He may not be quite up there in the annals of procrastination legend with Axl Rose or Dr. Dre, but one of rock's biggest holdouts in recent memory, Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha, put a product on retail shelves this summer after a long wait. In the seven years between his band's breakup and its recent reunion, de la Rocha reportedly worked on solo material with everyone from Trent Reznor to ?uestlove to DJ Shadow without ever releasing an album, or even anything other than a stray compilation track. So it's a little unexpected that now, after Rage has been back together and touring for a year, is when de la Rocha decides to release new music with a new band.

One Day As A Lion, de la Rocha's project with ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, released a self-titled EP over the summer, and the single "Wild International" has spent the last 8 weeks in the lower reaches of the Modern Rock chart, peaking at No. 20. When I first heard the song and thought it was a surprise new Rage single, I was impressed, and when I realized it wasn't, I was even more impressed. The keyboards de la Rocha plays on the song may not be as inventively skronky as Tom Morello's guitar playing, but they're pretty damn close. de la Rocha seems to be focusing less on the rapping element of his vocals, which I appreciate, having never been a fan of the guy's rhymes.

Now that de la Rocha's ripped off the Band-Aid—and announced that there's a One Day full-length on the way—the question remains whether or not he'll continue to work on solo and side projects, and allow the Rage reunion to function as only a touring unit. Rage slowly grew into the fanbase that still clamors for them today, if their reception on the festival circuit last year was any indication, and they currently occupy a place in the alt-rock firmament. Singles like "Killing In The Name" and "Down Rodeo," which never appeared on the Modern Rock chart when they were initially released, till get significant airplay today. And though their rap-metal style may sound somewhat dated to younger rock fans, one thing is clear: In a year that acts like the Flobots, Rise Against, and M.I.A. are scoring Modern Rock hits left and right, nothing is too stridently leftist and vaguely "revolutionary" for alternative radio.

Speaking of seven-year sabbaticals, remember the Toadies? Fourteen years ago, "Possum Kingdom" made them, in my opinion, one of the finest one-hit wonders of '90s rock radio. But their quite good debut Rubberneck failed to yield any other big hits, and they took seven years to follow up that album in 2001, and another seven to deliver their third, No Deliverance. Though "Possum Kingdom" peaked at No. 4 on the Modern Rock chart and No. 9 on Mainstream Rock, the three Toadies singles that have charted since then have all done better on the Mainstream side. That includes the title track of their new album, which debuts at No. 39 this week. The nervous, punky sound of Rubberneck always led me to categorize the Texas band as more of an alt-rock act, but the southern-rock swing on "No Deliverance" leads me to believe differently:

There's perhaps no better way to illustrate the increasingly blurred line between alternative and active rock radio playlists than the career of Metallica. The band have been mainstays on the Mainstream Rock chart ever since 1991's self-titled "black album" made them household names. But back then, "metal" was pretty much a dirty word on the Modern Rock chart, which was still populated by dad-rock acts like Sting and Elvis Costello and just getting its first taste of grungy hard rock. Metallica's first minor dent on the Modern Rock chart didn't come until 1996's "Until It Sleeps," which coincided with the band outraging the headbanging faithful and earning derision from the alt-rock world by shearing their hockey hair and headlining Lollapalooza. "Sleeps" only peaked at No. 27, and none of the other Load or ReLoad singles charted on Modern Rock.

But alternative radio continued to skew more metal-friendly while Metallica released no new albums, but continued to flood the market with various stopgap projects. Those one-offs—Garage Inc., S&M, and the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack—helped the band chip away at alt-rock resistance, as did 2003's infamous shit sandwich St. Anger. Still, the band never cracked the Modern Rock top 10 until this month, with Death Magnetic's also totally awful lead single "The Day That Never Comes" currently sitting at No. 7. The song reached No. 1 in its third week on the Mainstream chart, but I'll be very curiously watching how far it climbs on the other chart. And changing whatever station plays the song while I'm tuned in.

Speaking of flipping radio dials, right before Labor Day, Idolator's Chris Molanphy declared Modern Rock "the most boring chart of the summer" thanks to its week-to-week stasis and overall lack of new blood. I more or less predicted this stasis back in May. But I have to admit, I'm a little impressed by how three of the four bands I singled out back then have absolutely dominated the chart: Weezer and Coldplay both topped the chart, while the Offspring scored two Top Five hits. And just as I suspected, Nine Inch Nails was the underperformer of the bunch, peaking at No. 6 and dropping off the chart completely in the same time frame that "Pork & Beans" clung to the top 10. It's possible that "Discipline" simply didn't connect with listeners in the same way that previous NIN hits did, but the fact that it was the band's first single since divorcing from Interscope does make me wonder how well it might have done with major-label promotional muscle behind it.

