Classic Rock Bottom

Information

Faith no More

With their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, and progressive rock, Faith No More has earned a substantial cult following. Their debut, We Care a Lot, featured Chuck Mosley's abrasive vocals but was driven by Jim Martin's metallic guitar.

Members: 3
Latest Activity: Sep 24, 2010

Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, frontman Mike Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Wade Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike Morris was ousted, the group began calling themselves Faith No More. After going through a series of singers which included Courtney Love, the band was joined by Chuck Mosley in 1983. The same year, Jim Martin was recruited to replace guitarist Mark Bowen. The band is best known for combining elements of heavy metal, funk, progressive rock, hip hop, hardcore punk, thrash metal, and jazz and easy listening, among many others, and have been hailed as an influential rock band.

Faith No More underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, We Care a Lot, in 1985. Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records, and in 1987 their second album Introduce Yourself was released. Membership remained stable until vocalist Chuck Mosley was replaced by Mike Patton in 1988. In 1989, the band released their highly successful album, The Real Thing, which featured their breakthrough hit single "Epic". The band's next album, 1992's Angel Dust, was also highly successful and spawned the hit "Midlife Crisis", which became their sole #1 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in their career. Faith No More however declined in popularity in the subsequent years. Longtime guitarist Jim Martin left the group in 1994 and was replaced by Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance. After the release of their next album, 1995's King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, Spruance was replaced briefly by Dean Menta, who would eventually be replaced by their current guitarist Jon Hudson. After releasing one more album, Album of the Year, in 1997, Faith No More broke up in April 1998, and all members began work on side projects.

On February 24, 2009, Faith No More announced that they would be reforming for a European tour with the same lineup before their break up. In June 2009, they performed together for the first time in eleven years at the Brixton Academy in London, England, as part of their The Second Coming Tour. Throughout 2010, the band continued to perform at multiple live venues. In September, the band announced that the reunion would come to an end and plans for a new album had been scrapped.

History

Early years, We Care a Lot and Introduce Yourself (1981–1988)

Faith No More were formed in 1981. They recorded "Quiet in Heaven/Song of Liberty", released in 1982. The songs were recorded in Matt Wallace's parent's garage, where Wallace had set up and been running a recording studio, while the band was still under the name of 'Sharp Young Men' with Mike Morris, William Gould, Mike Bordin and Wade Worthington, who left shortly after. They changed their name to Faith No Man for the release of the single, which featured two of the three songs recorded in Wallace's garage, and hired Roddy Bottum to replace Wade. Bottum, Gould and Bordin quit the band shortly after and formed Faith No More without any constant guitarists or vocalists until they eventually settled on Chuck Mosley and Jim Martin.

After the name change, the band initially started recording We Care a Lot without backing from a record label and, after pooling their money, recorded five songs. This gained the attention of Ruth Schwartz, who was then forming the independent label Mordam Records, under which the band, after receiving the finances to do so, finished and released the album; it was the first official release for both the band and the label.

Faith No More - We Care A Lot Introduce Yourself was released in 1987, and a revamped version of their debut album's title track "We Care a Lot" saw minor success on MTV. Mosley was fired in 1988 due to his erratic behavior during sessions and at shows, notably the release party for the album Introduce Yourself during which he fell asleep on stage. During this period, the band gained a reputation for serious infighting and friction. 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.
The Real Thing (1989–1991)

Chuck Mosley was replaced with singer Mike Patton. Patton, who was singing with his high school band, Mr. Bungle, was recruited at Martin's suggestion after he heard a demo of Mr. Bungle. Patton dropped out of Humboldt State University to join Faith No More, and in two weeks, had written all the lyrics for the songs that would make up the Grammy award-nominated The Real Thing.

