TOM MORELLO

'Tom Morello' (born May 30, 1964, as Thomas Baptist Morello) is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine. He performs as a solo acoustic artist under the pseudonym 'The Nightwatchman'. He is known for his unique guitar style and his outspoken politics.
Tom was ranked #26 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".^[1]
Tom was also one of 20 contemporary guitarists Rolling Stone magazine featured in their "The Top 20 New Guitarists" article along with John Mayer, Derek Trucks, John Frusciante, Warren Haynes and other contemporary guitarists.

Contents

Early years

Career

Lock Up (1988-1990)

Rage Against the Machine (1991-2000; 2007-present)

Audioslave (2001-2007)

The Nightwatchman (2003-present)

Other side projects (1994-present)

Guitar and Technique

Axis of Justice

Discography

Lock Up

Rage Against the Machine

Audioslave

The Nightwatchman

Guest Spots and Remixes

Actor

References

External links

Early years

Morello was born in Harlem, New York. His mother, Mary Morello, who is part Irish and part Italian, is a founder of Parents For Rock And Rap, an anti-censorship group. She was also a teacher at Libertyville High School. His father, Ngethe Njoroge, was a Mau Mau guerrilla and revolutionary. Morello's great-uncle, Jomo Kenyatta, was the first elected president in Kenya.
Morello grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, at the time a virtually all-white suburb of Chicago. There he attended Libertyville High School. He played French horn in the school band, sang in the chorus, and was active in speech and drama club. (One prominent role was Oberon in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.)^[2]
He showed his political leanings early; in the 1980 mock elections at LHS, he campaigned for a fictitious anarchist "candidate" named Hubie Maxwell, who came in fourth place after Jimmy Carter at the overwhelmingly Republican school. Ronald Reagan won the mock election. He also wrote a piece headlined "South Africa: Racist Fascism That We Support" for the school's alternative paper, ''The Student Pulse''.
At age 13, Morello purchased his first guitar at Rigoni Music in Libertyville. He wanted a solid-body Ovation guitar, but he didn't have the money to buy one. Instead, he purchased a Kay guitar. Wanting to learn how to play "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin, he took two guitar lessons, but instead was taught the C-major scale. He decided that playing the guitar was a waste of his time, so he placed it in his closet for the next four years.^[3]
Around 1980, Morello first started studying the guitar seriously. He had formed a band in the same year called the Electric Sheep which featured future Tool guitarist Adam Jones on bass.^[4] Jones wasn't originally in the band; he was a replacement for a member who quit because he felt his musical skills were far superior to those of the other Sheep. Few if any of the Sheep could really play an instrument at first (Most of their songs consisted of a single chord), but the band was an impetus for Morello to start honing his skills. Instead of performing cover songs, the Sheep wrote original material that included politically charged lyrics. None of the songs composed by the Sheep contained solos; soloing was a skill that Morello began learning in college.^[5]
At the time Morello's musical tastes lay in the direction of heavy metal, particularly Kiss, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Morello developed his own unique sound through the electric guitar. Later his music--and musical politics--were greatly influenced by punk rock bands like The Clash, the Sex Pistols and Devo.^[6] Interestingly, an example of his affection for The Clash was the setlist for the first Rage Against the Machine gig, on October 23rd 1991. It featured a rough performance of "Clampdown," from The Clash's seminal ''London Calling'' album.
Morello graduated in 1982 and began attending Harvard University. There he made a point of practicing every day for up to eight hours without fail, no matter how much studying he had to do.^[7] He graduated in 1986 with an honors degree in political science. He moved to L.A., where he briefly worked as an aide to Senator Alan Cranston as he set about trying to join or start a band. (Adam Jones moved to L.A. as well; Morello introduced Jones to some of his future bandmates.)

Career

Lock Up (1988-1990)

Main articles: Lock Up (US band)

In 1988 Morello joined Lock Up,a glam rock band that released one album through Geffen Records before splitting up. This record was called ''Something Bitchin' This Way Comes'', which enjoyed only slight success at the time.

