The Dust Off (sort of): Zach de la Rocha

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one-day-lion-200.jpgHere at the Riff, we’re not above dusting off obsolete items with a high awesomeness/cheesiness quotient. I wouldn’t call Zach de le Rocha, politically outspoken front man for Rage Against the Machine old and dusty (his awesomeness/cheesiness is debatable), but he has been mostly off the radar since Rage’s heyday (and some more recent reunion performances). Until now.

Together with drummer Jon Theodore (formerly of the Mars Volta), de la Rocha’s got new music coming out under the moniker One Day As A Lion on July 22 (Anti- is releasing). Their press statement about the music is a mouthful:

It reads: One Day As A Lion is “a defiant affirmation of the possibilities that exist in the space between kick and snare. It’s a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask.” They go on to say, “One Day As A Lion is both a warning delivered and a promise kept.”

Yikes. Are they gearing up to kick people’s asses or play music?! Either way, I have to say I’m intrigued. Tracks haven’t been released yet (officially, anyway), so for now we’ll have to revisit some oldie-but-goodie Zach de la Rocha moments, like this one:

And this clip of him and Rage at the 2000 DNC in Los Angeles:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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