Faith No More to Reunite for European Tour
Plus: Mike Patton Scores Crank 2
Years before Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails took scuzzed-out sonics and transgressive imagery to the mall-rock mainstream, the Bay Area funk-metal spazzes in Faith No More violated every form of conventional wisdom and wound up playing bigger venues than anyone could've predicted. Back in the late 1980s, Faith No More brought new-wave synth-sheen, skronky jazz textures, and awkward white-guy rapping to a profoundly regressive heavy-rock scene. An entire generation of kids fondly remembers being freaked the fuck out by the flopping fish and the exploding piano at the end of the "Epic" video. FNM's 1989 album The Real Thing, the LP that pushed the band's poppiest tendencies to new extremes without compromising their weirdness, basically blew my mind when I was 10, and it's still an all-time favorite. And in 1992, the band opened Guns N' Roses and Metallica's mammoth co-headlining stadium tour, which means they're the first band I ever saw live. The image of all those fists pumping in unison to "Epic" is one I still carry with me.
FNM broke up 11 years ago, and I've never held out much help for a reunion, mostly because frontman Mike Patton has had such success making god-awful unlistenable weirdo blorp-jazz. But according to a Tripwire report, Faith No More will reunite for a summer European tour. So far, details are scarce. The band hasn't announced any dates yet, and Patton isn't giving any interviews on the subject. The band will hit the road with what was their final lineup: Patton, keyboardist/Imperial Teen frontman Roddy Bottum, slap-bassist Billy Gould, drummer Mike Bordin, and guitarist Jon Hudson. The band has no plans for any American shows right now. There's also no word on any involvement from classic-era guitarist Jim Martin (he of the frizzy hair and Sally Jessy Raphael glasses), who may be too busy growing giant pumpkins to take part. Also no word on original vocalist Chuck Mosely, the guy who sang on "We Care a Lot" and who Patton replaced just in time for The Real Thing.
Real talk: This is awesome news. Patton's latter-day downtown noise-freak persona has been unbearable, and FNM was a huge influence on the late-90s tsunami of shitty rap-metal bands, so Faith No More never get their due when people talk about the early-90s alt-rock revolution. But this was a great band, and these reunion shows will almost certainly be a whole lot of fun.
In other Patton news, he's just scored his first movie. And what a movie! Crank 2: High Voltage, which opens on April 17, is the sequel to the frantic and hilarious 2006 stoner classic where Jason Statam has to keep his adrenaline up or he'll die. Patton's involvement in this is probably the logical conclusion of the man's longtime film-music fixation. Patton's scored a few video games, and he also did the voices for the screaming vampire zombies in I Am Legend. His Ipecac label has given deluxe reissues to Ennio Morricone scores. And The Director's Cut, the 2001 album from Patton's Fantomas project, turned iconic film-scores into scary metal, and it probably still ranks as the best thing Patton's done since Faith No More broke up. So I'm guardedly optimistic that Patton will know exactly how to soundtrack Jason Statham shooting cocaine into his eyeball or whatever.
I remember after a hard week of work when i was like 13 years old I ran towards the local cd shop to buy "King for a Day" by Faith no More, which was just released.
AMAZING that I will finally see them live!
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