Rage Against the Machine (1991-2000; 2007-present)

Main articles: Rage Against the Machine

Morello had been crushed by the lack of success he experienced in Lock Up. He visited a club in Los Angeles where Zack de la Rocha was rapping. After viewing de la Rocha's lyric books, Tom asked him to front a band. Morello drafted Brad Wilk, a drummer who had unsuccessfully auditioned for Lock Up, and de la Rocha introduced the two to his friend Tim Commerford. The four formed a new band, Rage Against the Machine.
Rage had great success, especially in North America and Europe. Their first, self-titled album, was recognized by fans for Morello's innovative guitar as well as its originality (being one of the first records to combine rock and hip-hop). Morello expressed his attitude toward songwriting during this period as overtly political:
After four years of silence and rumors of break-ups, the band released its second album, ''Evil Empire''. The album moved away from the traditional metal guitar work of the first album; it was experimental in nature and demonstrated Morello's ability to use the guitar in strange ways, showcasing his abilities with the kill switch.
In 1999, the band released ''The Battle of Los Angeles'', their most commercially successful record. In late 2000, they released another album entitled ''Renegades''. Shortly before the release, de la Rocha left Rage, and the band's instrumentalists said they wanted to continue making music together.
''Billboard'' reported on January 19, 2007 that there were rumors that Rage Against the Machine could reunite at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.^[8] These rumors were confirmed in a ''Los Angeles Times'' article on January 22^[9] and later on the band's official website.^[10] The band headlined the final day of Coachella 2007 on Sunday, April 29. ^[11][12] ''Billboard'' reported that sources suggest this will likely be a one-off,<^[13] although it was later announced that four more performances are planned as part of Rock the Bells with the Wu-Tang Clan^[14] and on April 30, Matt Bellamy of Muse spoke of his band's plans for a one-off gig in August 2007 with Rage Against The Machine, which took place at Alpine Valley outside of Milwaukee. This was the only show performed for Rage fans, being that they were the only headliners and did not have to share the stage with Wu Tang. This show was an explosive performance, and with the way it went, it should not be surprising to see Rage tour again.

Audioslave (2001-2007)

Main articles: Audioslave

After de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, the remaining bandmates started jamming with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell at the suggestion of producer Rick Rubin. The new group was first called Civilian, but changed their name to Audioslave before their first album was released.
The band released their eponymous debut album on November 19, 2002. It was a massive critical and commercial success, attaining triple-platinum status.
The band released their second album, ''Out of Exile'', on May 24, 2005. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts and attained platinum status. In the same year, they released a DVD documenting their trip as the first American rock band to play a free show in Cuba. Morello recently stated he has made a commitment to Audioslave and is "in it for the long haul." The band's third album, ''Revelations'', was released in the fall of 2006. As of February 15th 2007, Audioslave are on hiatus as a result of frontman Cornell's departure due to "irresolvable personality conflicts". The band reunited with Zack de la Rocha and resumed their previous band, Rage Against The Machine.

The Nightwatchman (2003-present)

Main articles: The Nightwatchman

Morello is less known for his folk music, which he plays under the alias ''The Nightwatchman''. He has explained:
One of his many songs, "No One Left," which compares the aftermath of September 11 to that of a U.S. attack on Iraq, appears on the album ''Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11''.
The Nightwatchman also appeared on the album/DVD , contributing the songs Until the End, The Road I Must Travel, and Union Song.
Morello, as "The Nightwatchman," released his debut solo album, ''One Man Revolution'', on April 24th, 2007.
Main articles: The Nightwatchman Tour

Morello "The Nightwatchman" joined the Dave Matthews Band for its short European tour in May 2007. As well as opening for the Dave Matthews Band, he was invited to guest on a couple of songs each night. The last night of this Morello/DMB arrangement was May 30 at Wembley Arena in London, on Tom's birthday.
The Nightwatchman is currently supporting Ben Harper on tour. During this tour, Morello has been joining Harper onstage for a cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" on which he plays the electric guitar in the style for which he's best known.
Morello has presided over a Hotel Cafe residency in LA since November, which has featured many of his musical cohorts including Serj Tankian, Perry Farrell, Jon Foreman from Switchfoot, Shooter Jennings, Nuno Bettencourt, Queen V, Sen-Dog from Cypress Hill, Jill Sobule, Boots Riley of The Coup, Alexi Murdoch, Wayne Kramer from MC5 and others.

Other side projects (1994-present)