I suspect tonight's show at the Target Center—which is just across the river from the convention—will address these events in some fashion. Call it a hunch.

Police shut down Rage Against The Machine show (RNC videos). Band performs a cappella. [Prefix]
Ripple Effect ends in Rage [Star Tribune]

Rage Against the Machine has joined forces with the Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tent State University to perform as part of the "Tent State Music Festival to End the War" on Wednesday, August 27 at the Denver Coliseum. They will join the Flobots, The Coup, State Radio, and Wayne Kramer. Doors open at 9:30 AM, show begins at 11:00 AM.



Tickets are free and available by lottery. Sign up for the lottery, with a valid photo ID (person must be present) at Tent State University at Cuernavaca Park between 11AM and 6:30 PM (look for the Tent State Music Festival booth near the IVAW Tower) Sunday, August 24 through Tuesday, August 26 during the D.N.C. Winners will be notified by email Tuesday evening, August 26.

Tent State University Against The War [Official site via Brooklyn Vegan]

"We Want It All," De La Rocha's drone-rock Trent Reznor collaboration from 2004's Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11, is so promising that it's kind of heartbreaking that the other twenty-odd tracks they worked on may never be released.

"March Of Death," a track with DJ Shadow released online in 2003 to protest the invasion of Iraq, is unsurprisingly cluttered in comparison, but an album of similar tracks would have been more than worthy of release.

And there's his live work with Son de Madera.

Which isn't "Killing In The Name," but it's something.

So everyone, please be nice to this new EP. I don't want to wait another decade for the full-length.

We Want It All - Zack De La Rocha [YouTube]
Zack De La Rocha & DJ Shadow - March Of Death [YouTube]
Zack de la Rocha w/ Son de Madera - La Guanabana [YouTube]

Last night's Hannity & Colmes opened with a segment on Rage Against The Machine singer Zack De La Rocha's Coachella proclamation that the current Presidential administration "should be hung, and tried, and shot." That soundbite allowed the show to book a bit that featured Ted Nugent referring to Rage as a bunch of "dopey, hippy rock 'n' roll numb nuts" and the praying mantis-like pundette Ann Coulter, who seemed to be trying out for the long-canceled rock-critic throwdown Four On The Floor:

COULTER: I'm not painting them as liberals. I'll paint them as losers. You know, I missed the VH1 special "I Love the '90s." I missed this whole thing. Who cares about them? Has anybody checked in with Flock of Seagulls to see what their position is on Bush?

COULTER: They're not very attractive.

COLMES: You don't like any of those guys?

COULTER: I'm seeing them right now.

COLMES: Are you looking for a boyfriend?

COULTER: Not in that crew.

COLMES: You would rather talk about a nude but growing cuter polar bear than Rage Against the Machine.

COULTER: And, by the way, they are also very unfamiliar with D.C. gun laws if they think they can shoot the president, because no guns allowed.

COLMES: All right, but do you really believe — just like you say a lot of crazy, outrageous things you don't really believe, you don't believe that they really mean that, do you?

COULTER: I don't know. I don't know anything about them, like most Americans. They broke up like 10 years ago. One guy tried — I e-mailed one of my friends at MTV to find out who they even are. She said they broke up. The solo guy tried a career for seven years, bombed completely, and now, you know, [they're] really all looking forward to the Van Halen reunion.

Wait—so now De La Rocha is replacing Diamond Dave? Guess they wanted to get as far away from Gary Cherone as possible.

Rage Against Bush [foxnews.com]

In 2005, a reunion tour by '80s metal band Motley Crue took the industry by surprise and became the No. 11 grossing tour of the year, taking in close to $40 million in 22 cities, according Pollstar, which tracks concert-industry data. A three-night stand by the blues rock band Cream at Madison Square Garden was the fourth-highest-grossing show the same year, taking in $10.6 million; it also helped to further propel the reunion phenomenon. A spokeswoman for Cream frontman Eric Clapton says the trio has no plans for further concert or recording activity...

The Pixies tour, which continued through 2005, is an object lesson in the lucrative economics of reunions. The Pixies tour grossed an average $180,000 a show, according Pollstar. The band played bigger venues, to bigger audiences, than it ever did during its original career as influential alternative-rock pioneers in the late 1980s. By contrast, in the same period a solo tour by Pixies leader Frank Black took in just an average of $8,800 a show.

The story also notes that the Rage Against the Machine reunion has helped Coachella sell 100,000 tickets so far—triple the amount that had been sold at the same time last year. Considering that Morrissey once claimed to have turned down a $5 million Coachella cash-in for a Smiths reunion, we're guessing Rage's tab is in the low seven-digit figures—although Zach de la Rocha now insists on being paid with a pocket full of shells.

Better to Reunite Than to Fade Away [WSJ]

Rage Against The Machine Will Reunite For Coachella [LA Times, via Buzz Bands]