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| Union Town | ||||
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| EP by | ||||
| Released | July 19, 2011 | |||
| Recorded | March 2011 at Veritas Studios, Los Angeles, CA | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, acoustic rock, anti-folk, protest music | |||
| Label | New West | |||
| Producer | Tom Morello | |||
| The Nightwatchman chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Allmusic |    |
Union Town is an EP by The Nightwatchman, alter ego of musician Tom Morello. It is his third release as the Nightwatchman overall, and includes many covers of famous union songs, including "Solidarity Forever" and "Which Side Are You On?". Unlike Morello's previous efforts, the EP was self-produced by Morello himself, and is his first release on the New West Records label.
The Nightwatchman is the solo project of American musician Tom Morello. Morello began performing as the Nightwatchman in 2003 as an outlet for his political views while he was playing apolitical music with Audioslave.
Thomas Baptiste Morello is an American musician, singer, songwriter, actor and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. As of 2019, Morello is a member of the supergroup Prophets of Rage. Morello was also a touring musician with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. He is also known for his acoustic solo act, the Nightwatchman, and Street Sweeper Social Club. Morello also co-founded Axis of Justice, which airs a monthly program on Pacifica Radio station KPFK in Los Angeles.
"Solidarity Forever", written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, is a popular union anthem. It is sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Although it was written as a song for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), other union movements, such as the AFL-CIO, have adopted the song as their own. The song has been performed by musicians such as Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen, and was redone by Emcee Lynx and The Nightwatchman. It is still commonly sung at union meetings and rallies in the United States, Australia and Canada, and has also been sung at conferences of the Australian Labor Party and the Canadian New Democratic Party. This may have also inspired the hymn of the consumer cooperative movement, "The Battle Hymn of Cooperation", which is sung to the same tune.
Contents
The EP is the first to feature Carl Restivo, Dave Gibbs and Eric Gardner as part of Morello's backing band, known as The Freedom Fighters Orchestra. All the three of them are also members in Morello's band Street Sweeper Social Club.
Carl Restivo is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and audio engineer. He has toured with Rihanna, Tom Morello's Freedom Fighter Orchestra supporting The Nightwatchman, Perry Farrell's Satellite Party, and Street Sweeper Social Club, who toured with Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction.
Dave Gibbs, born August 22, 1965, is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the Boston-based power-pop band, Gigolo Aunts. Born and raised in Potsdam, New York, Gibbs co-founded the Gigolo Aunts with brothers Steve and Phil Hurley, and drummer Paul Brower in 1986. Relocating to Boston, the group gained a following after a string of self-released tapes and singles, finally catching the attention of English label, Fire Records, which released their 1993 album, Flippin' Out. The band was signed in the US to RCA Records, who re-released the album in 1994. Gibbs also contributed backing vocals to albums by Providence, Rhode Island pop-rockers Velvet Crush, with whom he toured as lead guitarist on and off through the early 1990s.
Street Sweeper Social Club is an American rap rock supergroup, formed in Los Angeles, California in 2006. The band primarily consists of guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and vocalist and emcee Boots Riley of The Coup. The band had been testing songs out during Tom Morello's Nightwatchman tour and released an album on June 16, 2009. Stanton Moore drummed for the group for the recording of the album although he did not join the band for the following tour. Street Sweeper Social Club opened for Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction in May 2009. Street Sweeper Social Club describes itself as "more than a band, it's a social club." Their 2010 EP The Ghetto Blaster EP includes covers of M.I.A. "Paper Planes" and LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out".
