four had never played together before. The jam session turned into multiple jam sessions, and the next thing ya know, they had a band. De la Rocha would be the vocalist and provide the lyrics, which would undoubtedly be politically charged most of the time. By the way, he had been in multiple bands before this. Morello would play guitar. Commerford would play bass. Wilk would play drums.

They named themselves “Rage Against the Machine.” Apparently that name was originally supposed to be the name of a song and album de la Rocha had written for his previous band, Inside Out. Apparently this dude named Kent McClard also coined the phrase in a 1989 article in his zine called No Answers. Regardless, over the years many of their fans would come to view “The Machine” as any system or organization that was responsible for injustice in the world. “Rage Against the Machine” ended up being a pretty fitting name.

Their first performance was in “somebody’s living room” in Orange County, California. After that, they quickly gained a following. Not wasting any time, they recorded a 12-song demo, releasing it on cassette tape in December 1991. Throughout early 1992, the band sold the tape for $5 at their live shows, eventually selling more than 5,000 copies of them. Oh by the way, if you have one of them, ya might want to hold on to it. I saw one sold online for hundreds of dollars.

Anyway, the artwork featured images of stock market reports with a single match. The band also printed the statement “No samples, keyboards or synthesizers used in the making of this recording,” which would be printed on all later recordings they released. In the liner notes, they also referred to themselves as “Guilty Parties,” which would also be printed for all later recordings they released.

Oh, and they also sent the demo album to many major record labels, and while several wanted to sign them, they ended up signing with Epic Records. In April, they recorded their debut album at Sound City Studios in L.A. They ended up re-recording seven of the twelve songs that were on their demo. De la Rocha wrote the lyrics, which were obviously politically motivated and attacked multinational corporations, cultural imperialism, and government oppression. They seemed to represent a leftist voice that had become less prominent in the 1990s. Tom Morello’s guitar work was inventive, to say the least. In the studio, he was constantly experimenting with the weird new sounds his guitars could make. Garth Richardson produced. After leaving the studio, the band hit the road, playing a notable show opening for Porno for Pyros at one of their first ever gigs. In October, they toured Europe, and by that time the hype for them was already building.

Epic released their self-titled debut studio album on November 3, 1992. The first single, “Killing in the Name” ended up being a huge radio hit.