Morello and Wilk joined with Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Billy Gould of Faith No More to record the song "Calling Dr Love" for the 1994 Kiss tribute album ''. The lineup was billed as Shandi's Addiction.
In August 1995 Morello contacted former Articles of Faith frontman Vic Bondi and asked him if he wanted to work on a Rage side project. Tentatively titled Weatherman, the short-lived group featured Bondi on vocals, Morello on guitar, Matt Johnson on bass, and Abe Van Eyck on drums. The recorded demos in September 1995. Bondi wrote all the lyrics, while Morello wrote all the music. One track, "Enola Gay", was recorded by Brett Eliason in fall 1996. Tom re-used the main riff of the song for the Audioslave single "Cochise."
Morello also played lead guitar on three tracks of Primus' 1999 studio album ''Antipop''.
Morello played the guitar on "The Faculty" soundtrack, featured with Class of '99 for their cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (pt. 2)"
Morello worked with The Crystal Method on their 2001 album ''Tweekend''. He co-produced and played guitars on the smash single "Name of the Game" and "Wild, Sweet and Cool".
Morello produced the 2003 Anti-Flag album The Terror State. He has also been known to play with Anti-Flag in some of their concerts.
Morello played guitar in the score for '' (2006).
Morello played the guitar riff heard in the final battle scene of the film ''Dodgeball''.
Morello played guitar in the single "One Man Army" by The Prodigy.
In July 2006, TheNewsTribune.com reported that Morello and Boots Riley, front man of The Coup, would collaborate on a project called Street Sweepers. Riley has often performed alongside Morello's alter ego The Nightwatchman, and Morello produced and performed on a few tracks for The Coup's 2006 release ''Pick a Bigger Weapon''.
Morello sat in with the Dave Matthews Band featuring Butch Taylor and Rashawn Ross for multiple dates on the band's May 2007 stint in Europe. He performed on "#41," "American Baby Intro" and "Satellite" at various dates on the brief tour.
Morello is set to appear in Guitar Hero 3 as the second boss out of the three guitarists, which includes one fictional guitarist. ^[15]

Guitar and Technique

Main articles: Tom Morello's Guitar Technique

Morello is famed for his guitar style, which consists of punk/funk hybrid riffs and hip hop-inspired sounds. His guitar playing is also characterized by heavy use of guitar effects, such as delay, modulation, wah, harmonizers, distortion, pitch shifters, feedback, and others in unique ways and combinations. Critically acclaimed, he is said to use the guitar in a unique and imaginative way; rather than just plucking the strings, his maneuvers include toggling between two pickups - one on and one off - while scratching his fingernails on the strings ("Bulls on Parade"). He also goes as far as rapidly hitting a pencil on the strings ("Cochise", although he now emulates the sound by "baby-tapping" the strings) and scraping an allen wrench on the strings for a whole song ("People of the Sun").
To assist in his alien guitar sounds, Morello chooses various effects pedals. During his tenure in RATM, he used a Dunlop Cry Baby, a Digitech WH-1 Whammy, a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, a DOD EQ pedal (used to boost the volume during guitar solos), a Boss TR-2 Tremolo (which can be heard on Kick Out the Jams and Guerrilla Radio), and an Ibanez DFL Flanger. For his work with Audioslave, Morello used his Boss TR-2 Tremolo pedal (which can be heard on "Like a Stone" and "Gasoline") a whole lot more, and replaced the Ibanez Flanger with a MXR Phase 90. His amplifier of choice has always been a 50-watt Marshall JCM 800 2205 and a Peavey 4x12 cabinet. Though the Marshall is his amp of choice with Rage Against The Machine, he used a Vox AC30 combo amplifier to record multiple tracks on Audioslave's 'Revelations' album. While the Marshall amplifier has two channels, he only uses the overdrive channel, and simply turns down the volume on his guitar to get cleaner sounds.
In the studio, Tom uses the same setup for the bulk of the guitar tracks. For ''The Battle of Los Angeles'', he also used a few other amps, such as a Line 6 as heard on the clean, spacey intro of "Mic Check," plus a Pignose mini-amp and a MusicMan "Twin" style amp.^[16] Morello has used several guitars throughout his career, two of the most well-known being branded "Arm the Homeless" and "Soul Power". He also uses an acoustic guitar called "Whatever It Takes" for his performances under the alias The Nightwatchman.

Axis of Justice

Main articles: Axis of Justice

Morello and Serj Tankian of System of a Down are the co-founders of Axis of Justice, a political group whose declared purpose is "to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice together. We aim to build a bridge between fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice."^[17] The group has worked for such causes as immigrant rights and death-penalty abolition. Its recommended book list includes such authors as Noam Chomsky, Che Guevara, George Orwell, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Grant Morrison.^[18]
Morello and Tankian, together with a handful of other artists, including Maynard James Keenan, Wayne Kramer of the MC5, the hip hop group Jurassic 5, and Michael "Flea" Balzary of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released a live recording of covers and original songs, titled ''The Axis of Justice Concert Series Volume 1''.
On April 6, 2006, Tom Morello was honoured with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award for his support of worker's rights and for his AOJ work.^[19] Tom has worked on numerous labor campaigns: the Guess sweatshop boycott, the LA janitors strike, the Taco Bell boycott, the southern California grocery workers strike and lockout, and others.
Morello was a strong supporter of the Immigrants Reform Rally and protest around the US. Morello played as The Nightwatchman at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and has featured many articles on AOJ. On September 28, 2006, Morello was one of 400 protesters arrested protesting in support of immigrant hotel workers' rights, in what organizers called "the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of the Los Angeles".^[20] Morello knew he was going to be arrested; he wore a bright yellow shirt, and gave the LAPD his driver's license number a few days before the march. Morello told MTV:

