After the abrupt flame-out of Audioslave, it's totally understandable why Tom Morello went the way he did with his career. There were more than a couple of similarities between the end of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave and, after having been bitten, it made perfect sense that the guitarist would shyly elect to do it himself and do it in a form that no one would necessarily see coming. So that's what he did – he came up with a name for a band that didn't exactly exist (Nightwatchman), went acoustic and got both personally and politically topical. It worked marvelously – but by the time the second Nightwatchman release came along, no fan could miss the fact that Morello must have been starting to get that big, bombastic itch again.
So what's a guitarist accustomed to making politically charged music with a great big, strutting and funky mean streak running through it to do?
Find the last emcee that prides himself on the belief that he has nothing to lose and convince that emcee to join him in a collaborative effort.
When Coup mastermind Boots Riley did fall into step with Morello, something incredible happened: Morello found the single most complimentary voice for his writing ever and Riley found a player with an edge hard and sharp enough to keep up with his razor sharp tongue.
The results of the duo's collaboration are beneficial for everyone; from the opening slam of “Fight! Smash! Win!” Morello and Riley take their vibes, slogans, protests and politics down to street level (where Morello always hoped Rage would go, but he needed someone like Riley – who actually knows the way – to guide him) and march it right through the slums of South Central L.A. Each part of each song is instrumental in painting the picture of worry, danger, frustration and revolt; the incendiary rhythm guitars stomp proudly while Morello's lead figures spray grime and paint on every available surface and the combination of the two calls back to the funk and rock hierarchy (including Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sly And The Family Stone) and presents them in that bleak space. It's an incredibly potent and powerful squalor that Morello has designed here and probably a glorious dream realized for both the guitarist and listeners that have been waiting since 1991 for him to pull it together, but it's Riley that makes it real here. More potent and poignant than Chris Cornell's cries for salvation or Zack De La Rocha's comparatively collegiate wake-up calls and cries for a level economic playing field, Riley chronicles what he sees on both sides of the have/have-not line with a dry-eyed and dismissive disdain for the opulence, apathy and resigned acceptance of fate he sees (check out lines like “Rappin' at the speed of the falling dollar” from “Fight! Smash! Win!” or “May your champagne not bubble, may your Pinot be sour, may that stuff you're snorting be ninety-six percent flour” from “100 Little Curses”) – subscribing to none of it but presenting it in language that no one can avoid. These things are dark, mean truths and all far more vivid than anything Morello has associated with before, but it turns out that even if those things weren't what he was looking for, they were exactly what he needed; with caustic, funk-fuelled licks, the guitarist and emcee call each other out in each of the songs on their self-titled debut and provoke pristine performances from each other that paint vivid and anthemic pictures in the mind's eye of any listener.
But how long will it last? At this point, it would be hard to say that Morello has ever stayed too long with any project (RATM – 4 studio albums, Audioslave – 3 studio albums, Nightwatchman – 2 studio albums) and seems to revel in dismantling each endeavor as soon as it begins to enjoy a certain amount of popularity. Listeners can only hope he breaks the cycle with Street Sweeper Social Club; the band's first album represents the way that everyone who has been listening for the last eighteen years hoped Morello would eventually begin turning his attention. Here's hoping he has the foresight to recognize it.
Artist:
Street Sweeper Social Club Online
Street Sweeper Social Club Myspace
Downloads:
“Clap For The Killers” by Street Sweeper Social Club
“The Oath” by Street Sweeper Social Club
Album:
Street Sweeper Social Club is out now and available here on Amazon.
