For a time Rage Against The Machine ruled my life. I got into my first car accident while listening to “Killing In The Name Of.” Had to stash the driver’s bong before the police showed up…

Then Audioslave happened. Yep. Kinda ground my teeth through that one.

All the while vocalist Zach De La Rocha was working on his seemingly never to be released solo album.

Rage fans ready to be stoked? The wait is over with the announcement of…no, not the solo album, but an EP from the new band One Day As A Lion, featuring De La Rocha and Jon Theodore, formerly of Mars Volta.
Seems like a good match. On 7/22, the One Day As a Lion EP will be available on Anti- Records.

From Artist Direct:

The endless wait for Zack De La Rocha’s solo album will finally come to a pseudo halt on July 22 with the release of One Day As a Lion’s debut EP. A collaboration between De La Rocha and ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, the duo has completed five songs for their self-titled disc. None of which feature DJ Shadow, Trent Reznor, or ?uestlove of The Roots—artists that have been tied to De La Rocha’s long-rumored solo recordings.

“It’s a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask,” the group explained in a statement.

In other De La Rocha news, Rage Against the Machine has seven festival dates lined up for this summer, including an appearance at Lollapalooza on August 2.

One Day As a Lion:

1. Wild International
2. Ocean View
3. Last Letter
4. If You Fear Dying
5. One Day As a Lion

For cryptic info on the band, check out their (currently music-less) MySpace profile.

No, I didn’t actually see At The Drive In live when I had the chance. All my friends raved about them, but I was too busy being a hippy to take much notice. Hell, I was still figuring out the Dismemberment Plan, and all ATDI’s wiry guitars confused and scared me just a little bit. My brain wasn’t ready for their epic assault until a month before they broke up and splintered into Sparta (yay!) and Mars Volta (blech). Then did I actually sit down and check out what all the fuss was about. Man, I must have missed some great 60-person crowd shows. Any case, all the Mars Volta fans who aren’t hip to At The Drive In better be prepared to get their faces ripped off by ATDI with the release of Guitar Hero IV.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2008 — Huntington Beach, CA

Pick up your guitar and shred along to “One Armed Scissor” by At the Drive-In this summer on Guitar Hero IV. The game will be released this June on all major platforms including Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC, Mac and Nintendo DS. At The Drive-In will have their track included along with rock giants such as Aerosmith and Def Leppard.

The track “One Armed Scissor” originally released on Relationship and Command still continues to stand the test of time. It has been recognized by Spin Magazine as one of the “Top 100 albums between 1985 and 2005″ and by Time Magazine as an album that, “deftly combines punk ferocity with artful though sometimes inscrutable lyrics.”

From The Beaumont Club in Kansas City, MO, Jan. 25th, 2007. Photos by Anna Perry. Read a full review of the show, written by Crystal Wiebe, at Synthesis.net. More photos after the jump. (more…)

It’s not that I’m against scream-y post-jazz prog odyssey nonsense, nor do I find Euro-Fros that offensive, it’s just that in my opinion Sparta wins over Mars Volta in the post-At The Drive-In rock contest. Still, a million and one hipsters in tight pants can’t be wrong, so we’re bringing you some tour dates.

December
31 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

January
9 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
11 New Haven, CT - Toad’s Place
12 Providence, RI - Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
14 New York, NY - Terminal 5
17 Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore at the TLA
18 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live!
19 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
21 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Hall
01-23 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
01-25 Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club

If you thought “Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt,” “Facilis Descenus Averni” or “Tetragrammaton” were rough ones to wrap your tongue around, just wait until you attempt the pronunciation of new Mars Volta tracks like “Wax Simulacra,” “Aberinkula” or “Askepios” from their upcoming album, The Bedlam in Goliath, due out January 28th, 2008. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re from Mexico, Ecuador or, uh, Austin, TX, a word’s a word, man. You can check out four new videos of the band smiling, headbanging, ruling and drooling here. Me, I think I’ll stick to the whole, “Oh yeah, track 4 rocks, but I think track 7’s subtlety is more an extension of the hook on track 6.”

The band will also be part of an online game inspired by the themes explored in their upcoming album. Check it:

Beginning the first week of January, visitors to the Amazon.com music page (http://amazon.com/music) will be the first to experience “Goliath The Soothsayer,” an online game based on The Mars Volta’s forthcoming The Bedlam In Goliath. The game will be available exclusively via Amazon.com from January 2nd through January 29th, the official street date for the new record. Pre-order is not necessary to play to the game.

“Goliath The Soothsayer” is based on the true story that inspired the narrative laid out on The Bedlam In Goliath. Like previous Mars Volta efforts De-Loused In The Comatorium and Frances The Mute, the album is a thematically linked whole, the songs chapters in a bigger story, inspired by real people, places and events. The Bedlam In Goliath chronicles The Mars Volta’s time with the “Soothsayer” a/k/a the Ouija board owned by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and its mutation from a source of amusement during the tour supporting the band’s Amputechture album into a malevolent psycho-spiritual force that nearly tore the group apart, collectively and individually.

So, yeah. I feel like it’s probably said a lot on this blog site, but this is on some entirely OTHER shit. Now I know why you guys say that. Hopefully, the Volta never opened the portal to strangers with the Ouija, the consequences of which the following photograph details…