Street Sweeper Social Club

The respective work of Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) and Boots Riley (The Coup) makes for some impressive stats. Put them together and it's a healthy battle of wits between Riley's sociopolitical jibes, sardonic quips ("poverty has just gone platinum") and fist-pumping commands, and Morello's hyper-twitched, pitch-shifting guitar rallies, all refereed by Galactic drummer Stanton Moore's ominous beat. Tracks like "100 Little Curses," "The Oath," "Nobody Moves" and the funky square-dance-callin' "Promenade" are shout-along protest party jams.

Some dreams die hard, and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello's vision of a
utopian tomorrow where rockers and rappers can coexist without sucking is one such
dream. Here Morello and Boots Riley, of radical Bay Area hip-hop crew the Coup, get
together to toss off some Funkadelic-steeped rap metal and remind us that smash-the-state
yammering is still alive post-Obama. Some of it's silly ("Fight! Smash! Win!"), some... More >