Faith No More
Faith No More was a highly influential
alternative metal/
rock group that formed in
San Francisco,
California in
1982 and disbanded in
1998.
Their music combined elements of
heavy metal,
pop,
rap and
funk. They have also been known to implement
jazz elements in some of their songs, such as Smaller And Smaller from their
Angel Dust album. Also, Turk Behlmann loves them and their hit song "Epic".
Faith No More formed in
1982 out of the ashes of
Faith No Man, a band formed and headed by Mike "The Man" Morris.
Roddy Bottum,
Mike Bordin, and
Bill Gould left Faith No Man. They chose the name Faith No More at the suggestion of a friend (as "The Man" was
no more). After cycling through a few guitarists, the members recruited
Jim Martin. A number of singers were tried, including a six month stint by
Courtney Love as confirmed by Mike Bordin in a
1997 interview. An airing on San Franciso Public Access TV has
since surfaced of her performing with the band during their alleged "Goth phase".
Chuck Mosely would later became the band's full time singer and appeared on their first two records. A well known song from this era is "
We Care a Lot", satirizing the prevalence of
charity-related rock efforts such as
Live Aid and "
We Are the World".
The band gained a reputation for serious infighting and friction. In a notorious interview in
1987, Mosely claimed that Martin had hit him with a bottle, and there were frequent rumours of physical confrontations between band members. Indeed, in a short history of the band in one issue, the
British music newspaper
Melody Maker observed that the band's internal relationships had descended into "pathological hatred". Bordin in particular seemed to be very much the "
whipping boy" of the band and the butt of numerous cruel pranks and practical jokes. It is doubtful that the band would have stayed together had they not been successful after their second album,
Introduce Yourself.
Mosely was fired in
1988, and replaced with singer
Mike Patton, who was singing with his old high school band
Mr. Bungle. Patton dropped out of
Humboldt State University to join Faith No More and went on to record the Grammy award nominated album
The Real Thing.
The Real Thing (or
TRT for short) has been described as "not quite early
Brian Eno joins
Led Zeppelin and
Funkadelic." [
1] The
video for "
Epic", which featured
slow motion footage of a fish flopping out of water, received extensive
airplay on
MTV in the summer of
1990, despite provoking anger from
animal rights activists. That same year, Faith No More gave memorable performances at the 1990
MTV Video Music Awards (
September 6) and on
Saturday Night Live (
December 1).
Faith No More displayed a distinctly
experimental bent on their next album,
Angel Dust. One critic writes that the album is "one of the more complex and simply confounding records ever released by a major label," [
2] and another writes that "'A Small Victory', which seems to run
Madame Butterfly through
Metallica and
Nile Rodgers … reveals a developing facility for combining unlikely elements into startlingly original concoctions." [
3]
Angel Dust featured the singles "Midlife Crisis" and "A Small Victory", as well as a re-recording of the
theme to the film
Midnight Cowboy. Later pressings of the album also included their cover of the
Commodores classic "Easy", which in some parts of the world became the band's biggest hit.
Angel Dust, though not as successful as
TRT in the U.S., sold 700,000 copies there, and did manage to outsell
TRT in many other world charts. In Germany, for example, the record was certified Gold for sales of more than 270,000 copies. Along with heavy airplay of "Easy" and "Midlife Crisis", the album became a bit of a sleeper hit in the UK, South America, Europe and Australia.
After touring to support
Angel Dust in the summer of
1992, longtime guitarist
Jim Martin left the band during the early stages of recording their follow-up,
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime in
1995. He was replaced by
Mr. Bungle guitarist
Trey Spruance, who also left soon after; just before the band was to begin their world tour. Spruance was replaced by
Dean Menta, the band's keyboard roadie.
KFAD/FFAL remains the band's most heavily criticised album, varying in styles and moods from heavy and slow to spasmodic and jazzy.