Discography

Lock Up

★ ''Something Bitchin' This Way Comes'' (1989)

Rage Against the Machine

Main articles: Rage Against the Machine discography


★ ''Rage Against the Machine'' (1992)

★ ''Evil Empire'' (1996)

★ ''Live & Rare'' (1997)

★ ''The Battle of Los Angeles'', (1999)

★ ''Renegades'' (2000)

★ ''Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium'' (2003)

Audioslave

Main articles: Audioslave discography


★ ''Audioslave'' (2002)

★ ''Out of Exile'' (2005)

★ ''Revelations'' (2006)

The Nightwatchman

★ ''One Man Revolution'' (April 24 2007)

Guest Spots and Remixes

★ "Big Willie" for Run-DMC, appears on ''Down With The King'' (1993)

★ "Rappaz R. N. Dainja" for KRS-One, appears on ''Rappaz R. N. Dainja'' remix EP (1996)

★ "One Man Army" for The Prodigy, appears on ''Spawn: The Album'' (1997)

★ "Come With Me" for Puff Daddy and also Features Jimmy Page, appears on ''Godzilla OST'' (1998)

★ "Shed Your Skin (Tom Morello Remix)" for Indigo Girls, appears on ''Shed Your Skin'' (1998)

★ "Electric Uncle Sam", "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool" and "Power Mad" for Primus, appears on ''Antipop'' (1999)

★ "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit" for Wu-Tang Clan, appears on ''Loud Rocks''(2000)

★ "Name of the Game" and "Wild, Sweet and Cool" for The Crystal Method, appears on ''Tweekend'' (2001)

★ "Checkmate (Hang 'em High Remix)" for Cypress Hill, appears on ''Stash: This Is the Remix'' (2002)

★ "War" for Bone Thugs N Harmony, appears on ''Small Soldiers'' Soundtrack (1998)

★ "Lateralus" for Tool, appears Live at Bonnaroo (2007)

★ "Captain Sterling's Little Problem" for The Coup on their 2006 Pick A Bigger Weapon.

Actor

★ Berkeley (2005) .... Blue

★ Made (2001) .... Best Man

★ (Season 6, Episode 20, 2000) .... Crewman Mitchell Clip

★ (1998) (uncredited) .... Son'a Officer

★ Saturday Night Live (Episode #21.17, 1996) .... Musical Guest (Rage Against the Machine)

References

1. [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937559/the_100_greatest_guitarists_of_all_time/ Rolling Stone - 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
2. Metal Sludge - Rage Against the Machine and Tool Exposed!
3. "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", Rolling Stone, 18 September 2003
4. Guitar World Article - Published June 1994
5. "Tom Morello & Adam Jones", Guitar World, June 1994
6. DiNovella, Elizabeth Tom Morello Interview. The Progressive.
7. Gulla, Bob Tom Morello & Rage Against the Machine Want You!. Guitar One, February 2000
8. Morello Goes Solo, Rage To Reunite?
9. Rage Against the Machine will reunite for Coachella
10. Official Rage Against the Machine website. Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
11. Official Coachella 2007 website. Accessed January 24, 2007
12. Rage On at Coachella
13. Rage, Bjork, Chili Peppers Sign On For Coachella
14. First reported in the ''LA Times'': Rage Against the Machine adds more dates
15.
16. Tom Morello RADICAL SHRIEK. musicfanclubs.org.
17. Mission. Axis of Justice.
18. Books. Axis of Justice.
19. 2006 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Awards Celebration. americanrightsatwork.org.
20. Moss, Corey with Chris Harris Tom Morello Arrested At Protest, Spends Night In Lockup. MTV.com, September 2006

External links

★ The Nightwatchman

★ The Tom Morello Project

★ Axis of Justice

★ Video of Tom Morello's network TV debut of "House Gone Up in Flames"

★ The Nightwatchman Fuzz page

★ Weatherman Discography

★ Tom Morello's Guitar Gear, Video & Interviews

★ "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", ''Rolling Stone'', August 27, 2003.

★ Listen online: Tom Morello On Corporate Imperialism

★ Tom on the Internet Movie Database

★ Performing live at SXSW 2007 on 89.3 The Current

★ Tom Morello on The Hour