The Last Internationale hype

RIGHTEOUS INSTIGATION: NYC-based activist rockers The Last Internationale created quite a buzz last week at SXSW, with incendiary sets at Maggie Mae’s, Stubb’s and Rachael Ray’s #RRFeedback party, among other perfs. The trio—frontwoman/bassist Delila Paz, guitarist Edgey Pires and erstwhile Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk—ripped into the Gap like reincarnated ’60s radicals during the Stubb’s show, which was sponsored by the clothing retailer. As Pires tossed free band T-shirts into the crowd, he shouted, “This is made in the USA—not in some sweatshop. Fuck the Gap!” Nope, Padilla and her cohorts aren’t messing around when it comes to their defiantly lefty politics; the original material in their setlists includes songs with titles like “Workers of the World Unite,” “Wanted Man,” “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Indian Blood,” “Killing Fields” and “The Ballad of Trayvon Martin,” along with covers from the likes of Woody Guthrie and Buffy Sainte-Marie. Not surprisingly, Wilk’s sometime RATM and Audioslave bandmate Tom Morello is a big fan. He told Rolling Stone last year he considers The Last Internationale a "raw and real" combination of "East Village rock sensibilities with Battleship Potemkin firepower." The Last Internationale are signed to Epic and working on their debut album with producer Brendan O’Brien (RATM, Bruce Springsteen), to be preceded by an introductory EP for the label. (3/19a)