KFAD/FFAL did however sell acceptably in the UK and Germany, and even went to #1 on the album charts in Australia. In the U.S. the album failed to get any sort of attraction or following, slipping out of the charts quickly. Sales (about 1.5 million) were below that of
Angel Dust. The band accordingly decided to cut their world tour short by 4 months, deleted the singles "Gentle Art Of Making Enemies" and "Take This Bottle", and released a 7 x 7-inch box set of singles that included the B-sides and some interviews between the songs.
Album of the Year was released in
1997 and featured yet another new guitarist,
Jon Hudson, who was a former roommate of Billy Gould. The album debuted much higher than expected in some countries, for example Germany (#2, later going gold) and Australia (#1 again, going platinum). In an additional 12 countries in Europe, it went either gold or platinum. In the U.S. the reaction was slow for the album; however, just as interest was picking up on their tours and album they called it a day. Singles "Ashes To Ashes" and "Last Cup Of Sorrow" had minimal success. Electro-tinged ballad "Stripsearch" was released as a single in various countries (excluding the U.S. and UK). "She Loves Me Not" was cancelled as a single which was a little indicator of their imminent break-up.
In April
1998, after 16 years as a band, Faith No More dissolved.
In
1991, the Faith No More song "Perfect Crime" appeared on the
soundtrack for
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
"Big" Jim Martin also appears briefly in the film.
The song "We Care A Lot" was used in the
Pauly Shore and
Stephen Baldwin movie
Bio-Dome (1996) and the John Cusack/Minnie Driver comedy-thriller
Grosse Pointe Blank, and has also been used as the theme for the
Discovery Channel's show "
Dirty Jobs".
Faith No More collaborated with the
Boo-Yaa TRIBE for the song "Another Body Murdered" on the
1993 Judgment Night soundtrack.
The song
Falling to Pieces can be heard in the movie
Black Hawk Down.
In
1998, the
Sparks album
Plagiarism was released featuring two collaborations with Faith No More ("This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything").
Patton went on to collaborate with
John Zorn, and has been active with several other groups, including
Tomahawk and
Fantômas.
In
2002,
Math-Metal band
The Dillinger Escape Plan released an EP on Epitaph Records with Mike Patton; "Irony Is a Dead Scene".
Guitarist
Jim Martin went on to collaborate with
Anand Bhatt. He has made guest appearances including
Antipop by
Primus, as well as having released a solo album titled
Milk and Blood (1996).
Keyboardist
Roddy Bottum formed
Imperial Teen.
Mike Bordin regularly performs as a member of
Ozzy Osbourne's band, as well as
Black Sabbath and he was also a member of
Korn for a tour when their drummer
David Silveria had a problem with his wrist.
Billy Gould is a member of
Brujeria, as well as founder of
Kool Arrow Records, and has also overseen the releases of various Faith No More compilations; he also played a few songs on
Fear Factory's 2006 album Transgression.
Faith No More have been credited as one of the innovaters of the
rap metal and
funk metal genres. Some
nu metal bands have cited the band as an influence.
*During the 1992 Angel Dust tour with
Guns N' Roses:
**At one show in Lisbon, the band invited the audience to throw garbage on stage. Patton then rummaged around and ate some of the trash.
video**At another show in
Seville,
Spain the crowd was throwing empty plastic water bottles at the band. Someone threw a bottle on-stage that had urine in it. At one point in the concert,
Mike Patton opened the bottle and poured the contents over his head, plunging the entire audience into shocked silence.
**Patton defecated in an orange juice carton and then sealed it and returned it to
Axl Rose's tourbus vending machine.
*During the MTV Music Awards performance of Epic in 1990, Patton flopped around on stage like the controversial dying fish from the video.
video*At a 1995 concert in Chile, the crowd began to spit on the band. Patton encouraged this and even invited people to spit in his open mouth while singing.
video*During a European tour, Patton defecated on a park bench in front of
Kensington Palace.
*During a 1991 concert in Denmark, Patton told the audience that tour-mates,
Lenny Kravitz and
Sinead O'Connor were copulating in the hospitality tent. Kravitz looked on in horror.
