One Day as a Lion

"ODAAL" redirects here and should not be confused with Odal.

One Day As A Lion
Origin	California, United States
Genres	Rap rock
Years active	2008–present
Labels	ANTI-
Associated acts	Rage Against the Machine, The Mars Volta, The Locust
Website	onedayasalion.org
Members
Zack de la Rocha Jon Theodore Joey Karam

One Day As A Lion is a music project that was started in 2008 by Zack de la Rocha, the vocalist of Rage Against the Machine and Jon Theodore, former drummer of The Mars Volta.^[1] The duo blends elements of rock, rap, and punk.^[2] One Day as a Lion released their eponymous debut EP in July 2008.

History

Zack de la Rocha had known Jon Theodore for several years before the band was formed and was very impressed with his skills as a drummer, comparing him to John Bonham and Elvin Jones.^[3] The duo first started playing together at a mutual friends rehearsal room with Theodore on drums and de la Rocha playing an old Rhodes Mark 1 keyboard through a delay pedal and an old metal amplifier.^[3] The band's name was taken from an infamous black and white graffiti photograph taken by Chicano photographer George Rodriguez in 1970 reading "It's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb."^[4] This comes from a minatory slogan popular during the 1930s in Fascist Italy, "Better one day as a lion than a hundred days as a sheep."^[5] The saying is an allusion to Psalms 84:10, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere." The band had soon written a number of songs and signed with Bad Religion guitarist and co-founder Brett Gurewitz's record label ANTI-.^[3]

On July 16, 2008, the song "Wild International" was made available to stream on the band's MySpace profile and was given its Australian radio premiere by Triple J and American radio premiere by KROQ. The band's eponymous debut EP was released on July 18, 2008 in Australia and four days later in the US, and was also released on iTunes. The vinyl version was released on October 7, 2008.^[6] The EP placed as the 28 album of the week,^[7] selling 17,000 copies in its first week.^[7] The album has sold extremely well for a five track EP.^[8]

On 11 August 2008, de la Rocha spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the new project, his first interview in over eight years. He revealed that a full-length album was scheduled for an Autumn 2008 release,^[9] and stated that they "want to play shows and be a band and go out and start some noise".^[3] He also mentions adding members to the group, revealing "We're still in the process of forming as a band - we need a keyboard player, I'm not good enough to do it all myself - so that will be rectified soon".^[10]

On June 1, 2010, One Day as a Lion announced that they would play their first festival show at the Fuji Rock Festival in July via MySpace.^[11] On July 17 and 18, the band performed live for the first time in Pomona, California aided with Joey Karam of The Locust on keys. It is currently unclear whether Karam has become a permanent member of the group. It has also been confirmed that the group are nationally touring Australia with the Soundwave Festival early 2011 as the third headliner, after Iron Maiden and Queens Of The Stone Age. The group has also been confirmed to perform on Saturday of the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

In an interview with Jon Theodore in January 2011, drummer confirmed among other things, an upcoming album and the official participation of Joey Karam in the band.^[12]

One Day as a Lion performed one sideshow gig on their Australian tour, held in Melbourne for the Queensland flood relief. 100% of the show's proceeds went towards the devastated state.^[13]

Members

Zack de la Rocha; vocals Jon Theodore; drums, percussion Joey Karam; keyboards, organ

Zack de la Rocha Jon Theodore

Discography

EPs

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		US [14]	US Ind [14]
2008	One Day as a Lion Released: July 18, 2008 Label: ANTI- Format: CD, LP, DI	28	3

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions		Album
		US Alt [15]	NOR [16]
2008	"Wild International"	20	6	One Day as a Lion
	"One Day as a Lion"	—	—
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

References

1. ^ Tao, Paul (July 1, 2008). "Anti Records Signs One Day as a Lion". Absolutepunk.net. http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=380021. Retrieved 2008-07-02. 
2. ^ One Day as a Lion at Allmusic
3. ^ ^{a b c d} "Zack de la Rocha talks to Ann Powers". LA Times. Eddy Hartenstein. 2008-08-11. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/soundboard/2008/08/these-days-the.html. 
4. ^ "About" (Adobe Flash). One Day as a Lion. http://www.onedayasalion.org/. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
5. ^ Cassels, Alan (1996). Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World. New York, NY: Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 041511926X. "Now the time had come, in Mussolini's words, for 'reaching out to the people', the only ideological raison d'être he had to fall back on was militant nationalism. Therefore, 1930s Italy was deluged with slogans at once minatory and somehow ridiculous: 'Better one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep'; 'War is to man what motherhood is to woman'; 'Whoever has iron has bread'." 
6. ^ "New Merch Store". 2008-10-03. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=392321032&blogID=437646319. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Miley Cyrus Leads Sales Charge". FMQB. Friday Morning Quarterback Album Report. 2008-07-30. http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=816353. "One Day As A Lion, the collaboration between Rage Against the Machine's Zach de la Rocha and ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, bows at #28 with its self-titled EP, selling 17,000." 
8. ^ "Tower Records sales numbers". http://www.tower.com/one-day-as-lion-cd/wapi/112275246. 
9. ^ Kerr, Dave (2008-07-02). "Rage and Mars Volta men re-emerge with new group". The Skinny. Radge Media Limited. http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43157-rage-and-mars-volta-men-reemerge-with-new-group. "The EP will precede a full length LP due this autumn." 
10. ^ http://www.gnrdaily.com/news_detail.asp?id=1467
11. ^ http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=392321032&blogId=535228463
12. ^ "One Day As A Lion". Faster Louder. David Swan. 2011-01-07. http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/26871/One-Day-As-A-Lion?page=. Retrieved 2011-02-19. 
13. ^ http://www.soundwavetouring.com/news/one-day-as-a-lion-sideshow-flood-benefit-in-melbourne/
14. ^ ^{a b} One Day as a Lion > Charts & Awards Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved: 2009-07-29
15. ^ "One Day as a Lion Artist & Song Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20080822091848/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=377&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Hot+Modern+Rock+Tracks&ci=3098357&cdi=9856768&cid=08/09/2008. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
16. ^ norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal Hung Medien. Retrieved: 2009-07-29

External links

• Official website
• One Day as a Lion on Myspace