Raging against the machine

More than 100 people were arrested in Minneapolis last night after a Rage Against the Machine concert at Target Center.

It had a bit of a familiar ring to it. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights March through downtown St. Paul was a pretty subdued affair until the impromptu Rage Against the Machine appearance on the Capitol mall ended and the crowd decided to hook up with the parade.

The guitarist for RATM, Tom Morello, is no stranger to politics, though. He's got his own political movement, of sorts: the Axis of Justice. The video from the Web site over there is an interesting glimpse into what was going on in St. Paul on Tuesday night before the crowd got all downtown, as it were.

You can also find out more about Morello performing as his current political alter-ego, The Night Watchman, right here. (In the interest of full disclosure, both my kids can sing his "One Man Revolution" by heart.)

"This generation needs new songs of protest," he says of his work, a good measure of it on a Woody Guthrie-esque acoustic guitar.

The Current's Steve Seel did an interview with Morello at last year's South by Southwest show, and the RATM front man explains that politics are part and parcel of his work. You can hear that here.