Cornell, Rage Reform as Audioslave

Former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell and former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk have reformed as a band and rechristened themselves Audioslave. They are back at work on their debut album, which is now due out early next year on Epic Records.

Cornell first began jamming with the Rage members in February of 2001, four months after Zach de la Rocha quit the band. The new band, later to be called Civilian, began recording with producer Rick Rubin in May, and unreleased tracks from those sessions have made the rounds on the popular online file-sharing sites.

In March, just days after the band announced plans to join the Ozzfest 2002 bill, Cornell quit the group over differences between each camp's respective managers. The band subsequently reconciled, employing a neutral, third party to manage the project.

The band has established a new own official Web site, www.audioslavemusic.com), announcing itself with blurry photos of the band members and the terse statement, "Audioslave is a Los Angeles & Seattle based band."

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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