Faith No More

November 26, 1989.  I just had just dropped off my friend Jean (John) at BWI Airport following the Thanksgiving 4 day weekend, and joined my brother Matt, my friend Phil, his sister Kathy, and my friend Ken, to see Faith No More at the (old) 9:30 Club, at 930 F Street in downtown DC.  I wish I could remember the setlist, but it was mostly from The Real Thing.  I got Mike Bordin and Jim Martin to sign the CD insert of that album.  Overall a kick ass concert, by the band at their peak.   Later, in July 1992 we saw FNM open for Metallica & Guns’N’Roses at RFK, on the Angel Dust tour, but this show was much better.

 The Real Thing.  They had two albums with Chuck Mosely, the prior vocalist, We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself; another album, Angel Dust, with Jim Martin and Mike Patton; a live album Live at Brixton Academy, which features two extra songs “The Grade” and “Cowboy Song” (NOT the Thin Lizzy song); an extended single cover of “Easy” by Lionel Richie; and two albums (King For a Day…Fool For A Lifetime, and Album of the Year) later without Martin.  But this is by far their best album.  To be honest, I didn’t like the earlier albums, and didn’t care to listen to the post-Martin work, of which I might have heard one album.

            Probably the best known track on this is “Epic”, a rap-metal mix which got phenomenal airplay and a weird video.  “War Pigs” is the Black Sabbath cover, which they did play live.  My favorites were the title track, “Zombie Eaters”, and “The Morning After”.  “Woodpecker From Mars” was an instrumental, “Edge of the World” was a twisted attempt to portray a child molester; “Surprise!  You’re Dead” is a thrash number; and “Falling to Pieces” and “Out of Nowhere” are fairly commercial examples of their material. 

            I hesitate to put a label on their music.  There’s clearly a big dose of funk, similar to Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the keyboards are definitely noticeable as an instrument in their own right, not merely as some sort of additional melody factor along with the guitar. All well and fine to talk about the rap element, but “Epic” was the only song like that, so even if it was their biggest single, it hardly defines their sound, except to classify it as original and eclectic.  The most important thing, in fact the REAL THING, was that this album and band were undeniably DIFFERENT and ORIGINAL.  There was no one else like this in 1989.

 The classic lineup:

Mike Patton (vocals).  He took over from Chuck Mosely.  Mosely was of the Robert Smith of The Cure “just got back from the dentist, still on novocaine” school of singing.  Patton actually sings in some sort of snarky way like Roger Waters.  I’d say he has a unique voice, and I like it.  However, I’ve heard Mr. Bungle and was not impressed, nor did I like the FNM material since Martin left.  He strikes me as having a lot of talent and inspiration, but it’s only impressive when he has someone else channeling it in some way or acting as a foil – similar to the way Lennon & McCartney’s solo material suffered from the lack of any input from the other former writing partner.  Left to his own devices he comes up short.  I’m also not keen on his deliberate attempts to feign bisexuality.

 Jim Martin (guitar).  Aka “Big Sick Ugly” Martin, he has strange red glasses, a wacked out beard, and long hair.  He dropped off the radar after Angel Dust.  He did appear in “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”.  His trademark guitar is a black Gibson Flying V with a mirror pickguard.  He also used to play with Cliff Burton of Metallica.

 Billy Gould (bass).  Nothing special, though he does remind me of Brian Wheat from Tesla.  He does do a passable slap-funk bass thing similar to Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Aside from that he blends into the woodwork as bassists so often do.

 Roddy Bottum (keyboards).  I really like his keyboard sound.  Some keyboardists seem to be more like glorified pianists – particularly Billy Joel, Elton John, etc.  Even many “keyboardists” like Jon Lord don’t really go off very far off the beaten track.  He ranks up there with Rick Wright among my favorite keyboardists.

 Mike Bordin (drums).  So far as I can tell, Bordin was born with dreadlocks.  He actually played with Black Sabbath on the first reunion tour in 1997 before Bill Ward came back.  He’s also played in Ozzy’s solo band, from Down to Earth up to Black Rain, though he’s now back with Faith No More.

 As of now, FNM have reunited, but with Jon Hudson on guitar.  Martin apparently is not interested in returning to the band.  I’ll check them out to see if it’s as good as before, but I’m not holding my breath.