Tom Morello: "No Plans" For New Rage Against the Machine Album

Despite reuniting for a tour and multiple festival appearances, Rage Against the Machine have no plans for a new album, says guitarist Tom Morello. "There are no plans for that," Morello told Billboard. "We've had a wonderful year and a half of playing shows, and I don't see any reason to not play more shows. The thing is there's only so many hours in the musical day, and mine are very occupied right now." Rage's last album of original material was 1999's The Battle of Los Angeles. Morello is instead focusing his musical output on his own Nightwatchman project. "I'm able to do everything I want as a musician under this tent." Rage singer Zack de la Rocha released an EP from his duo One Day As a Lion earlier this year.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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