Faith No More - Epic The music video for "Epic" received extensive airplay on MTV in 1990, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists for a slow motion shot of a fish flopping out of water. That same year, Faith No More gave memorable performances at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards (September 6) and on the 293rd episode of Saturday Night Live (December 1). Faith No More - Falling To Pieces "From Out of Nowhere" and "Falling to Pieces" saw releases as singles, and a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" was also produced for non-vinyl releases. In 1990, the band went on an extensive US tour, sending The Real Thing to Platinum status in Canada, the US, and South America. The album also had big sales numbers in Australia, UK, and the rest of Europe, pushing the total sales well above 4.0 million worldwide. Epic was released in 1989 and was a top 10 hit. In February 1991, Faith No More released their only official live album, Live at the Brixton Academy. The album also included two previously-unreleased studio tracks, "The Grade" and "The Cowboy Song." In 1991, the band contributed a track for the motion picture soundtrack to Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey with the song "The Perfect Crime". Jim Martin contributed the "air guitars" for the good Bill and Ted, as well as part of the song performed at the talent show by the bearded Bill and Ted. Jim Martin also made a brief cameo in the film as "Sir James Martin" and head of the "Faith No More Spiritual and Theological Center".

Angel Dust (1992–1994)

Faith No More displayed an even more experimental effort 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" and another writes that the single " '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."

Faith No More - Midlife Crisis Faith No More - A Small Victory Aside from "A Small Victory" (which received a nomination for Best Art Direction at the MTV Video Music Awards), the tracks "Midlife Crisis" and "Everything's Ruined" were also released as singles. The album included a re-recording of the theme to the film Midnight Cowboy, and later pressings included a 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 The Real Thing in the U.S., sold 665,000 copies there, and managed to outsell The Real Thing in many other countries. In Germany, the record was certified Gold for sales of more than 250,000 copies. The album also matched the sales of The Real Thing in Canada (Platinum), Australia (Gold), and surpassed it in the Netherlands, France, Russia, and the UK. Faith No More - Easy After touring to support Angel Dust in the summer of 1993, long-time guitarist Jim Martin exited the band due to internal conflicts. According to Roddy Bottum, Martin was fired via fax. Bottum: “Jim Martin had always been very conventional in what he wanted to do with the band, very much a fan of guitar music only and metal specifically. During the recording of ‘Angel Dust’ it became apparent to both him and us that we were heading in very different directions.” Martin himself states it was his decision to leave. Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker was reportedly offered to join FNM after Martin's departure, but declined to join. The position was filled by Mike Patton's bandmate from Mr. Bungle, Trey Spruance, who left soon after recording 1995's King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime; just before the band was to begin their world tour. Spruance was replaced by Dean Menta, the band's keyboard tech. King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (1995–1996)

1995's King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime varies greatly from song to song in style; Post-hardcore/punk, country, jazz, along with other signature FNM elements, are woven together seamlessly throughout the album, making KFAD...FFAL a favorite among loyal fans. Singles included "Digging the Grave", "Evidence", and "Ricochet". The album featured Mr. Bungle's Trey Spruance on guitar. The record went Gold in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and Germany, which gave the album a respectable sales figure of around 1.5 million copies. However, this was significantly lower than sales of their previous albums, and the band accordingly decided to cut their world tour short by 4 months. A 7 x 7-inch box set of singles was released, which included the B-sides and some interviews between the songs.


Faith No More - Ricochet
Uploaded by Dan_of_the_Land. - Watch more music videos, in HD!
Album of the Year (1997–1998) 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, in Germany, the album debuted at #2 and stayed in the chart for 5 months). In Australia, Album of the Year went to #1 and was certified Platinum. The album charted in many countries in Europe. To date Album of the Year has sold around 2 million copies worldwide. The singles "Ashes To Ashes" and "Last Cup of Sorrow" had minimal success (notably, the music video for "Last Cup of Sorrow", which featured actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, was inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo). "Stripsearch" was released as a single in various countries (excluding the U.S. and UK). The band has not produced another album since then.

