Overview
The album is the 2nd part of the band's anti-George W. Bush trilogy, preceded by 2004's Houses of the Molé and followed by 2007's The Last Sucker.
The title of the album is a parody of the 1972 ZZ Top album Rio Grande Mud.
Just like Houses of the Molé, Rio Grande Blood contains very political lyrics, making frequent allusions to the George W. Bush administration. In fact, the album cover uses what appears to be a heavily modified portrait of George W. Bush face with the body of a crucified Christ. Also, some of the issues raised include the current Iraq War, U.S. immigration policy and U.S. military policy (particularly the US Marine Corps in the song "Gangreen"). The Halliburton corporation is also quoted and linked to the Bush administration. The track "Señor Peligro" appears to come out in support of Hugo Chávez - the President of Venezuela - against the U.S. government: "Señor Peligro" is Spanish for "Mr. Danger," a nickname that Chávez uses for Bush.
The album also contains allegations of the Bush administration complicity in the 9/11 attacks in the track "Lieslieslies," which contains audio samples from the conspiracy documentary Loose Change. The song received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards.
A remix of the song "The Great Satan" from Rantology appears on this album. Along with "LiesLiesLies", "The Great Satan" was also nominated for a Grammy.
Samples of genuine Bush soundbites are cut-and-pasted together at various points to satirical effect: for example, the title track begins with Bush stating "I have adopted sophisticated terrorist tactics and I'm a dangerous, dangerous man with dangerous, dangerous weapons."
The album was re-released in remixed form as Rio Grande Dub on July 10, 2007.
The songs "Fear (Is Big Business)", "Palestina", and "Khyber Pass" were used in the Academy Award-winning 2009 film The Hurt Locker.
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