A clock on Rage Against The Machine’s official Web site has begun counting down to Aug. 24, presumably marking the date for a new release or an as-yet-unannounced concert, rumored to be held in East Troy, Wis. There is also speculation that the reunited band will issue either a live album taped during its late April set at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., or, less likely, a new studio effort.

I am pretty sure all those who have been stopping by this small but humble blog were having a chuckle or two with all these little predictions I was making about RATM. Yet, each one has come true. I am not some type of Nostradamus when it comes to this, it is all about reading between the lines.

Here is a Rage Against The Machine Video, enjoy.
Freedom

Click here to view the embedded video.

After seven long years, [tag]Zack de la Rocha[/tag], [tag]Tom Morello[/tag], Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk finally took the stage on April 29th for the first of several shows. In the mist of last weeks chaos, people suddenly forgot Zack de la Rocha’s political message in which Fox News host John Gibson has decided to take advantage by doing their usual spin. Even they could not beat out the horrific events that occurred at MacArthur Park.

The RATM have said they regrouped because of the current political environment and that was no joke. De la Rocha make it clear how enraged the group is about what’s going in the world, particularly in Iraq. De la Rocha delivered a short sermon the middle of “Wake Up” about the complete social breakdown and how it needed to fixed. It was reported that de la Rocha never said a thing between songs and the only time was during “Wake Up.” I think, de la Rocha’s rant about the Bush administration really showed how many of us really feel about the Bush administration, but are not willing to say it the way he did that night. His rant went further than comparing the Bush administration to Nazi’s or how they should be “tried, hung and shot.” I think a lot of people missed, it was about how we have become zombies to allow the culture of corruption to get away with the things they did when we as a society would not have allowed to occur and it is time for this society to WAKE THE FUCK UP. This is exactly what he said that night:

“A good friend of ours said that if the same laws were applied to U.S. Presidents as were applied to the Nazi’s after World War II, then every single one of ‘em, every last rich white one of ‘em from Truman on would have been hung to death, and shot. And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be. But the challenges that we face, they go way beyond administrations. Way beyond elections. Way Beyond every four years of pulling levers. Way beyond that, because this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel, that in order to sustain itself, it needs to destroy entire countries, and profit from their reconstruction, in order to survive, and that’s not a system that changes every four years, it’s a system that we have to break down generation after generation after generation after generation after generation. Wake up.”

Watch the video:

It was reported that Tom Morello told Launch that there are no plans for a new Rage album. I think I will make another prediction, I think a new album is in the works. Remember that gig de la Rocha and Morello did at Chicago’s House of Blues in mid-April, to celebrate the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ victory over McDonald’s in the tomato fields. I was looking at the video that was posted up on YouTube, de la Rocha sang an original song penned in honor of the CIW’s McDonald’s victory. The song was still in de la Rocha’s notebook. May be it is wishful thinking, but I like to think a new album is in the works.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Because on April 14, 2007, Morello and [tag]Zach de la Rocha[/tag] reunited for the first time on stage in downtown Chicago at a Coalition of Immokalee Workers rally in support of fairness in the fast food industry. This is what Morello told Launch Radio Networks:

“We worked the entire set up 20 minutes before we went onstage, but it went pretty well. It was very exciting for everybody in the room, myself included. I mean, the place was just packed to the rafters and even the stage was packed with this ring of 25 photographers two feet away from us while we were playing, so it was kind of a trippy, you know, way to do our first show. But it was a great cause and we were happy to be a part of the Immokalee farmworkers victory.”

It looks like the reunion has been planed since last year, and this bit of information is now coming out. In an interview at the end of MarchMorello said that the Rage rebirth occurred last fall “when it was clear there was not going to be any Audioslave touring in the immediate future.” And also talked about how they patched things up and how rehearsals are going.

Bassist Tim Commerford and Rage frontman Zack De La Rocha “had re-established a friendship,” and after some discussions, the band – which also includes drummer Brad Wilk – “all got together and decided (playing some shows) would be great.”

The group has already started rehearsing, Morello says, and “it sounds awesome in the room. We remember how to play those songs; it’s pretty much like riding a bike.”

But here is the cherry-on-top on how I that they would regroup. This is what Morello told Billboard:

“Right now there are four shows booked… that’s all that’s on the docket.” However, he adds that, “These times, I think, demand a voice like Rage Against the Machine to return. Rage was certainly the most outspoken radical voice in music in the ’90s, and the seven years that Rage was away the country went to hell. So I think it’s overdue that we’re back.”

Here is “Sleep Now in the Fire”

Click here to view the embedded video.