Faith No More - Last Cup of Sorrow
Uploaded by bunglefever. - Explore more music videos.
Break-up and aftermath (1998–2008) In early 1998 the new flaring of break-up rumors on the Internet began. Starting with a rumor posted to the Faith No More newsgroup alt.music.faith-no-more claiming Mike Patton had quit the band in favor of side projects, this rumor, although denied at the time, proved to be at least partly true. Faith No More played their last show in Lisbon, Portugal on April 7, 1998.

The band canceled their planned support tour for Aerosmith and on April 20, 1998 Billy Gould began spreading the following by email and fax:
“ After 15 long and fruitful years, Faith No More have decided to put an end to speculation regarding their imminent break up... by breaking up. The decision among the members is mutual, and there will be no pointing of fingers, no naming of names, other than stating, for the record, that "Puffy started it". Furthermore, the split will now enable each member to pursue his individual project(s) unhindered. Lastly, and most importantly, the band would like to thank all of those fans and associates that have stuck with and supported the band throughout its history. ”

After the dissolution of Faith No More, the members went on to numerous different projects:

* Mike Patton went on to form his own record label, Ipecac Recordings, and returned to work with his band Mr. Bungle (which he had been playing with before FNM). Later, he worked with producer Dan the Automator on various albums, including Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. Other projects included collaborations with John Zorn, Björk, Rahzel, Imani Coppola and The Dillinger Escape Plan. He has also been active fronting several groups, including Tomahawk, Fantômas, and Peeping Tom. In 2007, he provided voice work for the 2K Games/Starbreeze Studios video game The Darkness and provided voice work for the Valve Corporation video games Portal and Left 4 Dead.

* Keyboardist Roddy Bottum formed Imperial Teen in 1996.

* Jim Martin did a duo album Conflict with Anand Bhatt and has made guest appearances including Antipop by Primus, on Metallica's 1998 Garage Inc. playing with several other musicians on their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone", as well as having released a solo album entitled Milk and Blood in 1996. He also appeared on Echobrain's self-titled debut album alongside former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted.

* Mike Bordin regularly performed as a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band, as well as Black Sabbath, and performed with Korn for a tour when their drummer David Silveria had suffered a broken wrist. He played drums on Jerry Cantrell's album Degradation Trip. He has since left Ozzy Osbourne and has been replaced by Tommy Clufetos.

* Billy Gould was a member of Brujeria, as well as founder of Koolarrow Records, and has also overseen the releases of various Faith No More compilations. He also played bass on Fear Factory's 2005 album Transgression. In 1998, Billy Gould produced the album Vainajala (1998) by the Finnish rock band CMX, "Living Targets" by German band The Beatsteaks, "FUCC the INS", "Kultura Diktatura", "We Came To Take Your Jobs Away" by Kultur Shock. He also toured with the German band Harmful as guitar player, throughout Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and the Balkans in 2007. He produced their album 7, available on Koolarrow Records. He also played bass on a song of the Romanian metal band Coma on their 2007 album "Nerostitele". In June 2008, Billy played a two night show with Jello Biafra (vocals), Ralph Spight (guitar) and Jon Weiss (drums) in celebration of Jello's 50th birthday, and has since recorded an album with this outfit.

When Mike Patton was questioned in 2008 by co-hosts of Fuse TV's Talking Metal On Fuse if a Faith No More reunion was a possibility, Patton responded "I highly doubt it", but also stated in a January 2008 interview with Artisan News that he "wouldn't rule it out", adding "I don't think we would need to reform the band, but maybe there's other things we could do together."

Reformation (2009–present)

On February 18, 2009, it was announced that Jim Martin would not be participating in the rumored Faith No More reunion tour. On February 24, 2009, Faith No More announced they would reform with the Album of the Year era line-up. On March 2, 2009, it was confirmed that Faith No More would be headlining the Main Stage on June 12 at the Download Festival at Donington, England. They also took part in the Highfield, Hurricane and Southside festivals in Germany. On March 24 it was announced that they would also headline the Greenfield Festival in Switzerland, as well as Hove Festival in Norway and Kaisaniemi Festival in Helsinki, Finland. They were also a headliner at Pukkelpop (August 20–22 in Hasselt, Belgium).

