RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’S TIM COMMERFORD NEW ALBUM #SteroidsOrHeroin OUT TODAY
Tuesday, February 24 sees the release of #SteroidsOrHeroin, the debut album from Future User, the new band featuring Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave bassist Tim Commerford.
#SteroidsOrHeroin follows the recent release of Future User’s electrifying “Mountain Lion” clip, which premiered on Rolling Stone. The video, which features a cameo by Lance Armstrong and ends with Commerford literally setting himself on fire, has amassed more than a quarter-million views in just a few short weeks.
“Mountain Lion” is Future User’s fourth video and the first to reveal Commerford as the band’s frontman/bassist. Previous videos featured Commerford as a mask-wielding character named S.W.I.M., which stands for Someone Who Isn’t Me, an internet acronym often used in online forums.
“I wanted this to be more about music than personality,” says Commerford, who formed Future User with collaborator/composer Jordan Tarlow. “That meant launching this project without letting people know it was me. Fair or not, we knew the songs would immediately draw comparisons to my past work, so it was important to let the music begin with a life of its own. We started releasing songs four months ago, so it feels like a good time to now let the cat out of the bag. Hopefully fans will be intrigued and go back and check out the other songs and videos and give them life all over again.”
The band’s first video was “Clockwork,” a polarizing clip about police militarization in which tennis great John McEnroe was (literally) waterboarded by Commerford, dressed as the character S.W.I.M. That clip was released in early September.
Two more Future User music videos followed – one about the NSA/mass surveillance (“Supernatural”)
and another about the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods (“Medication Nation”). “Supernatural” featured a cameo by comic book legend Stan Lee, who typically only appears in Marvel film blockbusters.
“We put a lot of time and effort into planning the videos,” says Tarlow. “Tim and I usually approach topics from different angles, pitting left versus right and libertarian ideas versus spiritual messaging, but eventually,” he laughs, “we zero in on a common target.”
Commerford calls the band’s sound prog-tronic, a mix of early prog rock and modern electronics. Says Tarlow, “Listen to it and you hear the late ‘60s prog rock of King Crimson and even Sabbath filtered through the EDM side of the current modular synth resurgence. Fans of Tim’s past work will find familiar elements, but we’ve got a sound all our own.”
Commerford, who handles vocals and bass on the album and Tarlow, who does keys and programming, produced the album themselves. They were joined by drummer John Knox and Commerford enlisted a special guest to play guitar: Grammy-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine). O’Brien plays guitar on every song on the album, but is not officially in the band. The album was mixed by Tom Syrowski (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC).
iTunes – http://smarturl.it/fusohit
Official site – www.facebook.com/FutureUser
Facebook – www.facebook.com/FutureUser
Twitter – @FutureUserX
Instagram – @FutureUser
