Fight the Power, With a Supergroup?

Prophets of Rage, composed of members of Rage Against the Machine, Cypress Hill, and Public Enemy is, in the words of its guitarist, Tom Morello, an "élite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election-year bullshit, and confront it head-on, with Marshall stacks blazing." Morello prefers his gassy characterization to the admittedly hokey term "supergroup," but the outfit does have a Voltron-like quality: an intimidating assemblage of steely-faced, aggressively minded musicians from the early nineties, stomping in to save us from ourselves. On Monday, Prophets of Rage announced a North American tour that will begin on July 19th, at the Republican National Convention, in Cleveland, and has been titled "Make America Rage Again." Has America ever stopped raging? On dark days, it feels as if we are raging more than ever.