Posted on 04/06/2006 7:05:32 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde
In the words of Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello, the rock and roll group's forthcoming third opus is an "ass-kicker."
As fans might expect, the still-untitled LP (Morello said the band's toying with the idea of naming it Revelations) is bursting at the seams with the kind of brutal riff rock that's become Audioslave's trademark. But at the same time, they've woven deep '70s funk and soul grooves with heavy guitars, "and it's a pretty potent combination," he said.
When the album drops (Morello dispelled reports that it will surface in June), expect the end result to be "really unique" and "as hard-rockin' an album as we've ever made," the guitarist said.
"If you want your ass kicked, you've come to the right place," he added. "And you may have the opportunity to shake that ass too."
Three weeks ago, Audioslave — Morello, frontman Chris Cornell, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk — finished tracking the disc with producer Brendan O'Brien. O'Brien mixed 2005's Out of Exile; Soundgarden's 1994 disc, Superunknown; and produced Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles.
Most of the 20 tracks the bandmembers brought into the studio "were written before we went on the last U.S. tour, so we had about two months of touring to play some of these songs in front of arenas and to go over them during a number of soundchecks."
Audioslave took "the momentum of playing some of the best shows of our lives, as well as working out the kinks of some of these songs in front of a live audience, seeing what worked and didn't work," and recorded 16 tracks over the course of three weeks, Morello said. The "fast and furious pace," as he described it, was imposed by O'Brien because he wanted to capture "the intensity of the performance — the four of us, in a room, rocking the jam, top to bottom, to get the sweatiest, most intense take."
For his part, Morello said he experimented with overdubs and worked with different guitars and amps "to create different colors." The end result, he said, is a record that "sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Earth, Wind & Fire."
One of Morello's favorite tracks is a tune called "Original Fire." Like most Audioslave songs, it began with a single idea -- a riff he'd been tinkering with for years. "The songwriting process is tremendously democratic," he explained. "No matter where the initial idea for a song comes from, it goes into the Audioslave killing-machine grinder, and at the end of the day comes out something unique that you might not have expected."
As Morello continued to sculpt the riff, he started to imagine what the finished track would sound like. Turns out he was way off-base. "It doesn't feel remotely like what I thought it would be when I came up with it on the guitar," he said. "Brad put sort of a double-time soul beat to it, and Tim had this super chocolate-thunder bass lick that went with it, and it turned out much better than I thought it would. Tim and Brad are just a ferociously funky rhythm section."
Most of the ideas that were brought to the table ended up making it to tape because "we have confidence we can turn it into an Audioslave song we're going to love."
Audioslave get overtly political on this album, with the song "Wide Awake."
"It's the most political song Audioslave's ever written, and it's a scathing condemnation of the Bush administration's failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Morello said. "It's a sad, powerful and angry song."
There are a number of other tracks Morello's confident will make the final cut: the haunting and beautiful "Until We Fall"; "Moth," which was "the last song we wrote for this record, and it's a kick-ass, anthemic, 'Hammer of the Gods' riff-rock jam that will probably close the record"; "Revelations"; "One in the Same"; "Sound of a Gun"; "Until We Fall"; "Shape of Things to Come"; and "Broken City," which "is kind of Audioslave-plays-[War's] 'Low Rider.' "
Zeppelin sucked. Only the Third album remains listenable. Robert Plant squealed like a pig, while Jimmy Page was sloppy.
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John Paul Jones was the only man with talent in that band.
Rock was supposed to be hard, fast, and fun. Not "arty" or bloated like Led Zep, ELP, Yes and other assorted Limeys who nearly ruined the genre until punk came along.
...whatever its creators wanted it to be.
There are no "rules" in rock--that's what made it so dangerous AND pleasurable. It was what someone listening to it SAID it was.
Rock survived the corporate monster but died by suicide, when its creators grew up (or at least aged) and decided they wanted respectibility. The Rock n Roll Museum is its tombstone.
NOBODY listens to ELP or Yes anymore...
I remember when The Kinks were inducted into the R&R HOF, Ray Davies said, "Seeing everyone here made me realize Rock and Roll has become respectable. What a bummer." I agree.
I'm listening to some old Soundgarden tonight. (Superunknown)
Zep is a lot different than ELP and Yes. And Zep is on the radio all the time here. And not just the classic rock stations, the rock stations that play hard rock all play several Zep songs a day. And it isn't just old people who listen either. Every self respecting rock fan I know has some Zep on their iPod.
Cornell is the only singer around today who can hang with Robert Plant as a rock singer in my book. And there are very few guitarists as adventurous as Tom Morello. I wish they would do some acoustic songs like Zep though.
I wish Cornell wasn't a smoker, although he is still good his voice has definitely changed from the Soundgarden days. The very early Soundgarden stuff is crazy. He was just showing off with what he could do and hadn't really learned to use his voice as well as he did on Superunknown and Down on the Upside.
Great comment. Sad, but rock will always struggle up through the sidewalk cracks in the respectability that is Rock.
I don't know how much of a rock and roll lifestyle any of them in the band have. They are all near 40. Most rockers have to give it up around then. I can't really speak for how spoiled they are, but more than most other celebrity crusaders they do actually put time into helping people instead of just helping money. I find that easy to respect even if I don't agree with them politically.
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