rage against the machine

Cover Wars Revisited: Killing In The Name

Originally Published February 3rd, 2009

I’m sure your first thought when you got the news that Phish played Killing In The Name at their July 4th tour closer was, “Hey, didn’t they do that for Cover Wars?” – Well – you’re right we did, back in February of ’09. A lot has changed in the last 17 months, including the audio playlists we used to use don’t work anymore thanks to the death of IMEEM. I’ve been meaning to go back through our old editions & fix the audio, & well – this is as good a start as any. There will be no voting this week, we’ve closed the poll as the Disco Biscuits won fair & square the first time around and even made it pretty far in the first annual March Madness Cover Wars Madness if you recall.

Cover Wars

This track is from Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 debut self-titled album. The album topped out at #45 on The Billboard Top 200 in 1994. With this week’s artists covering the tune, it’s hard to determine if the bands are going for a legitimate angry performance or are going for a more satirical approach. Well, in some cases it’s clearer than others. Regardless of the intent, it’s always a crowd-pleaser.

The Contestants:

Audioslave: Since three of the four members that recorded the original version are in this group, I have decided not to include Audioslave as an available choice in the voting, ’cause that just wouldn’t be fair. But check below for an Audioslave performance from the Quart Festival in 2005. For those that might not know, that’s Chris Cornell of Soundgarden on lead vocals.

READ ON after the jump for the scoop on this week’s competitors…

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