Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Our Lady Peace, Third Eye Blind to Appear on 'Occupy This Album'

Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Our Lady Peace, Third Eye Blind to Appear on ‘Occupy This Album’

2012-04-16

Story by Charles Ken

Musicians lend tracks to album to benefit Occupy Wall Street movement

The Occupy Wall Street movement finally has its own soundtrack. “Occupy This Album” is a compilation album packed with A-list musicians that will benefit the Occupy Wall Street movement and associated campaigns. The album will offer 99 tracks by 99 artists, including Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Third Eye Blind, Our Lady Peace, Ani DiFranco, The Guthrie Family, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson and others. The four-CD set will arrive on May 15, and it’s currently available for pre-sale via the Music for Occupy website.

Morello has played several Occupy events under his solo moniker, “the Nightwatchman.” He got his start playing solo, acoustic shows while hosting a talent show at a teen homeless shelter in Los Angeles, where he got moved by one of the participants.

“This one kid got up — he was maybe 18 years old and really down and out and had a pretty rough life story — but he got up there and he played his two songs as if everybody’s soul in the room was in stake,” he told Audio Ink Radio. “He meant every word of it. I was like, ‘I have a guitar. I have a couple of ideas in my head.’ And I thought, ‘Maybe I should sing a song.’ [Laughs] So, I went home and stated working on some material and got up the courage to start.

“This was the height of Audioslave playing these big arenas across the country, and I would get up the courage on days off to go sing at an open mic night here and to try out a couple songs at a country western bar there, and pretty soon, I realized I was having an artistic connection with the audience doing the Nightwatchman stuff that was as powerful as anything I’d done with Rage Against the Machine.” (Photo via Music for Occupy.)

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Charles Ken

Meet the expert - Charles Ken is a graduate of Michigan State University where he studied writing and history. He's a longtime music buff and covers classic rock for Audio Ink Radio. Contact him at ken@audioinkradio.com.