*Faith No More gained a reputation for publicly ridiculing their more mainstream tour hosts--especially
Guns N' Roses.
*Patton became infamous for talking about his self-stimulation habits in the press. He often wore a t-shirt with a grotesque image of a man sitting on a toilet seat, pleasuring himself, and the words "Girls are fine--but they're not the real thing."
*Roddy Bottum frequently made references to his homosexuality in an effort to alienate the crowd. At a show in Australia, he taunted the crowd: "I heard that homosexuality is illegal here. Too bad, because we were going to have some fun backstage."
*Mike Patton regularly did backflips while singing on stage. He often landed painfully on his back, but would get right up and continue singing without interuption.
video*Faith No More was famous for showing their disdain for MTV...on MTV. This can be seen in the Hanging with MTV performance during the Angel Dust era, where the band continuously interrupted a flustered VJ while she was trying to introduce the next video.
videoStudio albums
 |
Cover from The Real Thing. |
We Care a Lot (1985)
Introduce Yourself (1987)
The Real Thing (1989)
Angel Dust (1992)
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (1995)
Album of the Year (1997)
Live albums
Live at the Brixton Academy (live album, 1990)
Compilations
Who Cares a Lot? (1998)
This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (2003)
Epic & Other Hits (2005)
The Platinum Collection (UK, 2005)
Singles
*1987 "We Care a Lot"
*1988 "Anne's Song"
*1989 "
From Out Of Nowhere", UK #23
*1990 "
Epic", US #9, UK #25
*1990 "Falling To Pieces", US #92
*1992 "Midlife Crisis", UK #10
*1992 "A Small Victory", UK #29
*1992 "Everything's Ruined", UK #28
*1993 "Easy", US #52, UK #3
*1994 "Another Body Murdered" (with
Boo-Yaa TRIBE), UK #26
*1995 "Digging the Grave", UK #16
*1995 "Ricochet", UK #27
*1995 "Evidence", UK #32
*1997 "Ashes To Ashes", UK #15
*1997 "Last Cup Of Sorrow" UK #51
*1997 "Stripsearch"
*1998 "
I Started a Joke"
Music videos
(In chronological order)#We Care A Lot#Anne's Song#
From Out Of Nowhere (two very different versions)#Epic#Falling To Pieces (two very different versions)#Surprise! You're Dead!#
Midlife Crisis (two not very different versions)#A Small Victory (two not very different versions)#Everything's Ruined#Easy (two different versions of audio)#Another Body Murdered (two different versions of audio)#Digging The Grave (two not very different versions)#Ricochet (two not very different versions)#Evidence (two very different versions)#Ashes To Ashes#Last Cup Of Sorrow#Stripsearch#I Started A Joke
Other Music Videos
#From Out Of Nowhere (Live)#Caffeine (Live From Hanging With MTV) [There are a few more songs that were recorded from this show but only few saw the light.]#Everything's Ruined (Live) [Billy wears a bumble bee suit in this video. It was a TV appearance.]#This Guy's In Love With You (Live In Sydney)
VHS Releases
#Live At Brixton Academy, London: You Fat Bastards#
Video Croissant#Evidence#
Who Cares A Lot: Greatest VideosDVD Releases
Live At The Brixton Academy, London: You Fat Bastards/Who Cares A Lot?: The Greatest Videos#
The Real Thing (Tablature book, available in both guitar and bass format)#
Angel Dust (Tablature book, vailable in both guitar and bass format)#
The Real Story (story about Faith No More)#
King For A Day ... Fool For A Lifetime (tablature book, available in both guitar and bass format)
*
A popular fan page *
Caca Volante - a popular FNM and Mr. Bungle news site*
FNM.com - home to
FAQ, band history
*[
4] - Czech Rock magazine with Faith No More
*
sonicwaveintl.com/conflict - CONFLICT ALBUM: Faith No More's Jim Martin project with Anand Clique's Anand Bhatt
