Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports: Fans of political thrash-rappers Rage Against the Machine will get an early glimpse next month of the band's first album in three and a half years when the single "Guerrilla Radio" and one other song are released for free download.

The cuts, along with an unreleased live track, will be available in RealNetworks' G2 format at www.realguide.com and radio-station websites in early October, RealNetworks announced Thursday (Sept. 23).

Fans who buy the still-untitled CD, due Nov. 2, will have access to another live track, recorded at Woodstock '99 in July. The cut will be available for download only if the new Rage CD is in the listener's CD-ROM drive.

"There's a lot of experimenting going on," Dave Richards, RealNetworks' vice president for consumer products, said. "Here you're using the CD as a key to unlock additional music." The preview songs probably will be disabled automatically after the album is released, Richards said. But he said final details of the promotion, including the day on which the downloads go online,are still being ironed out. The album will be Rage's third.

The Los Angeles group's sound "definitely evolved a lot more [than it did between] the first record and second record," drummer Brad Wilk said before the band's Woodstock set. "It's branched out in a lot of different ways that will surprise people."

Since releasing their self-titled debut in 1992, Rage Against the Machine have developed a reputation for explosive live shows and fervent left-wing activism offstage. Their second album, Evil Empire (1996), included the crowd favorite "People of the Sun".

The online CD promotion underscores a desire by Rage's label, Epic, to move its music into cyberspace without alienating traditional record stores, analyst Mark Hardie said.