Tom Morello , guitarist for Rage Against The Machine , has announced a collaboration with electro-punk group The Bloody Beetroots . The collaborative project will be an EP titled The Catastrophists , scheduled for release on June 18th.
To celebrate the announcement, Morello shared the first single, “Radium Girls,” on social media. The song was co-written with Jehnny Beth (Savages), Carl Restivo, Simone Cogo, and Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot).
The recording featured Tolokonnikova, along with vocals by Mish Barber-Way (White Lung), Aimee Interrupter (the Interrupters) and Elila Paz (The Last Internationale).
Speaking about the new project, Morello said in a statement: “Four extraordinary women and the fierce production of The Bloody Beetroots bring to life the true story of the Radium Girls, young Illinois factory workers who were victims of one of the most heinous crimes in US industrial history.”
I spent every summer as a child near Ottawa, Illinois, where these condemned girls used deadly paint laced with radium to make dark clocks glow. They were encouraged to lick the brushes to a point to increase productivity and profit, and eventually their bones literally separated from cancer, and they were so toxic they had to be buried in lead-lined coffins. The resulting lawsuits and publicity led to landmark national labor protection legislation. Every year I place flowers at the small monument to these silent heroines, and this song is dedicated to their memory.”
Last month, Morello released the song "Weather Strike" with Nadya Tolokonnikova , in support of Pussy Riot members Masha Alekhina and Lucy Shtein, who remain under house arrest in Russia. They received two-year prison sentences for supporting Alexei Navalny , the opposition leader to Vladimir Putin.
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