On April 22, 2009, it was briefly announced on their website that Faith No More would be playing Reading and Leeds festivals, before being taken down due to conflicting info regarding the confirmation of their appearance on the bill. On June 10, 2009, at their first show after their reunion they released new merchandise stating they were playing the festivals. They were then added to the bill on June 15, 2009, as headliners of the NME stage. On July 3, 2009 they played on Roskilde Festival. On August 8, 2009, the day Faith No More performed in Portugal at the Sudoeste Festival and registered the highest attendance of the event. On August 14, they were headliners at the Spirit of Burgas Festival in Bulgaria. On August 12, 2009 they were on the stage for the first time at Kucukciftlik Park, Istanbul in Turkey. On August 16, 2009 they performed at the Sziget Festival in Budapest and on August 20 they headlined the main stage at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium. On August 25, they played at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange to a sold out crowd. Their last show in Scotland was 12 years prior They also performed at the Rock En Seine festival on August 29 in Paris.

To coincide with the band's reunion tour, Rhino released the sixth Faith No More compilation, The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection, a double album that includes their hit singles and b sides & rarities, in the UK on June 8, 2009. According to Killyourstereo.com, it is a possibility that Faith No More might be gearing up for a new studio album in the near future, although no release date has been set and it is unknown which label will handle it.

On August 13, 2009, it was announced that Faith No More would be headlining Australian Music Festival Soundwave 2010.

On August 28, 2009 they headlined the NME/Radio One tent at Reading Festival (and August 30 at Leeds Festival), playing a string of their old hits, such as 'Epic' and 'Midlife Crisis'. Also twice in the show they randomly broke into their version of the Eastenders theme tune, which received a great response from the festival goers. In September 2009, the band performed a sell-out concert, along with the Israeli rock band, Monotonix before large crowds at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Tel Aviv, Israel as part of the Heineken Festival. On October 21, 2009 Billy Gould announced via Twitter that Faith No More was actively pursuing US concert dates. In January 2010, it was announced that the band will be performing at the Coachella Valley music festival. During their Australian tour, the band added covers to their repertoire including "Switch" by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

On March 2010, it was announced that Faith No More would play their first East Coast U.S. concert in over a decade on July 5, 2010 in Brooklyn, New York. The response was so successful, another concert was added to the same venue with an earlier date of July 2 as well as a July 3 date in Philadelphia.

On April 14, 2010, previous vocalist Chuck Mosley made a surprise appearance on stage at a Faith No More concert in San Francisco. This marks the first time since 1988 that he has performed with the band. Chuck performed the songs "As the Worm Turns", "Death March", "We Care A Lot", and "Mark Bowen" on his own with the band, and was joined by Mike Patton during the final encore to perform a duet on "Introduce Yourself".

On April 15, 2010, it was announced that Mike Bordin had left Ozzy Osbourne so he could spend more time touring with Faith No More. He has since been replaced by former Rob Zombie drummer Tommy Clufetos.

On July 19, 2010, Mike Patton announced on stage at Ilosaarirock in Joensuu, Finland that it was Faith No More's last appearance together. However, Faith No More later confirmed one more date as their final Reunion Tour Performance on December the 5th at Bicentenário de la Florida in Santiago, Chile.

Discography

* 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 (

Discussion Forum

This group does not have any discussions yet.

Comment Wall

Comment

You need to be a member of Faith no More to add comments!

Comment by Niels (Mod) on September 24, 2010 at 4:42am
"Everything's ruined" is a great song.
 

Members (3)

 
 
 

Question Of The Week

CRB Features (Click photo to visit)

Birthdays

There are no birthdays today

CRB Staff Members

 

In Memory Of

Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)

Photos

  • Add Photos
  • View All

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by RJhog (Admin).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service