Tom Morello has a new solo album, self-awareness

Hey, this sounds GREAT:

Yeah, I'd imagine it's quite easy to compare a solo Morello record with Hendrix. Hendrix has been dead nearly half a century; I imagine Morello's album will stink like something that's been dead since 1970, too.

There is power in a union

In the face of the attempts to return to slavery disguised as budget balancing in Wisconsin, Steve Earle is dedicating his Sirius show as a show of support this weekend:

"I got this soapbox on Saturday nights, and I'm going to climb up on it and holler," Earle tells Spinner. "This is important. Collective bargaining for working people is a fundamental component of democracy, and we can't afford to let it slip away."

At a rather more sharp edge of things, Tom Morello is in the state made of cheese:

A nice lady at the airport looked at my guitar and politely asked, "Why are you going to Madison, young man?" I replied, "Because they're making history in Madison, ma'am. And I don't want to miss it."

So I flew to Chicago with Wayne Kramer (of the legendary MC5) only to find that all the flights to Madison had been cancelled due to a big winter storm. But neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night can keep The Nightwatchman from his appointed task. My good friend and fellow musician from Libertyville, Illinois, Ike Reilly, picked us up at the airport and together with our small crew of rabble-rousers we began the precarious journey up I-90 through the storm.

There doesn't seem to be much else in the way of musical rallying-round, though - or perhaps it's just not getting reported that deeply?

Decade Null: 2000 - Atari Teenage Riot

If you had to make Tom Morello be number one at Christmas, why not this track instead? Morello does the old-style analogue instruments while Atari Teenage Riot Rage.



[Part of Decade Null: 2000]

Tom Morello makes web stunt look tacky/tackier

There was something to be said for the Rage Against The Machine Christmas campaign - it felt like a genuine, grassroots attempt to organise people into a 'none of the above' vote for a Christmas number one.

Sure, it was utterly pointless and contained a nub of self-defeat about its very existence, but anything that was making people hyperventilate and send emails saying it makes you seem "like a grouchy spoil sport" couldn't be all bad.

But today, Tom Morello has joined in, squishing the last specks of joy out of the campaign:

Morello has lent his support to the campaign, using Twitter to voice his approval.

"Rage's 'Killing In The Name' & The X Factor's goofy Christmas single are neck and neck for num one spot on UK chart," he wrote. "England! Now is your time."

Oh, for god's sake, Tom, it's not about you. The point was meant to be it's 'anything else', not your specific song. On the same label as the goofy Christmas single.

There are a few moments joy to be wrung from wondering how Fearne and Reggie on the Christams Top Of The Pops would cope with the awkward gear change from the Christmas number one to warming up audiences just switching on for the Queen's Christmas Message, but that's about as far as the joy goes.

Meanwhile, in a room somewhere in London...
- You mean our plan worked?
- It worked.
- People really are talking about it as a battle?
- They really are.
- And buying loads of copies of Rage...
- In similar quantities to the number of copies of Joe, thereby doubling Sony's Christmas sales? Yes.
- And it looks like a real race?
- It does, yes.
- Well, it's true. Just a couple of weeks after we were putting articles in the paper bemoaning how nobody voted on the Christmas number one any more, this has totally changed things. People are rushing through our doors to make wagers.
- We're selling double singles, when Joe wins the number one he'll look like someone winning a battle rather than a gameshow contestant who's won a prize... and...
- ... we're making millions on wagers.
- Everyone's a winner. All for something I got one of my interns to knock up on Facebook in a lunchtime, and a couple of calls to the press
- You, sir, are a genius, Mr. Cowell.
- And, you, sir, are a pleasure to do business with, Mr. Ladbrokes.

[awkward pause]

- You know that I'm not actually called Mr Ladbrokes, don't you?

No more Rage - ever

Tom Morello has either dashed your hopes or reassured you - depending on if you have an interest in the machine continuing unmolested or not by confirming that there are no plans for new Rage Against The Machine records.

At least, not unless Palin sets her hat at 2012.

Unhappiness in 'slavery?

It could be all over for Audioslave, as Tom Morello tells US radio the band is up in the air:

Morello said that Cornell did not want to tour in support of Audioslave's third studio album, 'Revelations', which came out last Fall. He gave no indication of whether the band would record or tour again.

Morello is busy pouring his energy into Nightwatchman, his poorly-named latest project.

But they don't like to talk about it. Very much.

Oh, yes, we could be cynical about the reports that Coldplay are going to tithe and donate ten percent of their earnings to charity, but we're actually quite impressed.

And it does now mean there is a difference between the ranks of Travis, Starsailor and the 'Play, in that at least when you buy one of Coldplay's dirges some of the cash will find its way to good causes. Some of it will still go on Gwyneth Paltrow's drycleaning - incredibly persistent, the Martin spunk, apparently - and a huge amount will still go to their record label - but some of it will do some good.

Of course, even better would be leaving A Rush Of Blood To The Head in your local V-Shop and give half the selling price direct to a charity of your choice.

Talking of bands actually doing something, the equally sometimes risible Tom Morello has earned another slice of our grudging respect for bringing the stupid new rules in LA which would force soup runs for the homeless to work to the same standards as restaurants - we'd imagine the No Smoking rules to be of the highest priority - although the pretense that "ooh, at any moment we could be arrested for doing this" did detract somewhat.