Since i was not able to make it to Coachella to see Rage Against the Machine, I was thrilled when i heard about the Rock the Bells line up with Rage headelining. I love Rage, I have been a fan since the early 90s, and have always appreciated their sounds and their politics. Their music has always been a call for uprising and a better world.
Their support for the Zapatistas was one of the most important things they did in the 90s, they made sure people knew what was going on in the jungle in the southeast of Mexico.
So when I had an opportunity to make a poster for Rock the Bells, well I had to showcase the headliner and their politics. The result was a psychadelic Rage-Zapatista concert
poster. I think its one of the best pieces that I have ever created. Since this posterdeal we have going is a group effort with Samurai Grafix, we were also able to make some shirts with the design.
At the concert we walked around giving shirts and a few posters away. We found some cool people that Axis of Justice had gotten into the concert to make sure that the grassroots efforts in the bay were represented. -jb
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Like jesus i was thrilled that Rage Against the Machine (Rabia Contra La Maquina) was going to be performing a Rock the Bells. At first i couldn’t believe it. Was it really true? It had been so long. Having come of age in the 90s, a Chicana in L.A. meant that much of my poltical formation was wrapped up in Rage songs. NAFTA and the Zapatista uprsising were memorialized in War Within a Breath.
It was even more exciting to hear that jesus would be designing a poster for the event as part of a joint project with Ankh Marketing and Samurai Graphix. At the event we were able to run around giving posters away to folks like the Brown Berets of Watsonville, folks from Arizona’s Tierra y Libertad, Axis of Justice and organizers from Collectiva Zapatista Ramona as well as some hard core fans of Rage.
Rage’s set was amazing I felt 17 again. Just not as angsty.-mc